My understanding of these scriptures is that we can never fully put away the filth of the flesh. We as human beings are always going to fall short. It's not about what we do, but it's about what Jesus, did. Jesus, died and rose again for our sins and that is how we are saved. We are saved by having a good conscience towards God, by knowing that. In other words, we are saved by faith, not by works. However, faith without works is dead. Much like the water baptism, getting baptized is a work, through faith. When you have faith in Christ, the works will follow. If you say, "I have faith" but you do nothing to show your faith, then your faith is dead and worthless. It's like playing a game (football, basket ball or whatever) and saying that you believe in yourself. You say, "I believe in myself!" but then when another team challenges you, you back down. If you back down, your faith in yourself is dead. Because if you truly believed in yourself, you would step out in faith. I don't step out in faith enough. We need to do good things and trust that God, will help us. We need to give and trust that God, will provide for us. I believe people would get a huge blessing, if they stepped out in faith and helped another person. You hear these excuses, "Well, I don't have the money, to give to that homeless man!" Well, the man is homeless, you can give him something and not be as bad off as him. Also, you can trust God and give to him, even though you don't have much. Trust that God, will provide for you! That's a big hang up for a lot of followers. The hang up, is we believe that we should only give when we have enough. Guess what? We always have enough, because we have God! You just got to reach out in faith and He'll provide for you! You might say, "I don't have anything now, why should I trust Him, to provide?" You have not because you trust not!

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this message. Please forgive us of all our sins and we forgive those who've wronged, us. Help us to trust you and to have a good conscience towards you. We have the right to know we are saved, because Jesus, gave us that right. In Jesus, name. A-men!