Putting a knife in the heart of willful sin.....

Gideons300 · Jul 27, 2018

Opinions in the church are vast and varied as to whether or not a man can truly walk above sin in this life. Those saying it is impossible are many, as they point out that only Jesus is perfect and sins of omission will always be with us. The point of this thread however, is not to tackle this deep and difficult study, but to hone in on one type of sin in particular.... willful sin.

So what exactly is willful sin? It is simply when you know something you want to do is wrong, that God has clearly told you either through Hid word or through the Spirit inside you that to you this action is sinful, and yet you choose to partake of it anyway. With your will, you choose to disobey, trusting that because you are saved, God winks at your sin and all is well with your soul despite your love for darkness.

I believe among those who are on the front line of fighting against the possibility of ever walk in true victory over sin in this life, and truly possessing our vessels in sanctification and honor, there are indeed some who long to be free of all sin, so that they can please God with both their thoughts as well as their actions. They may struggle it’s sin, but it is like Paul’s struggle in Romans 7. They truly want to obey, but find they cannot. This is not willful sin, and I firmly believe God will eventually awaken them to the power of the gospel to set them free indeed, just as Jesus promised us.

But let us not be deceived, among us there are many who stand staunchly against the possibility of walking in true holiness, proponents for the “new grace” that covers us no matter what we do, or no matter how far our heart is from the heart of the Lord. But for these, the underlying reason for their stance is that willful sin is still in their lives and as long as holiness is believed impossible, then willful sin is viewed conveniently like any other, unavoidable, and the blood of the Lamb will cover it. They are wrong.

Here is what God tells us about willful sinning. I pray you read these words out loud so that the weight of them hits home deep within you.

“For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:

Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?”

Hebrews 10:26-29

I have heard all sorts of amazingly convoluted reasonings attempting to make this verse say anything other than what it plainly tells us. Willful sin is a killer and it must go. Now.

Some will say that no one is perfect and I agree! Some will say that we are only human and are afflicted with fallen natures and that until we get to Heaven, no one will be able to control all his or her impulses. Ah, now we have strayed into the land of deception, as our enemy tries to get us to accept partial truths mixed with a little leavenous error.

You see, Willful sin is talking about the ones where no battle is ongoing in our hearts and minds. We can choose to stop at any time. We just don’t want to. But here is what we need to see, and see quickly. Every one of those willful sins is a hook that Satan has planted in our lives, and his purpose is to use those sins to harden our hearts, to turn our faith slowly but surely into head knowledge, with us never even aware of the change. He does not care if Jesus is near in our mouths as long as He is far from the reins of our hearts.

Listen, I plead with you, any who are still harboring secret sin, thinking God does not see, or that He does not care that you partake, because after all, you are covered in the blood of His Son. Think for a minute. Is this the thought pattern of one bound for Heaven?

Let us all remember. Judgment is going to begin, not with the sinners in the world, but the sinners trying to have their cake and eat it too, IN HIS CHURCH. If willful sin is not abondoned as we fall on our knees in deep contrition and repentance, the little foxes that we think are inconsequential will grow up into big giants.

God, speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, said this:

“If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?

Jeremiah 12:5

I pray you believe me. A darkness is soon coming on the face of the earth that will make Hitler’s Nazi Germany look like a warm up band. If we cannot find the path to victory over the world, the flesh and the devil now, in times of relative peace, make no mistake. These footmen that the devil has sent to confound us and trip us up are going to soon be replaced by marauding horsemen and their purpose is to go for our throats, taking no prisoners. They are looking for company.

Sitting on the fence, with one foot in church and one foot in the world may seem like it is working today, but the day is coming that unless we are found in safety of the secret place in Him , we will find ourselves on the outside, with the doors to Heaven shut in our faces.

How desperately we need to find an answer to sin in our lives, How deeply is our need to have sin..... our sin..... become exceedingly sinful to us. How the eyes of our understanding needs to be eniightened to see the power of the gospel where God actually causes us to obey Him.

We are even now being awakened to the full depth and glory of real grace, walking where God Himself plants us on the highway of holiness, with us joyfully abiding in Him, where we do not fulfill the lusts of the flesh, and where He fully keeps us from falling,

But this land of promise God tells us is ours to take starts out with our taking down the walled city of Jericho.... willful sin. May His Spirit lead us all to renounce once and for all time any actions we are taking, or mindsets we are embracing, that we know are contrary to God and to His revealed will for us.

Let us all choose this very day to plant the dagger of obedience and love for our Lord into the heart of willful sin. If we will do so, God promises to take us even deeper into victory, far deeper than we have up till now ever thought possible, but we we fail here, content with our salvation, holding our bus pass to Heaven, yet with no desire to obey Him in all things, we will one day finally realize that the salvation we are promised is to be saved from our sins, and from the power of darkness. But sadly, on that day, it will be too late, and weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth will replace our hollow reasonings as to why we do not have to cease from the sins that please us but bring God’s Name into great disrepute.

Blessings,

Gideon
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Valetic · Jul 28, 2018

That's crazy to me nobody replied to this. I have been of the mind that once a man is born again it's a done deal. But when I read Matthew 7 Jesus said...

21“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.22Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

If people can follow God to the point of miracle working and then somehow on the day of Jesus Christ they are called evildoers, and that they never knew Him, what trouble we should be in! If this is true it makes me think that these people HAVE been born again but have somehow slipped back into doing evil and God rejects them for it when they see Him at the gate. So how then can it be once saved always saved as I have been seemingly convinced to believe? What is the point in leading others to Christ if they remain undiscipled or undisciplined? They would fall right back into the hands of the devil! But didn't Jesus say that no one can snatch us from His hand? Does that include ourselves?

Gideons300 · Jul 28, 2018

Valetic said:
That's crazy to me nobody replied to this. I have been of the mind that once a man is born again it's a done deal. But when I read Matthew 7 Jesus said...

21“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.22Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

If people can follow God to the point of miracle working and then somehow on the day of Jesus Christ they are called evildoers, and that they never knew Him, what trouble we should be in! If this is true it makes me think that these people HAVE been born again but have somehow slipped back into doing evil and God rejects them for it when they see Him at the gate. So how then can it be once saved always saved as I have been seemingly convinced to believe? What is the point in leading others to Christ if they remain undiscipled or undisciplined? They would fall right back into the hands of the devil! But didn't Jesus say that no one can snatch us from His hand? Does that include ourselves?

Your last comment is critical. And you are right. In all that is listed in the Word giving us assurance that we are safe in His arms, there is one thing on the list glaringly absent.

Us.

We are told in scripture after scripture that exhort, correct, rebuke, instruct us that if we do these things, we shall never fall. People read that and see legalism.... working for our salvation..... when in fact, those verses are promises to us.

As long as we remain in our old carnal natures, with the weight of obeying our on our shoulders, anything asked o us but God is legalism.

But praise God, when we finally clothe ourselves with our new natures, and yield ourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and hold up our shields of faith that promise to quench ALL the fiery arrows of the devil, we find that God in us will actually cause us to do those things required of us to endure to the end.

Blessings,

Gideon

Valetic · Jul 28, 2018

Gideons300 said:
Your last comment is critical. And you are right. In all that is listed in the Word giving us assurance that we are safe in His arms, there is one thing on the list glaringly absent.

Us.

We are told in scripture after scripture that exhort, correct, rebuke, instruct us that if we do these things, we shall never fall. People read that and see legalism.... working for our salvation..... when in fact, those verses are promises to us.

As long as we remain in our old carnal natures, with the weight of obeying our on our shoulders, anything asked o us but God is legalism.

But praise God, when we finally clothe ourselves with our new natures, and yield ourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and hold up our shields of faith that promise to quench ALL the fiery arrows of the devil, we find that God in us will actually cause us to do those things required of us to endure to the end.

Blessings,

Gideon

So I confessed an unconfessed sin I've had for a while to my wife last night after reading this because God has been convicting me recently, I believe because I have been on this website so much and doing so many studies lately and spending a ton of time in the word. But I do want to repent of all willful sin in my life and hope God understands and helps me seal with it and sends the right people and messages my way to help me confront and deal with my issue.

Anyways, I can imagine it will only get more difficult for me as I am terrified of obeying the voice of God for some reason. When I feel like he tells me to do something but don't do it I feel like it's a sin of omission and will be held accountable for it. Just pray for me I guess, I don't want to be a false disciple and I want to always be led by the Spirit when doing work unto God.

Gideons300 · Jul 28, 2018

Valetic said:
So I confessed an unconfessed sin I've had for a while to my wife last night after reading this because God has been convicting me recently, I believe because I have been on this website so much and doing so many studies lately and spending a ton of time in the word. But I do want to repent of all willful sin in my life and hope God understands and helps me seal with it and sends the right people and messages my way to help me confront and deal with my issue.

Anyways, I can imagine it will only get more difficult for me as I am terrified of obeying the voice of God for some reason. When I feel like he tells me to do something but don't do it I feel like it's a sin of omission and will be held accountable for it. Just pray for me I guess, I don't want to be a false disciple and I want to always be led by the Spirit when doing work unto God.

Brother, the fact that you feel this way should be great assurance to you that you are not a false disciple.

One of the greatest promises in the Word is that God will cause us “both to will AND to do of His good pleasure”.
What that means is that He will put it in our heart to want to obey first, and as we come to realize how impotent we actually are in doing what He wants, we come to realize that we also need Him to actually cause us to be obedient children. Is this even scriptural? Can God’s grace be THAT good? You bet. Look at the promise of the new covenant found in Ezekiel 36:

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”

Ezekiel 36:26-27

Glory to God! Do we not see? This takes all the fear away, for once we leave our own strength, or our lack of strength behind, and trust that His grace is so incredibly large that He will become our potter and do the changing in us that He desires, and form us as He wants, we finally find that rest our hearts have so deeply hungered for.

When we finally simply tell Him we want to be made willing to obey Him in every part of His life, but that we cannot do it without Him doing it for us, IN US, He promises to take over and make us overcomers, victors over the world and its baubles, the flesh and its sins and the devil and his temptations.

It is time we armed ourselves with the truth that it is no more us that live. The old us is dead. Right now. Why do we not see it or feel it? Because we do not believe it. Paul said it is now Christ in us who lives,,,, and it is this union that is called the new man. And as we arm ourselves with this truth, an impenetrable shield is erected against Satan and his accusations and temptations.

Our birthright is victory. We do not feel worthy or that this walk is even possible, for we are so weak. Well, guess what? That is the very reason God has made us new creatures! We AREN’T worthy! We CAN’T obey in our own strength. The battle, the struggle to enter the rest God has for each one of us, is to realize that!

Praise God, when we finally look away from ourselves and cry out to Him to deliver us from our miserable lives lived out in Romans 7 and plant our feet on the high ground of Romans 8, tremors are felt deep in the halls of hell, for Satan knows he now has an adversary who has discovered his battle armor, and his sword of truth and his impenetrable shield of faith. And he knows his time of running rampant over us has come to a screeching halt.

Blessings to you. I am praying for you to continue on the road to the blessings of God you are walking on. God will not disappoint.

Gideon

justbyfaith · Jul 28, 2018

On the other hand, in my life I have been a proponent of the doctrine of entire sanctification for many years. But the Lord had to show me that I am a sinner still, that I have not yet apprehended, but must press on toward the goal of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

He showed me in Psalms 51:3 that I am going to be a sinner until the day I die; and that the proper response to this is to cast myself on the mercy of God (Luke 18:9-14): not to redouble my efforts at a works-righteousness.

God showed me that the substitutionary atonement is the key to my salvation. I will never measure up to His level of righteousness: that is infinite, and I am finite. But His righteousness and perfection applied to and imputed to me is my only hope of salvation.

Does that mean that I shouldn't have an attitude of wanting to serve God and obey Him? If I didn't have such an attitude, I wouldn't be born again. What I mean is, being born again means that I desire to obey and please God, so if anyone doesn't have this attitude, they ought to question their salvation.

However my salvation is not based on my performance. It is based on His. He lived a perfect life, and then died in our place. We would do well to never forget this incredible fact; because we continue to be saved as long as we keep it in memory (1 Corinthians 15:1-4 (kjv)). His perfect life applied to my account, my imperfect and sinful life applied to His as He took the penalty for my sins upon the Cross.

If I am truly forgiven in this manner, I will love Jesus much (Luke 7:36-50). And the love that I love Him (and others) with will have to be a practical love (1 John 3:17-18). It will result in the righteousness of the law being fulfilled in me (Romans 13:8-10, Romans 8:4). And it enters into my heart through the power of the Holy Ghost (Romans 5:5) whom I receive through faith in Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:14). And since sin is defined by the law (Romans 3:20, 1 John 3:4), if the righteousness of the law be fulfilled in me (because of my faith in Christ), sin in my life will be washed away and melted away and eradicated from my life through faith alone in Jesus Christ.

The moment I start trusting that my works might be able to save me, or my performance as a Christian, the pattern I find is that I fall back into besetting sin the moment I begin to think I am doing well enough that I don't anymore need the Cross. I think that God does this for a reason: He doesn't want me to ever stop relying on the Cross, and when I do, He will wake me up by taking away the thing that I begin to trust in, my own righteousness which can never cut it in front of a holy and righteous God (Isaiah 64:6).

Lost4words · Jul 28, 2018

Sin. Knowingly sinning. Knowing the harm it causes your soul. Yet, we still do it. I still do it.

Strength. This comes from God. I pray that all of us who are weak, will find the strength that God is mercifully giving us. And accept it with love and devotion to Our Lord.

Gideons300 · Jul 28, 2018

justbyfaith said:
On the other hand, in my life I have been a proponent of the doctrine of entire sanctification for many years. But the Lord had to show me that I am a sinner still, that I have not yet apprehended, but must press on toward the goal of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

He showed me in Psalms 51:3 that I am going to be a sinner until the day I die; and that the proper response to this is to cast myself on the mercy of God (Luke 18:9-14): not to redouble my efforts at a works-righteousness.

God showed me that the substitutionary atonement is the key to my salvation. I will never measure up to His level of righteousness, that is infinite, and I am finite. But His righteousness and perfection applied to and imputed to me is my only hope of salvation.

Does that mean that I shouldn't have an attitude of wanting to serve God and obey Him? If I didn't have such an attitude, I wouldn't be born again. What I mean is, being born again means that I desire to obey and please God, so if anyone doesn't have this attitude, they ought to question their salvation.

However my salvation is not based on my performance. It is based on His. He lived a perfect life, and then died in our place. We would do well to never forget this incredible fact; because we continue to be saved as long as we keep it in memory (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). His perfect life applied to my account, my imperfect and sinful life applied to His as He took the penalty for my sins upon the Cross.

If I am truly forgiven in this manner, I will love Jesus much (Luke 7:36-50). And the love that I love Him (and others) with will have to be a practical love (1 John 3:17-18). It will result in the righteousness of the law being fulfilled in me (Romans 13:8-10, Romans 8:4). And it enters into my heart through the power of the Holy Ghost (Romans 5:5) whom I receive through faith in Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:14). And since sin is defined by the law (Romans 3:20, 1 John 3:4), if the righteousness of the law be fulfilled in me, sin in my life will be washed away and melted away and eradicated from my life through faith alone in Jesus Christ.

