Saturday, November 28, 2009

Baptized Into Christ Dennis Kiszona



Baptized Into Christ

By Dennis Kiszona

Biblical Baptism

Let’s start in Matthew chapter 3 where we see the ministry of John the Baptizer - the Baptist.

“In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’.”

Here in the opening pages of the New Testament, we read about John the Baptist preaching the kingdom. It’s interesting to turn over and read about John’s ministry in John chapter 1, how that the leaders of Israel came out to observe and to question him about his ministry. They came and asked, “Why are you doing this out here in the wilderness? Who sent you? By what authority are you baptizing?” It is interesting that they never came out to him and asked, “What are you doing?” or “Why are you dunking (or sprinkling, or pouring water over) these people in this river?” They didn’t have to ask him what he was doing because they knew. They had seen it many times before. Baptism itself was not a new thing. It was an old thing.

It goes all the way back in the Old Testament to the book of Leviticus. In chapter 8, we see the ordination of a priest for the nation of Israel.

“And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, ‘Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, the anointing oil, a bull as the sin offering, two rams, and a basket of unleavened bread, and gather all the congregation together at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.’ So Moses did as the Lord commanded him. And the congregation was gathered together at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. And Moses said to the congregation, ‘This is what the Lord commanded to be done’” (vv. 1-5).

Now begins the ordination ceremony of Aaron and his sons to become priests in the nation of Israel.

“Then Moses brought Aaron and his sons and washed them with water” (v. 6).

The first step in becoming a priest in the nation of Israel was that the priest was to be washed with water at the door of the tabernacle. So Moses washed them. But there’s another thing shown here as the ceremony continues in verse 10:

“Also Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it, and consecrated them. He sprinkled some of it on the altar seven times, anointed the altar and all its utensils, and the laver and its base, to consecrate them. And he poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron’s head and anointed him to consecrate him” (vv. 10-12).

First, Aaron is washed with water. Second, Moses pours a beaker of oil on him. Then we drop down further in the passage to verse 14, and the sacrifices begin.

“And he brought the bull for the sin offering. Then Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the bull for the sin offering, and Moses killed it.”

Then verse 22:

“And he brought the second ram, the ram of consecration. Then Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram and Moses killed it. Also he took some of its blood and put it on the tip of Aaron’s right ear, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.”

So we see Aaron with his hair wet, with oil dripping down his head and neck and on his clothes, and now with blood on his ear, blood on his thumb, and blood on his toe. Not only that, but we find in verse 30 that,
“. . . Moses took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood which was on the altar, and sprinkled it on Aaron, on his garments, on his sons, and on the garments of his sons with him; and he consecrated Aaron, his garments, his sons, and the garments of his sons with him.”



Moses takes the mixture of blood and oil and splatters these men. We see them dressed in a fine and beautiful outfit, but how do they look? They have blood on their face, blood on their hands, and their clothing is stained with blood. Then in chapter 9 the priests, having been ordained, begin their ministry.


Now flash ahead 1,500 years to the Jordan River and these types that we see become reality. Here came the greatest of the prophets, John the Baptist, and he was saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” What kind of a kingdom will it be? In Exodus 19:6, God says that Israel would be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. John comes and announces the imminent coming of the kingdom. The Israelites needed to assume their rightful part in that kingdom of priests. The first thing they needed to do was to be ordained. How were priests to be ordained? Back to Leviticus . . . they needed to be washed with water, anointed with oil, and sprinkled with blood.

And so these people lined up by the river, ready to be baptized with water. The ordination had begun. They had seen this many times in the temple. They had seen priest after priest being washed (baptized), anointed, and sprinkled as they were ordained for the ministry. They knew what it was about and so they came as a multitude down to the Jordan.

But wait! Someone else came.

“Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’ And Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness’” (Matthew 3:13-15).

What righteousness did Christ need to fulfill? The righteousness of the law, as commanded by God, in Leviticus chapter 8. The Lord Jesus Christ is to be the High Priest of Israel and needs to be ordained. He comes to the river and John says, “No. I’m not going to do this.” The Lord says, “Yes you are, for we are going to fulfill all righteousness. The law says that I must be washed with water in order to become a priest.” Immediately afterwards, in verses 16 and 17:

“When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on Him. And suddenly a voice from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’.”

The Lord Jesus Christ was first washed in the water like Aaron. But unlike Aaron who had oil poured upon him to anoint him to his ministry as a priest, the Lord Jesus Christ was anointed with no one less than the Holy Spirit by God Himself. Peter understood this, for he says:

“That word you know which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. . . ” (Acts 10:37, 38).


Act 10:37  That word, [I say], ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached;


Act 10:38  How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

God Himself came into the ordination and anointed His Son - not with oil, but the real thing which oil only symbolized as a type. There were many people in the history of Israel who had been anointed - the priests, the kings, and the prophets - but this man was the anointed One. Peter says about Him, “God has made Him to be both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). (”Christ” is from the Greek word Christos, meaning “the anointed Messiah”)



Act 2:36  Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

How do you become a priest? First, you are washed - baptized - in the water. Then, you are anointed with the oil. Finally, daubed in blood from your ear to your foot. Christ had been washed with water in the Jordan. Then he was anointed with the Holy Spirit Himself. But there was one more baptism.

“I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled. But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished” (Luke 12:49, 50).

When we see in the Old Testament Moses daubing the blood on the ear, the hand, and the foot of Aaron, then sprinkling him, splattering that blood on the priests, we know now that it was pointing ahead to Jesus Christ, the High Priest. The Anointed High Priest of Israel, after being baptized with water in the Jordan, and being anointed with the Holy Spirit by God, was then baptized with blood - splattered from head to foot - as the whip broke open His skin, as the thorns pierced His brow, and as the nails tore his hands and feet. He was baptized in His own blood that He might complete His ordination and offer Himself as a sacrifice.

We looked at Aaron’s ordination and at the Lord’s ordination, but now we return to the people of Israel. They were to become a kingdom of priests, and they needed to be ordained to enter into Messiah’s priesthood. John the Baptist began this ceremony to prepare the people, but he said,

“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11).

John was, in effect, saying, “I can only take you this far, through one part of the ordination. But the One who comes after me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” We turn to the book of Acts and we see the realization of this on the Day of Pentecost.

“When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:1-4).

What was happening? Peter explains it in verses 16:

“But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh’.”

God is baptizing here with the pouring out of His Spirit, the pouring out of the anointing oil on these who desire to enter the kingdom of priests. As we continue in verses 32 and 33, Peter says,

“This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.”

There is one last part to the ordination. In his first epistle, Peter reveals the final stage of the priestly initiation.

“You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5).

Peter calls these people “a holy priesthood.” How did they get ordained? They were washed in the water, they were anointed with the Spirit by the Messiah, then, looking in the beginning of the book, we see that they were,

“Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1:2).

They had been fully ordained - washed in the water, anointed with the Spirit, and sprinkled not with the blood of a goat or ram, but with the blood of Jesus Christ.

All of these baptisms that we have seen so far, as beautiful as they are, were all part of a prophesied program of God. They were all part of a message which promised entrance into a kingdom here on the earth. This was God’s plan for the nation of Israel. These were Jewish baptisms. We know from reading on in the Bible, through the book of Acts, there came a time when God set aside the nation of Israel and postponed their kingdom.

He had sent them John the Baptist. The Lord Jesus Christ had come to the nation. The Holy Spirit had come and filled the disciples. Israel’s response: murder, murder, murder. They stood by as John the Baptist was beheaded. They handed over the Lord Jesus Christ to crucifixion. They themselves picked up the stones and stoned Stephen, a man who was filled with the Holy Spirit. In Acts 7 and 8, the nation of Israel was cast away and that earthly kingdom was put “on hold.”

Then a wonderful thing happened. From heaven’s glory, the Lord Jesus Christ reached down in unfathomable grace and mercy to a man traveling down a road with vengeance and bitterness in his heart - a man named Saul - who was on his way to persecute the saints of God. He was a man who was called “the chief of sinners,” and the leader of Israel’s rebellion against the Lord. The Lord reached down and stopped that man in his tracks, saving him by His grace. This man’s name was changed from “Saul” to “Paul” and God made him an apostle.

He was called as an apostle not to the nation of Israel, but rather to the Gentiles. An apostle not of an earthly kingdom, but of the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ. An apostle not of a prophesied program, but of a secret - a mystery - hidden in God from before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 3:9).

Part of that revelation called “the mystery,” which the Lord Jesus Christ revealed to Paul, was a baptism. It was not a baptism of water, not a baptism of oil, nor a baptism of blood. It was a baptism that was unknown before the apostle Paul. You can search the Scriptures from Genesis up to Paul’s writings and you will not find even a hint of it.

The first mention of this new baptism is in the book of Romans and chapter 6.

“Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” (v. 3)

In 1 Corinthians 12:12 and 13, Paul writes,

“For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body - whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free - and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.”

He writes about a baptism that is only part of “the mystery” which is found only in his letters - a unique baptism for us who are living in the dispensation of the grace of God. Here is a baptism that is not at all related with entering into an earthly kingdom, but a baptism that brings you into the Body of Christ. It is not a baptism of the priesthood - not a washing in water, not an anointing with oil, not a sprinkling of blood. It is not even a baptism of Messiah pouring out His Spirit on His people. It is a baptism that is an operation of the Holy Spirit Himself, taking a believer, the moment he puts his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, fusing him into the body and person of the Lord Jesus Christ so that he becomes one with Him (1 Corinthians 12:12). Paul was able to look at the church in Corinth and see Christ, not many individual members. They were one with Him. They were Christ!

I don’t think there can be any doubt that the “one baptism” of which Paul writes in Ephesians 4:5 is the same baptism which he wrote about in Romans 6 and 1 Corinthians 12. It is the fact that one Spirit baptized us into one body. This is the one baptism for this dispensation of the grace of God in which we are living.

Someone will inevitably say, “Hey, wait a minute! Didn’t Paul baptize some people with water? And if he baptized some with water and the Holy Spirit baptized them, that’s two baptisms, right?” Let’s check it out.


We need to realize that in the early ministry of the Apostle Paul in the book of Acts, he not only baptized people, but he circumcised them too (Acts 16:3). After all that Paul had written in Galatians about not practicing circumcision, he takes one of the Galatians, Timothy, and circumcises him. Continue reading in the same book and you see how Paul cut his hair to keep a Jewish vow. You observe Paul going into the temple to offer a Jewish sacrifice. You hear Paul speaking in tongues. You watch Paul baptizing people with a Jewish baptism. The question is, “Should we follow him?” or “Is that an example for us?”

Take a look at what he says in 1 Corinthians chapter 1.
“I thank God that I baptized none of you . . .” (v. 14a)

A good Baptist, isn’t he? But then he remembers a few:

“. . . except Crispus and Gaius. . . . I also baptized the household of Stephanus. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect” (vv. 14, 16-17).

Among the many things that could be said, I want to make one point: When Paul preached his gospel (the gospel of the grace of God), from the beginning of his ministry to the end of his ministry, he did not have to preach water baptism along with it. When Peter preached his gospel (the gospel of the kingdom), he had to preach water baptism. Everywhere Peter preached he preached water baptism. Christ had sent him to preach water baptism and the kingdom (Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:15-18). Paul says, “I was not sent to baptize.” It was never an intrinsic part of his gospel. In fact, as we read the letters of Paul, we find nowhere that he beseeches, or commands, or exhorts, or recommends, or says anything to the effect that members of the body of Christ ought to be baptized in water.

Why then did he baptize? He writes:


“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know just as I also am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

The Greek word for “dimly” (KJV: “darkly”) is enigma, which means “a puzzle.” At this point in his ministry, during the book of Acts, as Paul looked at his own ministry he could say, “I don’t know it all yet.” We could ask, “Paul, why did you cut your hair, why did you keep that vow, why did you offer that sacrifice, why did you speak in tongues, why did you baptize those people with that Jewish baptism?” There are several reasons, but I believe there are times when Paul would say, “It is kind of an enigma, isn’t it? Even I, at that time, didn’t know the whole thing yet.”

But there came a day when the Lord Jesus Christ completed that revelation of the mystery to the apostle Paul in prison at Rome. At that time he moved into the full light of that revelation that Christ gave to him. We read about it in the prison epistles - Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon - and in the pastoral epistles. Paul says, now having the full knowledge of the mystery, “There is one baptism” - one Spirit baptizing us into one body (Ephesians 4:5). And in Colossians 2:15, he tells us that, when we are in that one body, baptized into Christ, we are “Complete in Him.”

