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The key to deliverance, is the answer to the question, why can't I stop sinning?

sermonindex Apr 11, 2005

Call sin, a sin, that's the first thing. Call sin, a sin, you can't afford not to do it, because there is a cure for sin and a remedy for it. You only have to pretend if there is no remedy. You will never be cured from sin as long you cover it up or hide from it. You must call sin, a sin, that's the first thing. Be real about the things in your life that are sin. Now if there was no remedy for sin, then the whole gospel is just a big joke and is totally worthless.The second thing you must do, is see that sin cannot be justified. You can never justify sin. You must always call sin, sin. You must stop looking at things that you do wrong, or feelings that you have that are wrong and then excuse them as shortcomings, or as little weakness in your humanity, or as little characteristics that occur because of your background, stop that. Stop saying Oh! Well I am real sweet person you know, I maybe just a bit incommunicative, not unloving, just incommunicative, stop saying that. Stop saying I just have a tendency toward a fiery kind of temperament you know, I maybe a little a fiery at times, but I am not really angry. You might say, well no one is perfect you know and basically I am a good person deep down, sure I may mess up a little here and there, but I am no criminal. Stop that and call your sin, as sin, say "I am angry, that's sin". Say "I have unlovingness, and that's sin." Never think that anger is okay, or you can't really help it. Never think of any gossip, slander, jealously or any other sin as just human. Never accept any sin as normal human feelings. Don't ever think that you can't help sin, or that sin is just normal part of being human. and you will always have sin until the day you die. Do not excuse anger, gossip, or sarcasm or jealously, because when you do, you gradually reduce the whole life in Christ and it becomes less and less to you. Never justify sin! Don't call it by any other name, always keep calling it sin. The reason for this is because the door to full consecration is continual repentance. If you are living in known sin and your attitude is well, I know I need a miracle for God to set me free from this sin, so I will wait for the miracle. NO, NO, that is not the way into the miracle. The way into the place of full consecration where the Holy Spirit can cleanse your heart by faith, is by continual honest repentance day, by day, by day. If you are unwilling to call sin, sin then you can become Impenitent. Impenitence, that is lack of penitence, impenitence, un-repentance, impenitence is more than just repeated sinning. You may think that because you are sinning all the time, that there is no hope for you. This is NOT true. Impenitence is the growing tolerance of that sinning as a necessity. Its not just that you are sinning repeatedly, but impenitence is the time when your conscience becomes seared, and when you get to the point where you can no longer come to the place of full consecration. Impenitence happens when you regard your sinning as a necessity in your life, and you begin to tolerate it. Impenitence is the acceptance of the idea that you can't stop sinning, You are in great danger when you regard your sin as normal rather than abnormal, or as natural rather than alien. However often you may sin, you must set your heart against it, with all your being, and regard it as something that you must get rid of completely. God is more than willing to forgive you but He will also lead you to ask the all important question, which is the key to deliverance, why can't I stop sinning? There is no point, you know by crying out and saying, there is no hope for me, because I have sinned. It isn't just the sinning, its not just the falling, that is the real problem but it's the refusal to get up and go every time you fall and to believe that there comes the time when you do not need to fall. That is what true repentance is. The reason why many of you are sinning is because you have unclean heart. With an unclean heart, repentance is not, never sinning at this point in your life, but it is a refusal to accept sinning as normal in your life. It is a refusal to accept the word of God for freedom from sin. It is a constant belief that the normal Christian life is one that is free from unclean hearts, and free from unclean life, and that is the way into the place of full consecration. It is the desperate crying out to God. It isn't the crying out to man, why, why can I not stop sinning? While you are crying out to man, while maybe having little achievements and accomplishments, while you are reading the books, while you are talking to other people, saying why can't I stop sinning, even though I am a Christian? While you are doing that, you are just pretending. While you are trying to justify your situation, you are not even serious, but when you are desperate enough to cry out to the Holy Spirit, "Holy Spirit, why can I not stop this, why?" Then you are coming into the place of full consecration, where the dear Holy Spirit Himself can begin to deal with you, and can explain to you in what ways your heart is not clean for Him to dwell. He will explain it to you all this, because He wants to dwell in your heart, your heart was made for His indwelling, that's why your heart is there. You were made for the Holy Spirit of the God to stay and dwell and live within you day after day, night after night, moment by moment, and the Holy Spirit's dearest desire is to come there, and make that His home.

