Pretenders Fight to Defend their Sin

When we are saved by grace through faith it is Christ Who changes us, therefore we are no longer the same person and we no longer love sin as we once did.

1 Corinthians 6:11

"11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."

Someone who has been changed by Christ hates it when they sin, they eventually confess to be cleansed and go on to live more holy lives. They are not sinless they just sinless as they grow in holiness.

Ephesians 2:10

"10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

We are being sanctified until we leave this life.

1 John 3:8-10 "…8 The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the very start. This is why the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil. 9Anyone born of God refuses to practice sin, because God’s seed abides in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this the children of God are distinguished from the children of the devil: Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother."

No one who has been born again ever fights to defend their sin, these are the pretenders who do this.

Matthew 7:21-23

I Never Knew You

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"

The one who fights to defend their sin without conviction about it has never been born again, simple!

There are many pretenders in the church gatherings today, they must be challenged to go and ask God if they are saved. Their fruit is rotten and able to infect the rest of the body.

They lack this fruit of the Character of Christ:

Galatians 5:22-23

"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

Remember the fruit of the Spirit is not works, it is character qualities that will produce works but even a non-believer, a pretender can do good works fooling people, the true test is when they are challenged about their sin, their response will say a lot about them.

In my experience, those who claim to be Christian but are not interested in how to live according to God's Word, the Bible, will rage at those who bring God's Word to bear on any sin in their lives.

Often they will accuse the authentic believer of judging, even though they have no idea what God really says about judging those in the body. These people do not know the word of God or they know a little, just enough to be dangerous.

When we are born again we have been humbled and want to know what God thinks of everything we do and say. We want to grow knowing the only way to to that is to evaluate ourselves to see if we are walking according to the Word.

Pretenders are walking in the flesh and hate any challenge to evaluate themselves.

1 Corinthians 11:27-31

Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.

For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged."