Our God who is revealed to us in the Bible, the inerrant Word of God, cannot be restricted or restrained, and whatever the Bible teaches us that we should do is really teaching us that we will do those things, not in the power of the flesh but in the power of the Almighty God (Holy Spirit). Do you believe the Bible is the Word of God, and that it says exactly what God has said to us through Holy Men of old? If you don?t then you can be sure that you are not saved; and if you do and are saved then you must believe that God does in us and on us all that He wants us to accomplish.

Now, would God give us a commandment that we cannot keep (incidentally, all that God has said is a commandment to His children)? You know that the answer has to be no; because God says to us in Luke chapter one and verse 37, ?For with God nothing shall be impossible?. Now, we have to teach the truth systematically, so we have to begin with God where God says that we can begin and that is by being able to exercise our God given faith (given by God?s Grace in regeneration, Ephesians 2:8-9).

Now, of course, we know that these bodies that we walk around in here on the earth cannot inherit heaven, so we are told that we will be glorified (given the same kind of body that Christ received at His resurrection) at the rapture of the church. What we do by the power of God that resides in us (Holy Spirit), is to stay focused on Christ and sensitive to the leadings of the Holy Spirit as we live everyday in the grace of God, and we are conformed to the image of Christ. Remember that we are told by God that we are ?Saved by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ? (John 3:16; Ephesians 2:8-9). We are not saved by Faith, we are saved by God?s Grace by the faith that He plants in us when He begins our salvation. Aren?t you glad that God?s grace does not stop as soon as we are saved? God never saves anyone and then leaves them, beside the road so to speak, to sink or swim. God?s grace first saves us and then it becomes our teacher. Grace teaches us as we find in Titus 2:11-12, to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and teaches us to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.

I am afraid that too many people in the church of our day see salvation and profession of faith in Christ as a get out of jail free card, which allows them to continue in sin until they die and then frees them from condemnation. In fact, it has not been too long ago that I spotted a bumper sticker that spoke to that idea, it said, ?How much can I sin and still go to heaven?? That my friend is not even close to a Christian attitude. You may ask well does God really expect us to toe the line and live like Christ. If we are going to believe the only book that has been given to us to reveal the mind of God, we have to believe that He does.

Our text for this lesson there in Luke chapter six and verse 46, reminds us that God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, asked those who followed Him, ?Why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?? In other words Jesus was reminding them that simply being in the crowd that followed Him around to hear what He had to say was not enough, they had to do the things that He said! Jesus had preached in the Sermon on the Mount, back there in Matthew chapter seven and verse twenty-one, ?Not everyone that says unto to Me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father in heaven?. Remember, Jesus said that the doctrines that He preached were not His but His that sent Him, John 7:16. Why in the world would anyone want to identify with Jesus Christ, call them selves by His name Christian; and yet argue with His doctrine and instructions to them, by their life style.

God created Adam and Eve (not Adam and Steve, or Eve and Bev) and they were innocent, in other word they had no sin, but God wanted to test their dedication and love for Him and so He gave them one commandment, not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What that meant is they would remain innocent by keeping that one commandment. Did God intend for them to really remain innocent, living in the lap of luxury, having dominion over every other creature, and in a paradise with every tree that was good to look at that bore fruit good to eat, and they also had a tree that would give them life forever, the tree of life. I will remind you that they did not eat the fruit of the tree of life; instead they chose to disobey God and eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and die!

Maybe they had talked it over and decided just as so many preachers and teachers in our churches today, that it has been the human experience that man cannot live above sin. I have heard some high powered religious leaders say that; but I have never been able to believe it or to find it anywhere in the Bible. Those kinds of teachers are the same preachers that say that there has never been a perfect man with the exception of Jesus Christ. That is certainly not what the Bible teaches, even if it makes people more comfortable in their sin.

My Bible says that ?Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God?, Genesis 6:9. What about Enoch, who the Bible says walked with God and he was not; for God took him, which means that God took Enoch around death into heaven (Enoch did not die, God took him to heaven with death), and the same experience happened to Elijah. We know that no sinner will enter heaven so we have to agree that they were perfect, Genesis 5:24; 2nd Kings 2:1-12.

In the seventeenth chapter of Genesis we find God speaking to Abram who was ninety nine years old and God says to him, ?I am the Almighty God; Walk before Me and be thou perfect! In Deuteronomy chapter eighteen and verse 13, God speaks to the Hebrew nation through Moses and says, ?Thou shall be perfect with the Lord thy God?. In other words those who are serious with God, have yielded every aspect of their lives to God, seek God?s face and strive to keep His commandments, will without fail be perfect because God is working in and on them to be perfect. We can look at the book of Job chapter one and verse one and we find there, ?There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil?.

I understand that the Bible was written in the Hebrew (Old Testament), and Greek (New Testament); and that the translation could have said upright, or just, but if you think about it, that doesn?t make a difference. In the New Testament the word perfect can be translated as mature or complete, but again that does not matter. If you are mature or complete in Christ, you are perfect in the sight of God. Pseudo-Theologians have picked at the translations until they have confused themselves and others over something that should not be an issue in the mind of true Christians. We are perfect whenever we are submitted and committed to God to the point that we are willing to be perfected by the only One who can do it, and that is God.

