The title of today’s lesson is: Hold Fast To The Gospel
Hebrews 10:23 says, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”
This scripture is the very basis of what spiritual warfare is all about.
Heed the warning. When the Bible tells you to hold on to your confession, that means someone is coming who will try to take or change your confession, which means there is a real possibility you could lose what you fail to hold on to.
And as we will learn in today’s lesson, those who come to steal, kill, and destroy are the forces of darkness.
Understand that your confession is connected to your faith. The shield of faith is a vital component of your spiritual armor.
Ephesians 6:11-18 reads, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
{This is not a suggestion. It’s a command we must obey for the sake of our very survival.}
Verse 12 reads, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
13. Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then, after the battle, you will still be standing firm.
14. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,
15. and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
16. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
17. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”
Second Corinthians 10:4 says, “We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.”
And that scripture tells you the reason for the battle. It’s because Satan is after your mind.
The devil knows that what is in your mind comes from your heart. Thus, the devil will do his dead level best to get you to fill up your heart with all kinds of evil influences.
The scripture says, “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.” That means, the evil you allow into your heart is the evil you will produce.
That is why Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”
The piece of armor that protects your heart is the breastplate of righteousness.
This is why it is critical to live righteously to protect your heart, because sin hardens your heart.
Hebrews 3:13 says, “Exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”
Sin begins with a thought. And thoughts come from what we feed our hearts.
Jesus said in Matthew 15:19,20, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander- these are what defile a person.”
That is why Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
When the Bible tells you: “Think about such things.” That is not a suggestion. That is a command inspired by the Holy Spirit. So, in other words, if what you think on gets past the filter of Phil 4:8, you are sinning before you even commit the physical act.
Jesus said if you look with lust, you have committed adultery already in your heart. That is why I said, if what you think on gets past the filter of Phil 4:8 you are sinning with your heart before you physically commit the act.
If you feed your heart evil, such as when you listen to music with evil lyrics, or you watch TV shows that show actors breaking the laws of God, or you watch rated R movies, you will inevitably live a rated R life. Trash in, trash out. If you put good in your heart, inevitably good will proceed from you.
Jesus said in Luke 6:45, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”
Romans 10:10 says, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Therefore, if Satan can get through to your heart and change what you believe, he can change your confession from what is truth to a lie.
Again, your confession is connected to your faith. If you lose your shield of faith in battle, you're finished.
Your Bible says, “We are saved by grace through faith.”
This is an important topic today, because we will discuss the difference between justification by faith and legalism.
Legalism refers to the belief that salvation or God's favor can be earned through adherence to rules, rituals, or human efforts, rather than through faith in Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice.
It's essentially the idea that one can merit God's acceptance by performing good works or obeying a set of laws.
This is where the devil deceives many a believer. If he can get you to believe another gospel than what the holy apostles preached, the apostle Paul says you will fall from grace.
To say it plainly, once you lose your faith, you lose your grace. Once you lose your faith in the one true gospel, you lose the unmerited favor God gave you.
That means you will have to present yourself perfect before God on Judment Day in your strength alone, which is impossible for any mere mortal to achieve on his own.
Satan is the master of deception. Jesus said he is the father of every lie. Not only did he succeed in convincing one-third of the angels to follow him, but he’s got billions of people believing a lie, a false religion or ideology that makes you think that God will accept you based on your human merit or that you will one day earn yourself a better life based on good performance.
Take heed, because many Christians have fallen victim to the devil’s cunning as his agents have infiltrated the Church with their damnable doctrines. And they make it ring of truth because they mix their lies with the truth of scripture.
The apostle Paul gives a wake-up call and a stern warning to believers who were caught up in the web of deception in Galatians 5:2, and says, “Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.”
In Galatians 5:4, Paul said to the Christians in Galatia, “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.”
This is very troubling. Because when Paul said to the Galatians, “Christ is become of no effect unto you,” it means Christ was in effect unto them as long as they believed they were saved by grace through faith.
But the moment the Galatians changed their belief from being saved by grace through faith to being justified by keeping the law, Paul said they fell from grace and made Christ of no value to them at all.
I repeat, Paul is saying unto them, as long as you held to the belief that you were saved by grace through faith, Christ was in effect unto you and profitable to you, even so much as to the value of your eternal soul.
In Galatians 3:1-4, Paul said, “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes, Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?
Are you so foolish? After beginning to use the Spirit, are you now trying to finish using the flesh (or human effort)? Have ye suffered so many things in vain? If it be yet in vain.”
This is a serious warning for us today to hold on to the truth of the gospel. Because as long as we hold to the belief that we are saved by grace through faith, we will surely enter into heaven.
The challenge for us is to reach the finish line with our faith intact. Jesus said, “He that endures to the end the same shall be saved.”
I don’t know about you. But I don’t like those “if” statements in the Bible. Because they are scary! Reason being, those “if” statement tell me I have responsibility. Because you see, God is not going to do everything for you. He requires our cooperation. He will not force anyone to love and obey Him.
He will give you the desire to go, but you have to be the one to mash the gas. He will tell you where to go, but you have to be the one to turn the wheel. He will take you to the other side through all the storms of life. But you have to do the leg work and trust Him to get you there.
I tell you, I don’t like those “if” statements. Because they tell me there is a chance I may not make it in. If I stop seeking God with all of my heart, that will make me vulnerable to sin. And if I allow sin in to harden my heart, the oil in my lamp will run dry and the fire will go out. God forbid! May it never be!
Hebrews 3:14,15 says, “We are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; While it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
This scripture is a reference to how the Children of Israel provoked God in the wilderness and hardened their hearts with their sins. And the same warning applies for us today.
We just read in Hebrews. It tells us: “Harden not your hearts.” That means we have a responsibility to guard our hearts from every evil influence. Otherwise, if we allow our hearts to become hardened by sin, we will no longer be partakers of Christ.
Because as scripture says, what you store up in your heart is what is going to come out of it. We are in the fight of our lives. The devil is after our very souls. This is no game. And if it were, you better keep your head in the game or you are going to lose your soul. You can’t afford to slack!
First Peter 5:8 says, “Stay alert; be watchful. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 1 Corinthians 10:12 says, “If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!”
That’s another one of those “if” statements that scares me, to keep me on my toes, brother. It says, “If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!”
As you surely have realized by now, this life is no tiptoe through the tulips. Our lives are like a tiptoe through a mine field with eternal consequences.
Ephesians 5:14-16 says, “This is why it is said: ‘Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”
Revelation 22:17 says, “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
It’s a matter of your will. How bad do you want it? Satan wants to break your will. He wants you to want what he has to offer more than what God has to offer you.
The devil wants to give you now what can be enjoyed for a moment for what God wants to give you later what can be enjoyed forever if you will just choose daily to resist the devil now to the end.
All this struggle is God’s way of finding out whether or not we will keep His commandments or not. In other words, God just wants to know how much we love Him. First John 5:3 says, “This is love of God, that we keep His commandments.”
That is why the devil will request permission from God to sift you as wheat, to cause bad things to happen, to discourage you and make you bitter against God.
Jesus said in Luke 22:31, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat.” Did Jesus grant Satan permission to sift the disciples as wheat?
We know He did by what Jesus said in the very next verse, “But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
Simon Peter denied the Lord three times, but when he turned back, he strengthened his brerhtren as he continues to do so today.
Like Joseph said, what the devil means for evil, God uses for good.
That is why the devil will try to distract you and keep you busy and weighed down with the cares of life and the deceitfulness of riches.
That is why the devil will lure you with all kinds of temptations to try to stir up all your lust and try to make you proud.
And that is why the devil will bring persecution against you and steal, kill, and destroy what belongs to you.
