Saturday, September 12, 2020

#56: WORKS FOR FAITH, WHERE DOES ONE START AND WHERE DOES IT END?







By reading the scriptures below, what is it telling you? What is "salvation" is it by works or by faith? If a person who is suppose to be saved, acts like he or she isn't, what is your first mental judgement about them? Are you basing your judgements on "Works" or "Faith" of those individuals?
"And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?  " And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." (Acts 16:30-31) 
Do you see any "buts" or specific conditions around this scripture above or below it in your bibles? Was there a new revelation that only a few are privy too!
"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."  (Romans 10:9) 
Again if a person makes this confession of his or her faiths and of their mental faith, does this by faith require you to be "Sin Free"! You say you are saved! But are you "Sin Free"!
The argument for all these verses flies in the faces of formal         Churches such as the Catholic Churches and other formal religious entities, is that "Once saved always saved"! We are not saved by "works" any type! One would be sinning after salvation, this is "works"!         
"I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not, that I am He, ye shall die in your sins." (John 8:24)
Commentary: 
Where is, "If you have a beer or if you swear out of anger etc. after you're saved, are they too going to re-die in their sins? I need to see this in scripture, let scripture interpret scripture. 
We were once dead in our sins by natures very definition because of Adam and Eve, and Jesus made us alive once again! Are we to die again in our sins after asking Jesus to come in our hearts!

Once you are sons and daughters of God, you now become His property! Bond Servants and Maid Servants! What God does, He does for an eternity!
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.: (1 John 1:9)
"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. (Romans 8:15)
"And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." (Galatians 4:6)

("Abba" is the Hebrew equivalent to "Daddy" -- and that is how the Lord pictures the relationship between the Father and a Christian.)

No doubt it can be confusing when you read the Apostle Paul say I will show you my “works” by my “Faith”! “Faith without works is dead”! Where all this comes to a “Y” in the road is “Works” going one way and “Faith” going another way! So where is this junction located?

I wanted to get this out because, people get “Works” mixed up with “Faith”! There are two places in the Bible that give specific examples of the two and it’s in opposite parks! What do we talk about when it comes to faith, is it “Seeing is believing”! Let’s go down that we’ll ridden road! There was a an apostle and everyone was extremely upset and scared!

I guess they should have been, their Lord and Savior was crucified and buried! All their hopes and dreams were crushed! Later that evening, around 500 people gathered together bereaving for their Lord and Master Jesus Christ! Then something happened, two women went to place special spices etc. to keep our Lords Flesh from smelling, it’s been three days!

This was the Jewish custom back then. But as with all Jewish customs, some have simply been disregarded since the teachings of Jesus. This would be one custom that would be turned upside down; when the two women approached the tomb of Jesus! They were confused, the tomb was opened, that big stone was moved back out of place.

Doesn’t this sound like life! We get depressed and scared with no physical one to turn to for the answers we need! Here we had over five hundred men, women and probably some children in the area! They were scared, confused and directionless.

Mary noticed the body of Jesus was moved, He wasn’t there! During their grief, they noticed two men, who portrayed two Gardner’s, please tell us where they laid our Lord so we can take care of the body! The one Angel told them, Jesus is not here for He has risen! In their excitement, they ran as fast as their little legs could carry them.

They went into the place, where the 500+ followers of Jesus were gathered in mourning and disbelief. The doors were locked along with the wooden window openings, they were afraid of the Romans and the Jewish priests, they would persecute them if they were caught worshipping our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Then something happened! In the midst of all these people, there appeared the one and only Jesus Christ in his Resurrected Body! Everyone’s eyes were open, people were probably and gleefully saying, “He has risen”! But there was one in particular of the all the 500+ people hanging around. His name was “Thomas”, one of Jesus’s followers!

We call him, “Doubting Thomas” but Jesus called him “Thomas”! How many of you out there, how would you feel deep inside yourselves, if people where you live, felt this way about you? If everyone knew you as “Doubting Dan” or Doubting Sue” etc. because you don’t see things the way everyone else does”!

I imagine the buzz going on in conversational cliche’s about seeing Jesus alive and everyone is pushing and shoving each other to see the resurrected Jesus. Yet Jesus himself went to the only person who doubted our Lord’s resurrection! Remember Jesus said, that a good Sheppard would leave the 99 sheep and go after the one that is lost or feels left out.

In front of everyone, Jesus looked at this Doubting Thomas and say, Thomas feel the prints in my hands thrust your fingers in my side and Thomas said, “My Lord and my God”! Thomas Jesus said, “You had to see me (to believe in my resurrection) my commentary but “Blessed are they who have not seen, yet believe”!

Keep this last statement of Jesus’s! Moving on a bit more down the road, you read the above scriptures on salvation, what does it take to earn your place in heaven? How “good” must you be in this lifetime? What if you sinned before going to sleep and you didn’t ask for forgiveness, will hell be waiting for you?

Many people are going to miss their salvation opportunity, if they consider their works to get them into heaven! This is not a joke or pun, it’s a fact! God specifically stated that, salvation is by faith in what Jesus did for us, not of our own works, lest any man should boast! 

If we go by our “Works”, oh here it is again, that nasty word that gets way too much publicity in the church circles, the word “works”. Why is it, when we can be saved by faith but many believe that our “Works” is the only sure way to maintain our salvation! We couldn’t save ourselves to begin with, what makes a person think by “works” they can maintain this salvation during their lifetime.

Believe it or not, many come to this absolute conclusion in their Christian lives! The Apostle Paul said, if we think our “works”, whether you are (christian) or (sinner) is going to “save us” or “maintain our salvation”, someone is in for a rude awakening! Paul, the Apostle said, you show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works!

If a Christian believes the only way to get saved is by being “good” enough, they are crucifying Christ afresh! This is not a play with words! You are counting Jesus’s sacrifice of non-effect in your lives! We are essentially telling the Father, we believe in what your Son had done for us and all, but we feel our works is still needed!

Works for salvation was needed in the Old Testament Covenant between God and Man, which included the Ten Commandments and other places like in Leviticus, teaching what to eat and what to wear etc. that is pleasing to God.

The only thing a person can expect when applying “works” to be saved is; the “wrath of God” in their lives and carving a pathway unto the gates of hell itself. 

For hell widens itself, becomes bigger, badder, to hold many, who thought they were saved by “works”! What about those Christians who believe in the blood of Jesus only for their salvation?

Heaven will open much wider for those, who depended on the new contract between God and Mankind By faith after the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now comes the next question for these particular Christians.

Ask yourselves this question, once you receive Jesus by faith and ask for the forgiveness of all your sins, then why do we still sin until the day we die or are raptured? Why did Paul say, with my body I will serve sin and with my mind I will serve Christ!

A Christian is going to sin, it’s a guarantee! Does it say how long before they go to hell? Does it say, “When you drink beer or wine you are going directly to hell”? Nowhere I could find at the moment and I have been reading this bible for over thirty plus years.

Does the Bible say or imply, “If you do anything” sinful you will lose your salvation and go to hell, do not go pass go or collect two hundred dollars”? But I did read in the Book of Revelations.That we will all appear at the BEMA SEAT of Christ to be judged for the “good” and the “Bad” we done in our bodies! 

This is where “Works” come in when you were alive and saved! The “good” or “bad” we do while saved in these sinful bodies, which in Jesus’s eyes is already dead, you will get rewarded at this ceremony for the good works you did for the Kingdom of God!

I read nothing in the Bible about having to go to hell because our flesh was sinful. But I did read those who trust in the blood of Jesus, He will take with Him to His Fathers Kingdom during the rapture event! 

Jesus said, behold I come quickly and my rewards are with me to give to every man who (earned) them by doing the works of Christ, not for the works of the flesh! (My commentary added).

The only things I read, who were being raptured, were all those both living and dead, who trusted in the blood washing away our sins by the Lamb of God and believed in His resurrection! Can anyone deny this promise? Now ask yourselves this important question, where does it talk about “works” when it comes to our Lord Jesus’s salvation?

Go to Revelations and Mathew through John and onward, Jesus talks about “Heavenly Rewards”! When does one receive their rewards? Is it, when they die and go before Jesus? No, when one dies right now believing in the only begotten Son of God will go to heaven but no rewards yet! These rewards will be held until the “Rapture” of the Church. 

The rewards come at the BEMA SEAT OF CHRIST! When does this happen? This happens when you read about it in Revelations, their will be day in the future, when the Church of the Living God will be resurrected and will receive their glorified bodies, in a atom of time! “A blink of an eyelash”! 

When you go to heaven and it will surprise you to see those you never thought would be there in a million years and you will be in gasp of the people you were sure would have been in heaven with you and are not!

First the dead bodies will rise! From whatever grave they came from, even if you were scattered physically to the four winds of the earth, it doesn’t matter! Then we who are still alive, after the dead were immediately raised, will be “Caught Up” (Raptured) as Paul says in the clouds to meet our Lord in the air, so shall we ever be with the Lord”! But wait something happens during this resurrection!

We are given rewards and crowns! You mean those in heaven right now don’t have them? That is exactly what I mean, they don’t, not yet! But during the great resurrection we will receive our “Glorified Bodies” so we have a physical head to put a crown onto! Paul said, it doesn’t appear what we shall look like, but when we see Him, we will be just like Him, for we will see Him as He is!

Now according to Revelation that John the Apostle wrote and what Jesus said on occasion, hold on to your “faith” and “works”! Wow there it is! “Works”! For you will receive a Crown of Life! Just to give you heads up, those who love the Lords appearing in the sky, will all receive the crown of life! Why now and not before? 

The BEAMA is the rewards seat of Almighty God (Jesus Himself)! He will with “Fire”,  judge what you ever done for Him or His Kingdom or if it was all for oneself, while alive In your body, whether you were “good” or “bad” while living in the flesh.

Because now you have a physical head to place it on! When we go to heaven, we will have heavenly bodies not made by hands, a tent, a dwelling place for our souls temporarily, so we can communicate with the Lord and one another while waiting for our glorious bodies at the great resurrection! 

Did you catch it! Our “works” in the flesh right now, Revelations tells us whether we did “GOOD or BAD” will be judged at the Judgement Seat of Christ! If our physical “works” were for self only these will all be burned up as tho by fire! 

If we did “Good” works for the Lord no matter how little or much, you will be rewarded with eternal rewards that will far exceed anything you have done for Jesus by helping and praying for people and Israel etc. We don’t know what kind of rewards we will get but Jesus said, we would be happy! Revelation talks about the crowns but there will be more!

The “word” said, the Lord will descend from heaven with a shout! Yet Paul said, “All this will be in a blink of an eye”! There will be no time for you to repent during this time! Jesus said, I will come to the unsuspected like a thief in the night!

So, to sum this up for tonight, your “Works” in Christ are hugely important, when the resurrection happens in a blink of an eye! In that blink of an eye, you will be in your glorified bodies and rewarded all at the same time and before God’s throne worshipping him in our glorified bodies! 

Sadly, as with anything we do wrong in the flesh, while as Christians, there will be those, who did absolutely nothing for God, they will still be saved as tho by fire, yet they sadly will not receive no eternal gifts from God, who is identified as our Almighty God! 

Imagine for a moment, these gifts from Jesus are “Eternal” and we have no idea of the weight of these gifts throughout eternity being with Jesus the Christ. Keeping in mind that, you will be in your glorified bodies of Flesh and Bone (no more flesh and blood)! You will no longer be of the “Human” race! You will be like unto the Sons and daughters of God!

You might be thinking to yourselves, this is way too easy to be saved, there must be something else we can do! Back from Adam unto Jesus, when He was alive under the Mosaic Law, works was still in affect! While Jesus was alive during His ministry, anyone who died either went to “Paradise” or “Hell”!

Use your “Faith” to believe what Jesus did for you and believe in His resurrection and you will be saved! That was simple! Jesus did all the hard work for you in this “Age of Grace”! He died for you and me, while we weren’t even a gleam in our daddies and mommies eyes!

But this “Age of Grace” is quickly coming to a close, if not sooner! This window of opportunity will not be open much longer! Paul said, “Today is the day of Salvation”! Meaning, we are not promised tomorrow to make this eternal decision. 

It was said, in the last days there would be scoffers saying, “Where is the promise of His coming, everything is the same as it was thousands of years ago! Isn’t that what is happening today? “Eat, Drink and be Merry, for tomorrow you may die”! One thing is for certain, we will all die eventually if Jesus doesn’t come in our lifetimes.

You and I may not be alive in the flesh, when He calls us home but that’s ok, we still get our glorified bodies first and foremost! When He comes back for his “Redeemed”! How do you know you have been redeemed? Answer: By faith! Not by works, lest any man should boast!

The people, who have asked Jesus in their lives and months or years later they begin to doubt their salvations, this happens because of allowing “Works” to creep into God’s promises to you and I. You couldn’t save yourself and you can’t yourself maintain it! Only the Holy Spirit can preserve us unto the “Redemption”, all this by “Faith”!

If your not saved and believe me you know it if your not. God said, come let us reason together, tho your sins be as scarlet I will make them white like wool! This was told to the sinner in the Old Testament! Today, “If you believe in the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God had raised him from the dead, you will be saved!

Believing in His (God) only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, by believing He died for you on the cross and shed His blood to wash away “All” your sins, as He did for us and believe that, He died and was resurrected back to life and is now on the right hand of God Himself with power and glory and honor!

Guess what! If you meant everything you told the Lord from your heart, you are saved! Not by works but by faith believing and there are no foot notes anywhere in this scripture promise that tells you, wait a second, you sinned again, if you don’t repent your going to hell! No, it doesn’t say it because it’s not there!

The ironic scripture is what the Apostle Paul said, “You show me your faith without your “works” and I will show you my faith by my “works”! Faith and Works have their place in God’s Kingdom! But you must rightly divide the word of truth, so that you can answer every man or (Woman’s) own questions!

So now you are saved, not by works, lest any man boast but by “Faith” only believing! We learned the only place “Works”, will have a great effect on us is at the rapture of the church is, when Jesus will hand out all rewards for your “works” in the flesh, whether good or bad! Whether done for God or done for the satisfaction of your flesh!

Your good works will give you many Rewards and Crowns, if it was done for Christ or you may not receive anything, if it was done for “self”! Jesus said, the bad works you did in your flesh while saved, will all be burned up! Yet you, yourself shall be saved, as tho by fire!

Right now, what do you think is important? Life and what it can give to you? How about eternity that dwells in our hearts by the blood of Jesus Christ Himself! Life is but a “Vapor” it is here one second and gone the next!

God Bless!



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