Do We Desire To Please God?

I am amazed how people react to those who bring up verses which appear to say believers can fall away.  I trust no man who explains these verses away. So many believe the grace of God is a license to continue to sin. Their lives show it. I have chosen personally to take those same verses and seek to obey Christ and please him. I seek to confess any sin and turn from it quickly. I want no part in continuing in sin and testing God as to what he meant. I do not want to find out how much I can willfully continue in sin and still find myself in heaven. The Apostle Paul, who referred to himself as the chief of sinners and surrendered to Jesus Christ, said: "Shall we sin that grace may abound? God forbid! How can we who have died to sin live any longer in it?"

So often the preachers and their hearers read verses such as the following, but can only see themselves as under "grace" which is used so often as a license to sin. They do not stop and realize verses such as below are written to ALL believers!

Hebrews 10 ISV

19Therefore, my brothers, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, 20the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), 21and since we have a great high priest over the household of God, 22let us continue to come near with sincere hearts in the full assurance that faith provides, because our hearts have been sprinkled clean from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. 23Let us continue to hold firmly to the hope that we confess without wavering, for the one who made the promise is faithful. 24And let us continue to consider how to motivate one another to love and good deeds, 25not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another even more as you see the day of the Lord coming nearer.

26For if we choose to go on sinning we learned the full truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27but only a terrifying prospect of judgment and a raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28Anyone who violates the law of Moses dies without mercy “on the testimony of two or three witnesses.” 29How much more severe a punish­ment do you think that person deserves who tramples on God's Son, treats as common the blood of the covenant by which it was sanctified, and insults the Spirit of grace? 30For we know the one who said, “Vengeance belongs to me; I will pay them back,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!30

32But you must continue to remember those earlier days, how after you were enlightened you endured a hard and painful struggle. 33At times you were made a public spectacle by means of insults and persecutions, while at other times you associated with people who were treated this way. 34For you sympathized with the prisoners and cheerfully submitted to the violent seizure of your property, because you know that you have a better and more permanent possession.1033

35So don’t lose your confidence, since it holds a great reward for you. 36For you need endurance, so that after you have done God's will you can receive what he has promised. 37For

      “in a very little while

the one who is coming will return—

he will not delay;

38    but my righteous one will live by faith,

and if he turns back,

my soul will take no pleasure in him.”

39Now, we do not belong to those who turn back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

It is so easy to read verse 39 and see ourselves in "we do not belong to those who turn back and are destroyed", yet many play with sin and disobedience and cannot see themselves in verse 38 & 39 where God says he "will take no pleasure in those who turn back and are destroyed". What do we love? Is it the world system? What do we fill our minds/hearts with? Are we obeying Jesus who said in Luke 9:  23Then he told all of them, “If anyone wants to come with me, he must deny himself, pick up his cross every day, and follow me continuously, 24because whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25What profit will a person have if he gains the whole world, but destroys himself or is lost? 26If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and the holy angels.