God granted permission to Satan to sift Job. Thus, Satan killed all 10 of his children, confiscated all his wealth and his health. He only left his wife alive so he could use her to try to talk Job into cursing God and killing himself.
Second Timothy 3:12 says, “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” That means if you are coasting in life, you are on the wrong track. If you are not under the gun, you are helping the devil pull the trigger on those who are.
Sifting wheat is how you separate the bad from the good. And this is why God grants Satan permission to sift us, because the Bible says there is coming a day when God will separate the sheep from the goats. And He just wants to know who is own the Lord’s side.
That is what this struggle is all about. Are you going to follow Jesus in obedience or are you going to follow Satan in rebellion? We are all taking a lifelong test. The Bible says, “Many are called but few are chosen.”
That means few will endure until the end. The rest will die in the wilderness before they reach the promise land, the city whose builder and maker is God wherein dwelleth righteousness where no one ever dies.
First Peter 1:7 says, “These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. -
So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.”
That is why James 1:2-4 says: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
This is why the Bible says, “Rejoice evermore and again I say rejoice.” “Be thankful in all things.” “I will bless the Lord at all times.” “His praise shall be continually in my mouth.”
When you are going through trials, it helps to know that Romans 8:28 says, “All things work together for good to them that love God to them that are called according to His purpose.”
Since the beginning of time, the devil has not had to come up with any new tricks because the ones he has still work. He knows we are all vulnerable as long as the souls of men are confined to a body of flesh.
God made us vulnerable for a reason so we would need Him. We are sitting ducks. We are helpless without our spiritual armor, and unless God strengthens us in the inner man to resist Satan’s schemes. So, the Lord comes in the form of the Holy Spirit to help us when we call out to Him.
Romans 10:13 says, “Whosover shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
The Bible says: Make every effort to be found of Him blameless. Because sin hardens the heart and weakens your faith, which makes you susceptible to believing the enemy's lies.
If Satan can trap you into a habit of sin, it will harden your heart, which diminishes your faith. And remember: Your faith is your shield.
If Satan can remove your shield of faith, it will be much easier for him to take your helmet of salvation. Because with a shield, you can keep your opponent at a distance. But without it, it allows him to fight you up close.
We have all met people who started in faith as Christians, then later, due to spiritual attacks of Satan, became weak in faith and converted to other religions or lost faith in God entirely.
So many people don't realize that we are in a spiritual battle for our souls. The Bible says, “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.” They started out as God’s people; they began in faith, but later they were destroyed.
They fell in battle as if they were not anointed. When you allow the oil to run out, the battle is over. You need a continual refilling of fresh oil to endure this fight.
The apostle Peter said concerning the apostle Paul, “His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”
You can't afford to be unstable. You must be rooted and grounded in the faith by continuously looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of your faith, reading and studying the Word of God daily and meditating on the Word day and night.
Scripture says, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”
Otherwise, the devil will take your shield of faith then your helmet of salvation. Without your helmet, Satan can attack your mind with fiery darts and get you to believe anything, even another gospel, a lying wonder, or diabolic ideology.
Right now there is a spiritual war going on between Michael the prince of Israel and his angels and the prince of Persia and his angels in the heavenlies. The result of that spiritual war is what we see in the natural on the news between Israel and Iran.
The same goes for your soul. The outcome of spiritual warfare over your soul will reflect in the natural world. But scripture says, we can be confidant because we have a great high priest, Jesus Christ the Rightous, who ever liveth to make intersession for us. Hallelujah!
When you have Jesus in your corner, you can tell every demon: “My daddy is bigger than your daddy.”
The scripture says, “Hold fast to your confession.” Your confession has to do with your heart. Scripture says, “With the heart man believes unto righteousness. And with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Thus, we must guard our hearts. And how did I say we protect our hearts? Everybody say: With the breastplate of righteousness.
Hebrews 12:1 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,”
How do we do that? How are we able to throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us, so we can live righteous and by so doing protect our hearts from becoming hardened by sin?
The Bible tells you how in the very next verse, in verse two.
It says, “We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.”
Remember, keeping the commandments is like walking on water. Jesus said, “Apart from Me, you can do nothing.” Peter was able to walk on the water as long as he kept looking to Jesus.
But the very moment Peter stopped looking to Jesus to add the super to his natural, Peter began to sink.
Peter walked on the water by placing one foot in front of the other while trusting in Jesus to supernaturally hold him up.
And that is exactly how we walk with the Word of God today, or to say it another way, keep the commandments. Remember, walk means don’t stop. Don’t stop looking to Jesus as your Holy Ghost helper.
In John 16:7, Jesus spoke to His disciples and said, “Very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
In John 14:15-18, Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth.
{Who did Jesus say your helper was? Everybody say: The Spirit of Truth.} Jesus continues:
The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
Did you catch that? First, Jesus tells them, “I go away and will send you an advocate or helper to live in you forever.”
Then in verse 20, Jesus said, “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”
Hold up, I thought Jesus said that the advocate or helper would be in us forever, then He said: “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you.
Therefore, Jesus is saying He is the Holy Spirit, advocate, and helper.
This is why Prophet Ed says, “Tell me where the Father ends and where the Holy Spirit begins? Because they are One.
Deuteronomy 6:4-15 says
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord:
5 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
10 And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not,
11 And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full;
12 Then beware lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
13 Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.
14 Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you;
15 (For the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.”
Now, that is what I call jealous. God is like, I’m going to kill you. After all I have done for you, I know you didn’t just go serve another god! Oh, but you did. So, off with your head.
Hear me well, saints of the most high God. In order to do what is impossible for man to do, such as keeping the commandments of God, one must keep looking to Jesus.
And remember the Bible says that Jesus is the Word of God. John said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
That is why the scripture says: “These Words I command you today, bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlet between thine eyes.”
And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
And thou shalt talk of them when you're sitting in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
This is a literal command. This is how you keep looking to Jesus by keeping your eyes on the Word of God or the Words of God. Isaiah said, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.”
This is literal. What makes it possible for us as mere mortals with flesh and bones to do the impossible, such as keeping the commands of God, we must keep looking at Jesus, literally.
By keeping the Word of God before us and always on our minds. The Bible says to talk about the Words He has commanded us often throughout every day.
That tells you how very much God wants to be a part of our lives. The Bible says that He is a jealous God who demands our constant attention.
This may sound like a lot. But that is the whole point. When you love the Word of God a lot, you are loving on God a lot. Jesus said, “The Words I say are full of Spirit and life.” That means the Words you read in your Bible contain the very essence of the one true and living God.
Thus, when you spend time reading your Bible, you are spending time with God. The Bible says that God is spirit. And within the very words written in your Bible lives the very spirit of God.
And we can keep the commandments not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord Almighty.
The Bible says, “We are saved by grace through faith.”
In the Bible, grace is primarily understood as God's unmerited favor, love, and kindness shown to humanity. It's a gift freely given, not something earned or deserved, and often associated with salvation and forgiveness.
The Greek word for grace, "charis," conveys the idea of kindness, favor, and goodwill, while the Hebrew word "chen" also signifies favor and kindness. Grace is a transformative spirit freely given to believers, enabling them to live righteously and overcome sin.
Don’t get confused. Grace is the spirit of God, unmerited and freely given to believers, enabling them to live righteously and overcome sin that they may come close to God.
Jesus said, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”
In other words, God can’t wait for you to come close to Him. So, He comes to us in the spirit of grace to enable you and me to overcome sin all along the way as we draw closer to Him.
He comes to help us get to where He is by the spirit of grace.
No one man can keep the law of God by human effort alone. The fact is, only God can keep His law. I said what? Only God can keep His law. That is why we need His help to add His super to our natural. Just like Jesus showed us by example.
