A response to this verse can be found in post
#30
The question pertain to the Method by which a non believer are introduced to Christ:
They preached...show that he/she is a sinner and pray the prayer of Receiving Christ...
Did they ever asked "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you BELIEVED?
SEE The Difference: THEY asked DID you received when you BELIEVED....not when you RECEIVED?
IT IS by BELIEVING that HE IS LORD...that you received.
So you believe Jesus Christ...and you receive the Holy Ghost.
t t t
Okay, try to side-step and dance around this TRUTH:
Romans 10:9-10 (NASB)
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9 [/SUP]
that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
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10 [/SUP] for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
It is NOT a confession, unless it is ABSOLUTELY TRUE about yourself first. To say Jesus is my Lord, when YOU HAVE NEVER ACTUALLY WILLINGLY FROM THE HEART RECEIVED (SURRENDERED TO) HIM AS LORD, yeilding to HIM as MASTER; THEN your so-called confession is a LIE and only amounts to a PROFESSION and not a CONFESSION.
John 14:15 (NASB)
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15 [/SUP]
"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
1 John 2:4-5 (NASB)
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4 [/SUP] The one who says,
"I have come to know Him," and
does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;
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5 [/SUP] but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected.
By this we know that we are in Him:
James 2:26 (NASB)
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26 [/SUP] For just as
the body without the spirit is dead, so also
faith without works is dead.
James 2:14 (NIV)
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14 [/SUP] What good is it, my brothers,
if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?
The implied answer is NO, and Jesus confirmed it.
Matthew 7:21-23 (NASB)
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21 [/SUP]
"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
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22 [/SUP]
"Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?'
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23 [/SUP]
"And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'
Knowing HIM AS LORD is Genuine Saving Faith, which is PURELY A GIFT FROM GOD, based solely on HIS GRACE. Salvation then is permanently and eternally linked to receiving or submitting to JESUS CHRIST as LORD, which means MASTER. The Church and any Christian that has told the lost "Just accept Jesus as your Savior and you will be saved"; deliberately leaving out what the BIBLE clearly says about RECEIVING JESUS CHRIST AS LORD, has mislead that person into believing that Professing Jesus as Savior or just intellectually acknowledging who HE is, equals Salvation. EVEN THE DEMONS in the two men in the land of the Gadarenes admitted that much. NO, I do not believe in telling people to JUST receive Jesus as Savior, because I believe that is pushing them through the BROAD GATE, instead of leading them through the NARROW GATE of receiving JESUS AS LORD, explaining to them that the word LORD means submitting to HIM as MASTER. CLEARLY, in Rom. 10:9 it points out that He does NOT become our Saviour until AFTER we have RECEIVED HIM AS LORD. NO that is NOT works Righteousness, it is THE MAIN PART OF the free Gift of GOD,
our faith, and genuinely Receiving Jesus Christ as LORD, can only be done by the POWER of the Holy Spirit.
I used to be one of those kind of so-called Christians that took up space on pew occasionally, while acknowledging that Jesus is the Savior. I suspect the Devil himself has even done that a multitude of times, laughing at all of those who are deceived into thinking that makes them a Christian. I did not become a REAL Christian until I was 29 years old, and prior to that I was only taking up space on the pew. After my third attempt at suicide, something in ME BROKE; and this tremendous rush of guilt over my utter sinfulness washed over me. I found myself on my knees weeping, and crying out to HIM, "LORD, FORGIVE ME! If you have a purpose for my life, YOU are going to have to come into it, and run my life. I can't do it, and I am making a total mess of it." NO one ever taught me to pray that prayer of yielding control of my life to Jesus as LORD, but that is the MOMENT that I became a real born again Christian.