“All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient…”  (1 Corinthians 6)

 

If one has been saved and has shared the Gospel of Christ’s Gospel and of God’s great grace, one has been asked, “So, If I’m saved, I can do anything I want…I can go out and kill someone and still be saved?”  Have you been asked that question”  How did you answer it?  Have you ever been asked if your were righteous before? How did you answer that question?  If you have been asked either or both of those questions, I’m thinking either you weren’t sure how to answer them or you were made uncomfortable answering. Let me give you the answer and then tell you why you must not ever be uncomfortable answering them rightly.

The answer to both those questions is, yes!!!  A born again child of God can kill someone and retain God’s salvation and a Christ-ian is Righteous…righteous as the Son of God Himself!!! and not one of us should be afraid to say so and never be ashamed to own that great truth. The reason both those truths are fact is because both are due to God’s Amazing Grace and not to us. Look at the Biblical record, God’s srvants have done many things that are not good, but yet they remained God’s sons.  Abraham was an adulterer, Moses was a murderer, David was an adultery and a murderer, Paul was a great persecutor of the faith.

Some may say that Abraham and Moses did this outside of grace. First of all we will disagree with you and then ask you about David, was he not God servant when commiting his sins?  Abraham certainly knew God’s grace before his adultery and Moses may not have been specifically under grace when he crossed the line, but due to the amazing, forgiven or forsaken doctrine of adoption, Moses was a child of God as was Paul. The doctrine of God’s grace is a dangerous doctrine if taught purely.  One can be saved and remain saved after commiting great sin.  That is the nature of grace.

If you look at the passage before our text about some of those sins speak to an addictive lifestyle and it is hard to believe that none of these saved individuals never slipped and sinned again. The list of sins include fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revileres, and extortioners. paul says, and such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are santified, but ye are justified in the [N]ame of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

It is very difficult to believe not one of these saved, washed, sanctified, justified individuals never once or more commited those sins ever again. More than one of those sins deal with an addictive personality and very strong inclinations. I’m not saying God cannot deliver us completely and totally from any one or more of those sins listed, but He does not do that for everybody. There are very many saints that fight drugs, alcohol, homophilia desires, homosexuality, cleptomania, adulterous desires, etc. but they remain washed.

I was completely relieved of the addiction to drink but the addictive personality is with me to this day and will be (DV) for the rest of my life. To this day I cannot take pain killers and if I did have access to them I would be in trouble…judge me at your own risk, Super Saint. Judging, gossip, and back biting is as addictive as any outside agent such as drugs and alcohol.

In fact, back biting is included with sins of the flesh as all sin is sin…none worse than the other in God’s sight. It is amazing that Christ-ians who gossip freely, back bite and judge other do not realize how wicked their sin is as well. The saint that fights the addictive personality is familiar with the struggle and is humbled and is conscience of and should be thankful for their dependence upon God and His grace everyday. Christ said that a man is not defiled by that which goes in but by that which is inside and is spewed out, that which goes in comes out but that which proceeds from within remains and defiles.

Christ, after healing and forgiving a person said, “Go and sin no more.”  Does anyone actually believe this person never sinned again?  John says more than once that the saints sins no more and he that is born again does not sin, not does he that loves God. Beloved, are you a saint? Have you been born again? Do you love your Lord and Saviour? Do you not sin every day?  How can we reconcile these truths? One is known to be true because Scripture testifies to it and the other is true because we live it, yet we never lose the Spirits witness to our salvation.

We remain a saint, we are still born anew, and we continue to sin, yet it is not habitual!  You may object and say, “But I do have a sin that is habitual.”  We may commit the same sin daily if not more, but His mercies are new everyday, we may commit the same sin, but we regret them and we are ever seeking His forgiveness, and we do not pleasure in the fact that sin still gives us pleasure. Though we may fight with a certain sin, others sins, though we commit them we are not commited to them and that is the difference.

Sinners sin and are commited to sin and their sins without ant thought to them. They may even feel remorse sometimes but that is due to the morality God has placed within them or because they know that society may object to certain things, but their remorse has nothing to do with any knowledge of a sin nature or a sorrow towards God and we know this because their sin nature and their sins never lead them to repentance towrad God.

Think of commiting sin as being commited to a marriage, we may, as saints sin but we are not married to them. The saints mentioned above, Abraham, Moses, David, and Paul may have perpetrated sins, but they did not marry them for life. Sinners marry their sin the saint does not.

The saint is one who sins and confesses to God, the sinner is one who confesses a love for sin by remaining married to it.

The above is all true but so is our premise, a saint can commit sin and remain a saint just as a sinner will commit sin and remain a sinner.  “Let him that in filthy remain filthy…but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in thev [N]ame of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God…”  as long as Christ remains your Lord, sin cannot. As long as your sanctification and justification remains in His authority or His Power and the Power of God’s Spirit you remain justified for He has sanctified you to be so.

Your salvation is in Christ, beloved. Your salvation never depended upon you but always WITHIN Him therefore, as long as Christ is Lord and Saviour you remain in grace and you remain righteous….Saints!!! say, Amen!!! and give Him Glory…for great is the Grace of God in Christ.

It has been said, “I can swing over hell on a rotten grape vine with a can of gasoline in my hand because I am safe because I am saved!!!”

Beloved, your riches  remain safe as they are hidden in Christ. Your wealth is safe as Christ is the Storehouse.  You are safe because you are hidden in a Strong Tower.

Roughly (500) five-hundred years ago, Martin Luther gave testimony to the truth of God’s grace and the justification of thesinner/Saint. This started a holy fire that continues and will continue. On his way back to Wittenburg, Luther was abducted and thought dead for a great many years. The truth was he was abducted, not by his enemies but by a great friend in a high place. Luther was kept hidden away in an abandoned tower, where he live in solitary and translated the New Testament in the German language which is a great time in our sha redChristian history. Understand Luthet was safe as log as he was hidden and presumed dead.

My beloved brethren, you and I are dead in Christ and Hidden by a Great Friend in the Highest of Places in the Stongest and Highest of all Towers!!! we that are dead in Christ sin no more!!!