The Effects of the “One Baptism”

I would like to conclude by reflecting upon the effects this has in our lives - being baptized by one baptism into the body of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Being baptized into His Body, we are made close to the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul writes, in 1 Corinthians 6:17, “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” When we were baptized into Christ’s body (1 Corinthians 12:13), we became one body with the Lord. Now we see in this verse that we became one spirit with the Lord.

“For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. . . “(Galatians 3:27).

We are Christ’s. We are members of Him. I may forget something that belongs to me, but I will not put down my hand anywhere and forget it. I may misplace a book that is in my library, but I won’t lose track of my foot. My hand and my foot are my members - they are me. Paul says that we have put on Christ. We are baptized into His body and have become one with Him.

“For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. . . . This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:30, 32).

Twenty-five years ago I was graduating from 8th grade at St. Mary Star-of-the-Sea School on the south side of Chicago. At the end of that year, the Sister said, “I want you each to take a piece of paper and write down what you want to do with your life.” Some kids said, “I want to be a teacher,” or “I want to be a mechanic,” or “I want to play for the Chicago White Sox.” But I wrote down on that piece of paper, “I want to live on a mountain and really get close to God.”


By His grace, I made it! Bone of His bones, flesh of His flesh, one body and one spirit with the Lord. What more could God say? You cannot be any closer than that. You can’t feel it, see it, or touch it, but you know it because Christ said it: He is in me and I am in Him.

Being baptised into His Body, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit.

“In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:13, 14).

Note the order: First, you heard the gospel. Second, you believed - you trusted the Lord as your Saviour. And Paul says that at that moment, God’s Holy Spirit moved in with that baptism. It was not only the baptism, but also a sealing in Him. We are not part of the vine and the branches, where the branches can be cut off if they’re not fruitful and be thrown into the fire. We are members of His body and sealed in Him, safe and secure.

Being baptised into His Body, we are seated with Christ in heaven - now!

“Even when we were dead in trespasses, [He] made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:5, 6).

We may be walking about on this earth, but we are members of Christ’s body, and our head is in heaven. Because I am one with Him, I am already seated with Him in heavenly places. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse three tells me that, because I am seated with Christ in heavenly places, God, my Father, has blessed me “with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ.”

Being baptised into His Body, we are joined to each other with a spiritual bond.

“Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians  4:3).

The same Holy Spirit that came to live in me is the same Holy Spirit that came to live in you. I don’t understand how the same person can be in me, in you, and in each member of Christ’s body, but this tells me that this one baptism by one Spirit into one body has pulled us all together - not only individually into the Lord Jesus Christ, but also with one another. When you see that unity, you begin to look at fellow Christians in a different light. You begin to treasure each one. God the Spirit is dwelling in each one to make us one body by this one spiritual baptism.

By this one baptism, I am placed into Christ and Christ into me. I become one with Him as a member of His body.

By this one baptism, I’m not only in Christ, but I’m sealed in Him forever.

By this one baptism, I have been seated in the heavenlies and have been blessed with all spiritual blessings.

By this one baptism, I’ve become one with Him and one with each member of Christ’s Body forever.

I believe in baptism - this greatest baptism in all the Bible, baptised into the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

A Final Word . . .

Maybe you’ve been baptised with water or had some kind of “religious” experience, but you can receive this real baptism. The Lord Jesus died on the cross to bear my sins and your sins, to pay for them once for all time. Whoever you are, no matter where you’ve come from, no matter what you’ve ever done, if you have never trusted in Him, He’s waiting for you and He’s inviting you now to trust in Him as your Savior. Stop trying to save yourself. Stop depending on a church, a sacrament, some ritual prayers, or a religion. God will save you tonight if you will simply put your faith in, and rely on the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. At that very moment, God the Holy Spirit will baptize you and will place you into the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. You could never be closer to God than that. If you want to be saved right now, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and God will save you.



FREE ON LINE  CONCORDANCE


IT’S  SO SIMPLE  TO USE

 Bible: King James Version

      


Posted By – Cecil Spivey
Cspivey1953@gmail.com



E-mail this Bible Study to all your friends



 
 

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Throu The Bible With – Les Feldick



Les Feldick has 81 books on-line below, along with MP3 audio recordings of all 81.
"Through the Bible with Les Feldick" is available on cable TV (on the ION network), satellite TV
(including DIRECTV and Dish Network), and on satellite TV in Europe. The program is also on lots
of local TV and radio stations. See the TV & Radio Schedule for details.




Learn more about Les Feldick Minteries
https://www.raptureready.com/who/Les_Feldick.html




How God Saves Men
Believing Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.
Believing Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.
Read Romans 1:16, Romans 10:9-10 and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4


(A 10 Minute Video)


 Posted By Cecil and Connie Spivey
cspivey1953@gmail.com


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Monday, October 12, 2009

PAUL, THE APOSTLE TO THE GENTILES



1. Romans 11:13 — "For I speak to you GENTILES, inasmuch as I am THE apostle to the GENTILES."

2. Romans 15:15-16 — ".......because of the grace that is given to me of God, that Ishould be THE minister of Jesus Christ TO THE GENTILES..."

3. Galatians 3:8 — "For He that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision (the Jews) the same was mighty in me towards the GENTILES."

4. 1 Timothy 2:7 — "Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the GENTILES in faith and verity."

5. 2 Timothy 1:11 — "Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the GENTILES.

"WE ARE TOLD TO FOLLOW PAUL, OUR EXAMPLE!

1. 1 Cor. 4:16 — " Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me." (in other translations, various phrases are used in place of the word "followers," such as "take me for your model.....follow my example.....be imitators of me.....copy me,' etc.

2. 1 Cor. 11:1 — "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ."

3. Phil. 3:17 — "Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example"

4. Phil. 4:9 — "Those things which ye have botrr teamed, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you."5. 2 Tim. 2:2 — "And the things that thou hast heard'of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also."

Eph. 3:1-2 — "For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for YOU GENTILES, IF YE HAVE HEARD OF THE DISPENSATION OF THE GRACE OF GOD WHICH IS GIVEN ME TO YOU-WARD"

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Testimony of Connie Spivey


Testimony of Connie Spivey

Going back over my childhood isn’t easy to do and I find it hard to write about; but I believe that God wants me to do this and if that is what he wants me to do; I am more than glad to do it. Growing up in the country is so different than in a large city, not so crowded with families living many miles apart. So brothers and sisters usually just played together, my sister who was two years younger, and I were pretty close.
There was an elderly couple holding Sunday school classes at the country school where I attended. My mother allowed my sister who was ten, and I was twelve to go the first Sunday. I was so surprise to hear what they were saying as they told us that God loved us so much that He gave His only Son to die on a cross and paid for all our sins and all we had to do, is just believe on Him, and accept Him into our lives and, we never had to worry about not going to Heaven when we died, that God gave us eternal life and it was a free gift! I had never felt loved as a child and I couldn’t imagine anyone loving me that much so it was easy for me to just accept Him into my life and believe in the One who had did that for me! I wanted that Person more than anything I could think of. I don’t think I understood all that was being said but, I remember when they were asking us if we wanted to accept Him as our Savior, I know I was saved in my seat but, when they ask us to come down to the front I was more than glad to go. Will when I got down to the front as I looked back I notice that all the children were gone and we were the only ones left. They had all gone home and my sister had gone also, there were thirteen of us left.

So I had to go home alone, and I couldn’t understand why my mother was anger with me. I learned my sister had told her what had happened and she was waiting with a belt for me. I was afraid of her because she had used it on me many times, but couldn’t see what made her get that anger at me since, I didn’t feel like I had did anything wrong. I was so happy before I got home and it was hard to imagine this was happening, all my joy I had felt was turning into sadness. But she said there was no such thing as “Once Saved always Saved” and I was too young to be saved in the first place.

She just told me to go to the table and eat lunch but I wasn’t hungry at all, I was wishing I could go back to school and talk some more to the nice couple who; had made me so happy with what they told me. I was devastated as I heard her telling me I could not go back to the classes anymore, since they were going to continue them through the summer. I was wondering if the other children would get to go. Will anyway I was afraid to ask her if I could go back, after that! I know that was the worst thing I felt could happen to me. I don’t believe my family understood how hurtful that was to me, my sisters that were older, made ugly remarks that hurt me. I didn’t know why they were doing this to me and why did they not understand about God; and all the things He had did for them, I was afraid to tell them, so I just kept it to myself. It wasn’t easy growing up in a non-Christian family, but time went quickly and I wanted to go to High School, we lived quite a distant from a small town where the high school was and I could walk to the bus that carried the country children to the high school in town. But after my first year my parents let me live with my Grandmother who lived close to the school.

I found that Children weren’t much different than the little country school where I had gone. The children seemed more mature than I was, and I found myself spending all my time in my books.

It seemed like everyone just lived as if there was no God! At least that was the way it looked to me; I guess they just wanted to have fun anyway they could. I knew I couldn’t forget my experience I had, and although I was confused and I had no one to talk to, and I was very lonely. I couldn’t talk to my family or my Grandmother and so that left me just talking to the “One who had made me so happy on that summer day.” I did not know He lived inside me at the time. But I did know I could trust Him with everything and I just talked to Him, I knew He was the only real friend I had. I had tried reading my bible but found I couldn’t understand it. I knew I needed someone to help me understand the Scriptures, but I was afraid to even mention it, since my mother had acted like I did something wrong when I came home from Sunday school that day. I can’t explain why I felt the way I did, but I guess it was because of the fear, that my mother had put into me as I was growing up. I know that she made a difference between me and my other sisters.

I became confused not knowing just what to do, not having any Christian friends, and not knowing how to meet them. I know there are those who might wonder why didn’t I just go to a Church and ask the people to give me all the answers I wanted to know? But I remembered what had happened when my mother told me there was no such thing as “Once saved always saved” I was afraid they would tell me the same thing.

I believe God watches over His children and I believe He was watching over me all that time. I later moved to a large city and that is where I met my husband; I found He couldn’t help me with my questions either, but he understood more than I did. He was a Christian also but, his mother had brought him up in a Pentecostal Church. So he didn’t know that he had eternal life at the present time either. He was dissatisfied with the way the Church where he went believed on the subject of our Security in Christ. Now I believe that was the reason maybe we met since we both had some of the same problems. Maybe we would be able with God’s help to find the answers we needed.

But I didn’t know it would take so long, and God wants us to know the truth and to hide it in our hearts so we can live for Him the way He desires us to. I now know that it is so much easier to live for the Lord, when you know you have eternal life and He will never take it from you. Because eternal life is eternal or it isn’t eternal life at all. So that was why I was having so much trouble and so confused, there is nothing to rejoice about if you can lose your salvation. How could you trust God and be worrying about loosing your Salvation at the same time.

But I still had a lot to learn and it took me many years to forget about those bad things that had so confused me when I was young. I would read the New Testament over and over, since that was where my husband told me to read. He knew that I certainly couldn’t understand the OT so I read the new Testament through over 15 times in about 6 months. But it was not until after my second child was born and in school. One day I was reading my bible and praying for the Lord to help me, see the Security of the believer just like I did as a child of 12. While I was reading the book of John it seemed like John 3:16 stood out to me as if it were the first time I had read it, although, I had memorized it. I was taken back in my mind to the time when I was in the little country school and I could see the same thing again. I realized I had everlasting life all that time. You can’t imagine how I felt, all my joy returned to me and I was just as happy as I was years before. I couldn’t thank God enough for what He had done for me and for allowing me to once again to see that I could not lose my salvation.