I think it is evident that most people in the institutional churches of our day do not want to be bothered with living according to the Word and Will of God, so they have decided that if enough of us agree that we cannot or will not attempt to live perfectly that God will have to accept that. Do not bet your eternal soul on that foolishness! The blood and work of Jesus Christ on Calvary, is all that is required to save anyone; however in salvation God creates an entirely different person who loves God for what He is and wants to please Him and Him alone. We don?t obey the commands of God to be saved; we obey them because we have been saved. What people like to forget is that God has judged us, in Adam, and found us to be lacking, undesirable, sinful and God had placed the human race under condemnation, with only one solution that was to believe to the degree that we would deny ourselves and submit to the Lordship of Christ in our lives.

Now, if that is too severe or too hard for anyone to accept, then you have that right, but before you make that eternal decision, allow me to caution you that you are turning your back on your Creator, your Savior and eternity in heavenly splendor, so think about what you are doing. It is sad that the creature so often turns against its creator, and refuses to take advantage of the great grace and mercy that is in trusting God. We even have people who are so carnal and unconcerned that they make statements like, well, God made me like this, when in fact, it was Adam that made us like we are when we are born, unloving and unlovable. Others say well, I just can?t live according to the Word of God, when really what they mean is that they refuse to even think in those terms. Unless a person is saved, born again and submitted to the Lordship of Christ they cannot live the way God demands; however in true salvation we are given the power of God in the Holy Spirit who indwells us and never leaves us to empower us to live that way.

I don?t know how many people have said to me after they hear me preach, that I cannot make a ?laundry list? of things that they should do or not do; and I always tell them that I don?t have to make a list of things that they should or shouldn?t do, God has already made it and set it in stone in His Word the Bible. All we have to do to know what God requires of His children is read the Word of God, the Bible. Remember, God told Adam something that he was not to do?.and God gave Adam the consequences of not doing it. God had said to Adam in the day that you disobey my command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall die! (See Genesis 2:15-17). God told Moses in the wilderness, to speak to a certain rock to get water for the multitude of people, but Moses because he was angry at the people struck the rock instead of speaking to it.

That did not go unnoticed by God, because God told Moses that because he did not do exactly like God had said, that he would not be allowed to enter the promised land, Numbers 20:7-12. Ananias and Sapphira lied in the presence of God about a certain gift to the church, and God struck them dead as they spoke, Acts 5:1-11. In the New Testament, when the people began to think too highly of themselves and what they wanted to do, they began to practice homosexuality and God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do what they desired and to receive the punishment that is a consequence of their evil, Romans 22-32. Even beyond all of that, God has promised that death faces each of us and after we die, we will be judged in the wrath of Jesus Christ against sin, Romans 1-13; Hebrews 9:27.

Does God really care about sin in the life of His Children? The answer to that question is written in blood, the perfect, sinless blood of the One and Only Son of God, Jesus Christ. When we look to the cross we always like to see the love of God and we praise that love; but look again, and you will also see how much God hates sin, any sin! It seems that the way we think and speak about God and about salvation and Christianity in our society, that we have determined that God must come to the bar of our reason, because we are such cultured and compassionate and good people in this century.

That indicates the root of our problem, we are attempting to manipulate an Almighty, Creator, God who is unchangeable, a God who cannot change or even look like He would change, Romans 1:23; James 1:17; Hebrews 13:8. We seem to think that if we dream up little platitudes like ?There are no laundry lists of things that we have to do or not do?, that whatever we do is alright with God. Think again, we are the creatures and we are attempting to manipulate Almighty God. There are rules, of course, but they are all based on our ultimate good and God even gives us the power to accomplish them everyone, Philippians 2:13. There is not one single sin that any Christians ?has? to commit, so when we sin we have no excuse, Romans 1:18-20.

It would not do me much good to go through and list all the do?s and don?ts in the New Testament but I will list just a couple, like Luke 14:25-33; John 3:16-21; John 3:3,5; John 6:53-58; John 8:30-47; John 14:21-24; John 15:9-17; 2nd Corinthians 6:14-7:1; Ephesians 5:17-24; Philippians 2:5-16; Colossians 3:1-17; 1st Timothy 6:12; 2nd Timothy 2:15; Titus 1:3:8; Hebrews 10:22-27; Hebrews 12:1-14; James 1:12-22; James 4:4-8; 1st Peter1:13-23; 1st Peter 3:15-18; 2nd Peter 3:14-18.

However, we must remember that there is a final act in glorification and coming into the perfect image of Christ; and that is when Jesus comes back and we are changed into that body fitted for heaven. One consolation is that there in Romans 8:30, where we read, ?Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified?. The word glorified in that verse is in the past tense, which tells us that it is already accomplished. In the mind of God we are already glorified, and it will certainly come to pass. (See 1st Thessalonians 4:16; 1st Corinthians 15:49-57; 1st John 3:1-3).

Anyone who challenges the Word of God challenges the God of the Word, so be careful what you think and what you speak.