This is Part 2 of a message that was recently preached by the youngest minister at my church.
Romans 7:13
;18
13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Apostle Paul is letting us know that regardless of how long we’ve been saved, we can not live a holy life in our own strength. There is nothing we can do on our own to win our own victory. So where does victory come from? Jesus won the victory for us at the cross.
Paul brings up the dilemma of how to perform that which is good I find not. Many of us face this dilemma when we attempt to base our sanctification off our own merit. Sadly, many people are under the false mentality of “once Jesus saves us we are on our own.” However, God has it purposefully designed for us to have to rely on Him for strength. It is not a matter of us just calling on the Lord when we find ourselves in a serious crisis, but we need Him in good times and bad times.
Many Christians do not fully understand what they have.
Romans 6:1-3
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
We no longer have to be bound to sin and the things of the world anymore.
So if in my flesh dwells no good thing, how can I live victoriously? The answer is:
Romans 8:2
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
I recently saw a minister on television, who admitted to having continual battles with the spirit of depression. While some of us may face more severe battles than others, if we are all being honest, depression is a battle which we all are confronted by. When it shows up, we can bring our cares and concerns to the throne of God through prayer. The thing that we must not do, is allow shame to cause us to keep our concerns bottled up on the inside of us. God already knows what’s troubling us, He is just waiting for us to confess that we need His assistance. Pride and God don’t mix. We get into serious trouble whenever we begin to feel self-sufficient. We often quote the verse, “I can do all things, through Christ,” with a strong emphasis on the “I”, and we fail to emphasize “Christ.”
If we truly want to have God’s favor over our life, we must become totally dependent upon Him. As our loving caring Heavenly father, God loves it when we come to Him with all of our questions, cares, and concerns.
Adam messed it up for all of us when he disobeyed God. Sin became a part of all of us. Sin doesn’t start with what we do, it begins within our heart. It is only when we choose to place our faith in Jesus Christ’s finished work at the cross, and invite Him to be the Lord of our life, that His Holy Spirit comes in and begins to change our heart.
Acts 2:17-18
17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:
It is awesome that the Lord is pouring out His spirit, and He has actually already started doing this. The thing is that if we lose our focus and allow our faith to dwindle, we will miss out on all of that. If we want to see souls saved and lives around us changed for the best, we must allow the Holy Spirit to have free course in our life. The Word says, “not by might nor by power, but by my spirit saith the Lord.”
Written By Minister Emmanuel Bryant
There is no better time than right now to place your trust in Jesus Christ. I will list two prayers to show how simple it is:
Prayer of Salvation:
God, I come to you, confessing that I am a sinner.
I Repent of all my wrongdoings, and I ask for your forgiveness.
I now confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, died for my sins, and rose again for my justification.
I invite Jesus to; come into my heart, clean up my life, and guide my decisions from this day forward.
Thank You, Jesus for saving me!
Or you can simply say: “Jesus, please save me.”
If you prayed either of these prayers, and meant it from your heart, then you are now a part of God’s family. Your name has been written in the Book of Life, and therefore when your mortal life ends you will live forever with Jesus Christ.
Begin studying God’s Word. A great place to start is to read the Gospel of John, then Matthew, then Romans, then Acts. This will give you a foundation of the teachings of Jesus and how He desires that we successfully navigate this mortal life.
I will encourage you to also find a good church home, where the true Word of God is being preached. Always remember that your salvation is not based on politicking with church leaders, how well you dress, how well you sing, how much money you put in the offering pan, etc… Your salvation is built upon your acceptance of Jesus as your personal Savior, and your commitment to growing to know Him more and more each day, through prayer, studying the Bible, and interacting with other “born again” Christians, who sincerely encourage you to grow spiritually.
God Bless You, and if we don’t meet in this mortal life, I pray we will meet in heaven.
Overcoming The Times 
“Prayer of Salvation:
“I Repent of all my wrongdoings”
My brother, please consider what I’m visiting with you about.
I love your zeal for Christ, and I’m not questioning your salvation at all. I believe you are a Christian.
But I would remove that one phrase:
“I Repent of all my wrongdoings”
That represents a good attitude, but it isn’t part of the gospel of salvation.
That’s making one’s behavior a component of one’s justification before God, and no one can do that.
You, me, and everyone else haven’t stopped sinning.
We aren’t able to completely stop sinning as long as we’re wearing our unredeemed flesh. And a good effort isn’t good enough when it comes to justification before God.
We are justified before God by the obedience of one, not two…
Romans 5.17-19
“For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”
Again, I appreciate your zeal, and in no way am I trying to be ugly towards you. I’m trying to be helpful, and be honoring to scripture.
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Lee,
We’ve discussed this before. I do believe you love Christ with all your heart, my brother; And I do not question your salvation, however we have a difference in interpretation on the subject of repentance. Because we are both believers, I will respect your viewpoint; And keep on loving you. I will give my only response to your comment:
Jesus said:
Luke 5:32
I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Luke 15:7
I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.
Luke 24:46-47
46 And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:
47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
You and I both agree that our salvation is not of our faulty works, but it the result of God’s grace because of Jesus’s finished work at the cross and His resurrection.
Yes, God loves all of us, and is longsuffering and forgiving. Yes, Jesus did all He needed to do through His death, burial, and resurrection to redeem mankind from sin.
HOWEVER For both sinners and “born again” believers, the issue is on our end, we are prideful. Sometimes we’re too arrogant to admit when we’ve done wrong, and sometimes we’re too ashamed to admit when we are wrong.
In our interactions with other people, when we realize that we’ve wronged a person, we feel contrition, then we go to that person and apologize(repent) This unburdens our heart.
We have all wronged God by our sinful actions, and repentance is our expression of humility and contrition to God directly to apologize for these actions; And that we desire that His Holy Spirit conform our heart to God’s will.
Again, this is how God dealt with my spirit on this subject. I respect your viewpoint, my brother;And do get blessings from your posts.
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Good mornin brother,
I definitely believe in repentance in salvation.
Here it is…
“Lord Jesus, I’m a guilty sinner, and I can’t clean me or fix me. Have mercy on me, save me please.”
I never said anything about not admitting our guilt or sinfulness to God.
My point was that justification before God is a free gift from God by the obedience of one, not two. (Romans 5.17-19).
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Lee,
I had not intended on responding any further, but I am perplexed at where the misunderstanding is arising from, and need some clarification from you on a few things that you believe, my brother You are the only professing “born again” believer that I’ve ever encountered here on WP, who seems to be interpreting my salvation verbage differently.
You commented:
“Lord Jesus, I’m a guilty sinner, and I can’t clean me or fix me. Have mercy on me, save me please.”
Your interpretation above is exactly what I meant by:
“I Repent of all my wrongdoings”
Rest assured, I have never in any of my posts, nor will I ever tell anyone that they can merit Heaven by their own justification. I would not contradict what my minister friend states in the very first paragraph of this post. I have a deep concern about the teachings of Roman Catholicism and other “works based” religions.
There are people out there who know they need to receive Christ, but sometimes they can’t find the words to express their feelings, and so I post the prayer at the bottom as a guide for them.
Your earlier comment:
That represents a good attitude, but it isn’t part of the gospel of salvation.
That’s making one’s behavior a component of one’s justification before God, and no one can do that.
You, me, and everyone else haven’t stopped sinning.
We aren’t able to completely stop sinning as long as we’re wearing our unredeemed flesh. And a good effort isn’t good enough when it comes to justification before God.”
Lee, before I comment further, please clarify for me whether or not you are saying that repentance is part of the Gospel of salvation?
If you are saying that repentance IS NOT part of the Gospel of Salvation:
Before responding, I would ask you to consider the scriptures I posted in my prior comment, along with Jesus’s parable of the Prodigal Son(read Luke 15:18-21) specifically.
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Good mornin brother,
I already answered you about repentance in salvation, (see my comment above).
Our repentance is very definitely a required component in our justification before God.
It’s the wording in that salvation prayer in your post that appears (to me) to communicate that someone has to not merely repent,
but repent
“of their sins”
to get saved, (which is not the gospel of salvation at all).
That is the issue that I am discussing here.
Turning from sins is good and is God’s will for us, no doubt about it.
But that contributes absolutely nothing to our being justified before God.
It’s only by righteousness and forgiveness given to us freely by grace through faith in the risen Lord Jesus Christ that anyone can be saved.I
Our works of turning from our sins are a pathetic joke if we think that somehow we get credit for salvation by that.
We contribute absolutely Do to our justification before God except a plea for His mercy.
Do you see what I’m saying my friend?
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There are a couple of minor typos in my response, sorry. But hopefully you will understand what I was trying to communicate.
Let me ask you a question please…
Do you think that someone has to repent of their sins for them to get saved?
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I believe that an unsaved person must realize in their heart that they have sinned against the God who crated and loves them. That unless a change takes place, they will face consequences in this mortal life and throughout eternity.
I like your verbage of: “Lord Jesus, I’m a guilty sinner, and I can’t clean me or fix me. Have mercy on me, save me please.”
This person must understand that they can’t redeem themselves by their human efforts/works; And that the only way they can be redeemed is by placing their faith and trust in Jesus Christ’s finished work at the cross and His resurrection. Our sins are too numerous to count, but I do believe that a person should acknowledge to God in prayer that they realize that they’ve sinned aginst Him and they are sorry. I refer to the prodigal son’s apology to his Father for this reasoning. The repentant thief on the cross with Jesus is another example.
Now, I will say this: If a sinner found themselves in an eminent life or death situation: And time was limited for them to do a long draw out Sinner’s Prayer, Yet the person truly has a repentant heart, I do believe God would save them if the person could only just say, “Lord, save me.”
While we do still do sinful things, even after salvation, the difference is that a “born again” believer is sensitive to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, whenever He lets us know that we’ve done something that displeases God. While our salvation is not in jeopardy, we still don’t want to dishonor God, and so we apologize to the Lord through prayer.
If a person used strong profanity prior to getting saved, once they get saved it may take some time for the Holy Spirit to help them to stop saying profane words permanently, but that person definitely should want to stop cursing.
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When I said:
“We contribute absolutely “Do” to our justification before God except a plea for His mercy.”
That word “Do” should have been the word “nothing.” I don’t know why that word was exchanged like that.
I intended to say:
“We contribute absolutely nothing to our justification before God except a plea for His mercy.”
I hope that helps clarify what I was saying.
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Thanks for that clarification, Lee
I thank you for your comments today
I’ve gotta get some sleep, but you have yourself a good night’s rest also, and I pray your week starts off great, brother.
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You too brother, and I appreciate your dialogue with me.
God bless you and your family.
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Reblogged this on emotionalpeace.
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