WBS.285
Q&A
– WHY DO BELIEVERS STILL SIN? - 4
1 Timothy 1:15 This is a faithful
saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Messiah Yahushua came into the
world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
Today, we are going to
discuss a powerful reason why believers still commit sin; a reason that might
be regarded as presumptuous and arrogant for me even to suggest. Sin is
prevalent in the church today because most believers have responded to a false
gospel…a gospel message that is simply not THE gospel message, and which fails
to produce the kind of life that Messiah died to make possible for us. As a result, the majority of people who sit
in pews on Sunday morning around the world may believe in the facts of the
message of the Scriptures; but they have never become disciples of Yahushua
Messiah; and have never been born again by the Spirit of IAUE. That simple fact alone accounts for a lot of
the sinful living in “the church;” however, not being born of the Spirit, they
are not really the children of Elohim and not the focus of this study. Our only
concern for them is that they repent and come to Messiah by faith. Our focus is on those who have genuinely
given their lives to Messiah and have been born again of incorruptible seed
unto life lived through the Spirit.
1 Peter 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying
the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see
that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
23 Being born again, not of
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of IAUE, which liveth and
abideth for ever.
Why do true disciples
continue to sin? It is because they,
too, have come to Messiah through a false gospel message. In this verse, we can see that a by-product
of the TRUE gospel is that we would be born again unto an unfeigned love of the
brethren.
John 13:35
By this shall all men know
that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
Well, look
around. Most “Christians” pick and
choose who they will even give the time of day.
We do not even consider that our ignoring and often even despising our brothers
and/or sisters in the Body of Messiah, or our choosing with whom we will and
will not have fellowship is a most grievous sin to our Master. The very
existence of 200+ denominations and almost innumerable non-denominational
segments within Christianity is an undeniable representation of followers of a
false gospel. Love for each other is one
of the first manifestations of the life produced by the TRUE gospel, yea, it could
even be considered a valid litmus test of which gospel brought us to Messiah.
1 Corinthians 1:10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of
our Master Yahushua Messiah, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you;
but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same
judgment.
11 For it hath been
declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe,
that there are contentions among you.
12 Now this I say, that
every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I
of Messiah.
13 Is Messiah divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of
Paul?
1 Corinthians 3:3 For ye are yet carnal:
for whereas there is among you
envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
Romans 16:17 Now I beseech you,
brethren, mark them which cause
divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and
avoid them.
18 For they that are such serve not
our Master Yahushua Messiah, but their own belly; and by good words
and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
Paul’s letter to the
Galatians was written due to his concern that the gospel he preached unto them
was being corrupted by men who came in after him.
Galatians 1:3 Grace be to you and peace from IAUE the
Father, and from our Master Yahushua Messiah,
4 Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from
this present evil world, according to the will of IAUE and our Father:
5 To whom be glory for
ever and ever. Amein.
6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that
called you into the grace of Messiah unto another gospel:
7 Which is not another; but
there be some that trouble you, and would pervert
the gospel of Messiah.
The gospel message had
indeed been corrupted; so much so, that Paul cried out in Galatians 3, “Who hath bewitched you?!!!” And this was in the first generation of the
life of the church. Consider the ramifications of the pure gospel having a
minor adjustment here, an additional concept added there, a few pinches and
tucks happening over generations and centuries of time, and we end up with the
Mulligan stew that we have today. Today,
the gospel has been reduced to what you have often heard me refer to as, “The
Magic Prayer.”
Note in Galatians 1:4
above, that Messiah gave himself for our sins to “deliver
us from this present evil world.”
Today, we are told this means that we are “going to heaven when we die.” In Paul’s day, it meant being delivered from a
life of sin in the here and now; to be able to live above sin for the rest of
our lives. Notice, too, that this false
gospel removes us from IAUE and separates us from the grace of Messiah.
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of IAUE:
In today’s false
gospel message, we are told that we are saved by faith. “Only believe. Faith alone saves us.” It does no such thing. This is a major
deception and it leads us to identify the essence of the false gospel; and answers
our question as to why believers still sin.
The focus of
preachers, today, is the forgiveness of sins.
They attempt to lead “the lost” to come to Yahushua to be forgiven of
their sins. They lead them in a prayer to ask Yahushua to forgive them and to
invite him “into their heart” to be their “Lord and Savior.” Such a prayer is seen to be utter nonsense
when compared with the New Testament Scriptures. Nowhere in the New Testament, especially in
the Book of Acts which records for us the birth and growth of the church, do we
see anyone being lead in a prayer to accept Yahushua or a prayer to receive
forgiveness for their sin. No, they were
commanded to repent and turn from their evil ways to a life of obedience to the
Master Yahushua. They responded by
demonstrating their commitment to the Master by being water baptized…immediately.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be
in Messiah, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all
things are become new.
18 And all things are of IAUE,
who hath reconciled us to himself by Yahushua Messiah, and hath given to us the
ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit, that Elohim was
in Messih, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed
unto us the word of reconciliation.
Messiah already paid
the penalty for man’s sin. The sins of
all mankind are forgiven, already. People simply do not know that the barrier
between them and IAUE has been removed. They
do not know that their sins are already forgiven.
If forgiveness of sins
was salvation, then all of mankind would be saved, now. This is not what the Scripture teaches,
however. It teaches us that through the
forgiveness of sins we become aware of the salvation that is available to us.
Luke 1:68 Blessed be IAUE Elohim
of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,
69 And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of
his servant David;
70 As he spake by the mouth
of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:
71 That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of
all that hate us;
72 To perform the mercy
promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;
73 The oath which he sware
to our father Abraham,
74 That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the
hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,
75 In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our
life.
76 And thou, child, shalt
be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Master
to prepare his ways;
77 To give knowledge of
salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins,
78 Through the tender mercy
of our Elohim; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,
79 To give light to them
that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way
of peace.
Speaking of the
Messiah, Zacharias prophesies that IAUE has raised up a “horn of salvation,” a
reign and kingdom of salvation. He
defines salvation as being saved from our enemies, being saved from the hand of
those that hate us, and being delivered from all of our enemies that have
prevented us from being able to serve him fearlessless, in holiness and
righteousness, ALL THE DAYS OF OUR LIFE.
In other words, the scriptural definition of salvation is the freedom
from all hindrances that prevented us from being able to walk in holiness and
righteousness, NOW, in this life. And
how do we become aware of this? The
knowledge of this salvation comes through the remission of sins. This is not just forgiveness of sins; but
freedom from bondage to sin. In dealing
thoroughly with the sin problem, we become knowledgeable, we become aware of
the salvation that has been made available to us, the ability to walk above sin
and live a righteous life of obedience to IAUE and to his son, our Master
Yahushua Messiah.
So, when Paul says in
Ephesians 2:8 that we are saved by GRACE through faith; he is saying that as we
trust in the forgiveness and remission of sins provided by Messiah Yahushua, IAUE
pours out grace upon our lives. Grace is
the power to do His will. Grace is the
power that delivers us from all that would oppose our loving obedience to Him. Without grace it is impossible to do His
will; and it is impossible to live righteously before Him. So, when our
contemporary gospel message leads men to believe that their salvation IS the
forgiveness of sins, they have no imagination to living above and apart from
sins for the rest of their lives. They
simply live lives expecting to be constantly forgiven of their sins. This is not the call of the TRUE gospel.
Galatians 6:14 But Elohim forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Master
Yahushua Messiah, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
15 For in Messiah Yahushua
neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new
creature.
The gospel is the
power of IAUE unto salvation (Rom 1:16). The TRUE gospel separates us from “the
world.” All that is in the world can be
catalogued as “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of
life” (1 John 2:16). The salvation that comes via the grace of IAUE empowers
the believer to live above the world, untouched by the world. This is not simply an aspiration for the most
disciplined and ascetic of disciples. It
IS our salvation; and if we are not walking in it, we are fallen from grace. We can liken it to an airplane. When the law of “lift” is applied to the
wings, the plane becomes airborne and flies above the world. When lift ceases to be applied, then the law
of “drag” takes over and the plane begins to plunge to the earth. Grace lifts us into effortless obedience and
righteous behavior. When we are removed
from grace, the flesh, like drag, is always there to pull us back down to the
world.
We are saved by
grace. We are not saved by forgiveness. Believers must embrace the call of a
righteous life and thereby live by grace.
Apart from grace, the power that IAUE gives us to do His will, we will
continue to live petty and meaningless lives of sin moving from one prayer for
forgiveness to another, and never experiencing the reality of the salvation
that Messiah died to give us. We will
never live above our expectations. If
our expectation is that Messiah died to forgive us of our sins and take us to
Heaven when we die, we are doomed to lives of sin. If our expectation is to live righteously by
the power of IAUE, then that is what we can expect to experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment