Be Ye Perfect -38 Sermons on Matthew 5:48 by Richard H. Strand

19. THE WRONG WAY TO HEAVEN

20. STOP LOVING THE “WORLD” AND BE YE HOLY

21. OBEY “THE LAW”

22. DON’T BECOME A REPROBATE

23. FOLLOW CHRIST’S SPIRIT AND BECOME GOD’S SON

24. GROW UP AND REPLACE YOUR “OLD MAN”

25. KEEP CHRIST IN YOUR LIFE AND KEEP LIVING

26. FOLLOW CHRIST AND DEVELOP HIS CHARACTER IN YOU

27. KEEP FIGHTING AGAINST THE ENEMIES OF YOUR SOUL

28. LIVE LIKE A SAINT TO BECOME ONE

29. SIN IS IMPERFECTION THAT GOD HATES

30. LOVE AND FEAR GOD

31. AVOID FALSE TEACHING AND SAVE YOUR SOUL

32. FOLLOW JESUS – DON’T JUST TALK ABOUT IT

33. YOU WERE MADE IN GOD’S IMAGE –DON’T SPOIL IT

34. A LAYMAN'S VERSION OF THE CREATION STORY

35. HOLINESS REQUIRES WORK

36. HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST AND PURSUE HOLINESS

37. KEEP GOD’S COMMANDMENTS AND DO NOT LIE
38 . FINAL CONCLUSION – BE YE THEREFORE PERFECT

PREFACE

About a third of the contents of this document was originally written to recommend to teachers of adult Sunday school classes a study of The First Epistle of John. That book inspired this treatise.

Now this paper has grown legs and is broken into a series of small Biblical studies that vary in length from two paragraphs to four pages as the Spirit moved. They are all exhortations on the importance of righteous behavior, so I call them sermonettes. I have always wanted to preach!

Each message makes a fairly unified statement about its own title. Each one stands on its own two feet, so they can be studied one at a time in any order. Instead of a logical development of ideas, this book is a collection of different approaches to the same conclusion, namely, the absolute necessity of being a good person if you expect to go to heaven when you die. Being a born-again believer, I didn’t think that was either possible or necessary, but I have changed my mind.

You should expect some redundancy if the articles are read consecutively, since they are all on the same subject and pointed toward the same conclusion. It is probably more useful for you to choose a title that interests you from the list of “Contents” and then check it off after you have read it. (Or don’t check it off. I would be happy if you read it again accidentally!)

I have a doctorate in education, so I use teaching methods in my writing. Redundancy is valuable. It is like repeating your telephone number so it gets copied down correctly or can be remembered.

In case you cannot see it at first glance, I use the King James Authorized Version so I can find the references I need from my memory of the words I have learned. Besides, I find the language beautiful.

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WHY I WROTE THIS BOOK

I personally am much farther away from being conformed to the image of Christ than the Apostle Paul was, but, by delving deeply into the Bible, I have now come to the conclusion that I have at least been “saved!”

I knew I had thought the right thoughts and said the right things, but I was frightened when I read the third chapter of The First Epistle of John. It said many things like this: Verse 6: “Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.” Verse 9: “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” Please see my message on “Some Essentials of the Faith” for other scary statements that I had never learned about the gospel.

I still have some sinful habits, and was not even trying to stop them. I had just been continuing “business as usual” most of the years since being saved. So, “Was I really saved sixty years ago, and am I going to hell?” That is the question those passages made me ask. I actually doubted my salvation. That is why I ask my readers to doubt theirs more than once.

It is very ironic that the First Epistle of John is the work that is most often cited to convince newborn Christians that they have eternal security. It did precisely the opposite for me! It frightened me.

To see if I could find some reason to tell God that I was saved, I did a lot of Bible study. The messages in this book were all written to me, and I now believe everything is all right with me. But I also know I had not been doing the most important thing God expects me to do. As the above verses say, he wants me to stop sinning!

I am very thankful he showed it to me in His Word while there was still time for me to do something about it. I cannot say for sure that it would have been a fatal sin of omission; and the fact that I now have started to amend my ways may actually be a validation of the doctrine of eternal security. But the thought was scary.

So this Bible study has changed my life. I now am in the process of deliberately stopping my sinning and am working to accomplish God’s plan for my life. I hope reading these little messages will do the same for many of my readers. If I did not think so, I would not have worked so hard writing and printing this book.

I love Jesus and now I am trying to act like he would act in every situation, and I see some growth. By praying for his help, I have learned that I am now able to resist temptations and stifle some evil thoughts and desires, which no one had ever told me I could do – and which a faulty interpretation of the Bible had convinced me that I could not do! I have faith that with the help of his Holy Spirit in me, I will continue growing to become more like Jesus, which I am now sure God wants me to do.

I am a very old man, but the older man inside me still has sinful attitudes and habits that need to be changed. One that I am working on is the difficult task of controlling my temper as I should. Everyone gets mad, but they should not sin in the process. Another one is sometimes still using God’s name in vain when I get frustrated with myself. I ask his forgiveness every time and am ashamed that his name still pops up in non-worshipful situations. I see myself making some progress, little by little.

I believe God will forgive me if I were to die tomorrow, because “God looketh on the heart.” (1 Sam. 16:7) He knows that my heart is right because my heart confirms it. As John says, “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.” (1 John 3:21).

I even know that now my prayers for help will be answered, because the very next verse (1 John 3:22) says, “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.” That is what I am now trying to do. I hope that some people who study my writings will conclude that perhaps they should do that also, even though no one has made it sound as important as I do.

As I have been writing these little sermons, with much studying of the Bible, I am firmly convinced that Christ still wants me to become a better man, husband and father than I have been. I also am convinced that by seeking his help when I cannot see any change in myself, I will be able to make some real progress toward that goal!

Then I will go joyfully to see him and serve him forevermore in the incorruptible body that will make me sinless like Jesus. My voice is not great, but when I sing praises to the Lord in heaven, and sing “All My Sins Are Gone,” it will be true! They will not only be forgiven; they will not exist.

There is no limit to the number of Biblical verses and other resources available to help me grow more like Christ. I recently discovered Jerry Bridges’ book, The Pursuit of Holiness; and I also bought another book called Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas. The latter tells how being married can help us grow toward holiness. When confronted with the inevitable conflicts that married couples have, we can practice resolving them the way Christ would. I have been married 56 years and am finally trying that – as a last resort!

I believe the kind of sermons I have written are the kind that America needs to bring the great revival she must have if she is going to avoid God’s wrathful judgment. These studies revived me. They might, if people have an ear to hear, convince many readers that they need to get down on their knees and rededicate themselves to the Lord. That is my prayer for them.

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THE GREAT NEED FOR RIGHTEOUS BEHAVIOR

Jesus said unless you do what I tell you in my teaching you are building your house on sand and it will be totally destroyed. This is the King James Version (KJV) of Matthew 7:24-27:

²⁴ Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

²⁵ And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

²⁶ And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:

²⁷ And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. Matt. 7:24-27

Later Jesus told his disciples that He, His Father, and the Holy Spirit will come and dwell or reside in “whosoever will” love Christ and keep his commandments. So, all three parts of the one and only true God will be in us, and the Holy Spirit will be reminding us of Jesus’ teachings, sayings, words, and commandments. Here is the way Jesus says all those things in verses selected from John 14:

²⁰At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

²¹He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. [Then Judas Iscariot asked a question.]

²³Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

²⁴He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.

¹⁶And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

¹⁷Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you

²⁶But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Why does the Lord give us all this marvelous help? Obviously so we will be able to remember and follow what he says and also realize that he is close by, empowering us, answering all our prayers and comforting us. Have you ever heard any greater news?

The apostle Paul knew those things and worked all his life following Jesus and the Lord’s will for his life; but his doctrine that “faith alone saves us without us having to do any “works” is still true, because living a righteous life is not “works” in the common meaning of the term. It takes a lot of work – and it is necessary work – but it is not the kind of unrighteous work Paul said could never save us. Salvation comes only from our faith in Jesus and his words.

Jesus was talking about what the new birth does for people like you and me. It gives us the motivation and the power to become righteous with the personal help of the Lord who is in us. I do not mean “perfectly” righteous although that was Paul’s goal, and mine, and that of all the apostles who wrote letters that we read. But I think, like Paul implied in his testimony, that working fulltime toward perfection in moral character is what God wants us to do. And we should want that also.

So how then shall we live after we are saved? We should live righteously, morally, and grow toward being holy like he and the apostles tell us to be. That is what Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation also said. “The just shall live by faith” means that it is faith in Jesus that makes us righteous (or “just”) and we then live righteous lives. That is exactly what Paul believed and did, and what he meant by salvation. So our faith takes us to heaven, but we must cooperate with God’s plan by doing what he tells us to do. We apply our faith in Jesus by praying to him and doing what he tells us to do in our daily life. We do not simply worship him on Sunday.

The reason God created man, who failed to live righteously by obeying the Lord, then sent Christ to die for our sins and re-created us in Him by our new birth, is so that we would become good people who would love and obey Him and love our neighbors and even our enemies. Then we could have eternal life and live and serve Him forever.

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KEEPING GOD’S LAW IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE

The Apostle Paul’s Chapter 7 of Romans seems to say that trying to follow God’s commandments in one’s own strength is impossible. That may be true, but it can be done with the help of Christ in us. They are simply laws of good behavior. However, many people use that chapter as an excuse to stop trying to follow God’s laws and to excuse their own continued sinning. They then simply call it stumbling instead of calling it sin! Today sin is a dirty word and dirty words are not sins!

People like to listen to the reading of Romans 7, which seems to say that people cannot stop sinning because we were all born in sin and have Adam’s nature. They fail to understand the whole Romans Chapter 6, Romans 7:25, and 8:1-16. Those passages completely refute that misinterpretation of Chapter 7. Instead of telling us that we cannot ever stop sinning, Paul tells us to get rid of that old nature and live in the spirit so we can be victorious over temptation and stop living in sin.

The new birth gives us the beginning of a new life in which we are alive in the spirit instead of the flesh. “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” (Rom. 8:10) We thereby can now get rid of the influence of our carnal nature and break free from Satan’s enslavement. We can become righteous and please God, avoid eternal damnation, and live forever with God and Jesus.

We all desire those results, but we do not understand that we must try to achieve them, with God’s offer of help. It does not happen automatically by simply believing in Christ. It is a process of “ever becoming” more like Christ, which will not occur without self-discipline and work. God will provide the supernatural power and some discipline of his own, but we must do the work.

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LIVE IN THE SPIRIT – NOT THE FLESH

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,

who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. (Rom. 8:1)

All the moral problems of men and nations are caused by “fleshly” lusts, which are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” (1 John 2:16)

Those are the lusts or desires that the devil exploits by tempting us to commit sin and disobey God’s laws. So sin – immorality, illegal or unethical behavior that disobeys God’s standards – is not a physical problem but a spiritual one. It is simply a matter of which Spirit you follow, whether the Spirit of God or the Spirit of Satan.

The Apostle Paul in Romans Chapter 6 and much of Chapter 8 tells us that God sent Christ to extricate us out of our carnal condition. “God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:3,4)

That is what Christ himself meant when he said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” (Matt. 5:17) After he was resurrected he sent the Holy Spirit, which I call “Christ’s Spirit,” and told us He and his Father would also be in us, and we can be in him so we do not need to stay living “in the flesh.” This is obviously only true for “born again” believers – the only people who are “saved” and can grow to become mature “sons of God” and saints in God’s Kingdom.