The moment I start trusting that my works might be able to save me, or my performance as a Christian, the pattern I find is that I fall back into besetting sin the moment I begin to think I am doing well enough that I don't anymore need the Cross. I think that God does this for a reason: He doesn't want me to ever stop relying on the Cross, and when I do, He will wake me up by taking away the thing that I begin to trust in, my own righteousness which can never cut it in front of a holy and righteous God (Isaiah 64:6).

I feel you are misunderstanding what is being shared. It is because we are unable to truly walk as God wants us to that we are given new natures that He asks us to put on by faith alone.

Why would God tell us to be holy as He is holy if it was truly impossible? Our attempts, even by those who go to extremes t odd so, only prove our inabilities.

So what are we to do? We are told that it is the pure on heart who will see God. We do not have them. We are told that we are to possess our vessels in sanctification and honor. We cannot. We are told to resist the devil and he will flee from us. It does not work.

So, either God was holding up a standard for us that was simply a mirage, an unattainable goal, OR, the purpose of us failing to live up to it was to get us to our knees, crying out for Him to lift us up to insure we fulfill the standard.

Do we lower the standard then, and simply confess that we are and always will be sinners till the day we die? Does this somehow honor God? Or, have we up till now missed the part of the gospel where God, as the master potter, takes us and changes us, and by living inside us, with the old us dead, actually causes us to walk in victory?

We are told that in the last days, His people, long the laughing stock of the world because of our hypocrisy, will finally walk as overcomers, walking in real victory over the world, the flesh and the devil.

And what will it be that causes such an amazing turn around? It will come about because we finally learn to combine the precious and powerful blood of the lamb with the missing ingredient.... our testimony.

Praise God, even now we are being awakened to the truth. We are dead.... the old us died when Christ did. And when Christ arose to newness f life, so DID we. But we must understand, these wonderful truths will not become real to us, until we finally make them OUR truths and confess that we believe we really have been born from above.

Paul tells us that we are no longer in the flesh and owe it nothing. Will we believe it? God tells us we have been given shields of faith, belief in this truth of who we are in Christ,that are impenetrable to the attacks of the enemy. Will we believe our God to be that good?

We are told that He will not allow us to be tempted above our ability to resist. And yes, then CAUSE US to take that way, every time.

So why has it not worked for us? Easy. We have not believed it. And why have we not? Because we have been quite content to have our bus passes to Heaven, but without hearts that love whatHe loves.

In these last days, God is awakening in us a deep desire to see all sin cut out of our lives, all rebellion eliminated from our hearts, and to finally bear abundant fruits of righteousness that bring great honor to our Father in Heaven.

When we finally see ourselves, like Paul. as wretched men, bringing dishonor to God with our contentment without godliness, and cry out to Him for our eyes to see the hope of His calling and the exceeding greatness of His power to us when we believe, we will finally be prepared to cross over the Jordan and leave the wilderness behind forever.

We cannot take the land God has for us. Yet we must. So what is the answer? We must reckon ourselves dead and believe it is now no longer is who live but Christ who jow lives in us. God calls that union the new man.

Are we ready for a min blowing miracle? Buckle your seatbelts, that small cloud you see on the horizon is about to become a torrent of blessing. The church, long chained to religion and dogma, is about to rediscover LIFE. And those in the world, who have long mocked us for our shallowness, our compromise, our hypocrisy, will soon exclaim “Look, that which bore only briars and thorns, has become again like the garden of Eden!”

Let it rain Lord, showers of blessing. Live, bones, live.

Blessings,

Gideon

Gideons300 · Jul 28, 2018

Lost4words said:
Sin. Knowingly sinning. Knowing the harm it causes your soul. Yet, we still do it. I still do it.

Strength. This comes from God. I pray that all of us who are weak, will find the strength that God is mercifully giving us. And accept it with love and devotion to Our Lord.

Honesty is the first requirement in our awakening. May God bless you for yours.

Gideon

justbyfaith · Jul 28, 2018

Yes; and it is only honest to admit that our sin is ever before us, even as David did in Psalms 51:3.

God desires truth in the inward parts, Psalms 51:6.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us, 1 John 1:8.

So yes, honesty is important, not only for the people we are ministering to; but for us who do the ministering.

Also:

Salvation does not come to us in our perfection or our being perfected. It comes before. When we appropriate to ourselves the blood of our precious Lord; and understand that He has done it all: we cannot live the perfect life, Romans 3:23, 1 John 1:8, Psalms 51:3, etc.; but He has lived a perfect life and applied it to us so that when God looks at us, He sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ: His perfection is applied to our account because we have cried out to God for mercy and have put our trust in what He did for us on the Cross.

Only after He has shown us mercy in forgiving us of our sins can we begin to live a holy life. And living a holy life doesn't save us; rather we do it because he has saved us and we desire to please Him, having fallen in love with Him because of His good nature and character (and His awesome love that He had toward us in heading toward the Cross, setting His face like a flint, Isaiah 50:7).

I say again that he who has been forgiven much loves much (Luke 7:36-50, 1 John 4:19) and that this is the reason for our holiness as Christians who have been forgiven, redeemed, and saved by the blood of the Lamb.

Salvation, forgiveness, and redemption is a free gift offered to us by the Lord (Romans 5:15-19); we cannot earn it in any way by what we do; but it is only by responding well to the message of the gospel (with faith in our hearts, and with softened hearts) that we are redeemed.