sermonindex Apr 11, 2005

Thank you for you post. This is a most critical subject, one that is the source of much confusion among christians today. In my humble understanding of the New Testiment, we cannot by our own will and deterination overcome the dominion of sin. It takes the power of God. Sin as you said cannot be justified. However we are justified by the blood of Jesus. That same blood shed for our justification set's us free from the dominion of sin. There is no such thing as sinless perfection. But sin shall not have dominion over us. 1 Cor. 1:18 says that the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those of us who are being saved, it is the power of God. The power of God for what? Victory in Jesus. Victory over sin. Does that mean we will never fall short again. No. But sin shall not dominate our lives. As believers, we are either walking after the flesh, or walking after the spirit. To walk after the flesh is to walk in obedience to our old fallen nature. To walk after the Spirit is to walk in obedience to His leading moment by moment. In the Spirit we walk in the righteousness imputed to us on Calvary. Only God can change the desires of the heart. He does it when we respond correctly to His grace by faith in the finished work of the cross. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.God bless you.

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PreachParsly Apr 11, 2005

We can be blameless, but we cannot be faultless.Jam 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. We can always do what is good through the mighty Holy Ghost, therefore we do not have to sin!! I don't belive that we will ever get to the point while still in this flesh where we will not have something about us that we need to work on. It seems to me the closer as I get to God the more I feel I need to do, but the less time I have to do it. I always need more dicipline, more prayer, more word, more intimacy, and just an over all deepness of an eternal mind.

sermonindex Apr 12, 2005

Well, amen Preach, Paul had a "thorn in the flesh". Some say it was an infirmity. You don't need grace for an infirmity. You need healing. 3 times Paul asked God to remove it. God chose not too. As you stated in your post, He told Paul that His unmerited favor was sufficient. If grace is not sufficient, we are all sunk. If grace is not needed, we would swell up into the sin of pride and down we go again. Had God removed the "thorn", the message of grace would have died on the vine and the blood of Jesus would be trampled under foot. Thank you for your post and God bless you real good.

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PreachParsly Apr 12, 2005

Wow, this thread provoked me to write an article. Here is the thread.

sermonindex Apr 12, 2005

I am not sure where you get that idea.2 Cor. 12:7 "And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure."I think the thorn was given to prevent the sin of pride.I do not know about you but I have not received the abundance of revelations that Paul had to have a thorn.

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Spitfire Apr 12, 2005

You must call sin, a sin, that's the first thing. Be real about the things in your life that are sin.This has definetly been the key to my deliverance. I've spent the past 3 years in deep repentance. Now, I'm on a mission. I have become so sensitive to the space between me and God that I can tell when there is something between us. Sometimes, it takes me a while to figure out what it is and I'm not sure why that is. Just recently, I had a situation come up where I went for about 3 weeks feeling just awful. I struggled to identify what I had done "wrong". I finally identified it as pride and arrogance toward some people I was in relationship with. I repented and continue to repent of that. Also, I've identified this idolatry I have of wanting man's approval or affirmation. I've been in repentance for that. To me, repentance is like spraying weed killer. It may take a while for the weed to completely die, but if you keep soaking it, it will eventually disappear.I find, if I am having trouble knowing what it is I've done wrong, that's almost always spiritual pride. Pride doesn't want to admit how ugly our sin is.I once watched one of the Indiana Jones movies where he was on a quest to find the Holy Grail. He came to a series of very dangerous tests where he had to solve riddles in order to proceed. The very first riddle was, 'Only the humble shall pass.' He was standing inside this tunnel saying the riddle over and over again trying to figure out it's meaning when suddenly it dawned on him that he needed to hit the deck. He dived to the floor just in time to avoid being decapitated by a swinging blade. I now understand that you will always find the answer if you humble yourself before God long enough. Love, Dian.

sermonindex Apr 12, 2005

What is the purpose of grace? Why do we need it? Grace = unmerited favor. You don't need grace for temptation. You dont' need it for healing. You don't need it for a miracle. You need it for what? Everybody has their own particular weakness. To one it may be gambling, to another, gossip. One is prone to covet while another is weak in lying. It's usually that one thing that pops up at the most inopportune time. Everyone has at least one. I do, I believe you do too. We do need to repent, no doubt, and on going. But we are not justified by our repentance. The just shall live by faith, and that faith must be in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The cross provided justification and concecration. If you are hoping to find favor with God by the filthy rags of your own righteousness, your house is built on sand. When a person repents, places his/her faith in Jesus Christ and Him crucified, we always see a "changed life". Is this because a person is given a long list of do's and don'ts???? That' law, beloved. The person changes because God moves in and cleans the house. We have to cooperate with His manifold grace and help keep the house clean. But we cannot clean ourselves any more than a swine can. Religion and religious practice strongly appeals to the flesh. But christianity is not built on religion. It is built on faith, faith in the victory over sin at calvary. The bible does not teach us how to have victory, but the victory is already ours. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. We too often look at our flesh and think that is who we are. Wrong. What we see in the mirror is dead in Christ Jesus. God sees it as dead, along with all it's works. Turn your eyes upon Jesus oh Saint. Begin to see yourself as God sees you.....JESUS! You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. The flesh is dead, leave it in the grace. Walk in the newness of life. Follow after the Spirit. Pray? Of course. Read your bible? Absolutely. Life must be maintained. But the life does not come from maintainance. It comes from God. Only He can make us born again. He will, if only you turn from yourself, and place all your eternal hope in Him and His Holy Provision for sin, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. To God be the glory, now and forever amen.

C
crsschk Apr 12, 2005

2 Cor. 12:7 "And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure."I think the thorn was given to prevent the sin of pride.I do not know about you but I have not received the abundance of revelations that Paul had to have a thorn. That this thought might be chewed on for awhile.Could only add neither have we received the lashings, shipwreck, nakedness, imprisonment, (years), danger...Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as beside myself,) I am more! I have been in labors more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in prisons more, in deaths many times. Five times from the Jews I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. I have spent a night and a day in the deep. I have been in travels often; in dangers from waters; in dangers from robbers; in dangers from my race; in dangers from the heathen; in dangers in the city; in dangers in the wilderness; in dangers on the sea; in dangers among false brothers. I have been in hardship and toil; often in watchings; in hunger and thirst; often in fastings; in cold and nakedness; besides the things outside conspiring against me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I do not burn? If it is right to boast, I will boast of the things of my weakness. 2Co 11:23-30Thanks Freecd,This is the most 'prophetic' thing I have heard of late.

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InTheLight Apr 12, 2005

What is the purpose of grace? Why do we need it? Grace = unmerited favor. You don't need grace for temptation. You dont' need it for healing. You don't need it for a miracle. You need it for what?Dear brother, I'm not sure that grace is only needed for sin or that the definition of grace you have given above (unmerited favor) is accurate. The reason for this is that Luke speaks of the young Jesus and says,"the grace of God was upon Him" (Luke 2:40). Was this unmerited? Was it needed for sin?Also, The thorn in Paul's flesh was to keep him from the sin of spiritual pride ("lest I should be exalted above measure"). So how could sin or sinfulness be given to him to prevent him from another sin? Sin never has this tendency.In Christ,Ron

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eagleswings Apr 12, 2005

"Where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly: that as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" Romans 5:12-21.”We note Paul's strong expression, "grace reigned ...". This plays havoc with our ideas of grace, for we think of it as something which we receive. But according to the apostle, IT IS A POWER which exercises sovereign dominion. It is not so much that we lay hold of grace but that grace lays hold of us. It has taken us from the reign of sin and insisted, "Now they belong not to you but to me!" It has taken us from the realm of death and said, "You have nothing to do with them now; I am the one who governs here!"”So it was not that we asked for grace, but that grace not only asked for us but took us and made itself Lord over us. We belong to grace, and grace will never let us go from under its reign. Grace has begun to reign over us through righteousness unto eternal life. Need I say that the righteousness is supplied not by us who are forgiven but by the Saviour Christ Himself? The eternal life also comes direct from Him. It follows then that the grace and the righteousness and the eternal life are unshakable and unconquerable, for what can sin and death do against Him who has completely defeated them and rendered them powerless? It is Himself who is the free gift, or the grace-gift of the Father to us. He has been made Lord over us for life, that is, for all eternity, since His life never dies.” --Poul MadsenThis is taken from Madsen's expositions of Romans 5:12-21, When Grace Reigns.http://www.oscar51.net/ttm/ttm13-5.htmlHis other valuable exposition of Romans 5:12-21 is part his series, Chapter by Chapter Through Romans , 10. ADAM AND CHRIST (Chapter 5:12-21) http://www.oscar51.net/ttm/ttm07-2.htmlRoger

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deltadom Apr 12, 2005

That is a question we have all been asking doesnt it say And this is the message which we have heard from him and proclaim to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him - none! 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him while we are walking in the darkness, we are lying and not living out the truth. 7 But if we are walking in the light, as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of his Son Yeshua purifies us from all sin. 8 If we claim not to have sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we acknowledge our sins, then, since he is trustworthy and just, he will forgive them and purify us from all wrongdoing. 10 If we claim we have not been sinning, we are making him out to be a liar, and his Word is not in us.

sermonindex Apr 12, 2005

Take 1st John 1:8 that says "if we say we have no sin, we lie and the truth is not in us," now that is, we have never sinned, and we have no unconscious sin, all of us have unconscious sin, every one of us. So in that sense none of us can say we have no sin, all of us have unconscious sin that we have not seen yet, and we cannot deal with until it becomes conscious. But see very clearly that the normal Christian life is defined in two verses in scripture, one is in James, "whoever knows what is right to do and does not do it, for him it is sin." So if you know something is wrong and you don't do it, that's sin, conscious sin, not unconscious sin, but still sin, but conscious sin is what God is concerned about, that's what you have control of, and 1st John 3:9 "Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, you don't commit sin if you are born of God."

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PreachParsly Apr 12, 2005

I havent done a super indepth study on Pauls thorn but here is what I come up with.2 Cor 12:7(ALT)..beating me with its fists [fig., treating me harshly], so that I should not be puffed up with pride. (BBE)..one sent from Satan to give me pain. (CEV)...sent to make me suffer terribly.(KJV)...the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. I personally don't belive it was eye glasses or a habitual sin. I belive it was a messenger of Satan to buffet him (slap him in the face..fight..)I belive there was a certain messenger of Satan that fought against him. How many feel strong and pridefull after large spiritual battle? I know I am far from pridefull when I feel as though I am in the middle of the battle. All I can do is trust in the Lord... or beleive that his grace is sufficient for me. I just don't see how eye glasses would keep you from being exalted above measure or that there is a sin that cannot be overcome through Jesus Christ. Thats just my opinion. Then again I haven't done an indepth study. I just looked around at the word buffet. (ALT=Analytical-Literal Translation)(BBE= Bible In Basic English)(CEV= Contemporary English Version)PS. Is there already a thread on this? I would like to look at it... If there is would someone PM it to me? Thanks.

sermonindex Apr 13, 2005

Sinless perfection is not achieveable by anyone other that Christ Himself. No we do not walk in habitual sin. But to place the burden of attempting sinless perfection upon yourself is not entering into His rest. That rest is found in justification by the blood and unmerited favor.Again, what is the purpose of grace? Is it not God's love bestowed upon us while we were yet sinners? Does His grace make us sinless and perfect? Yes, it does, but only by the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ, not by any works of the flesh. The perception of personal acheivement to obtain favor with God is rooted in deception. Lack of perfection will humble the most committed of christian, and keep him/her from swelling with pride. I cannot find worthiness in what I do. I can only find it in the finished work of the cross. That's why Paul proclaimed ever so clearly that He preached only Jesus Christ and Him crucified. To God be the glory, now and forever amen.

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PreachParsly Apr 13, 2005

I remember Ravenhill saying something like this: I'm not preaching its impossible to sin, I'm preaching its possible not to sin. (If someone has that exact quote please help me out) I agree with the statement. Well I guess what I'm wondering is "What is sinless perfection?" I thought it meant that you could get to a place where it was impossible to sin? If thats correct I disagree. I guess I need to know what sinless perfection means (or what everyone means when they say it) to be able to agree or disagree.

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