Jesus depended on His Father to help Him do everything. This is what Jesus said in John 14:10, “the Father who lives in Me, He doeth the works.”
Then Jesus said, “As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you.” That means, we too can now say, “the Father who lives in me, He doeth the works.”
This is how we follow Jesus in the spirit of our Father.
Ephesians 2:8, 9 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Where the confusion starts is in Christian theology, justification and sanctification are distinct but related aspects of salvation, and both are achieved through faith in Jesus Christ.
Justification is a legal declaration by God, declaring the sinner righteous based on the finished work of Jesus the Christ, while sanctification is the ongoing process of becoming holy through the continual help and continual looking to the Word of God, trusting in the Holy Spirit of Jesus the Christ.
The Bible says we are not saved by keeping God’s commandments. We are saved to keep God’s commandments.
Only the names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will inherit eternal life.
The danger for believers who are justified and presently in Christ, whose names are already written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, is the fact that their names can be blotted out.
One way that can happen is as I mentioned in the last lesson I taught. And that is by turning away from the holy commandments. When a believer turns away from God and forbids or neglects to obey God, God will rebuke and chastise that one to try to bring him to repentance.
The Bible says, “Whom He loves He chastens.”
If that believer continues down the path of sin and rebellion, scripture says that due to repeatedly violating his convictions, his conscience will become seared and consequently his heart will become hardened, which means he will lose faith.
And the scripture says, “We are saved by grace through faith.”
Paul says in Galatians, when a believer loses faith, they fall from grace.
That is why I referenced the scripture: “If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall.”
Proverbs 29:1 says, “Whoever remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy.”
That means God is very patient with us. Howerver, it also means that at some point you can reach the end of His mercy. And once you cross that line, your are damned.
Don’t be deceived. Just because the scripture says, “His mercy endures forever,” doesn’t mean there is not an end to that rope.
1 John 3:9 says, “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.
The way this scripture reads might lead one to think that it must be impossible for a born-again believer to sin.
But as we all know too well, it is very possible for a born-again believer to sin. This scripture just means those who are born of God will not make a practice of sinning.
And the proof that a born again person is very capable of sinning can be found in many verses.
For instance, first John 1:7-9 says, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
A lot of Christians look down on David, the son of Jesse, for the sins he committed. But first Kings 15:5 says, “David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.”
David failed miserably but only in the matter of Uriah the Hitite. He committed adultery with Bathsheba. He murdered her husband and lied to cover it up. Yet, God forgave him of all those horrible sins. And we know according to scripture that we will see David in heaven.
There are men and women of God in our time who have made some major mistakes in life and brought great shame upon themselves and their ministries, yet for the most part they have lived righteous lives.
And, just like we do not disregard all the inspired writings of David and all the writings about David in the Bible, just because he made some mistakes in life, we should not discount the ministries of the men and women of God today who have made some mistakes in the past.
The same goes for you and me. If or when we fall, we should not allow the devil to make us think that we have no more future for ministry. For God is able to redeem that which is lost.
There are famous ministers in our time, who made major mistakes that became widely known. They were set back but later came back strong and their ministries flourished.
If you see me fall, just you wait. Before long, I will be back in place and all up in your face.
Proverbs 24:16 says, “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
Hebrews 10:14 says, “By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”
The first part of that verse refers to the fact that God has declared us justified and free from the law that condemns all the sin we have committed. The last half of that verse refers to sanctification which is an ongoing process of making us holy.
Speaking of which, the apostle Paul said himself in Phillippians 3:12-14, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. -
No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”
In derogatory terminology, all of this is saying that you and I are a piece of work. To say it kindly, we are all a work in progress. But thanks be to our Lord and Savior, God does not see us in our sins. He see us through the lens of the crimson blood of Jesus which makes all of our flaws disappear. Halelujah!
Jude 1:24,25 says, “To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
Thank you for your attention. You are blessed in Jesus name!