Walking in the Truth

Jesus said,"If you continue in my Word, then you will be my disciples indeed and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free." He was not talking about reading the Bible 30 minutes a day. He was talking about reading it and meditating in the Word and doing it, walking in what the Lord has revealed to you by His Spirit. For example you read that He commanded us to... love our enemies, and do good to them that hate us. You commit to doing so in obedience to your Lord, and He sends one of your enemies down your path. Here's one you don't want to love. But as you humble yourself to submitt to God's Word and you begin to move forward in obedience and love this person, as hard as it may be, you are walking in the truth, and it is becoming a part of your being. You are overcoming hate and malice, bitterness, unforgiveness, and you are being set free. Never, ever, ever, must you ever, ever, ever put a man's word above the Word of God, yet some of you are doing this. Many teach things that are contrary to the Word, and they pervert the scripture to say something other than what it says. Remember Jesus warned us saying, "Take heed that no man deceive you..." As long as you hold to their words above the Word of God you are deceived and they are holding you in bondadge.
I know a brother who recently left a church like this, and one of the main things that the Lord Jesus led him to repent of is this very thing. He had the preacher's word exalted above the Word of God in his heart. Since he repented of this the Lord has been leading Him to walk in the truth of the Word, and he is being set free.

You Are Not Your Own

Rom 6:21-23: What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Your freedom from sin was purchased with the life; the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ on His cross, and you belong to Him. You are not your own. You are His. He bought you for a price. You were delivered by Him out of your slavery to sin and death when you, by His mercy and grace, repented of your sins and believed the Gospel, and confessed Him Lord. You are now His servant. He is your life. He has given you everything pertaining to life and godliness, including His Word, His Holy Spirit, and His righteousness which is imputed to you because you believe the Gospel, are you then going to turn around and do your own will???
Jesus said in Matt 7:21, Not everyone who says unto me "Lord, Lord" shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven. In another place He said, Why call you me "Lord, Lord" and do not the things that I say?
1Co 6:19&20: What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
As you continue in Him, walking in His Word and in the Holy Spirit, seeking to be led by His Spirit, every day denying yourself, taking up your cross and following Him, (The Apostle Paul said "I die daily") you will bear fruit and you will become more and more holy,(seperated unto Him), and you will inherit eternal life. It is all in Him.

Godly Sorrow is Not Condemnation

2Cor 7:8-11: For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season. Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

In 1&2 Corinthians we have a clear example of christians being led to repentance. There are many who say now a days that there is no real need for a christian to repent, because everything was finished in the body of Jesus on the cross. All your sins are forgiven, past, present, and future. The grace of God has you covered forever as soon as you believe on Jesus Christ. They seem to completely ignore many passages of scripture that speak to this matter. In 1John the Apostle John speaks of walking in the light. The light is the truth, and it makes manifest the lie. Truth producess freedom when you receive it and walk in it, and lies bring you into bondage when you receive them. The reason you receive them is because of the condition of your heart. 1John 1:8 says, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. That is present tense to christians. Verse 9, however, says, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Many perceive confrontation over sin as condemnation, trying to put someone under the law, and make them guilty.
However, if you study 2Cor 7:8-11 you plainly see that Paul confronted the Corinthians concerning their sin and they were made sorry after a Godly sort, and they repented, and the results were very good, as enumerated in verse 11. Godly sorrow works repentance unto salvation and is not condemnation. If you say you have no sin when you actually do, you deceive yourself, and you effectually condemn yourself, because your sin remains and you are not forgiven. The result of the lie is a false security, a false justification of your fleshly life style, and you are depriving yourself of true holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.

Love rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.
1Cor13:6
Jesus said , If you love me keep my words.
Love deals with iniquity in the church. In first and second Corinthians Paul dealt with sin in the church. The people obeyed him and dealt with the young man, and he was led to repentance. Then he told them to restore him and confirm their love for him.
2Cor2:4 For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.

The Gospel

The Gospel means "The Good News". What good news? God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Who is He? His name is Jesus. He is the Son of God. He willingly came to Earth from Heaven. He was born of the Virgin Mary. He became a man like us. He had a body like us, but He was the Son of God. He was...

born holy! The scripture says He was tempted in every way like us, yet He never sinned. He went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil. Yet the religious leaders and many of the people hated Him and condemned Him to death by crucifixion. However, it was the will of the Father for Him to willingly give Himself on the cross a living sacrifice for our sins. Because He knew no sin, when his blood was shed it completely satisfied the Father in heaven for all our sins.The scripture says the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus. He was buried in a tomb, and on the third day the Father raised Him from the dead by His mighty power. Jesus is the first begotten from the dead.
We are dead in our trespasses and sins. We must repent of our sins and believe the Gospel, calling on the Lord, and be baptized,
baptized into His death, our old sin nature is buried with Him, and we are raised with him, justified from all things. We become the righteousness of God in Him! We must receive the Holy Spirit and be led by Him to do the will of God from the heart. Jesus said in John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another helper, that he may abide with you forever- the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
Jesus said take up your cross daily and follow Him. You must receive the Holy Spirit so you can be led by Him. The Holy Spirit will never lead you to sin. So as you continue to believe the Gospel, believing that you are dead to sin in Him, as you were baptized into His death, and you are alive unto God in Him through His resurrection, you will be led by the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus and do the will of the Father from your heart, you will be walking in righteousness by faith, pleasing God! If you sin, you can confess your sin to Him, and His blood that he shed on the cross, faith in His blood, justifies you before the Father, just as though you had never sinned. You will be saved from the wrath of God to come, if you continue in Him. You will be delivered from everything that hinders you. He overcame death and sin and all the powers of darkness when he rose from that grave! He appeared to His disciples several times afterwards for a period of 40 days before He ascended to heaven to the right hand of God, where He is right now, making intersession for us. He is alive! He will save you completely if you will come to Him and give yourself completely to Him. Jesus said "Repent and believe the Gospel, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand".

Our Fellowship Continued

We are not here to compete, or strive with one another, but rather to love and obey Jesus, love one another, and work together. We are a body. One hand is not in competition with the other, but they are in unity and obedience to the head. One hand does not have it's own agenda, but follows the head. When both hands follow the head they work together well. The head,(Jesus),has work He wants us to do together that we cannot do alone. We must deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him every day. We also need more than just two hands. The whole body must come into one accord to do this work. That can certainly happen if the people that the Lord is bringing together will commit fully to the Word of God and to the Holy Spirit and let Him work, laying down our lives for one another as unto Him.

Our Fellowship

1John1:2-7, For the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us; That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light,as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.

True fellowship is in the light, in Jesus, in Him, in the truth, and His blood cleanses us from all sin. The light will make manifest the things of darkness, and if we will love the truth, and continue in His Word, the Lord will deliver us , by the power of the Holy Spirit from those things, and we will have better and better fellowship with Him and with one another, with persecutions. Hallelujah!