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Text Sermons : ~Other Speakers S-Z : Victory Over Sin : More reasons why so many fail to walk in true holiness.3

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The main reason for not entering the promises is the sin of unbelief.

It was unbelief that prevented Jesus from doing all that He truly wanted to do.

Mat. 13:58 "And Jesus could not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief."

I am sure there are many other reasons why we do not receive all that God has for us. I believe that the reason for this the sin of unbelief. Unbelief is the root of disobedience and every sin. It makes it IMPOSSIBLE for God to do His work. It is unbelief that prevents us from entering into God's true provision. Unbelief prevents God from working in us and through us and from doing His mighty works in us. The only true remedy to ones sinful state is faith in God and His full provision. Without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God. Faith is THE ONLY THING that prevents any sinner from receiving God's true gift of salvation.

Heb. 3:15-19 "This is what the scripture says: "If you hear God's voice today, do not be stubborn, as your ancestors were when they rebelled against God. Who were the people who heard God's voice and rebelled against him? All those who were led out of Egypt by Moses. With whom was God angry for forty years? With the people who sinned, who fell down dead in the desert. When God made his solemn promise, "They will never enter the land where I would have given them rest"---of whom was he speaking? Of those who rebelled. We see, then, that they were not able to enter the land, because they did not believe. "

THESE PEOPLE REBELLED AND BELIEVED NOT. SO WE SEE THAT THEY COULD NOT ENTER IN BECAUSE OF UNBELIEF.

Heb. 4:1-3a " Now, God has offered us the promise that we may receive that rest he spoke about. Let us take care, then, that none of you will be found to have failed to receive that promised rest. For we have heard the Good News, just as they did. They heard the message, but it did them no good, because when they heard it, they did not accept it with faith. We who believe, then, do receive that rest which God promised."

Heb. 4:6 " Those who first heard the Good News did not receive that rest, because they did not believe. There are, then, others who are allowed to receive it. "

Heb. 4:11 "Let us, then, labor to receive and enter that rest, so that we will fail as they did because of their unbelief/"

Everything that God has to offer man is in promise form. Eph. 1:3 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ."

God requires faith that works by love. Have you received all that God has for you? Remember that unbelief is the cause for all sin. All you need to do is to place your total confidence in the character of God. Take God at his word and let His truth control and rule you.

God requires you to believe now! You are fully able to do so. Why do you hold on to the sin of unbelief any longer? Believe all that God says, take Him at His Word.

Mark 6:5-6 And He could there do no mighty work, except that He laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And He marvelled because of their unbelief. And He went round about the villages, teaching."

2 Cor. 7:1 "Having therefore these promises dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."

There are so many deceived people who call Jesus Lord that do not do His will.

Luke 6:46 "And why call you me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?"

James 1:22 "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves."

I can not stress enough that your belief and faith MUST be acted on, Remember that faith without out works is dead. This means that you believe the word of God so much that you act as if it is true. If you say you believe but have no corresponding action, then you are deceived.

Rom 6:7-14 "For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more; death has no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he lives, he lives unto God. Likewise you reckon also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace".

Now live your life as though you are REALLY dead to din and alive to God. Reckon and act like you are now actually dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God through Jesus Christ your Lord.

2 Peter 1:2-4 "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

2 Tim 2:1b "Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus"

Heb 12:28 "Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:"

Heb 4:16 "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."

Titus 3:7 "That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

Titus 2:11 "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men"

2 Tim. 1:9 "Who has saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began."

Eph 4:7 "But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ."

Eph 1:6-8 "To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; Wherein he has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence."

2 Thess 2:16-17 "Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which has loved us, and has given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, Comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work."

Sanctification is inward purity. And the meaning is, that He is our inward purity. The control which Christ Himself exercises over us, His Spirit working in us, to will and to do, His shedding His love abroad in our hearts, so controlling us that we are ourselves, through the faith which is of the operation of God, made actually holy.

I wish you to get the exact idea here. When it is said that Christ is our sanctification, or our holiness, it is meant that He is the author of our holiness. He is not only the procuring cause, by His atonement and intercession, but by His direct intercourse with the soul He himself produces holiness. He is not the remote but the immediate cause of our being sanctified. He works our works in us, not by suspending our own agency, but He so controls our minds, by the influences of His Spirit in us, in a way perfectly consistent with our freedom, as to sanctify us. And this, also, is received by faith. It is by faith that Christ is received and enthroned as KING in our hearts; when the mind, from confidence in Christ, just yields itself up to Him, to be led by His Spirit, and guided and controlled by His hand. The act of the mind, that thus throws the soul into the hand of Christ for sanctification, is faith. Nothing is wanting, but for the mind to break off from any confidence in itself, and to give itself up to Him, to be led and controlled by Him, absolutely: just as the child puts out its little hand to its father, to have him lead it anywhere he pleases. If the child is distrustful, or not willing to be led, or if it has confidence in its own wisdom and strength, it will break away and try to run alone. But if all that self-confidence fails, it will cease from its own efforts, and come and give itself up to its father again, to be led entirely at his will. I suppose this is similar to the act of faith, by which an individual gives his mind up to be led and controlled by Christ. He ceases from his own efforts to guide and control and sanctify himself; and just gives himself up, as yielding as air, and leaves himself in the hands of Christ as his sanctification.

Christ is made of God unto us redemption. What are we to understand by that? Here the apostle plainly refers to the Jewish practice of redeeming estates, or redeeming relatives that had been sold for debt. When an estate had been sold out of the family, or an individual had been deprived of liberty for debt, they could be redeemed, by paying the price of redemption. There are very frequent allusions in the Bible to this practice of redemption. And where Christ is spoken of as our redemption, I suppose it means just what it says. While we are in our sins, under the law, we are sold as slaves, in the hand of public justice, bound over to death, and have no possible way to redeem ourselves from the curse of the law. Now, Christ makes Himself the price of our redemption. In other words, He is our redemption money; He buys us out from under the law, by paying Himself as a ransom. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; and thus, also, redeems us from the power of sin. But I must leave this train of thought, and return to a consideration of the plan of salvation.

Under this covenant of grace, our own works, or anything that we do, or can do, as works of law, have no more to do with our salvation, than if we had never existed. I wish your minds to separate entirely between salvation by works, and salvation by grace. Our salvation by grace is founded on a reason entirely separate from and out of ourselves. Now we are to receive salvation, as a free gift, solely on account of Jesus Christ. He is the sole author, ground, and reason of our salvation. Whether we love God or do not love God, so far as it is a the reason or foundation of our salvation, is of no account. Salvation is entirely a matter of grace, through Jesus Christ. You may not understand me as saying that there is no necessity for love to God or good works. I know that "without holiness no man shall see the Lord." But the necessity of holiness is not at all the reason or the foundation for salvation. Our own holiness does not enter at all into the foundation or reason for our acceptance and salvation. We are not going to be indebted to Christ for awhile, until we are sanctified, and all the rest of the time stand in our own righteousness. However perfect and holy we may become, in this life, or to all eternity, Jesus Christ will forever be the sole reason in the universe why we are not in hell. It is a fact, however holy we may become, it will be forever true that we have sinned, and in the eye of justice, nothing in us, short of our eternal damnation can satisfy the law. But now, Jesus Christ has undertaken to help, and He forever remains the sole ground of our salvation. According to this plan, we can receive all the benefits based on God's grace and love for us. We can have all he benefits of His salvation, by the gift of grace.

Faith in Christ puts us in possession of Christ, as the sum and substance of the blessings of the gospel. Christ was the very blessing promised in the Abrahamic covenant. And throughout the scriptures, He is held forth as the sum and substance of all God's favors to man.---He is the Bread of Life, the Water of Life, our Strength, our All. The gospel has taxed all the powers of language to describe the vast variety of His relations, and to show that faith is to put believers in possession of Jesus Christ, in all these relations.

The manner in which Faith puts the mind in possession of all these blessings is this: It annihilates all those things that stand in the way of our intercourse with Christ. He says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Here is a door, an obstacle to our intercourse with Christ, something that stands in the way. Take the particular of wisdom. Why do we not receive Christ as our wisdom? Because we depend on our own wisdom, and think we have ourselves some available knowledge of the things of God, and as long as we depend on this, we keep the door shut. That is the door. Now, let us just throw this all away, and give up all wisdom of our own, and see how infinitely empty we are of any available knowledge, as much so as a beast that perishes, as to the way of salvation, until Christ shall teach us. Until we feel this, there is a door between us and Christ. We have something of our own instead of coming and throwing ourselves perfectly into the hands of Christ, we just come to Him to help out our own wisdom.

How does faith put us in possession of the Righteousness of Christ? This is the way. Until our mind takes hold on the righteousness of Christ, we are alive to our own righteousness. We are naturally engaged in working out a righteousness of our own, and until we cease entirely from our own works, by absolutely throwing ourselves on Christ for righteousness, we do not come to Christ. Christ will not patch up our own righteousness, to make it answer the purpose. If we depend on our prayers, our tears, our charities, or anything we have done, or expect to do, He will not receive us. We must have none of this. The moment an individual takes hold on Christ, he receives and appropriates all Christ's righteousness as his own; as a perfect and unchangeable reason for his acceptance with God, by grace.

It is just so, with regard to Sanctification and Redemption. Until an individual receives Christ, he does not cease from his own works. The moment he does that, by this very act he throws the entire responsibility upon Christ. The moment the mind does fully yield itself up to Christ, the responsibility comes upon Him, just as the person who undertakes to conduct a blind man is responsible for his safe conduct. The believer by the act of faith pledges Christ for his obedience and sanctification. By giving himself up to Christ, all the veracity of the Godhead are put at stake, that he shall be led right or made holy.

With regard to Redemption, as long as the sinner supposes that his own sufferings, his prayers or tears, or mental agony, are of any avail, he will never receive Christ. But as soon as he receives Christ, he sinks down as lost and condemned, as in fact a dead person, unless redeemed by Christ.

Remember that there is no such thing as spiritual life in us, or anything acceptable to God, until we actually believe in Christ. The very act of believing, receives Christ as just that influence which alone can wake up the mind to spiritual life. We are nothing, as Christians, any farther than we believe in Christ.

Many seem to be waiting to do something first, before they receive Christ. Some wait to become more dead to the world. Some to get a broken heart. Some to get their doubts cleared up, before they come to Christ. THIS IS A GRAND MISTAKE. It is expecting to do that first, before faith, which is only the result of faith. Your heart will not be broken, your doubts will not be cleared up, you will never die to the world, until you believe. The moment you grasp the things of Christ, your mind will see, as in the light of eternity, the emptiness of the world, of reputation, riches, honor and pleasure. To expect this first, preparatory to the exercise of faith, is beginning at the wrong end. It is seeking that as a preparation for faith, which is always the result of faith.

Perfect faith will produce perfect love. When the mind duly recognizes Christ, and receives Him, in His various relations; when the faith is unwavering and the views clear, there will be nothing left in the mind contrary to the law of God.

Abiding faith would produce abiding love. Faith increasing, would produce increasing love. Here you ought to observe, that love may be perfect at all times, and yet be in different degrees at different times. An individual may love God perfectly and eternally, and yet his love may increase in vigor to all eternity, as I suppose it will. As the saints in glory see more and more of God's excellencies, they will love Him more and more, and yet will have perfect love all the time. That is, there will be nothing inconsistent with love in the mind, while the degrees of love will be different as their views of the character of God unfold. As God opens to their view the wonders of His glorious benevolence, they will have their souls thrilled with new love to God. In this life, the exercises of love vary greatly in degree. Sometimes God unfolds to His saints the wonders of His government, and gives them such views as well-nigh prostrate the body, and then love is greatly raised in degree. And yet the love may have been perfect before; that is, the love of God was supreme and single, without any mixture of inconsistent affections. And it is not unreasonable to suppose, that it will be so to all eternity; that occasions will occur in which the love of the saints will be brought into more lively exercise by new unfoldings of God's glory. As God develops to them wonder after wonder, their love will be increased indefinitely, and they will have continually enlarged accessions of its strength and fervor, to all eternity.

You can see, from this subject, the wayin which you can be made holy, and when you can be sanctified. Whenever you come to Christ, and receive Him for all that He is, and accept a whole salvation by grace, you will have all that Christ is to you, wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. There is nothing but unbelief to hinder you from now enjoying it all. You need not wait for any preparation. There is no preparation that is of any avail. You must RECEIVE a whole salvation, as a FREE GIFT. When will you thus lay hold on Christ? When will you believe? Faith, true faith, always works by love, and purifies the heart, and overcomes the world. Whenever you find any difficulty in your way, you may know what is the matter. It is a want of faith. No matter what may befall you outwardly: if you find yourself thrown back in religion, or your mind thrown all into confusion, unbelief is the cause, and faith the remedy. If you lay hold on Christ, and keep hold, all the devils in hell can never drive you away from God, or put out your light. But if you let unbelief prevail, you may go on in this miserable, halting way, talking about sanctification, using words without knowledge, and dishonoring God, till you die.






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