I am hopeful that my Testimony will be a help to those who may have problems about the fear of loosing their Salvation after they are saved. I know that God will keep us in Christ and I can just trust Him for everything. I can certainly trust Him after all the Scriptures say so much about our security in Christ in His Word. Here are some of them that I have made a part of my life. John 3:16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 5:24, “He that hearth my word and believeth on Him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. Colossians 2:2, Buried with Him in Baptism wherein also ye are raised with Him through the faith of the operation of God, Who hath raised Him from the dead.” (Corinthians 12:13) “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one Body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:5-6) “Even when we were dead in sins, have quickened us together with Christ (by Grace ye are saved) and raised us up together, and made us set together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” I realize as far as God is concerned we are already seated in Heaven since, we are put into His Body, by the Spirit of God. We just have to wait for our Heavenly Bodies. (1 Thessalonians 4:16) “For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Arch Angel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.”(Verse 17) “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

I believe with the help of the Lord, my husband Cecil, and I was used in my mother’s life, and she was saved before going to be with the Lord. Trying to live up to certain standards to get to Heaven is one of Satan’s lies. I know I have eternal life and the devil cannot take it away from me. Romans 8:38-39, “For I am persuaded, that neither death, not life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor heights, nor dephs, nor any other Creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We are now attending a Grace Bible Church about thirteen miles from us, and I know that the Lord has helped us come to the knowledge in His Word and to find the fellowship we have found in where we are right now.


HE PROVE HE WAS GOD
Connie (Ashlock) Spivey 1997

HE PROVED HE WAS GOD - Connie (Ashlock) Spivey 1997


 Posted By Cecil and Connie Spivey
cspivey1953@gmail.com



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Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Paul’s Gospel By - William R. Newell



           
Paul's gospel

by WILLIAM R. NEWELL
 

There are two great revelators, or unfolders of Divine Truth in the Bible—Moses in the Old Testament, and Paul in the New. 

Someone may say, "Is not Christ the Great Teacher?" In a sense this is true; but in a real sense Christ is the Person taught about, rather than teaching, in the Gospels. The law and the prophets pointed forward to Christ; the Epistles point back to Him; and the Book of Revelation points to His second coming, and those things connected with it. The Four Gospels tell the story how He was revealed to men, and rejected by them. Christ, Himself, therefore is the theme of the Bible. Moses in the Law reveals God's holiness, and thus by means of the Law reveals human sin, and the utter hopelessness and helplessness of man. Paul in his great Epistles reveals Christ as our Righteousness, Sanctification, Redemption, and All in All. 

The twelve Apostles (Matthias by Divine appointment taking the place of Judas) were to be the "witnesses" (Acts 1:22) of Christ's resurrection—that is, of the fact of it. They were not to unfold fully the doctrine of it, as Paul was. The twelve were with Jesus personally, and knew Him as a man; and when He died they saw it. When He was buried, they knew it personally, as eye-witnesses. And when He was raised, they found it out experimentally, visiting His actual tomb, and seeing that it was empty. They were also to see and handle the physical, risen body of our Lord. And it was with them that our Lord abode on earth forty days after His resurrection, "shewing Himself alive (physically, in a body) by many "infallible proofs" (Acts 1:3). 

This great fact—that is, that the Person that the Jews themselves well knew they had crucified and buried, was risen Romans the dead and ascended to heaven—this tremendous fact the twelve Apostles witnessed to Israel at Jerusalem, and everywhere else. Thus we find the opening chapters of the Book of Acts filled with the single testimony that Jesus of Nazareth had risen Romans the dead; and that remission of sins was through Him. 

But unto none of these twelve Apostles did God reveal the great body of doctrine for this age. Just as God chose Moses to be the revelator of Israel for the Ten Commandments, and all connected with the Law dispensation; so God chose Saul of Tarsus to be the revelator and unfolder of those mighty truths connected with our Lord's death, burial, and resurrection, and His ascended Person. And all the "mysteries" or "secrets" revealed to God's people in this dispensation by the Holy Spirit are revealed by Paul. Finally, Paul is the unfolder of the great company of God's elect, called the Church, the Body of Christ, the individuals of which body are called members of the Body of Christ—members of Christ Himself. 

No other Apostle speaks of these things. Peter himself had to learn them Romans Paul (2 Pet 3:15-16). When Paul finishes his thirteen great Epistles (Romansans to Philemon) those which belong to the Church, God indeed permits him to give a message then to the Hebrews. This is not part of the Church's doctrine, but is simply explaining to Hebrew Christians the character, the real application, the typical meaning, of their Levitical system—that is, how it pointed forward to Christ. 

James addresses his Epistle to "the twelve tribes"—that is, his Epistle has special reference to the Jewish Christians in the early days, and to such throughout the dispensation, for that matter. Peter writes to "the strangers who are sojourners of the Dispersion," that is, to the dispersed Jews who acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah. 

In the second of Galatians we are distinctly told by Paul, that James, Cephas and John were to go to the circumcision, while Paul tells us that his message was to the Gen-tiles. Since then the testimony by the Jewish Apostles to the Jews was duly given, there is now no distinction between Jews and Gen-tiles; and Paul's message holds good for the world, both Jews and Gen-tiles. So that we find Paul finally sets the Jewish nation aside in the last chapter of the Book of Acts, and opens his great Epistle to the Galatians at the center of the world with the statement that "there is no difference" between men; for "all have sinned;" and that there is again "no difference," for "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved;" since the same Lord is "Lord of all" (Romans 3:22-23 and Romans 10:12). 

God does as He pleases, and it pleased Him to choose—first to save people in this dispensation through "the foolishness of preaching," or the "preached thing"—that is, through the message about the Cross, and what was done there (See 1 Cor 1:21). And second, it pleased Him to choose Paul to be the great proclaimer and revealer of just what the Gospel is for this dispensation. 

You can judge any man's preaching or teaching by this rule—Is he Pauline? Does his doctrine start and finish according to those statements of Christian doctrine uttered by the Apostle Paul? 

No matter how wonderful a man may seem in his gifts and apparent consecration— if his Gospel is not Pauline, it is not the Gospel; and we might as well get our minds settled at once as to that. Paul calls down the anathema—that is the curse of God Himself—upon anyone who preaches any other Gospel than that which he declared (Galatians 1). 

Not for one moment are we to believe that James, Peter and John were at variance with Paul—not in the least. They were given certain things by the Spirit, to say to certain classes of people. They do not conflict with Paul. And their words are included in the statement that "All Scripture is profitable" (2 Tim 3:16). 

