Romans 3 : 3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
All posts for the month September, 2013
So what about the ten commandments?
Posted by thenonconformer on September 27, 2013
https://witnessed.wordpress.com/2013/09/27/so-what-about-the-ten-commandments/
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men
Posted by thenonconformer on September 20, 2013
https://witnessed.wordpress.com/2013/09/20/teaching-for-doctrines-the-commandments-of-men/
So what is the future hope of the nation of Israel today?
Christians are the future in God’s time tables, and they today are solely God’s people. Galatians 3:28-29 says there are no Jews in Christ…
Galatians 3:28-29, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
Many even first-century Jews could identify with the phrase “kingdom of God.” made by Jesus Christ.. They the Jews In this cultural longing for national restoration, eagerly wanted God to send them a leader who would throw off Roman rule and make Judea an independent nation again—a chosen, superior nation of righteousness, glory and blessings, a nation everyone would be attracted to. There was a variety of speculations about how this would be done. The concept was attractive, although it was not Biblical… mere human expectation… But Jesus’ in his earthly ministry, He told his disciples to preach “The kingdom of heaven has come near” and to heal the sick (Matt. 10:7; cf. Luke 10:9, 11). Not what the Jews wanted to hear.. But the kingdom most Jewish people hoped for did not happen. The Jewish nation was not restored. Even worse, the temple was rather even destroyed with all it’s records too, and the Jews were scattered. dispersed, exiled rather but why? . Even now, 2000 years later, these past Jewish hopes are still unfulfilled. Was Jesus even still predicting a national Jewish kingdom? Rather, the popular hopes and speculations were wrong. Jesus’ kingdom was not like the popular expectation—as we might guess from the fact that many Jews wanted to kill him. His kingdom was “not of this world” (John 18:36).
“Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” John the Baptist and Jesus proclaimed the nearness of God’s kingdom (Matthew 3:2; 4:17; Mark 1:15). A literal translation is “has come near.” The long-awaited rule of God was near.
When he talked about the “kingdom of God,” Jesus used a phrase the people knew, but he was giving it a different meaning. He told Nicodemus that God’s kingdom was invisible to most people (John 3:3)—to understand it or experience it, a person must be renewed by God’s Spirit (verse 6). The kingdom of God was a spiritual kingdom, not a civil and physical organization. Jesus rather indicated that His kingdom was. is already functioning. After casting out demons, Jesus said, “If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God [and he did], then the kingdom of heaven has come to you” (Matt. 12:28; Luke 11:20). “ Jesus told a parable about a man who went to a foreign country to receive a kingdom (Luke 19:12). He went not to receive the territory and bring it back with him. Rather, he went to receive the authority to rule. He then returned to the territory and had to exert that authority. The Jews were well acquainted with a historical example: Herod had gone to Rome, seeking to be appointed king. He was so appointed, but when he returned to Judea he had to raise an army and conquer the territory. What he was given in Rome was not the territory, but the permission to be its king. The Greek word basileia is focused on authority, not on territory. “
When Jesus talked about the kingdom, he didn’t emphasize its physical blessings or clarify its chronology. He focused instead on how people get in that kingdom, and how they live. We enter the kingdom when we respond to God with faith and allegiance, when we come under his authority; we then seek to live in way that is reflective of that kingdom. The kingdom is here, he said, and the proof is in the exorcisms. The power of God is invading the domain of evil, expelling the powers of evil. This proof continues in the church today, because the church is doing even greater works than Jesus did (John 14:12). We can also say, “If we cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is working here.” The kingdom of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, is continuing to demonstrate its power over the kingdom of Satan – and that power is shown not just in expelling evil spirits, but in many other activities that undo what the devil has done.Satan still exerts some influence, but he has been defeated, and “the prince of this world now stands condemned” (John 16:11). He has been partially restrained — tied up (Mark 3:27).
Jesus overcame Satan’s world (John 16:33), and with God’s help we are overcoming it, too (1 John 5:4). But not everyone does. In this age, the kingdom contains both good and bad, both wheat and tares (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43, 47-50; 24:45-51; 25:1-12, 14-30). Satan still has influence; we still look forward to a world and a time in which God’s will is done perfectly rather than partially. In Mark 10:15, Jesus indicates that the kingdom is something we must receive in some way, apparently in this life: “Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” Jesus Christ is in the church today, too, and just as the kingdom was present in the ministry of Jesus, it is present in the ministry of his church.
In Mark 10, a man wanted to inherit eternal life, and Jesus said he should keep the commandments (verses 17-19). This was apparently just a teaser of an answer, because Jesus soon added another command: He told him to give up all his possessions for the heavenly treasure (verse 21). Jesus commented to the disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” (verse 23). The disciples asked, “Who then can be saved?” (verse 26).
In Luke 12:31-34, Jesus also indicates that several concepts are similar: seeking the kingdom, being given the kingdom, having a heavenly treasure, giving up trust in physical possessions. We seek God’s kingdom by responding to what Jesus taught, and that is also the way that we enter the kingdom. (We are talking about a metaphor of allegiance here, rather than physical movement to a new territory.) God’s kingdom is the realm in which God’s will is done. In Luke 21:28, 30, the kingdom is parallel to redemption. In Acts 20:21, 24-25, 32, we learn that Paul preached the gospel of the kingdom, and he preached the gospel of God’s grace, repentance and faith.
The kingdom is closely connected with eternal life—the kingdom would not be worth preaching if we couldn’t be part of it, and it wouldn’t make sense to risk our lives for it in this age unless we were promised life in an eternal age. We can enter the kingdom only through faith, repentance and grace, so those are part of any message about God’s kingdom. Salvation is a present-tense reality as well as a promise of future blessings. Acts 28:23, 29, 31 tells us that Paul preached not only the kingdom but also about Jesus and salvation.
The King is among us; his spiritual power is in us, even though the kingdom is not yet operating in its full power. We have already been brought into God’s kingdom (Colossians 1:13). We are already receiving a kingdom, and our proper response is reverence and awe (Hebrews 12:28). Christ “has made us [past tense] to be a kingdom” (Revelation 1:6). We are a holy nation (1 Peter 2:9)—already and currently a holy kingdom—but it does not yet appear what we shall be. God has rescued us from the dominion of sin and transferred us into his kingdom, under his ruling authority. Eternal life with the triune God will be good primarily because of the relationships of love that will be in eternity – honesty and kindness will prevail. That sort of behavior has good results – not just in the future, but in the present age as well. So God invites us into this way of life.
The kingdom is not just a future reality – people are even now entering God’s kingdom by responding to what he offers. He offers not an artificial world in which our enjoyment has no connection with the way we treat other people, but a world or kingdom in which joy is the natural result of love, of treating others the way we wish to be treated.
Jesus is already ruling, and we should be living his way now. We Christians do have now a small foretaste of what we will have in the future. We don’t yet possess a territory, but we do come under the reign of God. The kingdom of God is here now, as Jesus said Not by any means what many Jews still want to or expect to happen sadly.. At the end of the age, the Messiah Jesus Christ will return in his full power and glory, the weeds and tares, Satan now too will be removed, and the kingdom of God will again be transformed in appearance. There will be no separate Jewish Kingdom here too.. The final form of the kingdom in Heaven now too , in which everyone is perfect and spiritual, will be dramatically different from the millennial one. The Holy Spirit himself now is our guarantee of greater blessings (2 Corinthians 5:5, Ephesians 1:14).
Today the church is the true Israel and Christians are God’s true “Jews” today.
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Jesus taught that God would take his blessings away from fleshly Israel who rejected him as Christ and give it to the Gentiles. Jesus clearly taught the Gentile believers would replace Jewish non-believers.
a. “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it. ” (Matthew 21:43)
b. The Jews who heard this understood what Rapture false teachers today refuse to see: “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them. ” (Matthew 21:45)
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The Bible clearly teaches that God’s true Jews today are Christians:
a. “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God. ” (Romans 2:28-29)
b. “Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God [Christians]. ” (Galatians 6:15-16)
c. “for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, ” (Philippians 3:3)
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Even the apostolic fathers of the first and second century believed and taught “replacement theology”:
a. “Christians are the True Israel” (Justin Martyr, Dialogues, Chapter CXXIII, 130 AD)
b. “As therefore from the one man Jacob, who was surnamed Israel, all your nation has been called Jacob and Israel; so we from Christ, who begat us unto God, (like Jacob, and Israel, and Judah, and Joseph, and David,) are called and are the true sons of God, and keep the commandments of Christ” (Justin Martyr, Dialogues, Chapter CXXIII, 130 AD)
c. “Christ is King of Israel, and Christians are the Israelitic Race. (Justin Martyr, Dialogues, Chapter CXXXV, 130 AD)
d. “As, therefore, Christ is the Israel and the Jacob, even so we, who have been quarried out from the bowels of Christ, are the true Israelitic race.” (Justin Martyr, Dialogues, Chapter CXXXV, 130 AD)
e. “For all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in their hearts.’ … But though a man be a Scythian or a Persian, if he has the knowledge of God and of His Christ, and keeps the everlasting righteous decrees, he is circumcised with the good and useful circumcision, and is a friend of God, and God rejoices in his gifts and offerings.” (Justin Martyr, Dialogues, Chapter XXVIII, 130 AD)
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The Parable of the Landowner: Israel replaced by Church/Christians
Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who PLANTED A VINEYARD AND PUT A WALL AROUND IT AND DUG A WINE PRESS IN IT, AND BUILT A TOWER, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. “When the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce. “The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third. “Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them. “But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ “But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ “They took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. “Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?” They said to Him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.” Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone; THIS CAME ABOUT FROM THE LORD, AND IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES’? “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it. “And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them. When they sought to seize Him, they feared the people, because they considered Him to be a prophet. ” (Matthew 21:33-46)
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In a parable so crystal clear only a premillennialist could get it wrong, the Jews, as a nation, were going to be replaced by something new, the church.
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“He will bring those wretches to a wretched end” happened in 70 AD.
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Now clearly the entire leadership of the apostolic church and most of the Elders in the churches were Jewish. But they had become Christians who stopped keeping the Sabbath and abandoned the Mosaic system of Judaism. They began immediately worshipping god on the first day of the week, the Lord’s day.
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Jesus went to the Jews first but they rejected Him as the Messiah. The church, (the kingdom) is now open to both Jew and Gentile equally. Both must believe, repent, confess Jesus as Lord and be baptized for the remission of their sins. There is only one way to get saved! Jews have no special route to heaven that gentiles do not have. They all must believe and do the same things to be saved.
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Paul always began his evangelism in a new city by preaching in the Jewish synagogues. When the Jews rejected the gospel, he turned to the gentiles: “But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming. Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. ” (Acts 13:45-46)
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“This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, [Israel] “THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE VERY CORNER stone,” and, “A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE”; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed. But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY. ” (1 Peter 2:7-10)
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a. Notice that the “you are a chosen, holy nation of priests”, which was originally applied to fleshly Israel at the foot of Mt. Sinai is now applied to Christians to the exclusion of physical Israel unless they believe.
i. “and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.” ” (Exodus 19:6)
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ii. “”For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. ” (Deuteronomy 7:6)
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b. Notice that the text applies these special blessings of being “you are a chosen, holy nation of priests” to the gentiles and that fleshly Israel was “appointed to doom”
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National Identities are destroyed in Christ:
1. Passages:
a. “For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. ” (Ephesians 2:14-16)
b. “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise. ” (Galatians 3:26-29)
2. Notice that in fulfilling Isa 2:2-4, Christ brought about peace between all the nations that were at war.
3. When a Jew becomes a Christian, he ceases to be a Jew and becomes a new creature.
4. In Christ there are no national competing identities like there were under the Old Testament.
5. National Jews have no advantage over Americans, Canadians, Egyptians or Iranians.
6. Today Christians are God’s “chosen race” and they can be from any nation on earth.
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Summary
1. “Replacement Theology” or “Fulfillment Theology”, also known as “Supersessionism” is the true Bible doctrine that Christians and the Church of Christ replaced the Jews and the nation of Israel.
2. Jesus taught Replacement Theology.
3. The apostles taught Replacement Theology.
4. The apostolic fathers like Justin Martyr taught Replacement Theology.
5. There is no special plan of salvation today for the Jews. There is one gospel and Jews and Gentiles must obey the same gospel and be saved exactly the same way.
6. There is nothing in the bible that teaches that at the end of time, God will bring Israel back to Canaan and offer them alone a special salvation merely because they are blood descendants of Abraham.
7. There is no distinction in God’s eyes today between Jews and Gentiles. Jews who reject Jesus Christ as their messiah are in exactly the same spiritual state as Hindus, Muslims or atheistic evolutionists.
8. There is not a Jew alive that can prove his Jewish heritage through genealogy. Most Jews in Israel today are Russian proselytes.
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Also The signs of Matthew 24 prophecies the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD not the second coming and certainly not some “Rapture” theology that was invented in 1830 AD by John Darby. When Christians saw the signs, they fled the city and were saved.
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Posted by thenonconformer on September 12, 2013
https://witnessed.wordpress.com/2013/09/12/so-what-is-the-future-hope-of-the-nation-of-israel-today/
The New Jerusalem
Mark 11:17 – 19:And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves. And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine. And when even was come, he went out of the city.
Mat 21:19 And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away. 20 And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away!
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Mat 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! 38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
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Luke 7:22 Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel
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Here is what everyone has to know, admit, Pentecostals and Baptists, Jews, Messianic Jews, all ye Bible lovers now included, Jesus own actual reply to the Question he was asked Acts 1:6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? and his reply was Matthew 23:38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. and Luke 13:35 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Acts 1:20 For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take. Now Jesus and the New testament does not talk about a partial, eventual restoration of the Nation of Israel or earthly Jersualem as God’s center.. but a total dispertion next of the Jews.. Luke 23:28 But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. 29 For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. 30 Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. 31 For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?
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I have studied the subject of end times prophecy for 50 years, talked to some of the greatest preachers on the subject even face to face.. and there is nothing really to support most of these prophecy nuts.. It is mostly dispensationalist lies where most of the expositors cannot agree even with each other.. last week a friend told me he could have bough a car on those past useless, false prophecy books, tapes, videos, conferences he had wasted money for 122 years.. Look at what the angel said to Daniel on this subject
Dan 12: 1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. 5 Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river.6 And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.8 And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?
9 And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
10 Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.11 And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.12 Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.13 But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.
And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
Many people seem to forget this.. while they try to force their views , interpretations without the holy Spirit..
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Since God is sovereign and the New Testament was written in Greek and Aramaic according to his will and not in Hebrew. Could not have God writtten the New Testament rather in Hebrew and why did he not.? Why? it is cause He got rid of the old covenant and made a new covenant that wasn’t not Jewish anymore.. that included now the gentiles..
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It may surprise you to discover that the New Testament never uses the term ‘chosen’ to describe the Jewish people. It is only used of those who follow Jesus.
Because of their rejection of Jesus Christ as their savior, Lord Messiah all of the Jews stopped being God’s chosen people, their temple was destroyed permanently, and no new temple will be rebuilt with God’s approval anymore even because Jesus Christ himself is the new temple of God, https://witnessed.wordpress.com/2008/11/16/are-you-a-real-christian-or-a-pretender-imposter-still/
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nor does God approve of the Jews as having have any rights to the promised land anymore as well.. they the Jews like Cain are trying to reestablish their own false reilgion now instead..
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(Heb 11:4 KJV) By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.
