Our Fruit

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 

Hebrews 10:26-27

Have you ever asked yourself the question am I saved? I have. The Bible tells us to examine our own lives to see if we are in the faith, to see if we belong to Christ, to see if we are truly saved. One of the clearest indications that you belong to Him is your broken heart over sin in your life. When God called you to be His the Holy Spirit was given to live inside of you, Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? (1Corinthians 3:16).

After God gave us the gift of faith He gave us the Holy Spirit to live in each and every believer. The Holy Spirit produces in you repentance. In John 16:8 we learn that it is the Holy Spirit that convicts the world of sin. The Holy Spirit convicts, the Holy Spirit grants repentance.

The Holy Spirit draws us near to God Hebrews 10: 22 tells us, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience. You say, "What is conscience?" The simplest way that I know to define conscience is simply this, it is a sense of moral responsibility. Unregenerate people, those who do not know Christ as Lord and Savior, do not have a proper sense of moral responsibility.

An unregenerate person has a twisted conscience, a warped sense of moral responsibility. However, when a person comes to God and draws near and has a pure motive, repentance and has true saving faith, then God puts within that person a cleansing work that washes out that evil sense of morality and replaces it with a righteous kind of morality.

The world finds nothing wrong with participating in pleasures that the Bible forbids. I have people tell me as long as it is legal they should be able to engage in any behavior they want. What the world does not understand is that this behavior is indicative of those who do not know Christ as Savior,  Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21).

Christians will and do sin, the difference is that believers feel remorse and sorrow over their sin. Believers will also display the fruit of the Spirit, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires (Galatians 5:22-24).

So ask yourself this question, do I go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth?

Your shepherd,

Pastor Mark