But, nevertheless, Paul is the declarer and revealer of the Gospel to us. Take Romansans to Philemon out of the Bible and you are bereft of Christian doctrine. For instance, if you were to take Paul's Epistles out of the Bible, you cannot find anything about the Church, the Body of Christ, for no other Apostle mentions the Body of Christ. You cannot find one of the great mysteries, such as the Rapture of the Church (1 Thessalonians 4; 1 Corinthians 15) or the mystery of the present hardening of Israel (Romansans 11). No other Apostle speaks of any of those mysteries. Paul alone reveals them—the great doctrines such as Justification, Redemption, Sanctification. And what is perhaps the most tremendous fact of every real Christian's life, that of his personal union to the Lord in glory. Paul is the great divinely–chosen opener to us of truth for this age. 

The great doctrines that Paul reveals may be outlined as follows— 

1. The unrighteousness before God of all men. 

2. The impossibility of justification by works before God—that is, of any man's attaining a standing of righteousness before God, by anything done by him. Do what a man may, he is a condemned sinner still. 

3. The fact and the scripturalness of righteousness on the free gift principle—that is, of a Divine righteousness, separate Romans all man's doings, conferred upon man as a free gift Romans God. 

4. Propitiation. That satisfaction of God's Holy nature and law for man's sins rendered by Christ's blood. 

5. Reconciliation. The removal, by Christ's death for man, of that obstacle to righteousness which man's sin had set up between God and man. 

6. The plan of the actual conferring of the gift of righteousness upon all who believe, without any distinction. This change of a sinner's standing before God, Romans one of condemnation to one of righteousness, is called Justification. Negatively, it is deliverance Romans guilt on account of Christ's shed blood, and deliverance out of the old creation, by identification in death with Christ on the Cross. Positively, it is a new standing in the risen Christ before God. 

7. Redemption. The buying back of the soul through the blood of Christ Romans sin; Romans the curse of the law—even death, involving exclusion Romans God, under penalty; Romans the "power of death," which involves the hand of the enemy; and Romans all iniquity. 

8. Forgiveness. The going forth of Divine tenderness in remitting penalty for sin, in view of the blood of Christ trusted in; and in complacency and fellowship, to creatures who before were necessarily under Divine judgment. 

9. Remission of sins. That is, the actual removing of transgressions or trespasses Romans the sinner, so that for all time and eternity his sins shall not again be upon him. 

10. Identification (see above, Justification). The great fact that those who are in Christ were united with Him at the Cross, by God's sovereign inscrutable act; were crucified with Christ and buried with Him; so that their history is now ended before God; and when Christ was raised up as the First-born of the new creation, they also were raised up with Him, and their history began as new creatures in God's sight, in Christ, the Last Adam. 

Of course, in the experience of the Christian, there comes a time when he is actually made partaker of this new life—that point of time when he is, as we say, saved, or converted, or born again, etc. Nevertheless, the life that is in every Christian came up out of the tomb, and it is in Christ Jesus that a man is created anew. 

11. Incorporation. This tremendous doctrine Paul alone mentions, and he makes it practically the foundation of all his exhortations to the saints with regard to their conduct and life. By "incorporation" we mean the fact that all those who are really saved and are new creatures in Christ Jesus become members of one organism, which is more real than the very earth we tread upon, called "the Body of Christ"—Christ Himself in heaven being the Head of this Body, and every real Christian a member of it. So that believers are thus members of Christ in heaven, and also members one of another here on earth. No wonder Paul is able to exhort the saints to love one another when they are members one of another! (Romansans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4). 

12. Inhabitation. The wonderful fact that the Body of Christ and each member of it individually is inhabited, indwelt, by the Holy Spirit Himself, and not only so, but that the Church is being "built together" as a great temple of God so that in the future God's actual eternal dwelling place will be this wonderful, mysterious company built into a building called "a holy habitation of God in the Spirit." 

This mystery is a great and marvelous one, the fact that we are saved, are partakers now of the life of the Lord in glory, that the Holy Spirit indwells us. 

13. Divine Exhibition. That is, that through the Church, in the ages to come, is to be made known that which God counts His "riches," even His Grace (Eph 2:7; 3:10). 
The failure or refusal to discern the Pauline Gospel as a separate and new revelation and not a "development Romans Judaism," accounts for two-thirds of the confusion in many people's minds today as regards just what the Gospel is. Paul's Gospel will suffer no admixture with works on the one hand or religious pretensions and performances on the other. It is as simple and clear as the sunlight Romans heaven. The end of man is where God begins in Romansans 3, at what might be called the opening of the Pauline Revelation. Most unsaved people today believe in their hearts that the reason they are not saved is because of something they have not yet done, some step that remains for them to take before God will accept them. But this is absolutely untrue.*** When Christ said, "It is finished," He meant that He had, then and there, paid the debt for the whole human race. "He gave Himself a ransom for all" (1 Tim 2:6). 

Now Paul in his wonderful revelation declares that God has reconciled the world to Himself; that God was in Christ (at the Cross) reconciling the world to Himself; 
(2 Cor 5:19). Men do not know this, but they conceive that something stands between them and God, before God will accept or forgive them. If you tell a man that God is demanding no good works of him whatsoever, no religious observances or church ordinances, that God is not asking him to undertake any duties at all, but that God invites him to believe a glad message that his sins have already been dealt with at the Cross, and that God expects him to believe this good news and be exceedingly happy about it—if you tell an unsaved man such a story as this, he is astonished and overwhelmed—yet this is the Gospel! 

Would that we had grace just as vigorously to defend his great message today, whether Romans its enemies or its real friends who do not see it clearly as yet; or who, like Peter (Galatians 2), through fear of others, are ready to compRomansise and tone down the Gospel of God.



Lewis Sperry Chafer
Founder of  Dallas Theological Seminary



The Coming Judgement on the Whold World- Isiah 2:14
By Les Feldick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgigDZRi-Pw

 



How God Saves Men
Believing Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.
Believing Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.
Read Romans 1:16, Romans 10:9-10 and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4


(A 10 Minute Video)




  
Posted By Cecil and Connie Spivey
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Tuesday, June 30, 2009

THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES! - By Pastor J.C. O'Hair



THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES
Pastor J.C. O'Hair


The Church That Preaches What The Bible Teaches

Read Luke 21:24 - 33 - Daniel 2:44 & 45 - Romans 11:25-26 - Ephesians 3:1-6

In Luke 21:24 we read that certain things will happen to the Jews and the land of the Jews "until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.''

In Romans 11:25 we read that certain things have happened to the Jews "until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in."