Holiness preaching is something that shows us our need of a Saviour if it is done right. If it is done wrong then the unbelieving sinner will not turn to God for mercy but will instead merely redouble his efforts to be a good person and thus worthy to enter the kingdom (in his own sight).

The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, Jeremiah 17:9. And yes, we can indeed receive a new heart (Ezekiel 36:25-27) that is honest and good (Luke 8:15); however an honest and good heart is a heart that is not in denial concerning the sinful aspect of our humanity, and how every man is steeped in total depravity: and that our only redemption is in what Christ did for us at Calvary; not in the redoubling of our efforts to make ourselves worthy.

He will make us worthy if He so desires. The moment we come to the understanding that our salvation is in Him alone and not in how well we are doing in our Christian walk, He may indeed begin to work in us to make our lives more conformable to His image concerning our behaviour from day to day in a more consistent holiness of life and character; but the moment we begin to trust in how well we are doing we are most certainly bound to fall. He wants us to trust in Him and in His sacrifice alone, not in our works, performance, or personal levels of holiness.

What God hath made crooked who can make straight (Ecclesiastes 7:13)? Only God!

He will never perform the work of sanctification in a man who would begin to trust that he is saved by that work. Such a man has forgotten that Christ died for him and is in danger of being condemned (1 Corinthians 15:1-4 (kjv), Galatians 5:4, Galatians 2:21).

Therefore I say that one of the keys to being sanctified before the Lord is to never trust that I am saved by such a work: but that it is wholly and completely, and only, what Christ has done on the Cross that has saved me, bringing justification to an ungodly sinner (Romans 4:5).

justbyfaith · Jul 28, 2018

Gideons300 said:
Do we lower the standard then, and simply confess that we are and always will be sinners till the day we die? Does this somehow honor God?

To understand that I am sinner before the Lord is not to lower the standard, but to see myself in light of it.

And it does indeed honour the Lord for me to see myself as He sees me and to confess it before Him (1 John 1:7-9).

Gideons300 · Jul 28, 2018

justbyfaith said:
To understand that I am sinner before the Lord is not to lower the standard, but to see myself in light of it.

And it does indeed honour the Lord for me to see myself as He sees me and to confess it before Him (1 John 1:7-9).

What you are sharing sounds like humility but we must be careful here to clarify, as I did in the OP, that willful sin must not be included in such a mindset.

If we rest on our human condition as a defense for character flaws that as of yet have not been changed into His image, I have no issue with that at all. If we say that only He is perfect and that sins of omission can never be escaped, so be it.

BUT...... if we are led to believe that this also includes willful sin, then we are being lied to and led down a path towards destruction.

This is sin that hardens the heart towards God.

This is sin that spits in the face of the one who died for us to save us from the darkness that was our old fallen nature, a nature we are clearly told we are dead to and that we owe nothing to.

This is the sin that Satan will try any angle to use to create for us a loophole so that we can continue to think all is well, when in truth, we are choosing death while wanting to claim the benefits of life.

This is the sin that attempts to turn the grace of God into lasciviousness, a sin license.

This is the sin that is presented as acceptable with great humility, when in fact it is pride and love of self that is the true motivation for us if we do not want to renounce our right to sin if and when the mood strikes us.

In an effort to clarify what we are espousing for the benefit of readers, do you agree that there is no place for willful sin in the life of a believer, and that the sacrifice of Jesus in no way allows us to continue to sin willfully so that grace may abound?

Blessings,

Gideon

justbyfaith · Jul 29, 2018

God is even able to forgive willful sin if it is confessed properly (1 John 1:9, Proverbs 28:13).

If anyone is truly forgiven of great iniquity (Psalms 25:11), they will love the Lord greatly (Luke 7:36-50).

If anyone loves the Lord greatly, they will also have a hatred of sin and an abhorrence of even the concept of sinning willfully against the Lord. Because the Lord is righteous, and to love Him is to love what He loves and to hate what He hates.

Loving the Lord means that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in me (Romans 13:8-10, Romans 8:4). Sin is the violation of God's law (Romans 3:20, 1 John 3:4); and therefore sinning willfully is not something anyone will do who loves the Lord; because if I were to willfully sin, it would be a violation of the righteousness of the law, which would then no longer be fulfilled in me because of my violation of it.

(Although it is written in Galatians, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after the promise of God to Abraham that He would give us of His Spirit, cannot disannul the promise that it should be able to make the promise of no effect. So then I do not lose the Holy Spirit because of a violation of the law; because the law cannot disannul the promise).

However the question I ask is, How do we fall in love with Jesus in the first place? Is it not in that he has forgiven us of all past, present, and future sin? He gives us heaven when we don't deserve it. He justifies the ungodly (Romans 4:5).

I love Him for that, and desire to obey Him because of it. Because I know that I am weak when it comes to certain things; and I finally came to the realization that I could not gain the victory over those areas that I am weak in. So I finally cast myself on the mercy of God and confessed as David did that my sin is ever before me. Not that I want to keep committing it, but that I am too weak to gain the victory over it in my own strength. And even when I have thought that I was relying on the Lord's power, I have found that I was too weak to gain the victory over my besetting sin.

So then my hope is, that in admitting that I am a sinner, God will look down and see my honesty before Him and also forgive. My only hope is in His forgiveness. I do not have the power to overcome the temptation that comes my way. The devil's lie is that, "You are going to do it eventually anyhow; so you may as well do it right now."

And I do know that God is able to make that not the case, in such verses as 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, Hebrews 10:14, and 1 John 3:9; but I have been more recently seeing these passages as being God setting the standard of the law in front of me so that I would eventually realize I can't do it and give up, and put my whole trust in what He did for me rather than in what I can do to save myself in my attempt to live up to those passages.

It is something that He is going to have to do. And I know that my first step toward receiving it, if it is something that God wants to give me, has been to admit that I am a sinner; that my sin is ever before me: as David also admitted in Psalms 51:3. God also showed me that one of the major keys to being justified is to stop setting myself forth as the one who is "entirely sanctified" (which is what I was doing with my preaching of entire sanctification without being honest to the people I was preaching at that I was not there yet), but to set myself forth as one who is a sinner justified by the mercy of God (Luke 18:9-14). In this I would be truly humbling myself according to that passage (it is not false humility as I previously thought).

So then, in understanding that I have sin dwelling in my mortal flesh and that I will never be free of it this side of heaven, I know that I am also forgiven through the blood of Christ and that no power in hell or on earth can take this away from me. Because I desire to be obedient. And therefore any sin that I commit, even if it seems to me or other people as though it were a willful sin, in all reality it falls into the category of the plight of many of us, that we are still living in Romans 7, and when sin gets the better of us it is not us that is sinning but indwelling sin that is committing the action.

So again, I see the first step of entering into a Romans 8 type of experience as being the understanding that I cannot do it myself, that I am a sinner but that God loves me and has saved me regardless of my sinful state. He has forgiven me much, and because of that, I love Him much. If He has not forgiven me, then how can I love Him? Do we not love Him because He loved us first (1 John 4:19)?

It is only a matter of my coming to the place of my being able to fully comprehend the love and forgiveness that belongs to me in Christ. Then I will most assuredly respond with love in my heart towards Him, and will begin to eschew evil more and more (see also Proverbs 4:18). Because I love Him and I know that He hates my doing of certain things; so in understanding that He has forgiven me but that He is still not pleased with some of my behaviour, I will seek to please Him concerning that behaviour and will also desire to walk in victory over it.

However that can even become a trap. Because suddenly I am now trying to earn God's approval through my performance as a Christian; and my approval before God, in all reality, is based solely on what He did for me. If I can keep this in mind, it should be a major factor in setting me free. Paul wrote that "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to them that believe..." It is the gospel that brings power to have victory over sin. And in a nutshell, it is simply this: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures. If I keep that in memory, I am saved, unless I believed in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:1-4.

So I would think that in keeping these truths in the forefront of my thinking, I may begin to walk as a new creature in Christ. Because it is the gospel that makes me a new creature in Christ.

So then, it is not in the redoubling of my efforts to become a holy man of God that is going to make me a better person, or even save me.

The primary key has to do with my casting myself on the mercy of our Lord as a sinner in need of His salvation; and in continuing to do this for the rest of my life.

He is the one who sanctifies (2 Corinthians 3:18). He catches the fish, and then He cleans them.

Gideons300 · Jul 29, 2018

Certainly God will forgive us if we truly repent and turn back to Him with our whole hearts. But at the same time, we must understand that willful sin hardens our hearts, and the end result is that we can be brought to the place where we turn God’s grace into lasciviousness, trusting that no matter how far we willingly stray, even as we are mindful of God’s stern warning to us to flee willful sin, we are always going to be heaven bound. And that brother is the lie Satan is after us swallowing.

We are told that at the judgment seat, there will be those who are fully confidant in their salvation. These were not fringe dwelling Christians. They looked and acted the part, just as we do. But there was a problem, for they had a continuing relationship with willful sin. May God’s words that sealed their fate get our attention before it is our turn to face the Lord on the last day.

“Depart from me, all ye that work iniquity. I never knew you.”

It would seem if we are truly concerned about rescuing as many as we can, that assuring them that even willful sin is no big deal, is something the enemy would try to get us to believe. If we are, as you say, truly loving God with all that is within us, then should not choosing to sin despite what God has told us, be the furthest thing from our hearts?

Willful sin is not like the sins that afflicted Paul in Romans 7. Here there was a great battle within him, and he hated himself and his weakness. He longed to be free indeed so that his life would bring glory to God. If we can say that, I am convinced God will move mountains in these last days to show us the path to the free indeed Jesus promised us so that we really can possess our vessels in sanctification and honor.

But let us also be deeply warned. If, knowing all this, that this is the will of God, even our sanctification, and yet we set our hearts to disobey on purpose, by choice, with no battle raging in our hearts, then if we continue on this path, there awaits only three things for us.

Weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Willful disobedience is spitting in the face of a holy God, who sacrificed His only Son to set us free from the power of darkness. If we choose to walk this path, we are clearly told, there remains no more sacrifice for sin for these, but a fearful looking for of judgment.

