Jesus says: Revelation 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
As long as we live on this earth, after we are born again, it is a matter of walking in the Spirit of God, the way of God shown us by the Holy Spirit who lives in us, and resisting the way of our own fleshly preferences. We overcome this way. But it is a continual battle.
Many church goers put themselves into the church by their own will and they do not have the Spirit so all they know is preferences of their flesh or things taught by other humans which are often wrong.
Those who are born again do have a choice because they have been given the Holy Spirit to show them the way of God after they are born again.
Hebrews 3:12-14 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
But Jesus warns us about the last days:
Matthew 24:12-13 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many (for the Word of God) shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
There are things we do to help us to endure. (Discussed in this Podcast)
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Humans want to think the flesh does good works.
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry (setting up religious things of the flesh to worship God), witchcraft (living in superstitions), hatred, variance (to vary), emulations (exalting yourself above other people), wrath (wanting people to get what you think is coming to them for what they have done to you.), strife, seditions (leaving what Bible says to set up what you think), heresies (refusing the power of truth)
21 Envyings,murders, drunkenness, revellings (partying: feeding the flesh through sex, drugs, boose), and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
The apostle Paul said he was persuaded that in his flesh, in the works of the flesh, there was no good thing. Romans 7
The flesh never improves. The flesh fights the Spirit of God going opposite to God.
We learn to control the flesh by keeping the flesh crucified by choosing to go in the way of the Spirit which is God.
And we have this promise from God:
I Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
We learn to take the way of escape set by God.
Jesus says, if we overcome, HE will not blot our name out of the book of life. (Revelation 3:5)
Overcoming the flesh is a continual process for us in every issue of life as long as we remain on this earth.
If we fail to overcome and let the way of God slip from our minds, HE can turn us over to a reprobate mind and remove Jesus from living in us.
II Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
Romans 1:
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
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Those who depart from the ways of God:
Hebrews 10
27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
28 He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know HIM that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge His people.
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Hebrews 6
4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame.
5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame.
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
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II Peter 2
21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
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In the last days, many will fall away from scripture and approve things opposite to scriptures, such as adultery, fornication, homosexuals, lesbians, drunkenness, and false doctrines which are opposite from Bible.
Overcoming is critical. To each of the seven churches in Revelation 2 & 3, "overcoming" was a key instruction and point of evaluation.
Jesus said:
Revelation 2:7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
Revelation 2:11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
Revelation 2:17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.
Revelation 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Revelation 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
Revelation 3:12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.
Revelation 3:21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
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We overcome each time we overcome our own flesh by seeking the way of God and hearing from the Spirit of God and choosing the Spirit over our flesh, going in the way of God.
After we are born again, going in the way of the Spirit and keeping our flesh crucified by the Word of God is critical to our salvation and eternal life.
The apostle Paul says those who go in the way of their flesh will not inherit the kingdom of God.
I Corinthians 6
9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate (homosexuals), nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
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