How is this marvelous thing possible? We put our faith in Christ and our life is transformed by being resurrected from sin and death and into righteousness and life in Christ which gives us the ability to overcome our fleshly lusts. This is how we change: “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:5) Then in verse 8:13 he tells what we must do in order to have life eternal: “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”

That does not mean we are to cut ourselves up or live in sackcloth and ashes; nor to take every word literally in Jesus’ statement about fleshly lust in Mark 9:43-48 and Matt. 5:30. In Romans Chapter 6 Paul says, “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (vs. 11) because, “Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” (vs. 6) It means to bury the lusts of the flesh and the many worldly desires and keep our eyes focused on the righteousness of our Lord, Jesus Christ and our desire to be righteous like he wants us to be.

Christ expects us to change our thoughts and emotions from worldly lusts to righteous desires and to follow him in word and deed. We cannot do it alone; but we can do it with His help. In order to receive that help we need to abide in Christ and learn to manifest his righteousness in every aspect of our daily lives.

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HATE YOUR LIFE SO YOU CAN LIVE FOREVER

When Jesus was speaking of his own coming death he said, “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.” (John 12:25) To hate our life sounds absurd, but various translations agree that this is Christ’s message to us! Most people do not want to heed those words.

Then in Matthew 16:24-25, and Luke 9:23-24 (with Luke’s slight wording variations shown in parentheses), Jesus tells us we should want to lose our life! “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross (daily), and follow me. He that saveth his life shall lose it; and (but) whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find (save) it.” Did you ever wonder what he meant? That does not sound like common sense, so only believers can believe it.

Jesus meant denying ourselves in our daily life as well as being a martyr for him if persecution gets that bad. We must keep killing the “Old Man” in us, dying to self and the lusts of the flesh and the world, denying ourselves so “that henceforth we should not serve sin.” (Rom. 6:6. Read all of Romans chapter 6 to understand this.)

We cannot kill that old man all at once. It requires self-discipline and we have to do it piecemeal as the Holy Spirit directs us. That is why Luke’s gospel account of the same message by Jesus has the word daily in it. It is not an instantaneous change, but a process of growth, maturing in Christ, purifying ourselves to be like Christ (1 John 3:2, 3); and as Peter says, doing so by “obeying the truth through the Spirit” (1 Peter 1: 22) “Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:16) When we are wholly cleansed, we will be holy, which will not fully occur till death parts us from our corruptible bodies.

Christ used strong metaphors in his Sermon on the Mount: “And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.” (Matt. 5:30) He also talked about plucking out your eye, and cutting off your foot in Mark’s gospel. (9:43-48) The actions he tells you to take are figurative, but the word hell is literal, which he describes in some detail. Jesus is saying that hell exists and people who keep sinning will go there! He nowhere makes an exception for people who say they believe in him or love him.

Our heavenly commander-in-chief is ordering us to “Stop sinning – or else!” He does not make it optional. He expects his followers to do it. Jesus does not say, “Keep on sinning and confessing and asking my Father to forgive you because you believe in me.” He expects you to work to get free from sin because you believe in him and pray to him for help. He says he will answer your prayers if they are in God’s will for your life, and to get rid of your sins is God’s main purpose for you. That is why he sent Christ to die for you.

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SALVATION GIVES YOU FREEDOM TO BECOME PERFECT

Becoming free from sin is what “freedom in Christ” means. Being “born again” does not make you free to sin, but free from sin’s hold on you. You are freed from the devil’s grip so you can do what the Father wants you to do – the right thing, the Godly thing. You are free to grow to perfection in God’s sight, which is the purpose for which you were created. Our righteous God created man to be righteous like he is, so he could have fellowship with men and women forever, but without Christ most men and women fail.

Let us be honest: It really is not impossible to stop breaking the moral laws of God that were only written for our own good. He did not write them to make life difficult. He knew it is possible for “whosoever will” to obey them if he or she could be strong enough to resist the devil. Then he sent Jesus to give you his power, which is greater than Satan’s. He now tells you to “go, and sin no more,” like he told the woman taken in adultery. (John 8:11)

Therefore, if you do not try to do what he says you will probably die in your sins. If you do not want to keep fighting the devil, Jesus does not want you to come to heaven with him, even though you say you love him. If you love him he says you will keep his commandments. “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.” (1 John 5:3) In the gospel written by the same John, Christ says, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) And Jesus repeats that injunction two more times in the same chapter as he explains salvation to his disciples.

I challenge any seminary professor to find in the scriptures where it promises that you can go to heaven if you continue breaking God’s commandments after you think you are saved, and simply confess those breaches instead of repenting and seriously trying to turn away from them.

Romans 10:9-10 is the verse someone might use to challenge my statement. “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

There Paul tells us that “with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” Notice that we receive Christ’s gift of righteousness in our heart. That means that in addition to loving the behavior and messages of Christ, we also love the righteousness of Christ, so he then gives us the power to become righteous in thought and deed. The devil had power to make it very difficult, so Christ came to overcome Satan’s power over us.

To me, that is what being “saved” or “born again” means. Salvation and righteousness are not a simple act of the mind and tongue. They are the commitment of one’s mind and heart to the Lord and what he wants us to do. One’s heart is then right and one has peace with God.

We have no right to say “We have been born again,” or “We are in Christ and he is in us” unless we are working to stop our unrighteous thoughts, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. We are to trust Christ and commit our whole life to him, and then we will do what he and his father tell us to do and stop doing what they tell us not to do.

That is the Christian’s journey to spiritual maturity and to heaven. It is our duty and our joy. It is what Christ meant when he said, “Be ye perfect as your father in heaven is perfect.” (Matt.5:48) He did not make that statement to frighten or discourage us, but to challenge us.

Do you accept his challenge? I guarantee that when you become perfect, as God intends for you, you will not pat yourself on the back with pride, which is a fleshly sin. You will be eternally thankful to Christ who gave his life to make it all possible for you.

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DO NOT SIN AGAINST GOD

I don’t hear Christian psychologists “telling it like it is” much anymore. For example, in counseling someone who is sexually immoral, here is the gist of what they often say: “You need to confess what you have done and God will forgive you. We will always stumble or make mistakes sometimes. You should stop having sex outside marriage because that will hurt you or your marriage. God wants you to stop it for your own good because he loves you and wants you to be happy. And you surely do not want to displease your Heavenly Father who loves you so much, do you?”

All those statements are true, but that is not why God tells you to stop being immoral. The Bible says you should stop being immoral because it is a sin against God and the penalty for even a single sin is death – spiritual death now and a penalty worse than death in the hereafter – unless you can get God to forgive you. He will forgive you if you sincerely confess your sin and keep trying with all your heart to stop it. With the help of the Holy Spirit you can. But if you do not really try, and you depend on your confession to save you, it won’t. You do not really love the Lord and he cannot let you attain the reward.

As King David confessed to the Lord, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned and done this evil thing.” (Ps.53:4) Illicitly stealing Bathsheba and having her husband killed broke two of God’s laws. Here is how Saint John the Divine defines sin: “Sin is the transgression of the law.” (1 John 3:4)

God’s laws comprise the non-revoked Ten Commandments plus many rules spoken of by Christ and the writers of both the Old and New Testaments who tell us how to live today. Breaking any of them is sin. You will be accountable to God for it. Jesus said, “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” (Matt. 12:36, 37) He was not joking; nor was he speaking about simply getting a lesser reward in heaven when he used the word condemned. Elsewhere he said, “Whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” (Matt. 5:22) These are just two of his “rules” for our daily life that many people are simply ignoring.

If you say you “believe in Jesus,” you should believe what he says! So reading those statements in the Bible should “convict” you of sin and should motivate you to stop talking the way most people talk today. What right do you have to keep swearing and cursing people or using God’s name in vain? You surely are not being forced to do it. You do it to show yourself and others how manly and powerful you think you are.

You may not be able to break such habits immediately, because such a habit is deeply ingrained and becomes addictive, but you certainly need to ask God to help you and see that you can gain at least some victories over it; then keep up the good work. Then God, who “looketh on the heart,” (1 Sam. 16:7) will know that your heart is right and you put your best effort into it so he will forgive you if you do not fully succeed before you die. But if you do not try, I think you are “in danger of hell fire” – those are the Lord’s words.

We should do what Jesus and his Apostles told us. And some of their exhortations are very difficult to cope with because they are telling us to become holy, as he is holy. “As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:15, 16) Conversation here means all your actions, not just your words.

Christ did not die for you so that you may go on deliberately committing sins that you know are sins against him. He knows you can stop them and you are not trying. That is rebellion against God – exactly the same as Eve’s, and it puts you on the devil’s team in his war against God. “He that commiteth sin is of the devil.” (1 John 3:8) The devil is your spiritual father. (Read 1 John chapter 3 and see if you can interpret it differently!)

God is not only a God of love; he is, as David wrote, “Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth.” (Ps. 94:1) God said to Ezekiel. “And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel: and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my fury; and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord GOD.” (Ezek. 25:14)

“Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” (2 Tim. 2:19) If you know the Lord and he knows you as one of his children, you can “depart from iniquity.” Just leave it alone and do not go back to it. If you find yourself going back to it, pray for the power to resist. That is a prayer that undoubtedly will be answered. Christ promises to help you: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” (Matt.7:7) He keeps his promises.

I pray that on judgment day you will not be “a sinner in the hands of an angry god.” That was Jonathan Edwards’ sermon title during America’s first “Great Awakening.” I hope you will be “A sinner saved [from sin] by grace.” And, believe me, you can do it, with the help of Christ. Imagine how good that will make you feel!

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ABIDE IN HIM AND BE PERFECTED

Reading the scriptures tells me that “being born again” makes it possible for me to have the mind and spirit of Jesus, thinking His thoughts after him and beginning to act like He would act. First John 1:6 says, “He that saith he abideth in him ought also himself so to walk, even as he walked.”

Behave yourself! Only by behaving the way Jesus would behave can we be victorious over the devil. That is why Christ comes into us when he knocks on the door of our heart and we invite him in. He does not come in only to be able to comfort us and persuade his Father to forgive our sins. His Spirit, which is called the Holy Spirit, is in us in order to lead us into truth and righteousness; in other words to teach us how to think and how to live.

God first made rules that we could follow if we really wanted to. Later Christ came in person to ask us to love and obey him directly, this time by his own words spoken in his human body, especially in the Sermon on the Mount. After dying for us he then sent his “Spirit of truth” who “will guide you into all truth.” (John 16:13)

That is also one of God’s purposes for inspiring the whole Bible: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in RIGHTEOUSNESS: That the man of God may BE PERFECT, thoroughly furnished unto all good WORKS. (2 Tim. 3:16, 17) I capitalized the terms righteousness, be perfect, and works. These are in the title and subtitle of my little book. They are the Lord’s plans for us. Another word in the subtitle is sin, meaning disobedience to God. This is Satan’s plan that takes us with him to death and hell.

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CLEANSE ME AND LEAD ME IN THE WAY EVERLASTING

Christ wants you to be one of the people who ask him, as David did, to “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” (Ps.51:10) Also, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts; And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Ps.139:23, 24) Those prayers show David’s desire to be cleansed from sin and stay free from it. They are in the Bible as models of what we Christians also should desire. This particular statement in Psalm 139 tells us how we can be sure of going to heaven and live eternally in God’s Kingdom.

