Repent and Believe the Gospel!



REPENT AND BELIEVE THE GOSPEL!
Jesus said,"The time is fullfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the Gospel"
The Gospel is that the Word of God became a man; Jesus, the only begotten of the Father, the Son of God, full of grace and truth, and lived in this world with every temptation that you and I face, and yet He never sinned and He gave himself to die on the cross and shed His blood for our sins. God made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. He was buried in a tomb, and on the third day the Father raised Him from the dead. He was seen of above 500 witnesses after He arose and He ascended to the right hand of the Father in heaven. He is there right now, alive, making intercession on our behalf to the Father. He is coming again with all the saints and all the angels in great power and glory and all who live and believe in him will be united with him and thus will we ever be with the Lord. I urge you to seek Him now, during this time while the long suffering of God is waiting, for the Day of the Lord is coming soon. He loves you and He will save you to the utter most if you will put your trust in Him.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Christians With Devils?

You who teach that a christian cannot have a devil. I would say to you, again, with all due respect for you and your ministry, It says in the scriptures that Mary Magdalene was delivered of 7 devils. We can surely assume that Jesus cast them out with His Word, as the scriptures say He did. Can you tell me when He did so? Was it before she believed on Him? He was always telling people that He healed"Your faith hath made you whole".It is most likely that she believed and was delivered. I have actually heard it said at certain conferences that christians who say they have a devil have never been born again.By what scriptural authority can you say that? It's just not true. The truth is almost no one casts out devils and Jesus and the apostles did so often. It says in the scriptures that Simon believed and was baptized, in Samaria, when he heard Phillip preaching and saw the miracles. He had deceived the whole city through sourcery. It is safe to say that he had devils. Are you saying that Phillip baptized someone who was not born again, when he required the Ethiopian eunuch to truely believe and confess Jesus before he would baptize him?
Jesus said,"If you continue in my Word, then you will be my diciples indeed, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." That says clearly that even though we have believed on Him, we are still in some degree of bondage, and we must continue in His Word to be free. There must be a proper foundation of repentance and faith toward God before we can possibly maintain any freedom. You can say that I was not born again, but I know I was in 1976. There was an immedeate change in my life and I repented of my sins with all my heart, and was baptized in water. I received the baptizm in the Holy Spirit not long after. It was not until the mid 1980's that the Lord Jesus began to cast devils out of me. It was not an easy time because they were manifesting and tormenting me, but He brought me through it. I know I was delivered of at least 5 devils during that time. I am so thankful that He brought me to a ministry that believed in casting out devils. The truth is, even though you may be born again, if you have never been delivered, you are still in bondage. But also, if you continue with Jesus you are going to be set free. Someone who has been a christian for very long should have been delivered of any devils they may have had.
Also, if we have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, where are the manifestations? In some ministries that talk much about the Holy Spirit you never see any of the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit in operation in any of their meetings. Why? Jesus said as recorded in Mark 16, "...and these signs shall follow them that believe (the Gospel); in my name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues..." I have been operating in the gifts of the Spirit from the begining of my walk with the Lord, including prophecy, tongues and interpretation, working of miracles, gift of faith, healing, word of wisdom, word of knowledge, it is just a normal part of the Christian life to me. The Lord has also led me in many righteous paths to deal with my wickedness and break me and bring me to repentance, and as I continue in His Word I am learning the truth, I am becoming His disciple, and I am being made free. Free to obey Him and follow the Holy Spirit to do the will of the Father.
 
 
 

Walk in the Light

1John 1:1-10
John 3:16-21How do we walk in the light? God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.But if we walk in the light we have fellowship one with another and with the father and with his Son Jesus Christ, and His blood cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The Apostle Paul said "I exercise myself daily to have a conscience void of offense toward God and man. This is how we walk in the light. If we sin we go to God and confess it and He forgives us for Jesus sake, and the sin is purged by His blood, and our consciense is purged of the offense. If we do not take it to Him, if we say no I haven't sinned, when the Holy Spirit is pricking our conscience, and we harden our heart, we deceive ourselves, and the sin remains uncleansed by His blood and we are guilty before God. We are thereby separated from Him and from true fellowship with our brothers and sisters. He is merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but he will by no means clear the guilty. We must bring it to Him and confess our sin and then He will forgive us and cleanse us by the blood of Jesus, and we continue to walk on with Him being led by the Holy Spirit to do the will of the Father in fellowship with Him and with our brothers and sisters, with no condemnation and no guilt because of the wonderful gift of God of His grace through the Lord Jesus Christ, justified by faith in His shed blood. We may also need to go to a brother or sister if we have sinned against them and repent to them. When we obey God in this manner, again our conscience is purged of the offense, and we walk on with a conscience void of offense toward God and man. Love does no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fullfilling of the law. We cannot say, "Because I am in faith it is not sin.", when we are doing ill to our neighbor, because faith works by love. If we love God we will keep His Word. When we are led by the Spirit and we walk in the light there is no condemnation and no guilt. In John 3:19-21 Jesus said, And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that does evil hates the light, and will not come to the light, unless his deeds should be reproved. But he that does truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God.

The Gospel

The Gospel means "The Good News". What good news? God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Who is He? His name is Jesus. He is the Son of God. He willingly came to Earth from Heaven. He was born of the Virgin Mary. He became a man like us. He had a body like us, but He was the Son of God. He was... born holy! The scripture says He was tempted in every way like us, yet He never sinned. He went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil. Yet the religious leaders and many of the people hated Him and condemned Him to death by crucifixion. However, it was the will of the Father for Him to willingly give Himself on the cross a living sacrifice for our sins. Because He knew no sin, when his blood was shed it completely satisfied the Father in heaven for all our sins.The scripture says the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus. He was buried in a tomb, and on the third day the Father raised Him from the dead by His mighty power. Jesus is the first begotten from the dead.
We are dead in our trespasses and sins. We must repent of our sins and believe the Gospel, calling on the Lord, and be baptized,
baptized into His death, our old sin nature is buried with Him, and we are raised with him, justified from all things. We become the righteousness of God in Him! We must receive the Holy Spirit and be led by Him to do the will of God from the heart. Jesus said in John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another helper, that he may abide with you forever- the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
Jesus said take up your cross daily and follow Him. You must receive the Holy Spirit so you can be led by Him. The Holy Spirit will never lead you to sin. So as you continue to believe the Gospel, believing that you are dead to sin in Him, as you were baptized into His death, and you are alive unto God in Him through His resurrection, you will be led by the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus and do the will of the Father from your heart, you will be walking in righteousness by faith, pleasing God! If you sin, you can confess your sin to Him, and His blood that he shed on the cross, faith in His blood, justifies you before the Father, just as though you had never sinned. You will be saved from the wrath of God to come, if you continue in Him. You will be delivered from everything that hinders you. He overcame death and sin and all the powers of darkness when he rose from that grave! He appeared to His disciples several times afterwards for a period of 40 days before He ascended to heaven to the right hand of God, where He is right now, making intersession for us. He is alive! He will save you completely if you will come to Him and give yourself completely to Him. Jesus said "Repent and believe the Gospel, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand".

False Grace

If there is true grace, as spoken by the Apostle Peter in 1Pet 5:12, then it is very likely that there is false grace as well. One of the most effective methods of the Devil which he uses to try to rob you of your inheritance is to convince you that you have something when you don't. False grace is that way. It is designed to convince you that you are secure and justified before God when you may not really be. Lately I've been hearing some teachings that do not seem to agree with what is written in God's Word, yet they are being widely and enthusiastically received by christians all over the globe.
The main thrust of it is that Jesus did it all on the cross. He paid it all. It is a complete finished work. This is absolutely the truth, but this teacher goes beyond what is written to put forth a "radical grace" that includes many statements contrary to the Word of God in it's proper context, thereby establishing a false sense of justification and righteousness before God which can ultimately lead to destruction.
Here following are some of those statements:
1. "When you receive Jesus you are saved forever."
This is not a new doctrine. It is simply a re-packaging of "Once saved-always saved." This teacher refers often to Heb 10:10 which states that we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, and vs 14 says "For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." He states that a believer is once cleansed, it is a never to be repeated act, and that the effect lasts forever. This is a perversion of scripture. The Apostle Paul is simply saying that Jesus was once offered. He does not have to offer Himself often. You have to consider the context of the whole chapter. Vs 26 and 27 state that if you go and sin willfully you are facing judgement.
2. "All judgement is past for a christian" "No more judgement" "It was all finished on the cross." "What is in front of you is just hope and a beautiful future." Sounds really good, but is it the truth? Heb 10:26-31 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. This teacher actually calls these verses "obscure", stating that we should rather cling to John 3:16 which is a "certain" passage, and that "Once Jesus gives you eternal life, you will never perish." "Don't let the obscure passage rob you of the joy of the certain passge"

My friends, all of God's Word, every Word , is clear and certain, and true.
Some other scriptures to consider here: Rom 14:10 ..."We shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ." Vs 12, ..."every one of us shall give account of himself to God."
3. "God would be unjust to punish you for the same sin He already punished His Son for" " All your sins are forgiven, past, present, and future" "Repentance is changing your mind"
The Bible says that sin is the transgression of the law. There must be a transgression comitted for there to be a sin. And, according to 1 John 1:9, there must be a confession to be forgiven. There is no such thing as a future sin, and there is no forgiveness without true repentance. Repentance is way more than changing your mind. It involves Godly sorrow and an ackowledging of the truth and a true turning from the evil resulting in a true change in the person. There will be works meet for repentance. In Revelation, chapters 2 and 3, Jesus, in talking to the seven churches, repeatedly says "I know thy works" and "I will give unto everyone of you according to your works." And in Rev 2:21&22 "And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds." Luk 24:46 And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: Luk 24:47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
These are just a sampling of the things that are being taught in the name of grace that simply are not true. There are many things taught by this same person that are true. Why the mixture? I encourage us all to be like the Bereans in Act 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

He That Does Righteousness

1Jn 3:7&8 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
He that committs sin is of the devil; for the devil sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
Rom 6:14-18 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace.
What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Know you not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
But God be thanked, that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
Being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness.
Yes you are righteous because of Jesus' obedience if you repent and believe the Gospel. Because you believe what he did on the cross it is imputed to you for righteousness. If you believe that you were baptised into His death, that you are indeed dead unto sin and alive unto righteousness. If you, when you sin, confess your sin He is faithfull to forgive you and cleanse you and you walk on in faith and obedience. Repenting and believing the Gospel, baptized in water, having received the gift of the Holy Spirit, being led by the Holy Spirit every day to do the will of the Father, thus you are doing righteousness. To say that your righteousness has nothing to do with your obedience and only to do with Jesus obedience is a lie, and the Holy Spirit is no lie. Jesus said in Matt 7, Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that does the will of my Father. He that does righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous.