Walk With Me
Christian discussion of biblical topics, and a dose of daily application. Yes the Bible is still relevant, and we find out more and more each day how relevant it has always been.
Walk With Me
Living Beyond Salvation: Embracing a Sin-Free Life Through Grace
Hello everybody, welcome to today's episode of Walk With Me. I am your host, jj. It's so good to have each and every one of you here. I know that I say that every single week. I know you may think oh, he's just saying that. No, no, no, I really do appreciate each and every one of you who have come and listened to this podcast and give it just a few moments of your time, because there's so much out there, there's so many podcasts and there's so many different streams of information. But just the mere fact you gave this on a brief moment of your time, I really do appreciate it and thank you. I see that we're getting a lot more listeners from somewhere. Wherever you're coming from, I do appreciate and I welcome you. We welcome you to the Walker community because we are on a journey.
Speaker 1:Being saved is not a destination on earth, it's a journey on earth, and that's why I don't generally use the word saved. I do it because I say saved, uh, it's a convenient sort of term. It kind of gets everybody in the right mindset, but it's just easier and more appropriate to say living for god, because that's exactly what we're doing we until you know, until the gates click in front of us. So, um, we, I think we should sort of, you know, clarify the terminology, but I know I'm off in the weeds now. We're going to talk about some things today, but again, thank you all so much for joining us today. Uh, I, I hope you enjoy your stay. I hope you like it and share it and tell other people about it, because clearly that's been happening Getting a lot more views. I really do appreciate it. We move it. Thank you all so much. Thank God for each and every one of you, and I thank God for the desire to do this podcast, because you know it's easier not to do a podcast, I guess, but I just thank God for the ability and the desire to do this. This is not me. I'm not getting any money for it. People have asked me is there a paywall? Is there more information and stuff like that? I don't want to do that because I feel as if there's so much of that going on right now. So I know, again, I'm off in a wheeze. Thank you all so much. Thank you all so much for joining us today. Quick shout out to our sponsors Exquisite Creations, we're going to come out with a new cup. I'm so excited to reflect the creation of Iron Gate Ministries. It's going to be our general umbrella entity. I don't want to say corporation, but there's a limited liability. It's going to be Iron Gate Ministries. She's going to come out with a new cup. I'm so excited, I can't wait.
Speaker 1:Thank you for two bars of lyricists with the intro and outro. Thank you all for, uh, our sister, and she know who she is. She hasn't announced the name of her company yet, but she's going to be making some, uh, some sort swag, as it were, for the podcast. I thank each and every one of you. Thank you all. Thank you all. Thank you all. I guess I'm going to have to make a website, put your products on there, and I will eventually do that as soon as the Lord gives me time to do so. Thank you all. So much. Big shout out. Big shout out to all you listeners.
Speaker 1:All right, all right, we got that out of the way. Let's get into today's walk. Okay, so, um, I know I kind of we were. We were talking about denominationalism and all that, but I guess for the last several weeks we kind of got us to kind of lead me away from that. But we're going to talk about something today, um, and it's a familiar subject and it's uh, it is what it is, but we're going to get right into it. I no more preamble, okay.
Speaker 1:So let's go to romans, chapter 6, and we're going to start at verse 1. We're going to get as far as we can in the time allotted, okay, all right. So romans six, and I read out of the king james version, although I am really beginning to like the new living translation. Everybody kind of knocks translations and stuff like that and stuff, and there are some translations out there that are, I don't want to say, garbage, but they are less than. Let me just say there are some translations, some versions, that are better than others. So my two favorite are, well, three favorite are King James Version, amplified, and now the New Living Translation. I don't deal with really any of the other ones because the language needs to be as strong as God intended it to be, all right, so that's it. Let's go to Romans, chapter 6.
