Biblical Community Is First Of

As We Grow In The Knowledge Of God's Holiness, Even Though We Are Growing In The Practice Of Holiness, It Seems The Gap Between Our Knowledge And Our Practice Always Gets Wider. This Is The Holy Spirit's Way Of Drawing Us To More And More Holiness.

Modern Christians, Especially Those In The Western World, Have Generally Been Found Wanting In The Area Of Holiness Of Body. Gluttony And Laziness, For Example, Were Regarded By Earlier Christians As Sin. Today We May Look On These As Weaknesses Of The Will But Certainly Not Sin. We Even Joke About Our Overeating And Other Indulgences Instead Of Crying Out To God In Confession And Repentance.

The Heroes Of Faith In Hebrews 11 ... Obeyed By Faith ... Obedience Is The Pathway To Holiness ... No One Will Become Holy Apart From A Life Of Faith. Faith Enables Us To Claim The Promises Of God, But It Also Enables Us To Obey The Commands Of God.

Our First Problem Is That Our Attitude Towards Sin Is More Self-centred Than God-centred. We Are More Concerned About Our Own "victory" Over Sin Than We Are About The Fact That Our Sin Grieve The Heart Of God. We Cannot Tolerate Failure In Our Struggle With Sin Chiefly Because We Are Success Oriented, Not Because We Know It Is Offensive To God.

The Solution To Staying On The Right Side Of The Fine Line Between Using And Abusing Grace Is Repentance. The Road To Repentance Is Godly Sorrow (2 Corinthians 7:10). Godly Sorrow Is Developed When We Focus On The True Nature Of Sin As An Offense Against God Rather Than Something That Makes Us Feel Guilty.