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FINALLY ! ! The Restoration of
TRUTH
goes in the heart and CHARITY comes out of the mouth (Rom.10:10).
Deut.29:1, "These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses..." The evangelist brings to the people the words of the covenant which the Lord God now commands through Jesus Christ. Deut.29:11, "That you should enter into covenant with the Lord your God, and into His oath, which the Lord your God makes with you this day." The evangelist will move with the measure of grace and power of the Spirit to make known and proclaim the fullness of the message of Christ. The evangelist must fully prepare the sinner:
ACCEPTING THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST: The CONFESSION of FAITH must be made in agreement with the testimony of Jesus Christ. The repentant sinner must be brought into agreement with what Jesus has testified of Himself. We must stop leading people to "ask Jesus into their heart" and begin to lead people to receive the TESTIMONY of Jesus Christ and come into covenant with God. This is what the apostle John wrote, "He that has RECEIVED HIS TESTIMONY has set to his seal that God is true," Jn.3:33.
When the sinner has repented, having yielded to grace, and has come into agreement with Jesus Christ, he must be JOINED to God in covenant so that this agreement may be sealed in Christ (Rom.4:11; Eph.1:13). So the idea of bringing a soul to Christ is not merely to extract from him a confession of faith in Christ, but to bring him into covenant with God.
WHAT IT MEANS TO BE SAVED: To be saved means to be joined in covenant with God. If we were to ask the children of Israel who had heard all that Moses had preached in the wilderness, and who had come in agreement with God through covenant, what it meant to be SAVED, they would answer within the context to all that they had received from Moses. Being saved encompassed ALL the things that God brought to them to observe. We read in Deut.33:29, "Happy are you O Israel; who is like unto you, O people SAVED by the Lord..." When the children of Israel saw the dead bodies of the soldiers of the powerful and mighty Egypt washed upon the shore, they knew that God had 'SAVED' them from their enemy. But we see that their was a PURPOSE in this deliverance. God brought Israel OUT of Egypt to bring them INTO covenant with Him. Deut.29:1, "THESE are the words (KNOWLEDGE) of the covenant...." The evangelist is not sharing the mere STORY of the Jesus' death and resurrection. Yes, we do share this knowledge, but the knowledge is not unfolded as a story, but as the words of the covenant that God is making with man. The repentant sinner is not asked to agree with a 'story', he is being asked to come into agreement with the testimony of Christ and come into covenant with God.
Deut.29:12, "That you should ENTER INTO COVENANT with the Lord your God, and INTO HIS OATH, which the Lord your God makes with you this day." We are not bringing the repentant sinner into the Old Covenant, but into the New Covenant, a better testament, a better covenant (Heb.7:22; Heb.8:6,8), but a COVENANT none the less. The confession of faith in Christ is the repentant sinner's opportunity to agree with the testimony of Jesus Christ, to agree with what Jesus has testified of Himself; to agree and accept what God is offering as salvation for the soul. God is not simply offering a 'get out of jail free' card. Deut. 26:17, 18,."You have AVOUCHED (to affirm openly, give testimony to) the Lord this day to be your God, and to walk in His ways, and to keep His statues, and His commandments, and His judgments, and to hearken unto His voice." "And the Lord has AVOUCHED (to affirm openly, give testimony to) you this day to be His peculiar people, as He has promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments." Because of the Jews agreement to keep covenant with God through the observance of His commandments, THEN they could call themselves the SAVED of the Lord, and they could say that the eternal God was their refuge (Deut.33:27). Outside of this covenant, outside of observance of these commandments given through Moses, God was NOT their refuge and they were NOT the saved of the Lord as we see when their enemies overthrew them, and all but 2 of that generation died in the wilderness, not having seen the promise. God delivered them out of Egypt, but they did not inherit the promises of God because they refused to keep the covenant (Heb.3:14-19; Heb.4:1,2). Even so it is today. The term 'SAVED' is only in connection with ALL that God has provided through Jesus Christ in this better covenant made with better promises. We are saved when we come into agreement with what God has provided by covenant through Jesus Christ, and we are saved if we love Him by keeping the commandments that are now in Christ Jesus. This covenant is better because the commandments of Christ provide healing for the soul, not condemnation and guilt and shame as the commandments of Moses did. To bring a soul to Christ we must inform them of what it means to be saved according to this word. Then their confession of faith will be according to this word. To bring a soul to Christ also means to bring them into ONE faith, ONE doctrine. For as the children of Israel were not free to serve God their own way, so christians today are not free to serve God their own way (I Cor.10:1-6).
THE PATTERN OR STEPS OF CONVERSION: The pattern, or steps of conversion follow the same 'steps of our father Abraham'. God carefully designed the pattern of faith in Abraham to be repeated in Christ. ALL must follow these same steps. Gal.3:14, "That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." This is why Abraham is called the 'father of faith' in Rom.4:16. When the evangelist is preaching the gospel he is bringing the repentant sinner along these same steps:  GRACE ---------
God GRANTS the light of His
knowledge which is in Jesus Christ, the illumination of His Spirit awakens the
soul. God grants the knowledge that we are sinners and must come into covenant
with Him. We are being awakened to our true condition. We are hearing the
testimony of Jesus Christ not only with our physical ear, but our spiritual ear.
The preacher of the gospel is bearing upon us the fact that Jesus is the Son of
God, that He died for the sins of the world, and rose again from the dead, and
demands that all men everywhere repent of sins and accept His testimony, and the
Spirit of God is bringing light to our soul with this knowledge. Now God offers the covenant. Jesus died on the cross to provide forgiveness of sins and the terms of the covenant. He rose from the dead to personally oversee the work of the covenant in each heart. The steps of our father Abraham did not stop at righteousness. Looking at Gen.17:11 and Rom 4:10-12 we see that the righteousness of the faith of Abraham had to be SEALED. The seal was just as necessary a step as grace and faith, and righteousness.
Rom.4:11, "And he (Abraham) received the sign of circumcision, a SEAL of the RIGHTEOUSNESS of the FAITH which he had yet being uncircumcised; that he (Abraham) might be the father of all them that believe; though they be not circumcised (in the flesh); that righteousness might be imputed unto them also." II Cor.1:22, "Who has also SEALED us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." Eph.4:30, "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are SEALED unto the day of redemption." The SEAL of the Spirit is the `means' by which God circumcises the heart in the new and better covenant of Christ. The reason why God provides the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4) is to provide this necessary token for us. We read in Col.2:11, "In whom also you are CIRCUMCISED with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ." Rom.4:12, "And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only (the Jews), but who also WALK in the STEPS of that FAITH of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised." The steps of grace, faith, and righteousness is followed by the seal. The SEAL of the Spirit is given through the BAPTISM of the Holy Spirit. The Tares dominated the faith of the Wheat by denying them the steps of our father Abraham, denying them the seal of the righteousness of their faith. The apostle John wrote, "For as many as received Him (received the testimony about Jesus) to them gave He POWER to become the sons of God," Jn.1:12. We receive the testimony of Christ and are sealed with the Spirit. This is the power to become the sons of God. The power is in the seal. The repentant sinner cannot experience TRUE CONVERSION without this pattern.
THE SIMPLE MESSAGE/ THE SIMPLE INVITATION: Let's look at the preaching of the apostles in the book of Acts. In Acts chapter 2 the preaching of Peter took the course of telling the people who Jesus is, why He died, and the glory of His resurrection. He includes in his preaching the promise, "I will pour out in those days of My Spirit..." He said, "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." He said, "Repent, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is unto you...and to as many as the Lord our God shall call." Acts 2:38. This is a simple gospel message. When Adam sinned there was a great void in his heart. The Light of God was gone. We all felt this void before we were saved (illuminated and sealed). The gospel message is that God gives us the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. "Come, repent of your sins, and receive God's Holy Spirit so that the Light of God can again live in your heart and heal you and make you whole again." The reason why believers continue to roam from church to church is that they are again experiencing that void after 'asking Jesus into their heart'. They never experienced the seal of their faith, and without the Spirit, the light of God's grace does not continue to provide the life of Christ in the inner man. The invitation to accept the testimony of Christ and come into covenant with God needs to be given after the preaching. The preaching must include those things which we have spoken of, the cross, the resurrection, and the covenant. The grace of God will be present to draw faith from the heart.