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(1 John 3:12 KJV) Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
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for more see https://witnessed.wordpress.com/2012/02/23/the-fall-of-jerusalem/
Posted by thenonconformer on September 6, 2013
https://witnessed.wordpress.com/2013/09/06/the-new-jersualem/
Holiness
Be warned many people falsely find this message disturbing to them
YOU WILL NEVER GET HOLINESS WITHOUT JESUS CHRIST AND THE HOLY SPIRIT.. HOLINESS IS MADE POSSIBLE BY THE HOLY SPIRIT IN YOU WHO IS HOLY
Holiness starts with Biblical repentance BY admitting one sins to God, stopping and consciously turning away from them, turning back toward God, and personally accepting Jesus Christ finished work, forgiveness for them. True repentance is confession, contrition, change; replacement and it involves the whole person, Our Body, Soul, Spirit. It is also a personal, ongoing event. While God will do his part even now related to the the issues of overcoming sin, sanctification, carrying out God’s plans, or on our being able to live a holy life we also must do our own part, cooperating with God and his word…
Eph 4:24 KJV) And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
(Rom 6:19 KJV) I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
(Luke 1:75 KJV) In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.
(Isa 35:8 KJV) And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.
WE FIRSTLY ARE FULLY JUSTIFIED, FORGIVEN AND ACCEPTED NOW IN JESUS CHRIST
We don’t have to be perfect or to achieve some standard of holiness to be able to come into God’s presence and have an audience with Him but to be continually effectively use by God we must maintain our holiness, OUR walk in holiness. Sanctification and holiness also means the appropriating daily by faith the BENEFIT of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and other qualities of godly character. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such there is no law.” (Galatians 5:23,24).
(Psa 19:14 KJV) Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.
(2 Cor 7:1 KJV) Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
Sanctification also results in other qualities of our godly character such as courage, endurance, truthfulness, honesty and many others. Sanctification is rooted in humility – the correct view of God and oneself which leads one to hear correction from God and others, to put down selfish desires, and to obey God from the heart. The more truly humble a person is, the more God’s grace will work in his or her life to produce all the other elements of godly character.
Sanctification means God and us overcoming sin. As God comes in and fills the life, darkness and deception and evil desire is rooted out and rejected, cast out. The process of God’s sanctification will change our motives, our thinking, our speaking, our behavior and our actions. The old nature will be crucified (Galatians 5:24) and what it produced will be stopped. A sanctified person will also then be like God in His character and personality.
HOLINESS, SANCTIFICATION IS ALSO FIRST BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS
“Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace.” (Hebrews 10:29).
The Scripture teaches us that the blood of the Jesus sanctifies us. Not only does it justify us or make us right with God – it also sanctifies us. It changes us.
The first step for any person coming to God is to believe in the power of the blood of Jesus. This blood represents the payment for our sin. It takes sin away. We must believe that through the blood of Jesus we are forgiven. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). Knowing we are forgiven and free from guilt, we can serve God with a clear conscience and without fear (Hebrews 9:14). We can go forward in our walk with God.
But APPLYING, ACCEPTING the blood means more than JUST ACCEPTING OUR forgiveness IT ALSO involves our personal commitment to God and him alone, and that is the way also of our sanctification. Applying personally God’s forgivness, the blood of jesus and next wlking in, doing our own things, our own ways will insure we fail in our santifcation rather.
It is important to note the shed blood of this New Covenant Covenant
. A real Christian is in blood covenant relationship with God. The Blood covenant is a serious types of agreements between God and man. Being in blood covenant with someone means “All that I have is yours, and all that you have is mine.” We must realize that this is our relationship to God. All that we have is His (1 Corinthians 6:19), and yet all that He has is ours in Christ (1 Corinthians 3:21; Romans 8:17; Romans 8:32; Matthew 7:7).
We are no longer our won boss, nor do we walk in our way or other men’s way. (Acts 5:29 KJV) Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. 30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. 31 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. 32 And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.
When we realize and practice that the blood of Jesus means that God has bought us and all that we have and are belongs to him – this has a powerful affect on our lives. We realize that we are no longer our own to go off and do whatever we choose. We must now continually listen to, obey God. The detail knowledge of this blood covenant can thus change us.
THE IMPORTANCE OF A TOTAL CONSECRATION
The knowledge of the blood covenant we are in as Christians calls for a conscious acknowledgement, total consecration and dedication of ourselves to God. Paul writes, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1).
Many professing Christians wrongfully now have not still made Jess the complete lord and of each and every aspect of their live, pastors and elders included.
We are called to consciously dedicate our bodies completely to God and this something we must do also continually. It is also a faith response towards God. It means that we are totally available for whatever God wants us to do. It means that our eyes, our ears, our hands, our feet, our mouth and our brains are given willingly over to God’s purposes. It means that our sexuality, family, work, income too also now is given over to God’s control. It means that our eating and drinking, walk will be for the glory of God only (1 Corinthians 10:31).
The truth is that our body, soul and spirit form a unity and are linked together in many important ways. Dedicating the body to God completely will next thus affect also the mind, the will and the emotions. God will help us also to transform us in every way – in our thinking, in our behavior, in our words, in our actions – if He truly has the keys to our lives which we have voluntarily given back to Him. The renewing of the mind (Romans 12:2) can only truly take place in the life of someone who has dedicated and offered his or her body to God. and if they abide in Jesus Christ, God, the Holy spirit and in his words, in the Bible.
(Psa 51:10 KJV) Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Jesus Christ is always still the centre of my life in every area. (1 Cor 2:2 KJV) For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Sanctification, a total dedication to God also now implies a dedication to constant Spirit-led prayer life. The Bible exhorts us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17), to “continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving” (Colossians 4:2), to be “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18).
This kind of consistent prayer is only possible by the power and working of the Holy Spirit and abiding in Christ and his word. We should be depending on the Holy Spirit, the power of the cross and every other empowerment God gives us, especially through His Word the Bible. We cannot achieve it simply through any self-effort. But we can and should ask God to work in us to produce this kind of prayer life.
(Heb 13:15 KJV) By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
What does this our total consecration to God mean in practice? Firstly it means living a life of praise to God, and obedience to God, being willing to be willing to worship and obey God always and live for Him in everything. It does not mean punishing oneself or inflicting oneself with , acts, duties we imagine that God might be pleased with according to us or others.
God far prefers wholehearted obedience to man-inspired sacrifices ((1 Sam 15:22 KJV) And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.).
(Rom 10:17 KJV) So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
(James 1:22 KJV) But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. 26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. 27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. 2:1 My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
Secondly this consecration also still means our self denial and taking up the cross daily. Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” (Luke 9:23). We cannot be totally consecrated to God without “coming after Jesus” and Jesus tells us what will be necessary.
a. We must deny ourselves. This means saying no to the demands of self. It means saying no to selfish desires, the easiness and comfort that our flesh wants for itself, the “right” to indulge the sinful nature and to violate God’s law of love. It means saying no to pleasures which don’t come from God and don’t lead us to God.
b. We must take up our cross daily. Every day we will have opportunity to die to ourselves. Paul said, “I die daily.” (1 Corinthians 15:31). Taking up the cross means surrendering to God’s will when it is different to our own will, even when the path of God’s will means passing through pain and suffering. However, we know that “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:31).
The more we consent to be united with Jesus in the likeness of his death, the more we will share in his resurrection power (Romans 6:5). That is true even in this life.
c. We must follow Him. This means seeking to be in His presence always through prayer, modeling our lives on His life, identifying ourselves with His nature and His purposes, and gladly obeying His commands.
Do stay in touch with the Holy Spirit and do not lose the touch of the Holy Spirit upon you personally, for even King Saul and Samson had sadly lost it..
http://comeholyspirit.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/sanctification-and-holiness/
Posted by thenonconformer on September 2, 2013
https://witnessed.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/holiness/
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