In Romans 11:11 we read that certain things happened to the Jews, that salvation might be sent to the Gentiles.

In Romans 11:30 the Gentiles received mercy from God, because of the unbelief of the Jews.

In Ephesians 3:1-4 we read that Christ committed unto Paul a dispensation revealing God's secret to Paul, "the dispensation of the grace of God for Gentiles.'' The blessed hope of those in this dispensation is Titus 2:13.

In Ephesians 3:8 we learn that God's grace was bestowed upon Paul that Paul might preach to Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.

In Colossians 1: 27 we read of the mystery among the Gentiles, "Christ in you the hope of glory." In Colossians 3:3 and 4 we learn than when Christ appears the Church will appear with Him in glory.

Then we read in Romans 11:21 and 2 Thessalonians 2:5 to 12, that if God Spared not the Jews, God will not spare the Gentiles; but as' a result of believing not the truth, great wrath will fall on the Gentiles at the end of this age and economy of grace.

Thus we learn that the fulness of the Gentiles will come in " by the coming of the Lord Jesus for His Church. This will be when God has finished the perfect man of Ephesians 4: 13.

Politically, "the times of the Gentiles will be fulfilled" by the coming of Christ, as the Son of man, in the clouds with power and great glory to redeem Israel. (Luke 21:27-33). Israel shall be saved by the coming of Israel s Deliverer out of Sion. (Romans 11: 26).

We ere surely living in "the times of the Gentiles , politically end spiritually. In fulfillment of Deuteronomy 28:13-44 and 64 to 68. Israel today is the tail end not the head.

This will change when Daniel 2:44 end 45 is fulfilled. Christ will come, as the Son of man, for Israel's deliverance out of the great tribulation. (Jeremiah 30:7 -Matthew 24:29 to 41).

Then Christ will become a mountain and fill the whole earth.

Peace on earth will not be realized until Luke 21:25 to 33 has been fulfilled. In these verses we learn that in the midst of plenty of trouble on this earth the Son of man will come in the clouds with power and great glory and then Israel's redemption and the kingdom of God will be at hand.

In the second chapter of Daniel we learn of the beginning of the times of the Gentiles, politically, about 600 BC, also the course and the culmination of the times of the Gentiles", politically. In that chapter we learn that Christ is the stone which will crush a Christ-less civilization and become a mountain and fill the whole earth. In Matthew 21: 44 Christ called Himself a Stone, and said, "Whosoever shall fall on this Stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever the Stone shall fall it will grind him to powder.'' Israel fell on the Stone some years after the Stone was smitten on the cross. Israel stumbled and fell and was broken. (Romans 9:32, 11:11, 11:19). When Israel stumbled and fell, "the times of the Gentiles, "spiritually, began. The consummation of "the times of the Gentiles," spiritually, is Titus 2:13 and Ephesians 4:13. "The times of the Gentiles," politically, will end with the Stone grinding a Christ-less civilization to powder, after the Church has been raptured.



 How God Saves Men
Believing Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.
Believing Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.
ead Acts 16L31 Romans 1:16, and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4


(A 10 Minute Video)


 Posted By Cecil and Connie Spivey
cspivey1953@gmail.com


E-mail this BIBLE STUDY to all your friends 

























After the tragic event of September 11th we often heard the question “Where was God?” or “Why did God allow this to happen?” The believer knows that God is still on His eternal throne, that He is sovereign, and nothing happens apart from His direct or permissive will, but for a season He has withdrawn from this earthly scene. He does indeed work on behalf of His own, and otherwise as well, but He acts covertly and His action seen only with the eye of faith. Bloody wars take place among the nations, thousands perish from famine, flood, earthquake and storm, but no voice or action is heard from above. In one of Sir Robert Anderson’s books the opening words are: “A silent heaven is the greatest mystery of our existence.”

What is the answer to this mystery? For two thousand years the heavens have been silent and this is strange when we compare it with Old Testament times. God was then dealing with the Hebrew nation and they saw marvelous displays of His person and power. He brought them out of slavery, making a path through the sea, and for forty years He fed them and led them and brought them into the land of promise with mighty victories over all their foes. Isaiah saw the Lord; Daniel fell at His feet; angels walked to and fro in the land; God fought for His people; heaven was not silent.

When Israel is enjoying the favor of God the heavens are open, but when Israel is in disfavor with God the heavens are silent. Between the two testaments, when Israel was being judged for their sins, there was a period of time which is often referred to as “the four hundred silent years.” God spoke His last word through Malachi and then 400 years of silence. This silence was finally broken by the appearance of the angel Gabriel to Zacharias announcing the birth of John the Baptist. Then Gabriel spoke to Mary, telling her of that Holy One which should be born of her, even the Son of God. Later the angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds, announcing the birth of the Christ-child, and from the opened heavens they heard the heavenly host praising God.

Heaven was not silent during the earthly ministry of Christ, when He was presenting Himself to Israel as their Messiah, nor was heaven silent after His resurrection and on into the Acts period, when Israel was given opportunity to repent. There were miracles, wonders, signs, angelic visitations, jail deliverances, sudden judgments, etc. The heavens were not silent. However, Acts 28:28 marks a great change. Israel no longer stands as a nation before God. They are set aside for a reason and a season. The reason was their rejection of Christ both in His incarnation and in His resurrection. The season is this present dispensation of the mystery.

After the close of the Acts period we find a great man of God sitting in the Roman prison, but no angel comes to liberate him. An age of silence has begun. A silent God. A silent heaven. This silence has already lasted two millenniums. The nations rage and we see war, sin, suffering and sorrow on every hand. The people of God oft suffer at the hands of their enemies, and we see the ever-increasing and God-defying masses sinning and sinning and sinning. And yet in the midst of it all, God remains silent.

When God turned away from Israel, that nation through which His earthly purposes are to be realized, He then and there withdrew from this earthly scene. C.H.M. wrote “So long as there was any ground of hope in connection with Israel, the heavenly mystery was held back; but when earth had been abandoned and Israel set aside, the apostle of the Gentiles, from his prison at Rome, writes to the Church, and opens out all the glorious privileges connected with its place in the heavens.” God has for a season abandoned earth but we are here as His ambassadors in enemy land and we are asked to walk by faith and not by sight. God is allowing man’s day to run its course and is permitting the full development of the mystery of lawlessness. The mystery of iniquity is working. Soon the whole will be leavened. Man’s day will be replaced by the Lord's Day. Then ...