The question is, will we argue with God to our own destruction, seeking to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a little longer, and disguising our intentions by attempting to somehow magnify a twisted grace that would allow such evil actions, or will we fall on our faces and truly repent and turn from our sin back to the God who promises to cause us to walk in full obedience?

Blessings,

Gideon

justbyfaith · Jul 29, 2018

I have said my piece, and have no disagreements with your last post.

Yours in Christ,

justbyfaith.

edit: I have a few comments on what you posted in the post below this one.

justbyfaith · Jul 30, 2018

In his book entitled The Grace Awakening, Charles Swindoll writes that in Romans chapters 3-5 Paul sets forth a grace that is so extravagant and scandalous that he has to bring the people he is talking to back into check because the grace that Paul was speaking of might cause them to actually think that they should continue in sin that grace might abound.

The key to understanding in the book being that in Romans 5:20 Paul says those scandalous words that where sin abounded, grace superabounded.

So again, I would point out that the key to our salvation is not to redouble our efforts to live a holy life; as for the most part people who do this, do this in the power of the flesh: but the key to salvation is to cast yourself on the mercies of a holy God and to believe that what He did on the Cross is sufficient as a payment for all your sin; and to receive as a free gift God's paying it on your behalf.

This is what will produce holiness. For the gospel is the power of God to salvation (from sin...Matthew 1:21) to everyone who believes. And the good news (gospel) is not that we must redouble our efforts to live a holy life and then we will be accepted by the Lord, once we are made perfect. No, the good news is that Christ died in our place, substituting His life for ours. So His perfect life and righteousness is imputed to us; while our sins were imputed to Him as He died on the Cross, taking the penalty for our sin.

And when we receive this free gift of God, our justification, God does something wonderful in us. He seals us with the Holy Spirit, and He makes us new creatures in Christ, so that old things are passed away and all things are become new!

So I am in agreement with your statements in post #14, because in Hebrews 3 it is very clear that sin is a deceitful element and has the ability to cause us to depart from the living God.

Because when we sin, then the Holy Spirit brings conviction and we don't like it. And many of us are apt to reject that conviction to the point that we deny what the Spirit is saying to us, that we are sinners in need of a Saviour. Because we are ashamed of the fact that we are sinners, and rightly so, Romans 6:21.

It remains that the only redemption is in what Jesus did for us on the Cross; and we cannot obtain this salvation by works, or obedience, or living a holy life. We can only obtain it by faith in Christ's work of redemption. Obedience will come as the result, but it is not the cause of our salvation. If we took our focus completely off of our attempts to obey God in order to gain His approval, we would do well.

When we focus on Christ and His efficacious work on the Cross of Calvary, God will work a work within us and we will find we are being transformed apart from our own self-efforts.

Gideons300 · Jul 30, 2018

justbyfaith said:
In his book entitled The Grace Awakening, Charles Swindoll writes that in Romans chapters 3-5 Paul sets forth a grace that is so extravagant and scandalous that he has to bring the people he is talking to back into check because the grace that Paul was speaking of might cause them to actually think that they should continue in sin that grace might abound.

The key to understanding in the book being that in Romans 5:20 Paul says those scandalous words that where sin abounded, grace superabounded.

So again, I would point out that the key to our salvation is not to redouble our efforts to live a holy life; as for the most part people who do this, do this in the power of the flesh: but the key to salvation is to cast yourself on the mercies of a holy God and to believe that what He did on the Cross is sufficient as a payment for all your sin; and to receive as a free gift God's paying it on your behalf.

This is what will produce holiness. For the gospel is the power of God to salvation (from sin...Matthew 1:21) to everyone who believes. And the good news (gospel) is not that we must redouble our efforts to live a holy life and then we will be accepted by the Lord, once we are made perfect. No, the good news is that Christ died in our place, substituting His life for ours. So His perfect life and righteousness is imputed to us; while our sins were imputed to Him as He died on the Cross, taking the penalty for our sin.

And when we receive this free gift of God, our justification, God does something wonderful in us. He seals us with the Holy Spirit, and He makes us new creatures in Christ, so that old things are passed away and all things are become new!

So I am in agreement with your statements in post #14, because in Hebrews 3 it is very clear that sin is a deceitful element and has the ability to cause us to depart from the living God.

Because when we sin, then the Holy Spirit brings conviction and we don't like it. And many of us are apt to reject that conviction to the point that we deny what the Spirit is saying to us, that we are sinners in need of a Saviour. Because we are ashamed of the fact that we are sinners, and rightly so, Romans 6:21.

It remains that the only redemption is in what Jesus did for us on the Cross; and we cannot obtain this salvation by works, or obedience, or living a holy life. We can only obtain it by faith in Christ's work of redemption. Obedience will come as the result, but it is not the cause of our salvation. If we took our focus completely off of our attempts to obey God in order to gain His approval, we would do well.

When we focus on Christ and His efficacious work on the Cross of Calvary, God will work a work within us and we will find we are being transformed apart from our own self-efforts.

I agree with you that all of our efforts, no matter how earnest they may be, will never result in real holiness or purity.

One would think it would then be wise to tell people that their efforts will accomplish nothing, but until we truly understand the depth of our impotence, and sin becomes exceedingly sinful to us, we cannot do the one thing that is required of us to see good fruits spring forth from our walks. And what is that? To believe that He is in us, and that we... the old us.... are dead.... and as we abide in this truth, called our new man, or new nature, to our amazement and joy, we discover that fruitfulness happens with no effort on our part at all.

But there is one hitch. In order to put on our new man, we must put off our old one, by reckoning ourselves dead to sin. And this presents a problem, for secretly, we more often than not do not see our old nature as wretched, as Paul did. We think we are close, and just need a helpful nudge over the top. We are wrong.

We are either in the flesh, powered by self effort of a fallen nature, or we are in the Spirit, powered by God in us. We cannot be both. God tells us that nothing profits but a new creature, but how hard that is to accept. Self hates to be told it cannot did it if we just try a bit harder. Silly us.

Therefore, more often than not, we must tell people that without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. We do not lower the standard for one minute. We hold it up unwaveringly.

How wonderful it would be that people immediately, willingly, reckoned themselves dead to sin and alive to Him, seeing that faith is the only way to see this accomplished in us. But in my own walk, it took me almost four decades of trying to get self under control before I fell at His feet, crying out in desperation for a miracle.

And praise God, twelve years ago now, He revealed to me what I share here, that it is when we have abandoned all hope in becoming holy and pure by our efforts and simply accept by faith that our “self”, called our old nature, died when we are saved, and that just as Jesus rose from the dead to newness of life, so DID we. Glory!

However, if we tell people that no amount of self effort will result in holiness of character, but do not tell them that faith in an accomplished fact IS required, they are left in a sort of void, where they simply assume that given enough time, holiness will happen. We know this to not be the case at all.

I pray this makes sense. I am not exactly known for saying things in few words, lol.

Blessings,

Gids

justbyfaith · Jul 31, 2018

Indeed, the standard is perfection. And because not one of us can live up to this standard, I find that our only hope is forgiveness through the blood of Christ. Once we are forgiven, we may be able to walk according to a "new man"; however I find that even this concept has to do with the standard of the law set before us (God requires perfection from conception into all of eternity). The fact is that sometimes we don't walk according to the new man; and it is in those times that we must fall back on the forgiveness that belongs to us through the blood of Christ. Therefore our walking according to the new man becomes beneficial in that it causes the sharing of our faith to be effectual (Philemon 1:6). However it is in no way contributory to our ultimate salvation. For that is based solely and completely in our faith towards what Jesus did for us on the Cross.

Gideons300 · Jul 31, 2018

Brother, the new man is not a concept. He is just as real and just as effectual in resisting temptation as our old man was in following after it.

Thank God for forgiveness! But if that were the sole benefit of our salvation, we would be a people unable to display to the world the power of God to take us as forgiven but messed up balls of clay, and fashion us into vessels fit for His use.

When we finally come to the point of truly hating our old nature as Paul did in Romans 7, we are finally prepared to leave our land of wandering..... sinning, repenting, over and over..... and leave it forever. We are ready to put on our new nature by faith alone, for we have come to realize that unless we receive a miracle, we have no hope of ever possessing our bodes in sanctification and honor. We have no hope of ever loving our God with all of our hearts, let alone loving His children as we love ourselves.

We are finally ready to take our leap of faith and believe that the term born again really meant that exact thing! And when we line our confession up with what God tells us, that the old US is truly dead, and we are brand new with new hearts that no and will be caused to obey as we continue to believe Him, glory to God, to our amazement, we discover that as we hold our shield of faith up as to who we now are, and do not lower it, we find the life of the vine flowing through us. And miracle of miracle, fruits of the Spirit begin to be produced.

You are correct when you say that we can slip backwards here, as our faith is weak. So IF we sin, we confess it, we repent, and then we immediately hold back up our shield of faith, our testimony, that we are NOT old natured beings any longer, but we are new!

Paul said in Romans 8 that we are not in the flesh any longer and that we owe it nothing! Glory to God, that we would believe that!

I pray you see brother. This is the good fight of faith we are called to. This is the faith we must grow in. The faith that we are dead and it is now not us but Christ who lives in us as the new man! This is the faith where we overcome the world. This is the faith where we resist the devil and he actually flees from us. This is the faith where Christ actually dwells in our heart, where, as we abide in this glorious truth of who God has made us, we find to our delight that we do not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. We can, for we still have fleshly bodies..... but wonder of wonder, we DON’T!

Blessings to you, brother.

Gideon

justbyfaith · Jul 31, 2018

In Psalms 51:3 it is written, For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

At what point does this scripture cease to be the truth of God's word?

Putting a knife in the heart of willful sin.....

Our awakening is beginning. Prepare to be amazed.

Addicted to CF

Our awakening is beginning. Prepare to be amazed.

Addicted to CF

Our awakening is beginning. Prepare to be amazed.

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Jesus I Trust In You

Our awakening is beginning. Prepare to be amazed.

Our awakening is beginning. Prepare to be amazed.

justified sinner

justified sinner

Our awakening is beginning. Prepare to be amazed.

justified sinner

Our awakening is beginning. Prepare to be amazed.

justified sinner

justified sinner

Our awakening is beginning. Prepare to be amazed.

justified sinner

Our awakening is beginning. Prepare to be amazed.

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