Gospel Life Church

“Holiness is the habit of being of one mind with God, according as we find His mind described in Scripture. It is the habit of agreeing in God’s judgment, hating what He hates, loving what He loves, and measuring everything in this world by the standard of His Word. ” J C Ryle“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”― A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of GodWithout the pursuit of holiness the church is open to division and conflict:James 3 13 If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. 15 For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. 16 For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. 17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. 18 And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness. 1 Corinthians 5I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you—something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother. 2 You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship. 3 Even though I am not with you in person, I am with you in the Spirit. And as though I were there, I have already passed judgment on this man 4 in the name of the Lord Jesus. You must call a meeting of the church. I will be present with you in spirit, and so will the power of our Lord Jesus. 5 Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns. 6 Your boasting about this is terrible. Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us. 8 So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth. 9 When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. 10 But I wasn’t talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or are greedy, or cheat people, or worship idols. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that. 11 I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don’t even eat with such people. 12 It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. 13 God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.” As a church we are in a battle for holiness and against sin. We can get distracted and think its about other things.This is what we are doing in CG, when we listen to messages, when we sing worship songs, when we get together for fellowship. People not interested in holiness will not understand why we do what we do and will not have much interest in it.We MUST understand that God’s love is an invitation into his holiness. If we are not pursuing holiness we really don’t understand the love of God. Hebrews 12 14 Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord. 15 Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.You are going to be ultimately satisfied with something and you can call yourself a Christian but really have very little interest in pursuing holiness.The sin of one affects us all. ILLUSTRATION: My dad sick in the hospital.One of the first signs of new life is that the individual takes sides with God against himself.” ― Donald Grey Barnhouse“Keep in mind that when sin is viewed superficially, it is dealt with superficially.” ― Erwin W. LutzerPutting the man out of the community was not mean.We celebrate Jesus by pursuing holiness:2 Chronicles 29 4 He summoned the priests and Levites to meet him at the courtyard east of the Temple. 5 He said to them, “Listen to me, you Levites! Purify yourselves, and purify the Temple of the Lord, the God of your ancestors. Remove all the defiled things from the sanctuary.2 Chronicles 30:1 King Hezekiah now sent word to all Israel and Judah, and he wrote letters of invitation to the people of Ephraim and Manasseh. He asked everyone to come to the Temple of the Lord at Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover of the Lord, the God of Israel.2 Chronicles 35 6 Slaughter the Passover lambs, purify yourselves, and prepare to help those who come. Follow all the directions that the Lord gave through Moses.” Ezra 6 19 On April 21 the returned exiles celebrated Passover. 20 The priests and Levites had purified themselves and were ceremonially clean. So they slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the returned exiles, for their fellow priests, and for themselves. 21 The Passover meal was eaten by the people of Israel who had returned from exile and by the others in the land who had turned from their immoral customs to worship the Lord, the God of Israel.John 2: 13 It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. 14 In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. 15 Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables. 16 Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!” Paul is saying, we celebrate Jesus by living out what Jesus has done for us. He has made us holy, so we pursue holiness.Here is what it looks like:Luke 18 9 Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: 10 “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! 12 I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’ 13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ 14 I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”A Pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself, but a spiritual man is easy on others and hard on himself. TozerThe greatest test of whether the holiness we profess to seek or to attain is truth and life will be whether it produces an increasing humility in us. In man, humility is the one thing needed to allow God’s holiness to dwell in him and shine through him. The chief mark of counterfeit holiness is lack of humility. The holiest will be the humblest. Andrew MurrayPsalm 100 1 Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth! 2 Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy. 3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. 5 For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation. John 20 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” No man should desire to be happy who is not at the same time holy. He should spend his efforts in seeking to know and do the will of God, leaving to Christ the matter of how happy he should be. TozerI may no longer depend on pleasant impulses to bring me before the Lord. I must rather response to principles I know to be right, whether I feel them to be enjoyable or not. (Jim)I am only as significant as the things which I am idolizingThe Christian God seemed the most offensive to people precisely because he was the most godlike.“Holiness is as much about what you do on a Monday morning on the factory floor as it is about what you do on a Sunday morning in a church gathering. Holiness is as much about the kind of neighbor you are as it is about the kind of church member you are. It is as much about who you are when you are holding a steering wheel as who you are when you are holding a Bible.” ― Tim Chester“Holiness is found in how we treat others, not in how we contemplate the cosmos. As our experiences in marriages, families, and friendship teach us, it takes relationships to provide the friction that wears down our rough edges and sanctifies us.” ― Terryl Givens

“Holiness is the habit of being of one mind with God, according as we find His mind described in Scripture. It is the habit of agreeing in God’s judgment, hating what He hates, loving what He loves, and measuring everything in this world by the standard of His Word. ” J C Ryle“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”― A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of GodWithout the pursuit of holiness the church is open to division and conflict:James 3 13 If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. 15 For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. 16 For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. 17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. 18 And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness. 1 Corinthians 5I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you—something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother. 2 You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship. 3 Even though I am not with you in person, I am with you in the Spirit. And as though I were there, I have already passed judgment on this man 4 in the name of the Lord Jesus. You must call a meeting of the church. I will be present with you in spirit, and so will the power of our Lord Jesus. 5 Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns. 6 Your boasting about this is terrible. Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us. 8 So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth. 9 When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. 10 But I wasn’t talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or are greedy, or cheat people, or worship idols. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that. 11 I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don’t even eat with such people. 12 It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. 13 God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.” As a church we are in a battle for holiness and against sin. We can get distracted and think its about other things.This is what we are doing in CG, when we listen to messages, when we sing worship songs, when we get together for fellowship. People not interested in holiness will not understand why we do what we do and will not have much interest in it.We MUST understand that God’s love is an invitation into his holiness. If we are not pursuing holiness we really don’t understand the love of God. Hebrews 12 14 Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord. 15 Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.You are going to be ultimately satisfied with something and you can call yourself a Christian but really have very little interest in pursuing holiness.The sin of one affects us all. ILLUSTRATION: My dad sick in the hospital.One of the first signs of new life is that the individual takes sides with God against himself.” ― Donald Grey Barnhouse“Keep in mind that when sin is viewed superficially, it is dealt with superficially.” ― Erwin W. LutzerPutting the man out of the community was not mean.We celebrate Jesus by pursuing holiness:2 Chronicles 29 4 He summoned the priests and Levites to meet him at the courtyard east of the Temple. 5 He said to them, “Listen to me, you Levites! Purify yourselves, and purify the Temple of the Lord, the God of your ancestors. Remove all the defiled things from the sanctuary.2 Chronicles 30:1 King Hezekiah now sent word to all Israel and Judah, and he wrote letters of invitation to the people of Ephraim and Manasseh. He asked everyone to come to the Temple of the Lord at Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover of the Lord, the God of Israel.2 Chronicles 35 6 Slaughter the Passover lambs, purify yourselves, and prepare to help those who come. Follow all the directions that the Lord gave through Moses.” Ezra 6 19 On April 21 the returned exiles celebrated Passover. 20 The priests and Levites had purified themselves and were ceremonially clean. So they slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the returned exiles, for their fellow priests, and for themselves. 21 The Passover meal was eaten by the people of Israel who had returned from exile and by the others in the land who had turned from their immoral customs to worship the Lord, the God of Israel.John 2: 13 It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. 14 In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. 15 Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables. 16 Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!” Paul is saying, we celebrate Jesus by living out what Jesus has done for us. He has made us holy, so we pursue holiness.Here is what it looks like:Luke 18 9 Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: 10 “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! 12 I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’ 13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ 14 I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”A Pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself, but a spiritual man is easy on others and hard on himself. TozerThe greatest test of whether the holiness we profess to seek or to attain is truth and life will be whether it produces an increasing humility in us. In man, humility is the one thing needed to allow God’s holiness to dwell in him and shine through him. The chief mark of counterfeit holiness is lack of humility. The holiest will be the humblest. Andrew MurrayPsalm 100 1 Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth! 2 Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy. 3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. 5 For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation. John 20 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” No man should desire to be happy who is not at the same time holy. He should spend his efforts in seeking to know and do the will of God, leaving to Christ the matter of how happy he should be. TozerI may no longer depend on pleasant impulses to bring me before the Lord. I must rather response to principles I know to be right, whether I feel them to be enjoyable or not. (Jim)I am only as significant as the things which I am idolizingThe Christian God seemed the most offensive to people precisely because he was the most godlike.“Holiness is as much about what you do on a Monday morning on the factory floor as it is about what you do on a Sunday morning in a church gathering. Holiness is as much about the kind of neighbor you are as it is about the kind of church member you are. It is as much about who you are when you are holding a steering wheel as who you are when you are holding a Bible.” ― Tim Chester“Holiness is found in how we treat others, not in how we contemplate the cosmos. As our experiences in marriages, families, and friendship teach us, it takes relationships to provide the friction that wears down our rough edges and sanctifies us.” ― Terryl Givens

Aseity- existence originating from and having no source other than itself.“I Am” is the verb “ehyeh” meaning to be. The verb form here is a first person singular translated “I Am”. When His people refer to Him as Yahweh, which is the third person masculine singular form of the same verb, they say "he is." Exodus 3:14–15 14 God replied to Moses, “I Am Who I Am. Say this to the people of Israel: I Am has sent me to you.” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh (He is), the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you. This is my eternal name, my name to remember for all generations. Matthew 14:27 27 But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage. I am here!” (Take courage. I am. Do not fear.) Revelation 1:17 17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last.Revelation 1:4,Grace and peace to you from the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come. Revelation 1:8 8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.” , Revelation 4:6–11 In the center and around the throne were four living beings, each covered with eyes, front and back. 7 The first of these living beings was like a lion; the second was like an ox; the third had a human face; and the fourth was like an eagle in flight. 8 Each of these living beings had six wings, and their wings were covered all over with eyes, inside and out. Day after day and night after night they keep on saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty— the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come.” 9 Whenever the living beings give glory and honor and thanks to the one sitting on the throne (the one who lives forever and ever), 10 the twenty-four elders fall down and worship the one sitting on the throne (the one who lives forever and ever). And they lay their crowns before the throne and say, 11 “You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased.” Revelation16:5–7 5 And I heard the angel who had authority over all water saying, “You are just, O Holy One, who is and who always was, because you have sent these judgments. 6 Since they shed the blood of your holy people and your prophets, you have given them blood to drink. It is their just reward.” 7 And I heard a voice from the altar, saying, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, your judgments are true and just.”"The fact that the ascending scale of life is marked by increasing differentiation of faculty and function should rather lead us to expect in the highest of all beings a nature more complex than our own. In man many faculties are united in one intelligent being, and the more intelligent man is, the more distinct from each other these faculties become; until intellect and affection, conscience and will assume a relative independence, and there arises even the possibility of conflict between them. There is nothing irrational or self-contradictory in the doctrine that in God the leading functions are yet more markedly differentiated, so that they become personal, while at the same time these personalities are united by the fact that they each and equally manifest the one indivisible essence." Strong, p. 346Everything in creation moves from simplicity to complexity and this is all to point us to the Creator who exists in absolute simplicity and complexity simultaneously. The point of creation moving from simplicity to complexity is to point us to the reality of His existence for the heavens declare the glory of God. How could a being so powerful, so complex, have always just been, and yet the alternative is to say that matter itself has always just been. But how could matter, without personality or will, be self-existent? So they way I have often said it provocatively to capture the immensity of this reality is to say, “God had nothing to do with his own existence, yet it is in his very nature to exist.” So this is the first good news of the first creation, that God exists and what a marvel that this is so, just as the good news of the new creation is that we can again be in fellowship with and regain the greatest thing man could ever possess, a relationship with the self-existent one. Psalm 19:1–4 1 The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. 2 Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. 3 They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. 4 Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. Romans 11:36 36 For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen. 36 For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen. Psalm 33:6 6 The Lord merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born. In the new heavens and new earth we will see his glory declared through creation all the more.In his classic book Knowledge of the Holy, A. W. Tozer writes:The Almighty God, just because He is almighty, needs no support. The picture of a nervous, ingratiating God fawning over men to win their favor is not a pleasant one; yet if we look at the popular conception of God, that is precisely what we see. Twentieth Century Christianity has put God on charity. So lofty is our opinion of ourselves that we find it quite easy, not to say enjoyable, to believe that we are necessary to God. But the truth is that God is not greater for our being, nor would He be less if we did not exist. That we do exist is altogether of God's free determination, not by our desert nor by divine necessity.“In creation, God "went public" with the glory that reverberates joyfully between the Father and the Son. There is something about the fullness of God's joy that inclines it to overflow. There is an expansive quality to His joy. It wants to share itself. The impulse to create the world was not from weakness, as though God were lacking in some perfection that creation could supply. "It is no argument of the emptiness or deficiency of a fountain, that it is inclined to overflow.” Desiring God, p. 44.If God exists then it's worth our every effort to bring everything in our lives into conformity w who He is. Righteous is the correspondence between who he is and what he does. So I ask you, are you righteous, or rather living righteously?Beauty Justice It's the correspondence between beauty and who God is. If u can't accept him as the lamb he comes at u like a lion and if you accept him as the lamb he defends you as the lion.

Aseity- existence originating from and having no source other than itself.“I Am” is the verb “ehyeh” meaning to be. The verb form here is a first person singular translated “I Am”. When His people refer to Him as Yahweh, which is the third person masculine singular form of the same verb, they say "he is." Exodus 3:14–15 14 God replied to Moses, “I Am Who I Am. Say this to the people of Israel: I Am has sent me to you.” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh (He is), the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you. This is my eternal name, my name to remember for all generations. Matthew 14:27 27 But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage. I am here!” (Take courage. I am. Do not fear.) Revelation 1:17 17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last.Revelation 1:4,Grace and peace to you from the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come. Revelation 1:8 8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.” , Revelation 4:6–11 In the center and around the throne were four living beings, each covered with eyes, front and back. 7 The first of these living beings was like a lion; the second was like an ox; the third had a human face; and the fourth was like an eagle in flight. 8 Each of these living beings had six wings, and their wings were covered all over with eyes, inside and out. Day after day and night after night they keep on saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty— the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come.” 9 Whenever the living beings give glory and honor and thanks to the one sitting on the throne (the one who lives forever and ever), 10 the twenty-four elders fall down and worship the one sitting on the throne (the one who lives forever and ever). And they lay their crowns before the throne and say, 11 “You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased.” Revelation16:5–7 5 And I heard the angel who had authority over all water saying, “You are just, O Holy One, who is and who always was, because you have sent these judgments. 6 Since they shed the blood of your holy people and your prophets, you have given them blood to drink. It is their just reward.” 7 And I heard a voice from the altar, saying, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, your judgments are true and just.”"The fact that the ascending scale of life is marked by increasing differentiation of faculty and function should rather lead us to expect in the highest of all beings a nature more complex than our own. In man many faculties are united in one intelligent being, and the more intelligent man is, the more distinct from each other these faculties become; until intellect and affection, conscience and will assume a relative independence, and there arises even the possibility of conflict between them. There is nothing irrational or self-contradictory in the doctrine that in God the leading functions are yet more markedly differentiated, so that they become personal, while at the same time these personalities are united by the fact that they each and equally manifest the one indivisible essence." Strong, p. 346Everything in creation moves from simplicity to complexity and this is all to point us to the Creator who exists in absolute simplicity and complexity simultaneously. The point of creation moving from simplicity to complexity is to point us to the reality of His existence for the heavens declare the glory of God. How could a being so powerful, so complex, have always just been, and yet the alternative is to say that matter itself has always just been. But how could matter, without personality or will, be self-existent? So they way I have often said it provocatively to capture the immensity of this reality is to say, “God had nothing to do with his own existence, yet it is in his very nature to exist.” So this is the first good news of the first creation, that God exists and what a marvel that this is so, just as the good news of the new creation is that we can again be in fellowship with and regain the greatest thing man could ever possess, a relationship with the self-existent one. Psalm 19:1–4 1 The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. 2 Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. 3 They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. 4 Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. Romans 11:36 36 For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen. 36 For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen. Psalm 33:6 6 The Lord merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born. In the new heavens and new earth we will see his glory declared through creation all the more.In his classic book Knowledge of the Holy, A. W. Tozer writes:The Almighty God, just because He is almighty, needs no support. The picture of a nervous, ingratiating God fawning over men to win their favor is not a pleasant one; yet if we look at the popular conception of God, that is precisely what we see. Twentieth Century Christianity has put God on charity. So lofty is our opinion of ourselves that we find it quite easy, not to say enjoyable, to believe that we are necessary to God. But the truth is that God is not greater for our being, nor would He be less if we did not exist. That we do exist is altogether of God's free determination, not by our desert nor by divine necessity.“In creation, God "went public" with the glory that reverberates joyfully between the Father and the Son. There is something about the fullness of God's joy that inclines it to overflow. There is an expansive quality to His joy. It wants to share itself. The impulse to create the world was not from weakness, as though God were lacking in some perfection that creation could supply. "It is no argument of the emptiness or deficiency of a fountain, that it is inclined to overflow.” Desiring God, p. 44.If God exists then it's worth our every effort to bring everything in our lives into conformity w who He is. Righteous is the correspondence between who he is and what he does. So I ask you, are you righteous, or rather living righteously?Beauty Justice It's the correspondence between beauty and who God is. If u can't accept him as the lamb he comes at u like a lion and if you accept him as the lamb he defends you as the lion.

09/25/2016

09/25/2016

COMPLAINING- REBELLION AGAINST GODComplaining is saying things aren't going my way, things I have no control over. So what matters is how we respond. This is our Response-ability. The funny thing is that some people feel good, and think that they are doing something constructive about a problem when they complain. They are complaining to you so you can solve the problem. Often when we are complaining, we are wanting someone else to change —while avoiding our own responsibilities. And isn’t that what children do? Isn’t that an expression of powerlessness and victimhood?THE BIBLE PROJECT on YouTubeExodus 14:11–12 11 and they said to Moses, “Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren’t there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt? 12 Didn’t we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt? We said, ‘Leave us alone! Let us be slaves to the Egyptians. It’s better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness!’ ” Exodus 17:1–3 Eventually they camped at Rephidim, but there was no water there for the people to drink. 2 So once more the people complained against Moses. “Give us water to drink!” they demanded. “Quiet!” Moses replied. “Why are you complaining against me? And why are you testing the Lord?” 3 But tormented by thirst, they continued to argue with Moses. “Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Are you trying to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?” Numbers 11:1 Soon the people began to complain about their hardship, and the Lord heard everything they said. Then the Lord’s anger blazed against them, and he sent a fire to rage among them, and he destroyed some of the people in the outskirts of the camp.Numbers 11:4 4 Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt. And the people of Israel also began to complain. “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed. 5 “We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted. 6 But now our appetites are gone. All we ever see is this manna!” 7 The manna looked like small coriander seeds, and it was pale yellow like gum resin. 8 The people would go out and gather it from the ground. They made flour by grinding it with hand mills or pounding it in mortars. Then they boiled it in a pot and made it into flat cakes. These cakes tasted like pastries baked with olive oil. 9 The manna came down on the camp with the dew during the night. 10 Moses heard all the families standing in the doorways of their tents whining, and the Lord became extremely angry. Moses was also very aggravated. 11 And Moses said to the Lord, “Why are you treating me, your servant, so harshly? Have mercy on me! What did I do to deserve the burden of all these people? 12 Did I give birth to them? Did I bring them into the world? Why did you tell me to carry them in my arms like a mother carries a nursing baby? How can I carry them to the land you swore to give their ancestors? 13 Where am I supposed to get meat for all these people? They keep whining to me, saying, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ 14 I can’t carry all these people by myself! The load is far too heavy! 15 If this is how you intend to treat me, just go ahead and kill me. Do me a favor and spare me this misery!” Numbers 11:18–20 18 “And say to the people, ‘Purify yourselves, for tomorrow you will have meat to eat. You were whining, and the Lord heard you when you cried, “Oh, for some meat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will have to eat it. 19 And it won’t be for just a day or two, or for five or ten or even twenty. 20 You will eat it for a whole month until you gag and are sick of it. For you have rejected the Lord, who is here among you, and you have whined to him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” ’ ” Numbers 11:21–2321 But Moses responded to the Lord, “There are 600,000 foot soldiers here with me, and yet you say, ‘I will give them meat for a whole month!’ 22 Even if we butchered all our flocks and herds, would that satisfy them? Even if we caught all the fish in the sea, would that be enough?” 23 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Has my arm lost its power? Now you will see whether or not my word comes true!” Numbers 13:25–14:4 25 After exploring the land for forty days, the men returned 26 to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had taken from the land. 27 This was their report to Moses: “We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces. 28 But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak! 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev, and the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley.” 30 But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!” 31 But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” 32 So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. 33 We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!” Then the whole community began weeping aloud, and they cried all night. 2 Their voices rose in a great chorus of protest against Moses and Aaron. “If only we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!” they complained. 3 “Why is the Lord taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?” 4 Then they plotted among themselves, “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!” Two groups of men see the same situation, but see it very differently. What is the difference? What if you took the struggles in your life and looked at them afresh through the lens of faith and as opportunities for God to display His grace in your life?Be careful who you listen to?The LORD’s ResponseNumbers 14:20–23 20 Then the Lord said, “I will pardon them as you have requested. 21 But as surely as I live, and as surely as the earth is filled with the Lord’s glory, 22 not one of these people will ever enter that land. They have all seen my glorious presence and the miraculous signs I performed both in Egypt and in the wilderness, but again and again they have tested me by refusing to listen to my voice. 23 They will never even see the land I swore to give their ancestors. None of those who have treated me with contempt will ever see it.Even as the people were complaining, the LORD was in the process of rescuing them and blessing them. We too are in the process of being rescued and blessed. Will we respond any better?What if our complaints were heard by the Lord and prayers and he gave us what we were asking for in our complaints?Numbers 14:26–29 26 Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 27 “How long must I put up with this wicked community and its complaints about me? Yes, I have heard the complaints the Israelites are making against me. 28 Now tell them this: ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very things I heard you say. 29 You will all drop dead in this wilderness! Because you complained against me,See Numbers 14:2Numbers 14:34–38 34 “Because your men explored the land for forty days, you must wander in the wilderness for forty years—a year for each day, suffering the consequences of your sins. Then you will discover what it is like to have me for an enemy.’ 35 I, the Lord, have spoken! I will certainly do these things to every member of the community who has conspired against me. They will be destroyed here in this wilderness, and here they will die!” 36 The ten men Moses had sent to explore the land—the ones who incited rebellion against the Lord with their bad report—37 were struck dead with a plague before the Lord. 38 Of the twelve who had explored the land, only Joshua and Caleb remained alive. Numbers 14:39–45 39 When Moses reported the Lord’s words to all the Israelites, the people were filled with grief. 40 Then they got up early the next morning and went to the top of the range of hills. “Let’s go,” they said. “We realize that we have sinned, but now we are ready to enter the land the Lord has promised us.” 41 But Moses said, “Why are you now disobeying the Lord’s orders to return to the wilderness? It won’t work. 42 Do not go up into the land now. You will only be crushed by your enemies because the Lord is not with you. 43 When you face the Amalekites and Canaanites in battle, you will be slaughtered. The Lord will abandon you because you have abandoned the Lord.” 44 But the people defiantly pushed ahead toward the hill country, even though neither Moses nor the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant left the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in those hills came down and attacked them and chased them back as far as Hormah. Think deeply about the consequences of continuing on in your negative patterns of behavior. What will happen or who will you be in 5 or 10 years? COMPLAINING CONTINUESNumbers 16:13–14 13 Isn’t it enough that you brought us out of Egypt, a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us here in this wilderness, and that you now treat us like your subjects? 14 What’s more, you haven’t brought us into another land flowing with milk and honey. You haven’t given us a new homeland with fields and vineyards. Are you trying to fool these men? We will not come.” Numbers 20:4–5 4 Why have you brought the congregation of the Lord’s people into this wilderness to die, along with all our livestock? 5 Why did you make us leave Egypt and bring us here to this terrible place? This land has no grain, no figs, no grapes, no pomegranates, and no water to drink!” They ask why, but they know why? We think God can’t do it, isn’t doing it, or won’t do it, we act like His arm is broken.We don’t see struggles as opportunities for God to work, we ignore how He has blessed us, so we complainWe don’t look deep enough. The problems we think we have are usually just the symptoms and the surface. The problems we face are usually just symptoms of the deeper problem the LORD is seeking to draw our attention to, the deeper root that He wants to deal with.The LORD brought His people into the wilderness to reveal what was in their heart. We too have evil in our own hearts but will we respond any better?We as NT people look down on the children of Israel as being so unspiritual, but do we do any better?NEW EXODUSHebrews 3:12 12 Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God.Evil and unbelieving is complaining, grumbling, whiningTurning it AroundHow can we turn it around and help those who come to us with complaints?∙ “Great! What are you going to do about it?”∙ “Sounds like you have a problem … to solve. How will you do that?”“Sorry to hear that [empathy], do you need me to brainstorm with you so that you can either accept it, be gracious about it, or see what you can do to solve it?”CONCLUSION:Will we be complainers, or people of faith?When struggles come, instead of complaining, or feeling hurt or discouraged, instead can we exercise faith and persevere? Can we look for what the LORD is doing in the struggle and allow Him to refine us in it?Hebrews 12:18–2918 You have not come to a physical mountain, to a place of flaming fire, darkness, gloom, and whirlwind, as the Israelites did at Mount Sinai. 19 For they heard an awesome trumpet blast and a voice so terrible that they begged God to stop speaking. 20 They staggered back under God’s command: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” 21 Moses himself was so frightened at the sight that he said, “I am terrified and trembling.” 22 No, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering. 23 You have come to the assembly of God’s firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God himself, who is the judge over all things. You have come to the spirits of the righteous ones in heaven who have now been made perfect. 24 You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks of forgiveness instead of crying out for vengeance like the blood of Abel. 25 Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven! 26 When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.” 27 This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain. 28 Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. 29 For our God is a devouring fire.

COMPLAINING- REBELLION AGAINST GODComplaining is saying things aren't going my way, things I have no control over. So what matters is how we respond. This is our Response-ability. The funny thing is that some people feel good, and think that they are doing something constructive about a problem when they complain. They are complaining to you so you can solve the problem. Often when we are complaining, we are wanting someone else to change —while avoiding our own responsibilities. And isn’t that what children do? Isn’t that an expression of powerlessness and victimhood?THE BIBLE PROJECT on YouTubeExodus 14:11–12 11 and they said to Moses, “Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren’t there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt? 12 Didn’t we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt? We said, ‘Leave us alone! Let us be slaves to the Egyptians. It’s better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness!’ ” Exodus 17:1–3 Eventually they camped at Rephidim, but there was no water there for the people to drink. 2 So once more the people complained against Moses. “Give us water to drink!” they demanded. “Quiet!” Moses replied. “Why are you complaining against me? And why are you testing the Lord?” 3 But tormented by thirst, they continued to argue with Moses. “Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Are you trying to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?” Numbers 11:1 Soon the people began to complain about their hardship, and the Lord heard everything they said. Then the Lord’s anger blazed against them, and he sent a fire to rage among them, and he destroyed some of the people in the outskirts of the camp.Numbers 11:4 4 Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt. And the people of Israel also began to complain. “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed. 5 “We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted. 6 But now our appetites are gone. All we ever see is this manna!” 7 The manna looked like small coriander seeds, and it was pale yellow like gum resin. 8 The people would go out and gather it from the ground. They made flour by grinding it with hand mills or pounding it in mortars. Then they boiled it in a pot and made it into flat cakes. These cakes tasted like pastries baked with olive oil. 9 The manna came down on the camp with the dew during the night. 10 Moses heard all the families standing in the doorways of their tents whining, and the Lord became extremely angry. Moses was also very aggravated. 11 And Moses said to the Lord, “Why are you treating me, your servant, so harshly? Have mercy on me! What did I do to deserve the burden of all these people? 12 Did I give birth to them? Did I bring them into the world? Why did you tell me to carry them in my arms like a mother carries a nursing baby? How can I carry them to the land you swore to give their ancestors? 13 Where am I supposed to get meat for all these people? They keep whining to me, saying, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ 14 I can’t carry all these people by myself! The load is far too heavy! 15 If this is how you intend to treat me, just go ahead and kill me. Do me a favor and spare me this misery!” Numbers 11:18–20 18 “And say to the people, ‘Purify yourselves, for tomorrow you will have meat to eat. You were whining, and the Lord heard you when you cried, “Oh, for some meat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will have to eat it. 19 And it won’t be for just a day or two, or for five or ten or even twenty. 20 You will eat it for a whole month until you gag and are sick of it. For you have rejected the Lord, who is here among you, and you have whined to him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” ’ ” Numbers 11:21–2321 But Moses responded to the Lord, “There are 600,000 foot soldiers here with me, and yet you say, ‘I will give them meat for a whole month!’ 22 Even if we butchered all our flocks and herds, would that satisfy them? Even if we caught all the fish in the sea, would that be enough?” 23 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Has my arm lost its power? Now you will see whether or not my word comes true!” Numbers 13:25–14:4 25 After exploring the land for forty days, the men returned 26 to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had taken from the land. 27 This was their report to Moses: “We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces. 28 But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak! 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev, and the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley.” 30 But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!” 31 But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” 32 So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. 33 We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!” Then the whole community began weeping aloud, and they cried all night. 2 Their voices rose in a great chorus of protest against Moses and Aaron. “If only we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!” they complained. 3 “Why is the Lord taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?” 4 Then they plotted among themselves, “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!” Two groups of men see the same situation, but see it very differently. What is the difference? What if you took the struggles in your life and looked at them afresh through the lens of faith and as opportunities for God to display His grace in your life?Be careful who you listen to?The LORD’s ResponseNumbers 14:20–23 20 Then the Lord said, “I will pardon them as you have requested. 21 But as surely as I live, and as surely as the earth is filled with the Lord’s glory, 22 not one of these people will ever enter that land. They have all seen my glorious presence and the miraculous signs I performed both in Egypt and in the wilderness, but again and again they have tested me by refusing to listen to my voice. 23 They will never even see the land I swore to give their ancestors. None of those who have treated me with contempt will ever see it.Even as the people were complaining, the LORD was in the process of rescuing them and blessing them. We too are in the process of being rescued and blessed. Will we respond any better?What if our complaints were heard by the Lord and prayers and he gave us what we were asking for in our complaints?Numbers 14:26–29 26 Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 27 “How long must I put up with this wicked community and its complaints about me? Yes, I have heard the complaints the Israelites are making against me. 28 Now tell them this: ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very things I heard you say. 29 You will all drop dead in this wilderness! Because you complained against me,See Numbers 14:2Numbers 14:34–38 34 “Because your men explored the land for forty days, you must wander in the wilderness for forty years—a year for each day, suffering the consequences of your sins. Then you will discover what it is like to have me for an enemy.’ 35 I, the Lord, have spoken! I will certainly do these things to every member of the community who has conspired against me. They will be destroyed here in this wilderness, and here they will die!” 36 The ten men Moses had sent to explore the land—the ones who incited rebellion against the Lord with their bad report—37 were struck dead with a plague before the Lord. 38 Of the twelve who had explored the land, only Joshua and Caleb remained alive. Numbers 14:39–45 39 When Moses reported the Lord’s words to all the Israelites, the people were filled with grief. 40 Then they got up early the next morning and went to the top of the range of hills. “Let’s go,” they said. “We realize that we have sinned, but now we are ready to enter the land the Lord has promised us.” 41 But Moses said, “Why are you now disobeying the Lord’s orders to return to the wilderness? It won’t work. 42 Do not go up into the land now. You will only be crushed by your enemies because the Lord is not with you. 43 When you face the Amalekites and Canaanites in battle, you will be slaughtered. The Lord will abandon you because you have abandoned the Lord.” 44 But the people defiantly pushed ahead toward the hill country, even though neither Moses nor the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant left the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in those hills came down and attacked them and chased them back as far as Hormah. Think deeply about the consequences of continuing on in your negative patterns of behavior. What will happen or who will you be in 5 or 10 years? COMPLAINING CONTINUESNumbers 16:13–14 13 Isn’t it enough that you brought us out of Egypt, a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us here in this wilderness, and that you now treat us like your subjects? 14 What’s more, you haven’t brought us into another land flowing with milk and honey. You haven’t given us a new homeland with fields and vineyards. Are you trying to fool these men? We will not come.” Numbers 20:4–5 4 Why have you brought the congregation of the Lord’s people into this wilderness to die, along with all our livestock? 5 Why did you make us leave Egypt and bring us here to this terrible place? This land has no grain, no figs, no grapes, no pomegranates, and no water to drink!” They ask why, but they know why? We think God can’t do it, isn’t doing it, or won’t do it, we act like His arm is broken.We don’t see struggles as opportunities for God to work, we ignore how He has blessed us, so we complainWe don’t look deep enough. The problems we think we have are usually just the symptoms and the surface. The problems we face are usually just symptoms of the deeper problem the LORD is seeking to draw our attention to, the deeper root that He wants to deal with.The LORD brought His people into the wilderness to reveal what was in their heart. We too have evil in our own hearts but will we respond any better?We as NT people look down on the children of Israel as being so unspiritual, but do we do any better?NEW EXODUSHebrews 3:12 12 Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God.Evil and unbelieving is complaining, grumbling, whiningTurning it AroundHow can we turn it around and help those who come to us with complaints?∙ “Great! What are you going to do about it?”∙ “Sounds like you have a problem … to solve. How will you do that?”“Sorry to hear that [empathy], do you need me to brainstorm with you so that you can either accept it, be gracious about it, or see what you can do to solve it?”CONCLUSION:Will we be complainers, or people of faith?When struggles come, instead of complaining, or feeling hurt or discouraged, instead can we exercise faith and persevere? Can we look for what the LORD is doing in the struggle and allow Him to refine us in it?Hebrews 12:18–2918 You have not come to a physical mountain, to a place of flaming fire, darkness, gloom, and whirlwind, as the Israelites did at Mount Sinai. 19 For they heard an awesome trumpet blast and a voice so terrible that they begged God to stop speaking. 20 They staggered back under God’s command: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” 21 Moses himself was so frightened at the sight that he said, “I am terrified and trembling.” 22 No, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering. 23 You have come to the assembly of God’s firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God himself, who is the judge over all things. You have come to the spirits of the righteous ones in heaven who have now been made perfect. 24 You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks of forgiveness instead of crying out for vengeance like the blood of Abel. 25 Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven! 26 When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.” 27 This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain. 28 Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. 29 For our God is a devouring fire.

Look for red, OK, how much green did you see? Why can't atheists see God? People find what they are looking for. Some people see the negative in everything and some people see the positive. Its the same situation so what becomes important is the person’s perception of reality, rather than the reality itself. We get in ruts, we allow negative patterns of thought into our lives and they become habits, and the habits then become addictions. They say depression is a learned behavior, but this learned behavior can then become an addiction. When you encourage depressed people they can literally become angry with you because you are messing with their addiction. Proverbs 23:9 9 Don’t waste your breath on fools, for they will despise the wisest advice. They say emotions really only last 90 seconds so that after 90 seconds we are choosing to feel a certain way. Emotions are the result of internal or external stimulus, and we often take the negative emotions, embrace them, and they become feelings that carry on. For Christians, we are not only to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ but every emotion. After 90 seconds is when the battle begins for the Christian. Negative emotions that we embrace so that they become part of our identity can negatively affect our mental or even our physical health. We prefer to play the victim role and blame others rather than take personal responsibility for our choices. We get in the habit of thinking, “I can’t. People are stopping me, holding me down and holding me back from all that the Lord has promised.” The only thing holding us back is us. Are you in the battle or do you allow yourself to be carried away by your negative emotions as if you have no control over them? The Law of Attraction is not some mystical thing as if you control the universe, but really speaks to a person’s perception and the person’s ability to recognize the opportunities in life or not. P.O.O.R. acronym- Passing Over Opportunities Regularly. How many opportunities do we pass over when we refuse to face our struggles, the struggles the LORD desires to use to shape us into the image of Jesus? If you want to know what the Lord is doing in your life and what He wants to teach you, the fastest way to figure that out is look where you are struggling. The sooner you learn the lesson He has for you the sooner you can move past it. What if we created a new rule for our lives? What if we began to assume that every personal problem we have is really a symptom of a deeper root issue that God wants to release us from? A 5 year old girl develops a cough. Later the parents discover that this was the result of her feeling the rejection of her step mother. The step mother learned to love her step daughter and the cough disappears. A college student develops anorexia but when her father learns to stop tearing down his ex-wife and begins expressing love and appreciation for his ex-wife his daughter’s anorexia goes away. A woman is stuck in bed for 2 years, but when her mother in law and grandmother in law finally express to her that it is OK to get an education and be a working mother, she immediately gets better, because she had been punishing her family making them take care of her because they had forced her to be a stay at home mother. Why do some people always seem to have financial struggles, or anger, or are always complaining? They try again and again to correct these things but because they fail to go to the root issue, the problems continue. Remember, our personal problems are there to direct our attention to the root cause, the one we have been refusing to face. In these examples we see that our sin affects more than just us. Our sin, the sin we often fail to acknowledge affects our whole family. We need to think through the consequences of not making changes in our lives. We need to realize the consequences of refusing to face our real issues, and allow the consequences to motivate us to real change. Here we need to direct our attention to the idea of insanity. We keep responding to our personal problems in the same way expecting different results. When we get in fights with our family members, when we lose our temper, when we always find things to complain about. What if we repented instead and asked for the Holy Spirit to illuminate the depravity of our own hearts to us? Here we see why repentance is not only commanded, but is also absolutely essential. If we continue on in the same patterns, why should we expect different results. Repentance is a gift that allows us to see things for how they really are so we can grow. The consequence of failing to repent is that we live a life as the angry person, or the complaining person, or the negative person, or the detached person or whatever. Here is where we also need to direct our attention to the idea of mental hygiene. What negative influences are you allowing in your life? Are you careful with what external stimuli you allow in your life Are your friends building you up or tearing you down? Do you watch horror movies or other movies with no redeeming quality? Is the music you listen to uplifting or depressing, bring joy, or cause hate, anger and disgust? What is the language you grew up with in your family? Did you hear things like you are not good enough, you will never amount to anything, you always disappoint? Are you carrying these negative patterns with you now in your own family? Yes, we are the product of our environment, but what environment are you creating through the choices that you make? What changes, what decisions do you need to make to change your environment?CG Questions 1. Which part of Psalm 73 did you relate to most?2. We see the Psalmist complaining in the first part of the Psalm. What areas of your life do you find yourself complaining about the most? What does your complaining say with reference to your relationship with God? (When considering areas in which we complain, look for the kinds of complaints that come up again and again through your life, look for the patterns.)3. What would it look like to seek to make a connection with areas you complain or in areas you have personal problems and what the Lord would desire to teach you in those areas? What would repentance look like? How could repentance help set you free?3b. Have you considered that your personal problems are really a reflection of something deeper? Please consider and explain.3c. Do you see the connection between complaining and abandoning God? Please explain.4. Look at the areas you experience pain or discontent, or anger, or sadness. In light of Psalm 73:14, what might the connection be between feeling these ways and what the Lord desires to teach you?5. Consider Psalm 73:21. Are you in the habit of considering that you are harboring bitterness in your heart as part of your Christian life? Where are some areas where you are experiencing bitterness and what would repentance look like and what benefits would result? How could drawing closer to God impact these areas of bitterness (Psalm 73:28)?

Look for red, OK, how much green did you see? Why can't atheists see God? People find what they are looking for. Some people see the negative in everything and some people see the positive. Its the same situation so what becomes important is the person’s perception of reality, rather than the reality itself. We get in ruts, we allow negative patterns of thought into our lives and they become habits, and the habits then become addictions. They say depression is a learned behavior, but this learned behavior can then become an addiction. When you encourage depressed people they can literally become angry with you because you are messing with their addiction. Proverbs 23:9 9 Don’t waste your breath on fools, for they will despise the wisest advice. They say emotions really only last 90 seconds so that after 90 seconds we are choosing to feel a certain way. Emotions are the result of internal or external stimulus, and we often take the negative emotions, embrace them, and they become feelings that carry on. For Christians, we are not only to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ but every emotion. After 90 seconds is when the battle begins for the Christian. Negative emotions that we embrace so that they become part of our identity can negatively affect our mental or even our physical health. We prefer to play the victim role and blame others rather than take personal responsibility for our choices. We get in the habit of thinking, “I can’t. People are stopping me, holding me down and holding me back from all that the Lord has promised.” The only thing holding us back is us. Are you in the battle or do you allow yourself to be carried away by your negative emotions as if you have no control over them? The Law of Attraction is not some mystical thing as if you control the universe, but really speaks to a person’s perception and the person’s ability to recognize the opportunities in life or not. P.O.O.R. acronym- Passing Over Opportunities Regularly. How many opportunities do we pass over when we refuse to face our struggles, the struggles the LORD desires to use to shape us into the image of Jesus? If you want to know what the Lord is doing in your life and what He wants to teach you, the fastest way to figure that out is look where you are struggling. The sooner you learn the lesson He has for you the sooner you can move past it. What if we created a new rule for our lives? What if we began to assume that every personal problem we have is really a symptom of a deeper root issue that God wants to release us from? A 5 year old girl develops a cough. Later the parents discover that this was the result of her feeling the rejection of her step mother. The step mother learned to love her step daughter and the cough disappears. A college student develops anorexia but when her father learns to stop tearing down his ex-wife and begins expressing love and appreciation for his ex-wife his daughter’s anorexia goes away. A woman is stuck in bed for 2 years, but when her mother in law and grandmother in law finally express to her that it is OK to get an education and be a working mother, she immediately gets better, because she had been punishing her family making them take care of her because they had forced her to be a stay at home mother. Why do some people always seem to have financial struggles, or anger, or are always complaining? They try again and again to correct these things but because they fail to go to the root issue, the problems continue. Remember, our personal problems are there to direct our attention to the root cause, the one we have been refusing to face. In these examples we see that our sin affects more than just us. Our sin, the sin we often fail to acknowledge affects our whole family. We need to think through the consequences of not making changes in our lives. We need to realize the consequences of refusing to face our real issues, and allow the consequences to motivate us to real change. Here we need to direct our attention to the idea of insanity. We keep responding to our personal problems in the same way expecting different results. When we get in fights with our family members, when we lose our temper, when we always find things to complain about. What if we repented instead and asked for the Holy Spirit to illuminate the depravity of our own hearts to us? Here we see why repentance is not only commanded, but is also absolutely essential. If we continue on in the same patterns, why should we expect different results. Repentance is a gift that allows us to see things for how they really are so we can grow. The consequence of failing to repent is that we live a life as the angry person, or the complaining person, or the negative person, or the detached person or whatever. Here is where we also need to direct our attention to the idea of mental hygiene. What negative influences are you allowing in your life? Are you careful with what external stimuli you allow in your life Are your friends building you up or tearing you down? Do you watch horror movies or other movies with no redeeming quality? Is the music you listen to uplifting or depressing, bring joy, or cause hate, anger and disgust? What is the language you grew up with in your family? Did you hear things like you are not good enough, you will never amount to anything, you always disappoint? Are you carrying these negative patterns with you now in your own family? Yes, we are the product of our environment, but what environment are you creating through the choices that you make? What changes, what decisions do you need to make to change your environment?CG Questions 1. Which part of Psalm 73 did you relate to most?2. We see the Psalmist complaining in the first part of the Psalm. What areas of your life do you find yourself complaining about the most? What does your complaining say with reference to your relationship with God? (When considering areas in which we complain, look for the kinds of complaints that come up again and again through your life, look for the patterns.)3. What would it look like to seek to make a connection with areas you complain or in areas you have personal problems and what the Lord would desire to teach you in those areas? What would repentance look like? How could repentance help set you free?3b. Have you considered that your personal problems are really a reflection of something deeper? Please consider and explain.3c. Do you see the connection between complaining and abandoning God? Please explain.4. Look at the areas you experience pain or discontent, or anger, or sadness. In light of Psalm 73:14, what might the connection be between feeling these ways and what the Lord desires to teach you?5. Consider Psalm 73:21. Are you in the habit of considering that you are harboring bitterness in your heart as part of your Christian life? Where are some areas where you are experiencing bitterness and what would repentance look like and what benefits would result? How could drawing closer to God impact these areas of bitterness (Psalm 73:28)?

Baptism is not only a picture of what Jesus has done for u in the past but a picture of the life u are going to live in the future resulting ultimately in resurrection life in the very presence of God. Baptism captures 4 meanings:Repentance and Salvation from Sin (Matthew 3:11; 1 Peter 3:21)Association with the death and resurrection of Jesus (Romans 6:1–4)Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? 3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Becoming a citizen of the people and kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:28)It Foreshadows the life of Spirit empowered ministry that the disciple will now live (Gospel Narratives).Different Christian groups tend to focus on one of these elements to the neglect of the others like the blind men describing the elephant.Repentance and Salvation from Sin - Catholics, Lutherans, and Church of ChristAssociation with the death and resurrection of Jesus - Baptists & ReformersBecoming a citizen of the people and kingdom of God - Opposite of the 20th century American churchIt Foreshadows the life of Spirit empowered ministry that the disciple will now live - Pentecostals So we see we need every aspect to have a biblical view otherwise we end up confused and divided as a universal church.TRANSITION: So lets pick up where we left off last week looking at the community aspect of Baptism.Baptism: Baptized into the one body, the Church1 Corinthians 12:13 But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share (and we were all made to drink, NASB) the same Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:13 refers back to 1 Corinthians 10:1–4:1 Corinthians 10:1–4 I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. 2 In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. 3 All of them ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ.The double use of water in this passage – the water of the Red Sea through which the Israelites passed and the water which flowed from the rock for them to drink in the desert – is easily the best explanation for the otherwise initially puzzling double reference in chapter 12 (we were all baptized … and given one spirit to drink). The Messiah’s people, for Paul, are thus the new-exodus people, formed as was ancient Israel into ‘a people’ by the redeeming action of the one God on their behalf and by the sovereign and holy presence of the one God in their midst, leading them in the pillar of cloud and fire and sustaining them on their journey. And baptism, it here becomes clear, is indeed (to use the old theological language) the ‘outward and visible’ sign of entry into the Messiah’s people, defining them just as surely as the crossing of the Red Sea defined the people whom Abraham’s God brought out of Egypt.Baptism invokes the gift and the presence of the spirit, just like it was in the exodus when the living presence of YHWH accompanied the people out of Egypt and came to dwell in the tabernacle, the forerunner of the Jerusalem Temple.The baptism of John the Baptist is the beginning of God recreating the Exodus centered around the person of Jesus. Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, will now dwell with His people the way that Yahweh did in the OT beginning at the Red Sea.John the Baptist is recreating the Exodus narrative. He calls people to pass through the water with the result of receiving salvation, not from the Egyptians, but from sin and receiving the presence of the the one true and living God who will actively dwell with His people.Having heard this, now listen to Galatians 3:26–29 afresh:Galatians 3:26–29 26 For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. 28 There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you. TRANSITION: Let’s now look at a problem passage considering all we have said to this point. 1 Peter 3:21 is really Peter’s short hand way of including all 4 elements included in baptism.1 Peter 3:21 21 And that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you, not by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God from a clean conscience. It is effective because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. With this text the Catholics have taught that along with… water baptism actually does save you, and the Reformers, Luther and Calvin and all the rest reacted to this false view and ended up with a similar view in the maintaining of the practice of infants but in fact this is Peter’s short-hand way of saying the very things we have said already. So consider 1 Peter 3:21 equivalent to Paul’s Galatians 3:28.1 Peter 4:1- repentance aspect1 Peter 4:8–9- gospel community aspect1 Peter 4:10–11- Spirit empowered ministry aspect1 Peter 4:12- time of testing following baptism aspect(So its like the pattern ultimately gets switched in its practical application within the church, and Bible interpreters have anachronistically made this switch backwards compatible resulting in so many denominations having differing views on baptism like the 6 blind men each describing the elephant, each denomination focusing on a few texts and applying those few texts to the many texts instead of letting all the texts stand on their own in all the Bible’s progressive revelation so we can see the whole elephant.)CommunionEven the word communion has led to a reductionist view. It isn’t just communion with God, but communion with each other.1 Corinthians 10:16 16 When we bless the cup at the Lord’s Table, aren’t we sharing in the blood of Christ? And when we break the bread, aren’t we sharing in the body of Christ? 17 And though we are many, we all eat from one loaf of bread, showing that we are one body.1 Corinthians 11:27–30 27 So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. 29 For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died. Conclusion:Let’s have a moment of contemplation to see if we are living out the 4 elements in our own lives?Repentance and Salvation from Sin Association with the death and resurrection of Jesus Becoming a citizen of the people and kingdom of God It Foreshadows the life of Spirit empowered ministry that the disciple will now live

Baptism is not only a picture of what Jesus has done for u in the past but a picture of the life u are going to live in the future resulting ultimately in resurrection life in the very presence of God. Baptism captures 4 meanings:Repentance and Salvation from Sin (Matthew 3:11; 1 Peter 3:21)Association with the death and resurrection of Jesus (Romans 6:1–4)Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? 3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Becoming a citizen of the people and kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:28)It Foreshadows the life of Spirit empowered ministry that the disciple will now live (Gospel Narratives).Different Christian groups tend to focus on one of these elements to the neglect of the others like the blind men describing the elephant.Repentance and Salvation from Sin - Catholics, Lutherans, and Church of ChristAssociation with the death and resurrection of Jesus - Baptists & ReformersBecoming a citizen of the people and kingdom of God - Opposite of the 20th century American churchIt Foreshadows the life of Spirit empowered ministry that the disciple will now live - Pentecostals So we see we need every aspect to have a biblical view otherwise we end up confused and divided as a universal church.TRANSITION: So lets pick up where we left off last week looking at the community aspect of Baptism.Baptism: Baptized into the one body, the Church1 Corinthians 12:13 But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share (and we were all made to drink, NASB) the same Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:13 refers back to 1 Corinthians 10:1–4:1 Corinthians 10:1–4 I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. 2 In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. 3 All of them ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ.The double use of water in this passage – the water of the Red Sea through which the Israelites passed and the water which flowed from the rock for them to drink in the desert – is easily the best explanation for the otherwise initially puzzling double reference in chapter 12 (we were all baptized … and given one spirit to drink). The Messiah’s people, for Paul, are thus the new-exodus people, formed as was ancient Israel into ‘a people’ by the redeeming action of the one God on their behalf and by the sovereign and holy presence of the one God in their midst, leading them in the pillar of cloud and fire and sustaining them on their journey. And baptism, it here becomes clear, is indeed (to use the old theological language) the ‘outward and visible’ sign of entry into the Messiah’s people, defining them just as surely as the crossing of the Red Sea defined the people whom Abraham’s God brought out of Egypt.Baptism invokes the gift and the presence of the spirit, just like it was in the exodus when the living presence of YHWH accompanied the people out of Egypt and came to dwell in the tabernacle, the forerunner of the Jerusalem Temple.The baptism of John the Baptist is the beginning of God recreating the Exodus centered around the person of Jesus. Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, will now dwell with His people the way that Yahweh did in the OT beginning at the Red Sea.John the Baptist is recreating the Exodus narrative. He calls people to pass through the water with the result of receiving salvation, not from the Egyptians, but from sin and receiving the presence of the the one true and living God who will actively dwell with His people.Having heard this, now listen to Galatians 3:26–29 afresh:Galatians 3:26–29 26 For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. 28 There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you. TRANSITION: Let’s now look at a problem passage considering all we have said to this point. 1 Peter 3:21 is really Peter’s short hand way of including all 4 elements included in baptism.1 Peter 3:21 21 And that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you, not by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God from a clean conscience. It is effective because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. With this text the Catholics have taught that along with… water baptism actually does save you, and the Reformers, Luther and Calvin and all the rest reacted to this false view and ended up with a similar view in the maintaining of the practice of infants but in fact this is Peter’s short-hand way of saying the very things we have said already. So consider 1 Peter 3:21 equivalent to Paul’s Galatians 3:28.1 Peter 4:1- repentance aspect1 Peter 4:8–9- gospel community aspect1 Peter 4:10–11- Spirit empowered ministry aspect1 Peter 4:12- time of testing following baptism aspect(So its like the pattern ultimately gets switched in its practical application within the church, and Bible interpreters have anachronistically made this switch backwards compatible resulting in so many denominations having differing views on baptism like the 6 blind men each describing the elephant, each denomination focusing on a few texts and applying those few texts to the many texts instead of letting all the texts stand on their own in all the Bible’s progressive revelation so we can see the whole elephant.)CommunionEven the word communion has led to a reductionist view. It isn’t just communion with God, but communion with each other.1 Corinthians 10:16 16 When we bless the cup at the Lord’s Table, aren’t we sharing in the blood of Christ? And when we break the bread, aren’t we sharing in the body of Christ? 17 And though we are many, we all eat from one loaf of bread, showing that we are one body.1 Corinthians 11:27–30 27 So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. 29 For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died. Conclusion:Let’s have a moment of contemplation to see if we are living out the 4 elements in our own lives?Repentance and Salvation from Sin Association with the death and resurrection of Jesus Becoming a citizen of the people and kingdom of God It Foreshadows the life of Spirit empowered ministry that the disciple will now live

Baptism, The New ExodusStudying the Bible will blow your mind. IF you are not studying it, you are missing out!!! Baptism was supposed to be such a simple subject, but oh no, mind blowing.Spurgeon Quotes“I do not question the safety of the soul that has believed, but I do say again, I would not run the risk of the man who, having believed, refuses to be baptized.”“I feel shocked when I hear people say, “But it is not essential to salvation.” You mean and beggarly spirit! Will you do nothing but what is essential to your own salvation? A Pharisee or a harlot might talk so. Is this your love to Christ—that you will not obey him, unless he shall pay you for it, unless he shall make your soul’s salvation depend upon it?”“I am amazed that an unconscious babe should be made the partaker of an ordinance which, according to the plain teaching of the Scriptures, requires the conscious acquiescence and complete heart trust of the recipient. Very few, if any, would argue that infants ought to receive the Lord’s Supper; but there is no more Scriptural warrant for bringing them to the one ordinance than there is for bringing them to the other.” 2 kinds of people, those who are saved and need to be baptized, and those who have been baptized but need to be saved.Baptism is not only a picture of what Jesus has done for u in the past but a picture of the life u are going to live in the future resulting ultimately in resurrection life in the very presence of God. Baptism captures 4 meanings:Repentance and Salvation from SinAssociation with the death and resurrection of JesusBecoming a citizen of the people and kingdom of GodIt Foreshadows the life of Spirit empowered ministry that the disciple will now live.Different Christian groups tend to focus on one of these elements to the neglect of the others like the blind men describing the elephant.The work of the Holy Spirit is to bind the worshipper to the Messiah in glad allegiance. This is what baptism symbolizes.What is the pattern that Jesus establishes at his baptism?The pattern established by Jesus is being baptized and then receiving the Holy Spirit which in turn initiates his ministry.The baptism of Jesus is immediately followed by a period of testing, community living, and Spirit empowered ministry. Such is also the case in Acts for the church in Jerusalem for they are immediately persecuted such that they are driven from Jerusalem. Jesus baptizing with the Spirit, reflects that Jesus is God, BTW.Baptism, a water metaphor is reminiscent of the OT water metaphor of pouring. Matthew 3:11 He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.Isaiah 44:3 And I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your children. Ezekiel 36:26–27 26 And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. Ezekiel 39:29 29 And I will never again turn my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit upon the people of Israel. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!” Joel 2:28–29 28  “Then, after doing all those things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. 29 In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on servants—men and women alike. I suppose the critic will argue that Jesus is the instrument that Yahweh uses.Pattern in Matthew Matthew 3:11–12 11 “I baptize with water those who repent of their sins and turn to God. But someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not worthy even to be his slave and carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.Matthew 3:16–17 16 After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.” Matthew 4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil.Matthew 4:17 17 From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” Following the pattern established earlier in Matthew in the life and ministry of Jesus, it only makes sense that Matthew 28 is making a strong connection between discipleship and baptism.Matthew 28:19–20 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Pattern in LukeLuke 3:21 21 One day when the crowds were being baptized, Jesus himself was baptized. As he was praying, the heavens opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit, in bodily form, descended on him like a dove.Luke 4:1 Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2 where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Luke 4:14 14 Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power.Luke 4:18 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, 19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” So in Acts, we see the pattern established by Jesus repeated in the life of the church:Acts 1:8 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 2:1–17 On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. 2 Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. 3 Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. 5 At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. 6 When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. 7 They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, 8 and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! 9 Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, 10 Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!” 12 They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other. 13 But others in the crowd ridiculed them, saying, “They’re just drunk, that’s all!” 14 Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this. 15 These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that. 16 No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel: 17 ‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Acts 2:37 37 Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Acts 2:38 38 Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.Acts 2:38–41 38 Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God.” 40 Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!” 41 Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all.Acts 2:42–47 42 All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. 43 A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. 44 And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. 45 They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. 46 They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—47 all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. Here we see the body or community aspect. Those baptized began living as one people, God’s people, the new Israel, which we will see later.Acts 5:15–16 15 As a result of the apostles’ work, sick people were brought out into the streets on beds and mats so that Peter’s shadow might fall across some of them as he went by. 16 Crowds came from the villages around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those possessed by evil spirits, and they were all healed. Like Jesus, baptism initiates a time of testing:Acts 7:59–8:1 59 As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died. Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen. A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria.Baptism: Baptized into the one body, the Church1 Corinthians 12:13 But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share (and we were all made to drink, NASB) the same Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:13 refers back to 1 Corinthians 10:1–4:1 Corinthians 10:1–4 I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. 2 In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. 3 All of them ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ.The double use of water in this passage – the water of the Red Sea through which the Israelites passed and the water which flowed from the rock for them to drink in the desert – is easily the best explanation for the otherwise initially puzzling double reference in chapter 12 (we were all baptized … and given one spirit to drink). The Messiah’s people, for Paul, are thus the new-exodus people, formed as was ancient Israel into ‘a people’ by the redeeming action of the one God on their behalf and by the sovereign and holy presence of the one God in their midst, leading them in the pillar of cloud and fire and sustaining them on their journey. And baptism, it here becomes clear, is indeed (to use the old theological language) the ‘outward and visible’ sign of entry into the Messiah’s people, defining them just as surely as the crossing of the Red Sea defined the people whom Abraham’s God brought out of Egypt.Baptism invokes the gift and the presence of the spirit, just like it was in the exodus when the living presence of YHWH accompanied the people out of Egypt and came to dwell in the tabernacle, the forerunner of the Jerusalem Temple.The baptism of John the Baptist is the beginning of God recreating the Exodus centered around the person of Jesus. Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, will now dwell with His people the way that Yahweh did in the OT beginning at the Red Sea.John the Baptist is recreating the Exodus narrative. He calls people to pass through the water with the result of receiving salvation, not from the Egyptians, but from sin and receiving the presence of the the one true and living God who will actively dwell with His people.Having heard this, now listen to Galatians 3:26–29 afresh:Galatians 3:26–29 26 For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. 28 There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you. 1 Peter 3:21 21 And that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you, not by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God from a clean conscience. It is effective because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. With this text the Catholics have taught that along with… water baptism actually does save you, and the Reformers, Luther and Calvin and all the rest reacted to this false view and ended up with a similar view in the maintaining of the practice of infants but in fact this is Peter’s short-hand way of saying the very things we have said already. So consider 1 Peter 3:21 equivalent to Paul’s Galatians 3:28.1 Peter 4:1- repentance aspect1 Peter 4:8–9- gospel community aspect1 Peter 4:10–11- Spirit empowered ministry aspect1 Peter 4:12- time of testing following baptism aspect(So its like the pattern ultimately gets switched in its practical application within the church, and Bible interpreters have anachronistically made this switch backwards compatible resulting in so many denominations having differing views on baptism like the 6 blind men each describing the elephant, each denomination focusing on a few texts and applying those few texts to the many texts instead of letting all the texts stand on their own in all the Bible’s progressive revelation so we can see the whole elephant.)So we might say the Catholics focus on the salvation aspect, the Pentecostals on the spirit empowered ministry aspect, and the Reformers and the Baptists on the death and resurrection aspect, but we need all 3 if we are going to see the whole elephant.So in failing to understand all that the Bible is teaching as far as the big picture and by isolating certain texts and focusing merely on the issue of salvation, as in, is does baptism actually save you or is it merely a symbol of salvation, we have turned NT baptism for the Church back into the baptism of John the Baptist:Acts 19:1–7 While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions until he reached Ephesus, on the coast, where he found several believers. 2 “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” he asked them. “No,” they replied, “we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 “Then what baptism did you experience?” he asked. And they replied, “The baptism of John.” 4 Paul said, “John’s baptism called for repentance from sin. But John himself told the people to believe in the one who would come later, meaning Jesus.” 5 As soon as they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 Then when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all. So NT baptism is not less than John’s baptism, but it is certainly more.CONCLUSION:If you are going to be baptized, are you prepared to live a life of Spirit empowered ministry?IF you have been baptized, have you forgotten that you were cleansed from your old way of living?John 3:5 5 Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.2. Baptism. Since Jesus commanded his church to baptize (Matt. 28:19), we would expect that there would be a measure of blessing connected with baptism, because all obedience to God by Christians brings God’s favor with it. This obedience is specifically a public act of confessing Jesus as Savior, an act which in itself brings joy and blessing to a believer. Moreover, it is a sign of the believer’s death and resurrection with Christ (see Rom. 6:2–5; Col. 2:12), and it seems fitting that the Holy Spirit would work through such a sign to increase our faith, to increase our experiential realization of death to the power and love of sin in our lives, and to increase our experience of the power of new resurrection life in Christ that we have as believers. Since baptism is a physical symbol of the death and resurrection of Christ and our participation in them, it should also give additional assurance of union with Christ to all believers who are present. Finally, since water baptism is an outward symbol of inward spiritual baptism by the Holy Spirit, we may expect that the Holy Spirit will ordinarily work alongside the baptism, giving to believers an increasing realization of the benefits of the spiritual baptism to which it points.When baptism very closely accompanies someone’s initial profession of faith and is in fact the outward form that profession of faith takes, there is certainly a connection between baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, for Peter says to his hearers at Pentecost, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Moreover, Paul says, “You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead” (Col. 2:12). The statement that it is “through faith in the working of God” that this happens reminds us that there is no magical property in the act of baptism itself, which causes a spiritual result to come about, yet the verse also indicates that when faith accompanies baptism there is genuine spiritual work in the life of the person being baptized. As we would expect, sometimes great spiritual joy follows upon baptism—a great joy in the Lord and in the salvation that baptism so vividly pictures (see Acts 8:39; 16:34).Although we must avoid the Roman Catholic teaching that grace is imparted even apart from the faith of the person being baptized, we must not react so strongly to this error that we say that there is no spiritual benefit at all that comes from baptism, that the Holy Spirit does not work through it and that it is merely symbolic. It is better to say that where there is genuine faith on the part of the person being baptized, and where the faith of the church that watches the baptism is stirred up and encouraged by this ceremony, then the Holy Spirit certainly does work through baptism, and it becomes a “means of grace” through which the Holy Spirit brings blessing to the person being baptized and to the church as well. (Baptism will be more fully discussed in the next chapter.)Matthew 3:11: “I baptize you with water for 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 with fire.”Mark 1:8: “I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”Luke 3:16: “I baptize you with water; but he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”John 1:33: “He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” ’Colossians 2:1212 For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. Now this truth is clearly symbolized in baptism by immersion. When the candidate for baptism goes down into the water it is a picture of going down into the grave and being buried. Coming up out of the water is then a picture of being raised with Christ to walk in newness of life. Baptism thus very clearly pictures death to one’s old way of life and rising to a new kind of life in Christ. But baptism by sprinkling or pouring simply misses this symbolism.Believer’s Baptism- A physical picture of a spiritual fact.1. Only those who give a believable profession of faith should be baptized. This view is often called “believers’ baptism,” since it holds that only those who have themselves believed in Christ (or, more precisely, those who have given reasonable evidence of believing in Christ) should be baptized. This is because baptism, which is a symbol of beginning the Christian life should only be given to those who have in fact begun the Christian life.Acts 2:41 41 Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all. Acts 8:12 12 But now the people believed Philip’s message of Good News concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. As a result, many men and women were baptized.Acts 10:44–48 44 Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message. 45 The Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles, too. 46 For they heard them speaking in other tongues and praising God. Then Peter asked, 47 “Can anyone object to their being baptized, now that they have received the Holy Spirit just as we did?” 48 So he gave orders for them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Afterward Cornelius asked him to stay with them for several days. Acts 16:14 As she (Lydia) listened to us, the Lord opened her heart, and she accepted what Paul was saying. 15 She and her household were baptizedActs 16:32 32 And they shared the word of the Lord with him and with all who lived in his household. 33 Even at that hour of the night, the jailer cared for them and washed their wounds. Then he and everyone in his household were immediately baptized.2. The outward symbol of beginning the Christian life should only be given to those who show evidence of having begun the Christian life.The Effect of BaptismWhen baptism is properly carried out it brings the blessing of God’s favor that comes with all obedience, as well as the joy that comes through public profession of one’s faith, and the reassurance of having a clear physical picture of dying and rising with Christ and of washing away sins. Certainly the Lord gave us baptism to strengthen and encourage our faith—and it should do so for everyone who is baptized and for every believer who witnesses a baptism.Is Baptism Necessary for Salvation?While we recognize that Jesus commanded baptism (Matt. 28:19), as did the apostles (Acts 2:38), we should not say that baptism is necessary for salvation. To say that baptism or any other action is necessary for salvation is to say that we are not justified by faith alone, but by faith plus a certain “work,” the work of baptism. The apostle Paul would have opposed the idea that baptism is necessary for salvation just as strongly as he opposed the similar idea that circumcision was necessary for salvation (see Gal. 5:1–12).Galatians 5:2–6 2 Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3 I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. 4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace. 5 But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. 6 For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love. Luke 23:42–43 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” 43 And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Another reason why baptism is not necessary for salvation is that our being forgiven for sin takes place at the point of saving faith, not at the point of water baptism, which usually occurs later. But if a person is already forgiven at the point of saving faith, then baptism is not necessary for forgiveness of sins, or for the bestowal of new spiritual life. Baptism, then, is not necessary for salvation. But it is necessary if we are to be obedient to Christ, for he commanded baptism for all who believe in him.Age for BaptismHow old should children be before they are baptized?”The most direct answer is that they should be old enough to give a believable profession of faith. It is impossible to set a precise age that will apply to every child, but when parents see convincing evidence of genuine spiritual life, and also some degree of understanding regarding the meaning of trusting in Christ, then baptism is appropriate. Of course, this will require careful administration by the church, as well as a good explanation by parents in their homes. The exact age for baptism will vary from child to child, and somewhat from church to church as well.

Baptism, The New ExodusStudying the Bible will blow your mind. IF you are not studying it, you are missing out!!! Baptism was supposed to be such a simple subject, but oh no, mind blowing.Spurgeon Quotes“I do not question the safety of the soul that has believed, but I do say again, I would not run the risk of the man who, having believed, refuses to be baptized.”“I feel shocked when I hear people say, “But it is not essential to salvation.” You mean and beggarly spirit! Will you do nothing but what is essential to your own salvation? A Pharisee or a harlot might talk so. Is this your love to Christ—that you will not obey him, unless he shall pay you for it, unless he shall make your soul’s salvation depend upon it?”“I am amazed that an unconscious babe should be made the partaker of an ordinance which, according to the plain teaching of the Scriptures, requires the conscious acquiescence and complete heart trust of the recipient. Very few, if any, would argue that infants ought to receive the Lord’s Supper; but there is no more Scriptural warrant for bringing them to the one ordinance than there is for bringing them to the other.” 2 kinds of people, those who are saved and need to be baptized, and those who have been baptized but need to be saved.Baptism is not only a picture of what Jesus has done for u in the past but a picture of the life u are going to live in the future resulting ultimately in resurrection life in the very presence of God. Baptism captures 4 meanings:Repentance and Salvation from SinAssociation with the death and resurrection of JesusBecoming a citizen of the people and kingdom of GodIt Foreshadows the life of Spirit empowered ministry that the disciple will now live.Different Christian groups tend to focus on one of these elements to the neglect of the others like the blind men describing the elephant.The work of the Holy Spirit is to bind the worshipper to the Messiah in glad allegiance. This is what baptism symbolizes.What is the pattern that Jesus establishes at his baptism?The pattern established by Jesus is being baptized and then receiving the Holy Spirit which in turn initiates his ministry.The baptism of Jesus is immediately followed by a period of testing, community living, and Spirit empowered ministry. Such is also the case in Acts for the church in Jerusalem for they are immediately persecuted such that they are driven from Jerusalem. Jesus baptizing with the Spirit, reflects that Jesus is God, BTW.Baptism, a water metaphor is reminiscent of the OT water metaphor of pouring. Matthew 3:11 He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.Isaiah 44:3 And I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your children. Ezekiel 36:26–27 26 And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. Ezekiel 39:29 29 And I will never again turn my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit upon the people of Israel. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!” Joel 2:28–29 28  “Then, after doing all those things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. 29 In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on servants—men and women alike. I suppose the critic will argue that Jesus is the instrument that Yahweh uses.Pattern in Matthew Matthew 3:11–12 11 “I baptize with water those who repent of their sins and turn to God. But someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not worthy even to be his slave and carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.Matthew 3:16–17 16 After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.” Matthew 4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil.Matthew 4:17 17 From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” Following the pattern established earlier in Matthew in the life and ministry of Jesus, it only makes sense that Matthew 28 is making a strong connection between discipleship and baptism.Matthew 28:19–20 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Pattern in LukeLuke 3:21 21 One day when the crowds were being baptized, Jesus himself was baptized. As he was praying, the heavens opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit, in bodily form, descended on him like a dove.Luke 4:1 Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2 where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Luke 4:14 14 Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power.Luke 4:18 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, 19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” So in Acts, we see the pattern established by Jesus repeated in the life of the church:Acts 1:8 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 2:1–17 On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. 2 Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. 3 Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. 5 At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. 6 When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. 7 They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, 8 and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! 9 Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, 10 Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!” 12 They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other. 13 But others in the crowd ridiculed them, saying, “They’re just drunk, that’s all!” 14 Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this. 15 These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that. 16 No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel: 17 ‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Acts 2:37 37 Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Acts 2:38 38 Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.Acts 2:38–41 38 Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God.” 40 Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!” 41 Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all.Acts 2:42–47 42 All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. 43 A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. 44 And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. 45 They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. 46 They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—47 all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. Here we see the body or community aspect. Those baptized began living as one people, God’s people, the new Israel, which we will see later.Acts 5:15–16 15 As a result of the apostles’ work, sick people were brought out into the streets on beds and mats so that Peter’s shadow might fall across some of them as he went by. 16 Crowds came from the villages around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those possessed by evil spirits, and they were all healed. Like Jesus, baptism initiates a time of testing:Acts 7:59–8:1 59 As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died. Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen. A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria.Baptism: Baptized into the one body, the Church1 Corinthians 12:13 But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share (and we were all made to drink, NASB) the same Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:13 refers back to 1 Corinthians 10:1–4:1 Corinthians 10:1–4 I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. 2 In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. 3 All of them ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ.The double use of water in this passage – the water of the Red Sea through which the Israelites passed and the water which flowed from the rock for them to drink in the desert – is easily the best explanation for the otherwise initially puzzling double reference in chapter 12 (we were all baptized … and given one spirit to drink). The Messiah’s people, for Paul, are thus the new-exodus people, formed as was ancient Israel into ‘a people’ by the redeeming action of the one God on their behalf and by the sovereign and holy presence of the one God in their midst, leading them in the pillar of cloud and fire and sustaining them on their journey. And baptism, it here becomes clear, is indeed (to use the old theological language) the ‘outward and visible’ sign of entry into the Messiah’s people, defining them just as surely as the crossing of the Red Sea defined the people whom Abraham’s God brought out of Egypt.Baptism invokes the gift and the presence of the spirit, just like it was in the exodus when the living presence of YHWH accompanied the people out of Egypt and came to dwell in the tabernacle, the forerunner of the Jerusalem Temple.The baptism of John the Baptist is the beginning of God recreating the Exodus centered around the person of Jesus. Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, will now dwell with His people the way that Yahweh did in the OT beginning at the Red Sea.John the Baptist is recreating the Exodus narrative. He calls people to pass through the water with the result of receiving salvation, not from the Egyptians, but from sin and receiving the presence of the the one true and living God who will actively dwell with His people.Having heard this, now listen to Galatians 3:26–29 afresh:Galatians 3:26–29 26 For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. 28 There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you. 1 Peter 3:21 21 And that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you, not by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God from a clean conscience. It is effective because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. With this text the Catholics have taught that along with… water baptism actually does save you, and the Reformers, Luther and Calvin and all the rest reacted to this false view and ended up with a similar view in the maintaining of the practice of infants but in fact this is Peter’s short-hand way of saying the very things we have said already. So consider 1 Peter 3:21 equivalent to Paul’s Galatians 3:28.1 Peter 4:1- repentance aspect1 Peter 4:8–9- gospel community aspect1 Peter 4:10–11- Spirit empowered ministry aspect1 Peter 4:12- time of testing following baptism aspect(So its like the pattern ultimately gets switched in its practical application within the church, and Bible interpreters have anachronistically made this switch backwards compatible resulting in so many denominations having differing views on baptism like the 6 blind men each describing the elephant, each denomination focusing on a few texts and applying those few texts to the many texts instead of letting all the texts stand on their own in all the Bible’s progressive revelation so we can see the whole elephant.)So we might say the Catholics focus on the salvation aspect, the Pentecostals on the spirit empowered ministry aspect, and the Reformers and the Baptists on the death and resurrection aspect, but we need all 3 if we are going to see the whole elephant.So in failing to understand all that the Bible is teaching as far as the big picture and by isolating certain texts and focusing merely on the issue of salvation, as in, is does baptism actually save you or is it merely a symbol of salvation, we have turned NT baptism for the Church back into the baptism of John the Baptist:Acts 19:1–7 While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions until he reached Ephesus, on the coast, where he found several believers. 2 “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” he asked them. “No,” they replied, “we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 “Then what baptism did you experience?” he asked. And they replied, “The baptism of John.” 4 Paul said, “John’s baptism called for repentance from sin. But John himself told the people to believe in the one who would come later, meaning Jesus.” 5 As soon as they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 Then when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all. So NT baptism is not less than John’s baptism, but it is certainly more.CONCLUSION:If you are going to be baptized, are you prepared to live a life of Spirit empowered ministry?IF you have been baptized, have you forgotten that you were cleansed from your old way of living?John 3:5 5 Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.2. Baptism. Since Jesus commanded his church to baptize (Matt. 28:19), we would expect that there would be a measure of blessing connected with baptism, because all obedience to God by Christians brings God’s favor with it. This obedience is specifically a public act of confessing Jesus as Savior, an act which in itself brings joy and blessing to a believer. Moreover, it is a sign of the believer’s death and resurrection with Christ (see Rom. 6:2–5; Col. 2:12), and it seems fitting that the Holy Spirit would work through such a sign to increase our faith, to increase our experiential realization of death to the power and love of sin in our lives, and to increase our experience of the power of new resurrection life in Christ that we have as believers. Since baptism is a physical symbol of the death and resurrection of Christ and our participation in them, it should also give additional assurance of union with Christ to all believers who are present. Finally, since water baptism is an outward symbol of inward spiritual baptism by the Holy Spirit, we may expect that the Holy Spirit will ordinarily work alongside the baptism, giving to believers an increasing realization of the benefits of the spiritual baptism to which it points.When baptism very closely accompanies someone’s initial profession of faith and is in fact the outward form that profession of faith takes, there is certainly a connection between baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, for Peter says to his hearers at Pentecost, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Moreover, Paul says, “You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead” (Col. 2:12). The statement that it is “through faith in the working of God” that this happens reminds us that there is no magical property in the act of baptism itself, which causes a spiritual result to come about, yet the verse also indicates that when faith accompanies baptism there is genuine spiritual work in the life of the person being baptized. As we would expect, sometimes great spiritual joy follows upon baptism—a great joy in the Lord and in the salvation that baptism so vividly pictures (see Acts 8:39; 16:34).Although we must avoid the Roman Catholic teaching that grace is imparted even apart from the faith of the person being baptized, we must not react so strongly to this error that we say that there is no spiritual benefit at all that comes from baptism, that the Holy Spirit does not work through it and that it is merely symbolic. It is better to say that where there is genuine faith on the part of the person being baptized, and where the faith of the church that watches the baptism is stirred up and encouraged by this ceremony, then the Holy Spirit certainly does work through baptism, and it becomes a “means of grace” through which the Holy Spirit brings blessing to the person being baptized and to the church as well. (Baptism will be more fully discussed in the next chapter.)Matthew 3:11: “I baptize you with water for 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 with fire.”Mark 1:8: “I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”Luke 3:16: “I baptize you with water; but he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”John 1:33: “He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” ’Colossians 2:1212 For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. Now this truth is clearly symbolized in baptism by immersion. When the candidate for baptism goes down into the water it is a picture of going down into the grave and being buried. Coming up out of the water is then a picture of being raised with Christ to walk in newness of life. Baptism thus very clearly pictures death to one’s old way of life and rising to a new kind of life in Christ. But baptism by sprinkling or pouring simply misses this symbolism.Believer’s Baptism- A physical picture of a spiritual fact.1. Only those who give a believable profession of faith should be baptized. This view is often called “believers’ baptism,” since it holds that only those who have themselves believed in Christ (or, more precisely, those who have given reasonable evidence of believing in Christ) should be baptized. This is because baptism, which is a symbol of beginning the Christian life should only be given to those who have in fact begun the Christian life.Acts 2:41 41 Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all. Acts 8:12 12 But now the people believed Philip’s message of Good News concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. As a result, many men and women were baptized.Acts 10:44–48 44 Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message. 45 The Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles, too. 46 For they heard them speaking in other tongues and praising God. Then Peter asked, 47 “Can anyone object to their being baptized, now that they have received the Holy Spirit just as we did?” 48 So he gave orders for them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Afterward Cornelius asked him to stay with them for several days. Acts 16:14 As she (Lydia) listened to us, the Lord opened her heart, and she accepted what Paul was saying. 15 She and her household were baptizedActs 16:32 32 And they shared the word of the Lord with him and with all who lived in his household. 33 Even at that hour of the night, the jailer cared for them and washed their wounds. Then he and everyone in his household were immediately baptized.2. The outward symbol of beginning the Christian life should only be given to those who show evidence of having begun the Christian life.The Effect of BaptismWhen baptism is properly carried out it brings the blessing of God’s favor that comes with all obedience, as well as the joy that comes through public profession of one’s faith, and the reassurance of having a clear physical picture of dying and rising with Christ and of washing away sins. Certainly the Lord gave us baptism to strengthen and encourage our faith—and it should do so for everyone who is baptized and for every believer who witnesses a baptism.Is Baptism Necessary for Salvation?While we recognize that Jesus commanded baptism (Matt. 28:19), as did the apostles (Acts 2:38), we should not say that baptism is necessary for salvation. To say that baptism or any other action is necessary for salvation is to say that we are not justified by faith alone, but by faith plus a certain “work,” the work of baptism. The apostle Paul would have opposed the idea that baptism is necessary for salvation just as strongly as he opposed the similar idea that circumcision was necessary for salvation (see Gal. 5:1–12).Galatians 5:2–6 2 Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3 I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. 4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace. 5 But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. 6 For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love. Luke 23:42–43 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” 43 And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Another reason why baptism is not necessary for salvation is that our being forgiven for sin takes place at the point of saving faith, not at the point of water baptism, which usually occurs later. But if a person is already forgiven at the point of saving faith, then baptism is not necessary for forgiveness of sins, or for the bestowal of new spiritual life. Baptism, then, is not necessary for salvation. But it is necessary if we are to be obedient to Christ, for he commanded baptism for all who believe in him.Age for BaptismHow old should children be before they are baptized?”The most direct answer is that they should be old enough to give a believable profession of faith. It is impossible to set a precise age that will apply to every child, but when parents see convincing evidence of genuine spiritual life, and also some degree of understanding regarding the meaning of trusting in Christ, then baptism is appropriate. Of course, this will require careful administration by the church, as well as a good explanation by parents in their homes. The exact age for baptism will vary from child to child, and somewhat from church to church as well.

08/21/2016