THE SILENCE TO BE BROKEN!

This is promised everywhere in Scripture. The psalmist declared: “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence!” Just as the silence of the 400 years was broken by His first coming, so the present silence will be broken by His second coming. But before He manifests Himself to the world, He will manifest Himself to His own. This is the bright and blessed hope of the Church, the rapture, and it will be the opening rift in the silent heavens. After the Body of Christ has been removed from the scene God will begin to deal again with Israel and the nations. The silence will be broken and God will speak again, not then in grace, but in wrath. The heavens will be opened, not to pour out blessing, but disaster. The judgments of the Apocalypse will be visited upon the world, when the seals will be broken, the judgment trumpets sounded, and the vials of God’s wrath poured out.

Finally, the heavens will be fully opened and the blessed Lord Jesus Christ will return. The Apostle John saw Him as the rider on a white horse, followed by the heavenly armies, and He wrote: “He hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” The silence will be broken. The King will return and have His rightful place upon the throne, with all beneath His feet. Every eye shall see Him and the earth will be filled with His glory. And never again will there be silence, for the lines of communication will always be open between heaven and earth, both as to the millennial earth and on into the new earth.



 How God Saves Men
Believing Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.
Believing Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.
ead Acts 16L31 Romans 1:16, and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4


(A 10 Minute Video)


 Posted By Cecil and Connie Spivey
cspivey1953@gmail.com


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Friday, June 26, 2009

THE EUNUCH of Acts 8 - By Bob Thompson



THE EUNUCH of Acts 8
Bob Thompson


Great Example of Jewish Conversion —Without Water!

The eunuch of acts 8, whether Jew "by nature," or proselyte, was most certainly Jewish in re-/1 ligion, for he had come "to Jerusalem for to worship" (vs. 27). Returning to his native ___ country of Ethiopia, he was found searching the book of Isaiah when Philip joined himself to the chariot. "Understandest thou what thou readest?" asked Philip.

The eunuch was puzzled as he read the account of One being "led as a sheep to the slaughter," and how "in His humiliation His judgment was taken away . . . for His life was taken from the earth."

"Of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or some other man?" he asked. "Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same Scripture, and preached unto him Jesus."

"And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said. See here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest."

(Now hear the eunuch's confession of faith in Christ!)

"And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And . . . Philip . . . baptized him."

The following references will unmistakably prove that the eunuch's baptism in water followed, not pro­ceeded, his conversion!

1 John 4:15—"Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth IN Him, and He IN GOD." The eunuch made a confession to Philip that was acceptable to God only because he was in Christ at the time he made it.

1 John 5:1—"Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ IS horn of God . . ." The eunuch believeth it and was therefore "born of God" before water bap­tism. Millions have gone to hell professing to believe the same thing only because they did not believe "with the heart" (Romans 10:10.) God, who can not be mocked, knows the difference!

1 John 5:5—"Who is he that overcometh the -world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" The eunuch believed, and was therefore an "overcomer" before water baptism. Multitudes have professedly be­lieved this too but have remained lost because the gospel was mere religious dogma intellectually accepted, not a fact believed "with the heart."

Matt. 10:32—"Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, [the eunuch confessed before men] him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. The eunuch was therefore confessed before the "Father which is in heaven" before water baptism!

John 5:24—"He that heareth my word [the eunuch heard] and believeth on him that sent me [the eunuch believed] hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, hut is passed from death unto life." Thus, the eunuch had everlasting life before he was baptized in water.

Think on this great passage of scripture! Ponder over it and believe the gospel! Cease working for the salvation that the finished and sufficient work of Christ has already purchased for you, and accept it. Prayerfully read 1 Cor. 15:1-5 with John 6:29; Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3:5; Romans 4:5; 11:6; 2 Tim. 1:9.

"For by one man's odedience [Christ's perfect physi­cal and spiritual obedience to the Father] many were made righteous."—Rom. 5:19. (Note: "By ONE man's obedience," not two or two million") A penitent work of the heart of accepting the substitutionary work of Christ for Us is the only obedience God will accept from us, until we have been saved. To accept His work is to "obey from the heart that form of doctrine" found in 1 Cor. 15:1-5 (Romans 6:17)! This is why the Apostle Peter in Acts 3:19 gave but one condition to salvation, "Repent and be converted!" 5000 souls believed what Peter said, repented, and were saved. (Acts 4:4)

Why Was the Eunuch Baptized in Water?

People sometimes demand to know why the eunuch was baptized in water, if it was not for salvation. The eunuch was baptized in water for the sufficient reason that Philip preached unto him "Jesus," and he believed it!

It is inconceivable to an honest student of the scrip­tures that Philip could have preached Christ to this Ethiopian Jew (or Jewish proselyte) without presenting Christ as Israel's Redeemer-King, prophesied and pre­figured by Isaiah and all the prophets. (See Luke 24:25-27, 44-47; 1 Peter 1:10-11). It is equally inconceivable that Philip could have failed to mention the Messiah's forerunner, John the Baptist, whose burning message was "The Kingdom of heaven is at hand" and who promptly baptized all who came to him, "confessing their sins."

Christ Himself, who came to "fulfill the law and the prophets," (Matt. 5:17) fulfilled the prophet John by being baptized of him, though He had no sins to confess. We further read that John's baptism was "the counsel of God" against Israel. (See Luke 7:29-30)

In view of these undeniable facts, what else would a believing Jew or proselyte, like the eunuch, do but humbly submit himself to John's baptism? And the eunuch did!

The completely reckless and irresponsible position taken by some that John's baptism was revealed as hav­ing been nailed to the cross before the apostle Paul wrote his prison epistles (Ephesians and Colossians— penned some 30 years later), and that therefore John's baptism was superseded by another water baptism, is utterly fictitious and without scriptural foundation what­soever!

The eunuch, having submitted to "the counsel of God" against Israel by receiving John's baptism, "went on his way rejoicing." And no wonder!



 How God Saves Men
Believing Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.
Believing Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.
ead Acts 16L31 Romans 1:16, and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4


(A 10 Minute Video)


 Posted By Cecil and Connie Spivey
cspivey1953@gmail.com


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