Speaker 1:Now let's first, before we even start reading, before you even start reading, a Bible's verse and this is where I think a lot of people, and even me, kind of mess up, because we just pick it up, open up to a page and we just read it as if it was, as if the books were placed randomly in the Bible. This is not the case. So when we readans, we have to understand what we are reading, why it's in the bible where it is and what meaning it has to the verses being, or the, the passages, uh, being written. So, first off, the book is to the church at rome. I know very basic stuff, right, but why is that important? Because the context is the church at Rome had already gone through the rebirth process lined out in the book of Acts. The book of Acts was explaining what Jesus was talking about in John 3 and 3, 3, 5-5, and Matthew 28-19. So it's important that these things kind of are laid out in the order that they are. So obviously, what we're going to talk about is something that was happening at the Church of Rome after they got baptized in Jesus' name, after they had repented of their sins and after they have got the Holy Ghost speaking the tongue of the spirit in the utterance. This is important to kind of always put this in mind when you pick up a, uh, when you pick up the bible, you want to start reading a. Everything from Romans to Jude were letters to churches that had already been established. Okay, it was about getting saved. And now these letters are about staying saved, staying sanctified, staying sin-free, remaining in the path of their living for God. So let's get started.
Speaker 1:Romans, chapter 6. Now you would think there was a problem here, because you're gonna. Well, let's just jump right into it. Romans, chapter 6, verse 1. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin? That grace may abound. So, obviously, what Paul is dealing with here is that in the church in Rome I didn't say the Roman Catholic Church, I said at the church in Rome there was some problems. So Paul is dealing with the issue that he had been told to deal with, either by report from the churches that were there or if God was leading him to write these things. One of these two things, and that problem that he's dealing with right now, is that there's somehow sin for people that are in the church saying that they're Christian and sinning. Now, I just want you to clip that on your brain, because we're going to come back to that. So what shall we say then? Shall we continue with sin? That grace may abound.
Speaker 1:God forbid, uh-uh, god forbid, god forbid, you don't continue in sin, why how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? When you repent, you die to sin. You, you die to it. And, um, I like if you, if you ever hear someone say you are dead to me, sort of thing, and how, how vicious that is, how terrible that is as a statement. This is what we, this is what Paul is really saying, that Christians should have that attitude towards sin. We are dead to sin. Sin has no more uh, no more appeal to us. No more, it doesn't, it doesn't appeal to us, it doesn't mean anything to us. So if we're dead to it because we repented, we turned our back on it, we walked away from it, how can we continue to do something we've already repented, repetitive, and this is easier said than done if you try to do it yourself. Let me just say that it's easier to say I repented of my sins and I walked away from it.
Speaker 1:But if you don't have the Holy Ghost, it's next to impossible to do that. You can't think yourself saved, you can't think yourself out of sin. You have to listen to the Holy Ghost. That's in end. And in order for the Holy Ghost to be in you. You have to follow the protocol. You have to follow the formula Repentance, baptism in Jesus' name, get in the Holy Ghost.
Speaker 1:Sometimes people, sometimes people can get the Holy Ghost and just not have surrendered to it. I recognize that can happen. But it'll still show out, it'll still kind of come out in their lives. They just need to surrender to it. And I had a question about that a couple of days ago. Do I have the Holy Ghost and not know it? So not really. It's going to have different evidence.
Speaker 1:So yeah, you can't live in sin and be dead to it. You can't live and die and be dead at the same time. It's one or the other. There's no little bit of dead and there's no little bit of life. It's either you are dead or you are alive. Now you could be in various conditions or stages of being alive, but if you're alive, you're alive're alive, you're alive. If you're dead, you're dead. So if we are dead to sin, if sin no longer is supposed to exist in our lives and the only way that can happen is by the father, the holy ghost, then there's a problem if we continue to do the thing that we see as if we're dead. So we are lying to ourselves somewhere.
Speaker 1:Well, let's continue. Know you not? In his word, paul begins to explain this. Don't you know that so many of us who were baptized unto Jesus Christ were baptized unto his death. In other words, the reason why we get baptized is not about just getting wet. It's not like the traditional thing. You have to understand the reason why you are being baptized. It's not just because you know some pastor somewhere said it one day and all of a sudden it was a thing. No, there was a reason why God had this happen. Let's go on, therefore, and here's why, therefore, we are buried with him by baptism unto death and, like this Christ, we were raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father. Even so, we also should walk in the newness of life.
Speaker 1:This is where Paul really gets to explaining what the baptism was all about. It was not about getting wet. It was not about wearing a white robe. It was not about, you know, it was not about the pomp and circumstance Sometimes we make it out to be. It was about being symbolized, of being taken into burial from the death, because you die by repentance and it's a spiritual it's kind of a spiritual death. You don't see nobody killing each other, saying that they're repentant. No, it's a spiritual death, because you are dying out the sin In your mind. You are saying sin shall no longer exist. I will have my flesh under subjection. When that happens, then you once, once you die, once you've been declared yourself dead to sin, you get buried.
Speaker 1:And by burying is the symbolism for water baptism not sprinkling on the forehead? I know I know some people do that that. Not anywhere in the Bible does that ever occur. It's a full water baptism. It's full. Dunk them under, bring them up. And it's got to be in Jesus' name too.
Speaker 1:Because he said so many of us were baptized into Jesus Christ, not into baptized into the Father, son and the Holy Spirit. No, baptized into Jesus Christ, not into. Baptized into the Father, son and the Holy Spirit. No, baptized into Jesus Christ, we're baptized unto his death. Why, therefore, we are buried with him by baptism unto death that, like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life.
Speaker 1:Now, what does that mean? Translate that into plain speaking? Basically, what Paul is saying here is that we are buried by this baptism. It symbolizes that not only have we died to sin and not only have we gone through the burial process, but it was the Holy Ghost, the glory of Christ, which is the Holy Ghost. If you read in the Gospels, it says the Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. So, like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, remember, the Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified, not yet glorified. So when Jesus was Died and when you are buried In water, baptism Coming up out of that water Is symbolizes you being raised up by the Holy Ghost. And who is the Holy Ghost? Jesus? Who is Jesus, god? So who is the glory of the Father, the Holy Ghost? All these three things in one. And if you kind of follow a Trinitarian doctrine, I can see where that can be confusing. But if you kind of boil it down the way Paul understood it, the way all the apostles understood it and the way Jesus taught it, then the Bible becomes a lot more clear in this. Because this, really, you're being raised up by the glory of the father, which is the holy ghost, even though we should walk in newness of life.
Speaker 1:Now I'm going to tell you something. I've had the holy ghost now, and even including the times I had back, so I got the Holy Ghost somewhere in August of 94, okay, honestly, I don't remember the exact date, but I do know I got it in August of 94. I know who was preaching a guy by the name of Brother Baloo. I wonder if he's still alive but this was 30 years ago, 31 years ago this year I will. I remember I remember the, the way, the way the next day felt after I got the holy ghost. I will never forget that. I remember how the next felt. It was like waking up a completely different person. It was like, and it was kind of like putting on new clothes after you take a shower, whereas other church experiences were kind of like putting on clean clothes and not having taken a shower I hope this makes more sense but that feeling of clean that I had after having repented of my sin.
Speaker 1:So, god, I just want to live right. I just want to be right. I'll never get that great God. I just want to be right. I just want to live right. I just want to that great God. I just want to be right. I just want to live right. I just want to be with you. I don't want to be lost and whatever your motivation is, be honest with your motivation. God, I just don't want to go to hell. I don't really care about going to heaven, and I've seen people say that I don't really care about going to heaven, I just don't want to go to hell. I don't really care about going to heaven, I just don't want to go to hell. I don't really care about hell, I just want to be next to where God is, whatever that is.
Speaker 1:There's no wrong or right reason to repent of your sins. But the idea is you've got to repent and you've got to be able to give that up. You've got to declare that thing that is dead to you. Now, as we see here, we're in Romans, chapter 6. So this is already people who have already done this. That doesn't mean that just because you declare yourself dead, that it's going to be easy to actually go through with it. This is why Paul had to address it, because obviously there were some people, after having repented of their sins, kept living in sin, and he talks about how there's a grace of God that was covering the people who had done that.
Speaker 1:Now, what's the grace for? The grace is so that we can come back and ask for forgiveness and another chance of getting rid of the sin. Now, this is not, and this is where I often talk about the difference between grace and mercy, because there is a huge difference between grace and mercy. Grace only gives you the space of time in order to be able to repent, and it's the mercy that wipes the sin away. Kind of like a credit card. When you make a big purchase, you have like a 25-day grace period. It is not a 25-day mercy period. It's not like you don't owe that purchase for 25 days. The only thing that 25 days does. It gives you a grace to pay it off before the interest hits. The grace of God is a very similar thing. You have a space of time after you've done the thing to recognize it, because the Holy Ghost will tell you right away.
Speaker 1:Let's not get this straight. I mean, let's not get this confused. The Holy Ghost will tell you right away AJ, you shouldn't have done that, you shouldn't have said that to that person. You know good and well that's not Christlike. Sometimes my wife does that to me, but you know you'll get checked. Either God will check you directly, or he will check you through somebody else. You know good and well that $5 that you just picked up ain't yours, and don't be putting it in my offering pan either, because I don't want it. That's stolen money. You know good and well you shouldn't have put that candy bar back. That ain't yours. You didn't put that in that employee refrigerator. You see what I'm saying, so you got to check you then, and now you have a space of time to repent of it.
Speaker 1:What a lot of people do, though, is they say well, you know, somebody stole something from me, somebody stole something back, or well, god, it was in a public place, on the floor. So I really don't, I really can't say, maybe you were blessing me with it. But people start to justify it, and so God will give you a bit of a grace period while he deals with you about repenting, but that grace period is a finite time. I don't know what that is. There is no set formula, but it's not like our laws, where there's a difference between hitting somebody and killing somebody. The punishments are different. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Don't ask me what that grace period is for a particular sin. That's between God and you, but there is a grace period, and that grace period is for you to be convicted of what you've done, be genuinely and truly sorry for it, and then repent and ask for forgiveness. At which point God is, you know, duty-bound to do that for you. You see what I'm saying? So, and that's I mean, we're not going to go down the whole willful sin, and that's a different podcast. But it's not a different podcast, but just a different episode. We'll talk about that maybe next week, if the Lord will it.
Speaker 1:But that's what this grace is for. It's to get you to the point where you're saying God, I'm sorry, I knew I shouldn't have done that, I really should have done that, and God, please forgive me, and God will forgive you. It's just like that. It's just that simple. That's what it is. But we don't get to keep going around and doing sin and then running back and saying forgive me, god, please forgive me, god, I'm sorry. That's not how this works. You're supposed to be dead to this. In other words, if you sin, it's more like an accidental sin. It's like, oh, you know what I shouldn't have? Oh, my God, I didn't mean to look over there and I saw that. Oh God, I'm sorry, all right, hey, I wonder what's over there. Let's open that window and begin. It's a completely different thing. We will talk more about that.
Speaker 1:So In verse 5, it says For we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, so we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. See, now, paul is still explaining what is the purpose of the burial. Because Jesus was crucified, he was laid in the tomb and he was resurrected. We are basically showing this in our actions, but there's a reason behind doing it. We have to understand the reason behind why we're doing it. Because we're showing the likeness of the resurrection. We're showing ourselves and the devil, fortunately that we are being resurrected as a new person.
Speaker 1:Now that doesn't mean that if you go out and do something today and you come to the altar and you repent tonight, that you're not going to have consequences for it. Let's not get that twisted either. There's still going to be consequences for it, but consequences for your actions is not the same as being judged for your actions. I mean, you know what? Maybe we will do another podcast or an episode on that. I simply do not have the time to get into that now.
Speaker 1:But no, we are not allowed as Christians, as people who are walking and living, to simply just do sin and live any kind of way, to simply just do sin and live any kind of way and Think that we can live any kind of way Because we carry a title. And that's one of the things that, really, if you were to ask me, jj, what is your biggest pet peeve About the quote unquote Christian community, I would say it's because it's about the quote unquote Christian community. Because we run around Calling ourselves Christians, we run around calling ourselves saved, but we live just like people who aren't saved. We talk like people who aren't saved, we behave like people and we think like people who aren't saved, and that can't work. That just cannot work. It just can't work. It's cannot work, it just can't work. It's like a dog thinking like a cat. You think that's kind of funny, but it doesn't work very well.
Speaker 1:So that's Romans 6 and 1. And only with the verse 6. Paul talks a lot about it and remember this is to a church that have already repented like a general repentant of sin, got baptized in Jesus name and got the Holy Ghost. So just keep that in mind who we're talking to. So that doesn't mean that once you become, once you were born into the family, that you're going to be perfect. I want to dispel that too before we wrap it up.
Speaker 1:Just because that day in August, when I got the Holy Ghost and I woke up, everything was new, did not mean the flesh did not try to come back. I got resurrected and my flesh tried to get resurrected too, and I tried to go back to doing the things that I did before. Even when I vaccinated, I couldn't get back to the level of depravity I guess that I did before, and that was because there were parts of my flesh that had died in sin. They died in sin. But it doesn't mean that just because, even if you're not backbiting or backslidden, it doesn't mean that when you've repented of your sins and you've been baptized in Jesus' name, you get the Holy Ghost, everything's going to be sunshine and rainbows. You're never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever going to sin again And're never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever going to sin again and you're now perfect and upright. You're a little miniature Christ walking around.
Speaker 1:This is not how that works. This is not how that works. But there's a small balance, because you're still living in this world, but you're not of this world, which means you still have the flesh, which means the flesh is going to war against you. Your own heart will war against you, will war against your salvation, will war against your spirit and saints. Understanding that you have to constantly be on guard, you have to constantly wrap up, kind of keep your flesh and subjection and your spiritual life intact, is what really makes this thing work. It makes it this constant thing in your mind that always have you looking out for the attack, and we're going to get hear so many more about this. But it's not just a one-time thing, but it also does not give you a license to just do anything you want, and I hope it. I know that on the surface this may sound contradictory, but it is not.
Speaker 1:It is a think of it like this, think of it like this let's say that, um, you're a surgeon, right, and you know you've been trained that you're supposed to make an incision with this, this size knife. And when you go in, let's just say you're going to go in to get a, take a bullet out. I don't know, just random, right, so you're going to go and take a bullet out. You must use this kind of knife. You had to use this kind of packing and you have to do these. Take a bullet out, I don't know, just random Right. So you're gonna go and take a bullet out. You're supposed to use this kind of knife, you have to use this kind of packing and you have to do these things and have to make sure everything is sterile. But if you just don't do that, you're gonna mess up the whole surgery. It doesn't give and there's no excuses after you've messed up the surgery and there will be consequences for you messing up the surgery. But being that you already know how to do this, how do you know? By preaching. How do you preach and go to church?
Speaker 1:Listen to podcasts like these, like this one. There's many millions podcasts out there. This ain't the only one. But we are not allowed just not allowed to continue living the way we did before we repented. That's the bottom line, because there is grace, but that grace does not abound. That grace has a finite point, and you've seen people the Bible talks about having a reprobate mind. You've seen people with reprobate minds and it's not pretty. I'm not going to call any names on this episode, all right. But that being said, I thank you all. We're out of time. I thank you all for listening.
Speaker 1:If you have questions or anything like that, because this actually kind of came out of a question If you have any questions or anything like that, send it to walkwithmebiblestudy at gmail. Walkwithmebiblestudy at gmail. We also now have a Facebook page that's called Iron Gate Ministries LLC. You will know it because the picture is the depiction of Acts, chapter 4, verse 2, where it has a golden arrow and two prison gates that are open. So, iron Gates Ministries LLC on Facebook or walkwithmebiblestudy at gmailcom, any one of these places, I do respond to them and I do thank you them and I do thank you all. And hey, listen, I love you, I love you guys, I love you guys. Thank you all for joining us. Tell somebody else that Jesus loves them. It's probably the only positive thing that they'll hear today. Jesus loves them and Jesus died for them and Jesus is waiting for them to come to him. Alright, god bless you all.