7487	Forums / Main Forum / Isn't It The Heart That God Judges?	on: May 06, 2007, 06:00:30 AM
Eternal life is a free gift, however I still believe, unlike universalists, that one must accept and receive even a free gift to gain the benefit of the gift. When we do so, we are applying the sacrifice He made for us to our sins. When we are justified all the sins of the elect were imputed on Christ in His death and He declared us righteous which in the future became ours by imputation. All of our sin was taken care of on the cross for all eternity and it was by His choice and His work that we are freed from sin. We cannot take away our own sin by our will. For when people have once been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, become sharers in the Ruach HaKodesh, and tasted the goodness of God’s Word and the powers of the `olam haba – and then have fallen away – it is impossible to renew them so that they turn from their sin, as long as for themselves they keep executing the Son of God on the stake all over again and keep holding him up to public contempt. For the land that soaks up frequent rains and then brings forth a crop useful to its owners receives a blessing from God; but if it keeps producing thorns and thistles, it fails the test and is close to being cursed; in the end, it will be burned. Christ did not die for a culture, but for individuals. Hebrews is dealing with the issue of sin and individual salvation. There are individuals who are in the church perhaps they are members and they are really not christians , not having embraced Christ work on the cross as their only hope for salvation. These individuals are acting like they are christians but they are trusting the ceremonial law, or an idol, or their own righteousness. Its not how people look that makes them christians, but it is the fundamental change that takes place in them as a result of being justified by faith.
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7488	Forums / Main Forum / Isn't It The Heart That God Judges?	on: May 05, 2007, 09:44:45 AM
The hidden sins, (unintentional) still need to be confessed.\" Forgive my hidden faults.\" Sin is not just something that is negative, but it is also not meeting the standard of righteousness. So when do you meet the standard of righteousness so that you can declare that you are not guilty of sin by not intentional? Every moment we are on this earth is in sin. 7490  Forums / Main Forum / Mockers And Skeptics on: May 03, 2007, 04:25:48 PM Thanks Bill, Yes Spurgeon was dealing with personal insults, and accusations that he was to narrow. Along with the depression , he had a very rough end of his life. He was also alot of physical pain with gout. I was looking at some old photos of him. He really looked tough. What a warrior. We are warned about sitting in the seat of scoffers. Because we are not aware sometimes that we have the disposition of a sheep we stray into the company of scoffers and get scared from the insensitive and cold disposition from their love of sin. We are not really convinced that we are weak enough to be effected by that process of exposure. There is a certian downward spiral in the heart of the wicked because they love their sin, that creates a paradigm of betrayal in relationship, and being christians being assaulted  that  hatred for Christ and HIs rule. Because of the lack of doctrinal clarity on the attributes of Gods love and His special care for His sheep, the sholow views of God makes us suceptable to thinking that God wants us to be assaulted by their hatred and it is suffering by being humble. But our Father does not want us to be sitting amoung scoffers and mockers. They really effect our doubts by just their attitudes. And if you have ever been married to an unbeliever you know how diffucult it is to have the problem in your house. You cant flee to a safe place. There really is a moment by moment war going on for our well being. And it is a war against Christ. If you love Christ your faith will eventually be assualted. And do not be decieved , because of our own sin and our own temptations we will need to fight with all we have to over come being in the world, when we are confronted with scoffers. And like it or not we need to set ground rules , because a lack of respect is just as evil as our reaching them. And if we are being assuallted by scoffers we are in a postion of being cast into doubt and our faith is going to suffer. We need to be aware of Satans tactics. We need to have assurances as children of an all loving and all controling God, that our Father does not treat His children with disrespect. We need to understand the kind of love our Father has for us, being through grace, from grace and in grace, that we must understand His full acceptance of us so that we will be able to confront the assualt of Satan. In our being forgiven and accepted, we not only confront the really sinful scoffer, but the self righteous pharisee. The one who wants to micro manage our lives. The scoffers are the ones who live in such dilusion that they hate the Lord ship of Christ. They actively go against us in schemeing against our faith and trying to get to us by their assualts. So it is with the pharisees. They try to get us to do something to a leviate a problem without trusting in God as our only hope. They offer a different gospel by first appealing to a law or a rule that they develope , making us feel as if the focus on details of our lives is in the realm of wisdom. They deal in all of the little details ,and rules and systems so that there is something sure to lean on , rather than lead us to Christ who has left us Himself with some principles, rather than rules. This is another gospel, it is an assualt on our faith. We must realize just how we can be effected by the religious community.