"All you who have received the testimony of the son of God, come and call on the name of the Lord so that your sins may be forgiven and you can walk in covenant with God." Acts 2:21.
"Receive the testimony of Jesus Christ. Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out. Receive the refreshing that comes from the presence of the Lord." Acts 3:19.
"God has sent His Son to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. Receive His testimony and come, repent of your sins, and He shall give you the gift of the Holy Spirit." Acts 3:26.
"Sin has left us without the power to know God. Sin has separated us from God. But God has promised to fill us again with His Spirit so that we can know Him. All who want to know God, repent of sins and accept what He has given us through the death and resurrection of His Son. Come and receive His gift of life." Acts 1:8.
"Be it known unto you all this day that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him do I preach the gospel of peace. There is salvation in none other name. All who will receive this testimony, come to God for forgiveness of sins and He shall cleanse you and give you the Holy Spirit." Acts 4:10, 12.
"God has exalted Jesus Christ with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and forgiveness of sins. This is what we have witnessed, that God saves souls and makes man whole again. And that God gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey Him. Come and receive forgiveness of sins and accept the covenant that God has offered to you, receive the Holy Spirit." Acts 5:31,32.This is the simple gospel because it opens the door to Jesus only and shuts the door on all other expressions of faith that weary the soul.
In Rom.10:13 we read, "Whosoever shall CALL upon the NAME of the Lord shall be saved." It is not the fact that we call OUT the name of the Jesus that saves us, but the calling UPON the name of Jesus that saves us. After the preaching of the message of truth, the sinner is prepared to call upon the name of the Lord in faith. Ps.9:10 says, "They that KNOW your NAME will put their trust in you." The name of the Lord represents and possesses all that He has intended by the oath of His Word (Christ). It is not the pronunciation of His name, but the knowledge of what His name represents that we trust. The preaching of truth prepares the sinner to make this confession of faith as he calls upon the name of the Lord:
The confession of faith in Christ should NOT include a confession of frailty, for we do not want to exalt sin. CHRIST is our testimony, NOT sin. The CONFESSION of FAITH in Christ is vital because the repentant sinner will be able to reflect back on that moment and know that God has forgiven his sins, that he has been declared righteous based upon the yielding of his will (faith) to grace. The repentant sinner must know what he is agreeing to, and verbalizing it brings affirmation of the truth, and expectation of the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of tongues. The repentant sinner is being drawn by grace and his confession of Jesus Christ gives substance to his faith. The baptism of the Holy Spirit will seal his faith.
THE SEAL OF YOUR FAITH/ THE COVENANT OF CIRCUMCISION: In Acts 7:8 we read, "And He (God) gave him (Abraham) the covenant of circumcision..." God now gives to us the covenant of Christ through the circumcision of the Spirit. In some cases the Spirit of God will come upon a group of people who are hearing the gospel preached, and they will begin to speak in other tongues, and the confession of faith is made after the infilling of the Holy Spirit as we see in Acts 10:44. In some cases the baptism of the Holy Spirit is experienced a few weeks after the confession of faith as we see in Acts 8:15-20; Acts 19:6.Just as God sealed the faith of the disciples of Jesus on the day of Pentecost and gave them the sign of tongues, so each convert can also expect to speak in tongues as a sign that the righteousness of their faith is being sealed by God. Acts 15:8, "And God, which knows the hearts, bare them WITNESS, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us." (Acts 2:4). The witness of God comes as the righteousness of your faith is sealed by God through the baptism of the Holy Ghost. As God forgives sins, the hostility between the sinner and God is past, he will experience the peace with God, and may feel a release or a weight being lifted off them. He is being saved by Jesus' death (Rom.5:9). Yet, the Spirit of God, being WITH the repentant sinner in the power of His grace, is not yet IN them. He is not yet born again. His sins are forgiven, he is declared righteous on the basis of grace and faith alone. Peter experienced the illumination of grace, the Spirit being WITH him to provide this illumination of grace, but not IN him ( Mt.16:15-17; Jn.14:17).As Abraham was declared righteous BEFORE he was brought into covenant with God through the circumcision of his flesh, you also are declared righteous BEFORE you are brought into covenant with God through the circumcision of the Spirit. When God grants repentance unto life ( Acts 11:18) through the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of tongues, the believer is being saved by Jesus' life (Rom.5:10).Jesus rose from the dead; death could not hold Him. The same power (Spirit of God) that raised Jesus from the dead enters into the believer when they are baptized with the Holy Spirit so that the believer can be born from above. God evidences this baptism with tongues so that the believer will be able to use this divine form of communication each day. The new believer will be instructed in the use of this divine tool of the covenant.
BROUGHT INTO COVENANT: We discussed the purpose of conversion was to bring the soul into covenant with God. We had said that the evangelist must fully prepare the sinner to abandon and leave behind the system of sin and iniquity and all that is contrary to God and to be willing to embrace the knowledge of Jesus Christ and be joined in covenant to God. What does the word 'covenant' mean?
Earlier we read these scriptures: Deut.29:1, "THESE are the words (KNOWLEDGE) of the covenant." And also....... Deut. 26:17, 18,."You have AVOUCHED (to affirm openly, give testimony to) the Lord this day to be your God, and to walk in His ways, and to keep His statues, and His commandments, and His judgments, and to hearken unto His voice." "And the Lord has AVOUCHED (to affirm openly, give testimony to) you this day to be His peculiar people, as He has promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments. When the gospel is perverted we hear people saying that salvation through Christ is a 'free gift', meaning that they are under no obligation to God in any way, that God does not require anything of us at all. Yes, salvation is freely given by God, just as God freely sent Moses to release the children of Israel from the bondage of Pharaoh. But God has always expected His people to serve Him. You cannot be saved (walk with God) outside of this agreement; you cannot serve Him without the ordered knowledge of the covenant. In marriage we are freely giving ourselves to our spouse, but within the terms of the agreement, the marriage contact. God also sets the terms that would obligate us to the knowledge of His Son. This is why we need preachers of the gospel who will preach the gospel of the grace of God in truth (Col.1:6). This is what we read in Rom. 10:14, 15, "How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent?" Without the preacher (the one who is prepared with the gospel in truth) people are led to experience salvation by 'inviting Jesus into their heart'. Because they are not led into covenant with God, faith has nothing to join itself to, it stands alone, and the repentant sinner does not know how to serve God acceptably. Is this person saved? NO! Righteousness IS granted to the believer on the basis of grace and faith alone, but without the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that righteousness is not witnessed by God and the faith of the believer is not joined to what makes it living, and "The pig that was washed has returned to her wallowing in the mire, the dog is returned to his own vomit," II Pet.2:22.Can faith ALONE save you without the witness of God through the seal? Most will say, "I am saved by faith in Christ alone." Can faith ALONE save you? The apostle James posed this same question to believers. And his answer is, "No, faith alone cannot save you," Jas.2:14-20. Faith in God, faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ does not profit (is wasted) if it is not brought into contact with what makes it living. We serve God through these things which He makes living through the Spirit. The seal of the Spirit (baptism of the Holy Ghost) makes our faith living because it is through the baptism of the Holy Spirit that God provides the gifts, callings, and graces of God. This is the activity of the Spirit that our faith is joined to. That is why it is living. The Spirit is using these things to give the life of Christ to the soul. Faith cannot save us apart from what God has sanctified for our faith. Can we make our faith in Christ living apart from the spiritual 'things' that God has sanctified? No. If truth is argued against our own experience then WE have become the contact point for faith in God and not Jesus Christ. This cannot be. We are not Christ. We argue against Christ when we speak for Christ on OUR behalf instead on His behalf. It is Christ who speaks for us on His own behalf, on the behalf of what He has provided for faith. The repentant sinner must be brought into covenant to SERVE God so Christ can speak on his behalf, mediating the covenant in Himself. After conversion takes place, the doctrine of Christ (knowledge of the covenant) must be set in the heart through the stewardship of living apostles so that the believer knows how to serve God acceptably. The believer must know why he has experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit, why he is speaking in tongues, why Jesus shed His blood upon the cross, why Jesus rose from the dead. Each believer must learn how to function as a New Testament priest, how to offer the spiritual tithe of his faith, how to go through the cycles of his growth, how to overcome himself, the devil, and the world. The believer must come to understand the law of grace and truth in order to be led by the Spirit, and know with certainty the voice of the Lord which speaks from the foundation of truth. Each believer will enjoy the mediation of Jesus Christ as he uses the tools of the covenant. Jesus will be bearing his griefs and carrying his sorrows. Jesus will cause equity in the inner man. The believer will experience the manifolds graces of God, the powers of the world to come, and take on the responsibility of sharing Christ in the assembly with the measure of grace given to him by God. He will also be ready and willing to share Christ with those who are yet in need of salvation. The repentant sinner must abandon his own house and be brought INTO the HOUSE of CHRIST ( Heb.3:6). God establishes the house (covenant) and then we must inhabit it (Rev.3:20).
God made salvation simple enough for a child to understand. When a child is born in Germany he can pick up the German language very easily and speaks it fluently because he is born INTO that language and hears it every day. When a child is born in Russia it is easy for that child to pick up the Russian language because that is the language he was born INTO. Once we are grown into adulthood it becomes more difficult for us to learn to speak a language we were not born INTO. It would take quite a bit of study, and relearning, and reusing of the tongue. It is not the language itself that is difficult, but the manner in which we must now adjust to a language we are not familiar with. Well, when we are born INTO the gospel of Jesus Christ according to the language of the Tares, it is hard at first to relearn and reeducate your thinking according to truth. But it would NOT be hard for someone just coming into the faith, if he were taught correctly from the beginning. It is not the language of the doctrine of Christ that is difficult, it is the manner in which truth must now be learned AFTER having received the gospel in error. Christians are CONFUSED today because Satan sowed the gospel of the Tares among the Wheat, destroying truth.
We do not argue the reality of the power of God's peace, to know that there is salvation in none other than Jesus Christ. The power of the invitation has redeeming qualities if the sinner is enabled to follow the path of: Grace, faith, righteousness, and the seal. Those who only follow the path of grace, faith and righteousness have their sins forgiven, they have been reconciled to God through the death of Jesus (Rom.5:10), but not yet saved by His life ( Rom.5:10). Being not brought into covenant with God, having not the adoption, they soon are taken in the snare of the devil through the works of the flesh, and cannot love Jesus by keeping the commandments of His covenant. They are enslaved in a religious system that Jesus is not mediating, and must use their own aspirations and principles to try to give life to dead works.II Pet.2:19, "While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption. For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought into bondage." Without the seal of the righteousness of their faith, and the doctrine of Christ as given through living apostles (the stewards of the mystery of Christ), the faith of the believers is overcome by error, and they are brought into bondage by the Tares who have promised them liberty.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is now being restored to its original foundation of truth through the Apostle Eric. The Wheat should prepare themselves to separate their faith from the bondage of the Tares and come into ONE faith, ONE doctrine, ALL following the same steps of our father Abraham, confessing Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world.
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