The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23) and we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. (Rom. 3:23) From the beginning, the sin of Adam resulted in condemnation falling upon all men because we have all sinned in similar fashion. (Rom.5:12) Likewise, through Christ’s death, his righteousness results in justification (freedom from condemnation for the sins we have committed) for all who receive him as their savior. “For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.” (Rom.5:17) Righteousness shall reign in our life in place of death because Jesus will come into us and give us his power to overcome the devil.

After our “new birth” we must follow Christ, walking in “the way everlasting” that Christ’s gift of righteousness makes possible. This gives us the ability to overcome our old life “in the flesh” which still yields to Satan’s temptations. That carnal self was not completely killed when we woke up spiritually at the foot of the cross or were baptized into Christ’s death. Paul tells us to “mortify” or “crucify” our “old selves.” (Rom. 8:13)

Romans 10:9-10 says, “If we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Cleansing us from all sin does not happen instantaneously at the Crucifixion or at the new birth. If we keep our same old sins after we are “saved” we are still rebelling against God, which will require us to repent, ask forgiveness and continue trying to stop our sins.

If we do not try to stop the sins we know about, we probably do not really want to obey God – we merely want forgiveness. He will keep forgiving us if we really try to obey Him, but I do not believe he will if we are not sincere. He knows what is in our hearts, even if we do not.

Faith without works is dead. We cannot hide behind words that say we repent of our sins and ask forgiveness without following it with action. Those words are hypocritical unless we want to rid ourselves of sin and will actually try to do it.

If we try, and pray for his help, God will complete the good work for us and we will be cleansed. Christ has given us his righteousness for that very purpose, namely, to overcome Satan’s power over us and save us from the “second death.” (Rev. 21:8). We must keep working to overcome temptation, but we will succeed because he will honor our work, give us the ways to escape, and complete the process if death comes and interrupts us. We may not become perfect on earth, but we must be trying to be the kind of holy “overcomers” that God will allow in heaven with Him. (Rev. 21:7, 8)

Many people infer (subconsciously) that “regeneration” is a lifetime license to keep sinning instead of a duty to stop. We originally go to the altar accompanied by “Just as I Am without One Plea,” perhaps hoping that this may create a transformation in our life. It will, provided we really desire it. But if we do not sincerely desire it and then we sing words like “All my sins are gone,” and “buried in the deepest sea” we may believe we are already sinless and do not have to resist temptation any more. Satan put that idea into our heads, because it is not in the Bible that I read. Unfortunately we hear it many times in church and do not understand that we still need to keep fighting against the devil.

Regeneration, the new birth, produces justification and positional sanctification in the eyes of God for sins that we had or that we want to get rid of, but that does not mean “all our sins are gone.” We are all still sinners. To work to “experience” our “sanctification” is the way we get rid of our sins.

Sanctification is the process of perfecting one’s character, which man has to do with the Lord’s help in everyday life. To develop a holy character in us is God’s purpose for our lives, but he does not do it for us; he made man responsible for that when he created him, and he will not make any exceptions. He guides us and gives us Christ’s resurrected power “to become the sons of God.” (John 1:12) When we are sanctified we are set apart from all the other people in the world for the holy purposes of God. Ultimate sanctification is saintly-ness or holiness in heaven when “all our sins are really gone.”

To be sanctified we must follow Christ’s leadership. He is “THE WAY EVERLASTING” that David talks about. (Ps.139:24) Christ said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” (John 14:6) He is the way out of Satan’s lies that bring darkness and death and into the light of truth and a life that will last forever. And we must walk on that straight and narrow pathway to everlasting life in heaven.

A convert should want to follow that “way everlasting” like David did. Christ had not come yet, but David evidently knew the LORD. The convert should also hide “The Word” in his heart, so that he will not sin against God. (Ps. 119:11) He should not expect a happy life after death if he has never made a subconscious or conscious commitment to Jesus and to the concepts of “Where He Leads Me, I Will Follow;” or “Trust and Obey.” We must follow Christ, who John also calls “The Word.” We will not get to the right destination without his leadership. He is our “Good Shepherd.”

To follow Christ after you have believed and accepted him requires a changed attitude which one gets when he is born again. It includes a desire to grow to become righteous like He is, which his death and resurrection has made possible. Our desire should not be merely for heavenly or earthly blessings that he promises. That is selfish motivation that God will not honor unless it also based on the sincere, heartfelt desire to become righteous and, yes, holy like Christ.

Jesus said, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matt. 6:33) He also said, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” (Matt. 5:6) The desire for righteousness is unselfish. It means you want to work to fulfill your Lord’s expectations of you and to serve him. To do that you must want to get rid of every sin you possess by working toward the perfection that God demands – yes I said “demands.”

If you do not possess an inkling of a desire for Christ’s kind of “righteousness” and are continuing to behave the same as usual, you probably have not been born again. Your conversion was an imitation of the real thing – it was simply a desire to get something for nothing from your heavenly Santa Claus.

If that is the case, numerous scriptures say that you are a hypocrite like the Pharisees. Here is what Jesus said about them: “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.” (Matt. 15:8) Jesus castigated them severely for being sinners. “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44) That is what Jesus thinks of people who do not want to follow him and live the way he tells them to. They prefer thinking that they are already righteous and do not need to make any changes in their behavior.

If you have the smallest suspicion that this might describe your status with God, you had better come to God with repentance and ask him to give you a new start in life because your first one “didn’t take!” He will do it if you are sincere, because “whosoever will may come.”

This time commit yourself to trying to do what God wants you to do and also then start doing it. You will then experience some of “the joy of the Lord” (Nehemiah 8:10) and the “peace that passeth all understanding” (Phil. 4:7), because you finally have found the “way everlasting” and Christ has opened the gate so you can walk on it.

He doesn’t do that for “just anybody.” When he does it for you it is because God has chosen you to be one of his children. You will know you have been chosen when you see your first victory over some sin in your life. You will then praise the Lord and know why you are praising him. It will not be because of the church music. You will be worshipping him in spirit and in truth because he will be at work in your life.

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RUN THE RACE OF YOUR LIFE

Many people claim to be born again Christians, but any person really born again should see that his new life is much different from business as usual. He must not keep doing all the things that the world the flesh and the devil want him to do. He is a new person. “Old things have passed away” – or at least “are passing away.” A Christian should be experiencing the difference.

If we are seeking righteousness and are fighting the good fight, we will see some personal victories over the devil. Then we can say with Saint John that we are “children of God.” (1 John 3, whole chapter) Then, as the Apostle Paul did, we should continue “pressing toward the mark of the high calling of God.” (Read Phil. 3:8-19 for a picture of the race, or the walk, that Paul was talking about.)

We are walking or running a race to final victory when we shall receive the glorious prize of eternal life in God’s kingdom. Like Paul, none of us has yet arrived, or attained the goal, but we can feel “persuaded that God will keep that which we have committed to him against that day.” (2 Tim 1:12) We can feel comforted that our redemption on Judgment Day is assured. That is the good news of the gospel.

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DO NOT FEAR BECOMING A “GOODY-GOODY”

Peer pressure and the standards of the group keep us sinning. “Goody-goodies” are the butt of jokes, because they are equated with sissies. People fear appearing righteous or holy more than they fear God or the fiery consequences of failing to believe in him. You sometimes hear, “I am not worried about going to hell because all my friends will be there.” They are saying this as a joke, but it is probably true, so it is not very funny.

The person who jokes that way probably never heard about hell from anyone who did not use it as a swear word. So he thinks it is a mythical place that only fuddy-duddies worry about – or a place they see Christians walk down an aisle to avoid without ever changing their behavior. He probably also says that churches are full of such hypocrites so he stays away from them.