Lesson 33
Repentance Have You Counted the Cost of True Discipleship?
AMBASSADOR CHRISTIAN COLLEGE- Dr. Keith Slough
INTRODUCTION
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n the book of Revelation, is a mysterious group of Christians who obviously different from the “mainstream” of “Churchianity” today. They are Sabbath-keeping Christians who live in the very end of the Last Days –at the very End Time! Revelation 12 speaks of Israel, pictured here as a woman. We know this is Israel for she gave birth to the Manchild who was to rule all nations –Jesus Christ, the King of kings (verse 5). Jesus was born an Israelite, of the tribe of Judah (Hebrews 7:14). But at the End Time, there will come a “Great Tribulation” on the entire world. Satan pictured here symbolically as a reptilian dragon, then goes to make war with the remnant of her seed. Romans 2:28-29 and Galatians 3:28-29 show that the spiritual seed of Israel is the true church –Spirit-begotten Christians.
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Repent and be Baptized Every One of You! Have you truly repented of your sins which are the transgressions of the Law of God? Have you been baptized after having repented? And did you receive the Holy Spirit of God by the Laying on of Hands according to the teachings of the New Testament? You need to KNOW that you have repented! And you need to KNOW that you have the Holy Spirit of Christ, without which you are none of His and do not belong to Him - are not saved! (Romans 8:9). Now is the time to be CERTAIN of your Salvation!
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NOWLEDGE IS A DANGEROUS THING if you do not obey the truth! God has revealed the True Religion to you. That Religion is the truth found in the Word of God and not the traditions of men. Jesus said, "Repent ye and believe the Gospel" (Mark 1:15). The real Gospel message is the message about the person of Jesus Christ as THE WAY into the Kingdom of God! But what does He mean by commanding us to "repent"? Change Your Mind The Greek word translated "repent" is metanoia which means to be sorrowful and ''to change the mind." We are to change our mind about the way we have lived about transgressing the Law of God which is sin, and begin obeying God! We obey God when we keep His Law. Have you seen that you have transgressed the Law by disobeying the Ten Commandments? James 2:10 says if you keep the whole Law (and then he quotes from the Ten Commandments as an example) and break just one, you are guilty of all. Technically every Christian who refuses to rest on God's Sabbath day is -in the sight of God -guilty of breaking ALL the Ten Commandments. Yet the Protestant church world was birthed as DAUGHTER churches from "Mother Rome" (Revelation 17:5) and teaches against the keeping of the Ten Commandments - specifically the fourth commandment! Instead they teach the Law is no longer in force. Satan has deceived the whole world (Revelation 12:9) into believing that the Law of God has been "done away" or "destroyed" at the cross! Jesus came to set us an Example (I Peter 2:21) and He kept all ten of the Commandments. Do you? Does your Protestant denomination keep the Seventh Day Sabbath of the Ten Commandments? Do they keep ALL the annual Sabbaths (or festivals, the annual Holydays) as Jesus Himself did and set us an Example?
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Will you follow Jesus now that you know the truth? Or will you continue to follow the traditions of men? Remember Jesus Himself said that there are those who actually worship HIM and do it all in vain! Why? Jesus answers that when we "lay aside the commandment of God" in order to keep our traditions –the traditions we inherited from the world, and then even though we worship Him, we are doing it all in vain! Read Mark 7:7-9, and verse 13. Study it prayerfully until you fully understand it. "Vain" means useless. It is worthless! It is therefore not producing a reward for you in the Kingdom of Heaven. Do you want your worship to be all in vain? Do you want your worship to be REJECTED by Jesus Christ? A Weak Christian Some years ago I showed some doctrinal truth about the Law of God to a Christian man. He acknowledged it was true. He had studied it. He saw the truth of God in the Scripture. I was pleased to see that he had "accepted" the truth of the Bible and understood it, so I asked him if he planned to obey it. He then said, "Well, I shared this with my church but they couldn't see it." "But what are you going to do with it?" I asked him. "You now see that this is God's own truth. Are you going to obey it?" He answered, "Yes but I can't get my church to see this. I have tried and tried but for some reason they just can't see it." Again I asked, "But what will you do? You are surely going to embrace God's Truth now that God has shown it to you, aren't you?" He then repeated himself, ''Yes but I can't get anybody in my church to accept this!" He repeated himself like a broken record. He seemed very distraught that other people among his closest friends in the church of which he was a member, had not been shown the same truth by God's Spirit -had not had their minds opened. He felt alone. Each time that I would ask him if he planned to obey God all he would do is refer back to his church. Sadly I saw the plain answer to my question. He felt, if only he could get the rest of his church to accept what the Bible teaches then he would gladly accept it, but if they refused to accept the truth, then he felt "duty bound" to be loyal first to his church, and secondarily to the Scriptures. How sad!
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If You Reject Truth Many Christians are weak in their loyalty to Christ and His Truth. Notice What God spoke through the prophet Hosea: ''Because thou hast REJECTED knowledge I will also reject thee '" seeing thou hast forgotten the LAW of thy God; I will also forget thy children" (Hosea 4:6). Paul wrote that some will perish not because they did not receive the Truth, but because ''they received not the LOVE of the truth" (II Thess. 2:10). He then adds a stem warning for those who do not love the truth they have been shown. "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie that they all might be DAMNED who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness" (verses 11-12). Notice. Paul is writing about people who have been shown God's Truth from the Bible. They have received it. They now know what the Bible teaches, but because they do not also have a love for the Truth enough to repent and begin obeying it, they will be sent strong delusion and may be damned because they actually have pleasure" in things that are not right -or unrighteous - in the sight of God. Is it "righteous" to call Sunday the Sabbath, when we know better? Is it "righteous" to work on the seventh day Sabbath and rest on Sunday when such action transgresses the Law of God and is therefore "sin"? (I John 3:4). Sin is unrighteousness. Paul wrote that some have pleasure in unrighteousness. They care more about traditions of men than the plain TRUTH of the Bible! What about you? Will you be courageous and take a stand for truth even though it may mean you may lose your mends, or worse, even be persecuted by them as the Colossian Christians were being "judged" by their Gentile neighbors who did not have God's truth? Or will you be like this ''weak Christian" who loved the praise of men, more than the praise of God? To my knowledge this man never did obey the truth God had opened up his heart to understand. Rather he remained loyal to a church of men rather than obey the plain TRU1H of the Word of God. Will you make this same mistake? Will you also reject what God has shown you - reject the tremendous CALLING that God has placed on your life to understand the deeper truths of God that this world has not understood? Listen! You have now been shown truths of Scripture that none of the world's seminaries teach! You have more understanding of the Bible even than the Pope of Rome himself -or any protestant church leader! Do you understand that God has given you the privilege of understanding His Holy Word which few in our day have? The Greatest in the Kingdom After saying that He had not come to destroy (abolish, do away, make void, or "get rid of")
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the Law (Matthew 5: 17), and then reminding us that not one jot or tittle would pass away from the Law until Heaven and Earth itself passed away (thereby "fulfilling" all prophecies, verse 18), Jesus then promised that if we would obey and teach even the least of the commandments, that we would be called GREAT in the Kingdom of Heaven! (verse 19). Does this New Testament Scripture sound as though the Law - the commandments of God found in the Old Testament -has been "done away"? How do you read it? Any church that calls Sunday the "Lord's Day" when the Lord Himself said the Sabbath was the Lord's own day (see Matthew 12:8) is not teaching all of God's Law. They may not mean to deceive anyone. They may be totally sincere. Most - the vast majority of them are deceived themselves, having learned these patently FALSE DOCTRINES from the seminaries of this world! Understand! Sunday is the day of Rome -adopted by the spiritual WHORE of Babylon and her daughter churches (called "harlots" by Jesus Christ). The first day of the week is not, and never was, the "Lord's day." He, the Lord, said that His day is the Sabbath, proved again and again from the New Testament to be the seventh day of the week and not just "one day in seven." Do you keep the Sabbath? If you do not you are now guilty of breaking the other nine!!! (James 2:10). Will you believe the Bible? Or will you be like this weak Christian man I mentioned, who saw the truth, but refused to believe it unless he could get "other people" to accept it, so he would not be alone in his acceptance of the truth? Most people tend to have a "sheep instinct" That is, they follow other people rather than the Shepherd! It is not wrong to worship God on any day of the week. Technically it is not wrong to attend church and have a worship service on Sunday, Wednesday night or any day or night of the week. Certainly not. But to call Sunday the Lord's Day is falsehood! To call the first day of the week the "Sabbath" is A LIE OF THE DEVIL! Don't you participate in this lie! I don't you participate in this deception! Remember, those deceived by the devil will go through the Great Tribulation spoken of in the Book of Revelation. If you wish to escape "all these things that shall come to pass,� in order to stand before Christ at His coming, then Christ taught us to "watch ye therefore, and pray always" (Luke 21:36). But watch what? The Greek word translated ''watch'' literally means "to be alert" or "to stay awake. We must be alert to our own spiritual condition and not be lulled to sleep by false doctrine that may tickle our ears and please our senses. We must stay awake to what is being preached, compare it to the Bible and "prove all things" to see whether those things are so (Acts 17:11). If we prove their teachings in agreement with the Bible we are commanded to "hold fast" to them. Don't let go of the Truth (I Thess. 5:21). But if we prove those teachings do not line up with the Bible, then we are to reject them. Have you forsaken the false doctrines taught by the world and its deceived churches?
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Understand I am not saying there are not saved people in these churches. God knows. In fact Jesus commands His people to come out of Babylon (Revelation 18:4). Obviously then there are indeed saints of God in these false religions but Christ COMMANDS them to "COME OUT"! Will YOU come out of all false religion? Will you come out of false doctrine by rejecting those doctrines not provable by the Bible? Or do you want to stay where it is comfortable? You do not have to forsake your friends. But you do need to begin obeying the Ten Commandments and keep His Sabbath and Holydays as you have seen proved from the New Testament. Remember, you and I may be living in the Last Days! We may be approaching the very time of the End when the Great Tribulation will come upon the whole world, "to try them that dwell upon the Earth" (Revelation 3:10). Yet Jesus promises Christians in the last days who typify the "Philadelphian" type of Christian, that they will be spared (same verse). Why? Jesus answers, "Because thou hast kept the Word..."! Are YOU Keeping His Word? Is that you? If not, then know that you will suffer through the horrors of the Tribulation period and not be accounted ''worthy'' to escape all these things that shall come to pass (Luke 21:36). Just being a saint does not make you worthy. You must be an obedient saint of God. If you are not keeping His Word truly, then there is no blanket promise of protection from the Tribulation merely because you have been saved. Remember that the Book of Revelation speaks of many, many "Tribulation saints" (as they are called) who will suffer and even be killed during this three-and one-half year period of "Hell on earth"! If we are indeed living at the End Time, it is absolutely imperative you REPENT of transgressing God's Law and begin truly living a holy life before Almighty God. The Law NOT Done Away Let me repeat something I have said in past lessons. We are not saved by our works. We are not saved because we keep the Law or have done so in the past perfectly. We are not given eternal life and entrance into God's Kingdom because we have successfully kept the Ten Commandments all our lives. Rather the Bible teaches that "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Sin is the transgression of (or breaking) the Law (I John 3:4). One of God's commandments contained in His Law is that we are to work the first six days of the week but REST on the seventh day "of the week." If you are not yet doing that, you are sinning against God! That's plain and to the point. True, there are "good people" (humanly speaking) who are ignorant of these truths which God has graciously shown you. Remember, the Bible says God
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''winks at" ignorance (Acts 17:30). Other versions paraphrase this to read "overlooks" ignorance. Yet God is now commanding us to repent when we learn the truth! (same verse). You and I are held accountable for what God has shown us even though He has not as yet shown it to others! God has ''winked at" or overlooked our ignorance because He knew we didn't know better. But now you do. "Therefore to him that KNOWETH to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin"! (James 4: 17). From this day forward, if God has opened your heart to understand His Law -His Truth -then every week you do not rest on the Sabbath day but rather do your resting on the ''first day of the week" following the traditions of men, you are sinning against God! Perhaps you yourself have said at times, "I want the Truth!" The Bible defines God's truth in Psalm 119:142. In his prayer to God the psalmist writes under inspiration, "Thy LAW is the Truth"! Therefore to reject His Law is to reject His Truth! God has given you His Truth - His Law. Will you obey it? Or will you continue on in the vain traditions of men, which makes your worship vain? (Mark 7:7). REPENT! (Acts 2:38) Repentance means to be sorrowful for past sins -past transgressions and to "change the mind" about your life. But if you tell God you are sorry for sinning -for transgressing His Law yet continue transgressing His Law, then you have not repented! And you are not truly sorry for your transgression! Repentance is commanded throughout Scripture. It means that we are to change the way we think about things and to begin obeying God. We are to repent of sin! In Acts 2:37-38 after hearing that Christ died because of our sins, the people who had heard Peter's sermon on that annual Holyday asked, "What shall we do?" Then Peter told them. He said, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.� We must do three things: 1) First we must repent of all known sin. Perhaps you dip that years ago, and made a commitment to follow Jesus and obey Him completely. Today God has taken you up on that commitment and is showing you His will for you to obey. Remember, repentance is something we must do continually the moment we learn we have sinned –as soon as we learn we have made a mistake or failed in some way. We are to repent of false doctrines as well as leading others astray both in word and example. 2) Secondly, Peter commands us (under inspiration of God) to be baptized. The Greek word "baptize" does not mean to sprinkle. It literally means to "plunge into" or to be fully covered.
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The best modern English word to translate this ancient Greek word is "immerse." If you have never been "baptized" by immersion then you have not be scripturally baptized! In reference to baptism, Jesus said, "Suffer it to be so now" -or permit it to happen -"for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15). Notice, it becomes US –you and me -to fulfill all righteousness, of which baptism is a part! Jesus set us an Example of being baptized in water. You are not following His footsteps (I Peter 2:21) if you refuse to be immersed in water. Romans 6, describes baptism as a burial. Only full immersion pictures the burial of the old self; and coming up out of the water pictures resurrection to new life. Sprinkling, dousing, pouring, or squirting water into someone's face can in no way picture burial, for to bury someone is to completely cover them. Only immersion completely covers or "buries" a person. Have you been immersed by a minister of God? Should You be RE-baptized? But what if you have been baptized already -scripturally immersed yet you did not know the truths you now know? You did not repent of sin as you should have for you did not understand the day you were baptized that SIN IS THE TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW! Should you be rebaptized? How can people truly repent of sin when they do not know what sin is? Therefore did you truly "repent"? Some of you may have been baptized as children and knew almost nothing about the truth of God and did not truly understand "repentance." Is there any scriptural warrant for rebaptism of "disciples"? Yes! Acts 19 tells us about "'certain disciples" that Paul re-baptized! Why did he do it? They had repented of all known sins at the preaching of John yet did not have the Holy Spirit. Paul gave them new truth they did not have and they immediately accepted it and were re-baptized. While the Scripture does not condone getting baptized again and again, when you look back and realize that you did not understand true repentance, that you did not even know the Scriptural definition of sin, that the minister who baptized you did not even teach you to keep the TEN Commandments (not just eight or nine), then perhaps you should examine your baptism. 3) Thirdly, Peter said that after they were baptized they were eligible to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Are you sure you have the Holy Spirit indwelling your very own spirit? Remember that the Bible teaches if any man, have not the Spirit indwelling him, he does not belong to Christ! (Romans 8:9). How can you be certain you have the Holy Spirit? For if you do not have Christ's Spirit you do not belong to Him and therefore are not savedl Acts 8: 17 shows that after baptism we should have the "'laying on of hands" which is one of the doctrines of the early church. Notice Paul speaks of "the doctrine of baptisms and of laying
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on of hands" (Hebrews 6:1-2). The Holy Spirit is received at baptism with the laying on of hands! Did you have that done when you were baptized? If not, then I STRONGLY recommend you get re-baptized! In Acts 8:12 we read that when Philip had preached the Gospel in Samaria that he baptized the people. However like any number of ministers in our day today, he neglected to "lay hands" on them, perhaps due to ignorance on his part. As a result, though the people were all excited about the Gospel message, none had received the Holy Spirit! So the apostles themselves went down to finish the job and administered the laying on of hands so that they could receive Christ's Holy Spirit, and “belong to Christ� and thus be fully saved (verses 14-17). We read of a certain man named Simon who "saw that through laying on of the apostle's hands the Holy Spirit was given" (verse 18). Thus we see I that Phillip preached the Gospel of Christ, people repented and were baptized, yet they still did not have the promise of the Holy Spirit according to Acts 2:38 because Phillip had neglected to "lay hands" on them praying for God to give them the "gift" of the Holy Spirit. Did you have hands laid on you the day you were baptized? If you carefully read Acts 19: 1-6 you will see this was the main reason why Paul re-baptized these "certain disciples" he had met, and it was after the "laying on of hands" that they received God's Holy Spirit! Many years ago I witnessed a baptism where a large number of people were being immersed in a pond. After they were all baptized, I expected the minister to then pray with each one, laying hands on them to receive God's Spirit. Surprisingly, when the last person had been baptized they all started to walk back to their cars. I asked the minister, "Aren't you going to lay hands on them now?" He answered, "No, we only do that when we pray for the sick." How did he miss these plain scriptures you have just read? If you did not receive the laying on of hands and a prayer for you to receive the immersion of the Holy Spirit, it is possible you do not have it and therefore do not belong to Christ! (Romans 8:9). Are There Any Exceptions? God is merciful and "winks at" ignorance. Peter preached the Gospel to Cornelius and his house, who were Gentiles. Obviously he had no intention of baptizing these Gentiles who had never been part of the children of Abraham. In this rare example, God baptized Cornelius with the Holy Spirit before he had hands laid on him and even before he was baptized (or immersed) in water! When Peter saw this, he then said to those Jews who had come with him, "Can any man forbid water, that these should not be "baptized which [who] have received the Holy Spirit as well as we?" (Acts 10:47). Here we see a rare exception. Since Peter would not have baptized these Gentiles, God showed him that HE had accepted them, and therefore so should Peter and the others. But even after receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Peter still commanded them to be baptized in water in the name of the Lord (verse 48).
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Notice that baptism and the receiving of the Holy Spirit go together. Another exception is the apostle Paul when he was still called Saul, who had been blinded by the brilliant radiance emitting from the resurrected glorified body of Christ. Ananias went to him and laid his hands upon him to be healed and to receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 9:17). After this, he was then baptized in water. But remember the norm is found in Acts 2:38. Repent first, and then be baptized, and then "ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" through the laying on of hands. If you are not absolutely, positively certain that you have received the Holy Spirit, then call or write today to request a visit for baptismal counseling. It is not long or intense. Nor will you be asked personal questions about your past. The important thing is your present. Have you repented of past sins including the transgressing of God's Holy Sabbaths -weekly and annual -and are now willing to begin truly obeying God? Are you now willing to obey all of God's commandments now that you know His will? If so, then you should be baptized forthwith and without delay! After you are baptized in water, you will then receive the laying on of hands to receive the Spirit of God to insure that you belong to Christ! What could be more important than an absolute assurance that you have SALVATION because you know that you know that you now have the Holy Spirit? It is important that you not put this off. Write or call today for a ministerial visit. Of course no one will call on you unless you yourself request it. Your Next Step Even before you receive baptism (or re-baptism) and the laying on of hands to receive the Holy Spirit, you should begin now to obey God by meditating day and night on His Law, beginning with the Ten Commandments (Joshua 1:8). This Sabbath day stop working at Friday sunset if at all possible, and start observing the holy hours of God's fourth commandment - His true Sabbath day. From Friday sunset to Sabbath sunset, is holy time. Those 24hours are holy hours to Almighty God. Remember too that when Jesus Christ returns He will find those that still persist in disobedience (either due to ignorance or rebellion) and MAKE them keep His Sabbaths (Isaiah 66:23). But if we obey the commandments now (and teach men so) then we will be called "great" in the Kingdom and can rule the nations, teaching them the truth of God (Revelation 2:26). You must obey NOW in order to teach then. You must submit to authority now before you can rule the nations and be in authority then. Secondly, you will want to obey God as did the early New Testament Church and keep His Passover this Spring, the Feast of Firstfruits (Pentecost) in late spring or early summer, and the four annual Holydays that occur this coming autumn. Don't trust secular calendars to give you accurate information as to when these Feast days occur as most of the time they are inaccurate by a couple of days. If you want to know when God's Holydays occur this year so that you may
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keep them and obey His Law, write or call immediately and ask for a "Holyday Calendar" along with information on how you should observe God's Festivals. All will be sent free of charge. Real happiness is found in keeping God's Law. You can be considered "great" in the God's Kingdom if you will obey now. This could be the first year to a whole new life in Christ!
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Make Your COMMITMENT Today!
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HE FIRST STEP TOWARD BEING BORN AGAIN and becoming a member of the Family of God is to repent of sins. Ask God to forgive you and repent, committing to total obedience for the rest of your life. Believe and know in your heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead and then confess Him as LORD of your life from this day forward (Romans 10:9-10). This is the first step toward genuine salvation. Next, write or call immediately for baptism counseling. This is a short, brief and simple process to insure you genuinely understand repentance and that you are truly committed to the Lord Jesus Christ in obeying His Word (Luke 6:46). It is important that you "count the cost" before baptism. Understand what this commitment means. Luke 14:25-33 shows us how to count the cost of discipleship. In the middle ages many true disciples who kept God's Sabbaths were mercilessly martyred -MURDERED by the whorish Roman Catholic Church! Are you truly willing to commit to obedience to Jesus Christ? He laid down His life for you. Are you willing to lay down your life for Him? The wonderful thing is, if we obey Him now during THIS TIME before the coming Great Tribulation, Jesus Christ promises protection to those who "keep His Word" and will spare such ones from the Tribulation! (See Revelation 3:10). But those lukewarm Christians (pictured by the church at Laodicea) will go through the nightmarish horrors of the Great Tribulation. They are not "worthy" to escape all these things that shall come to pass (Luke 21:36) because of their lukewarmness -their lack of TOTAL COMMITMENT. If you are willing to suffer persecution now for His name's sake, when GREAT tribulation comes, you can "De spared this coming "hell on Earth"! How much is that worth to you? If you fail, as all Christians do occasionally, read and pray First John 1:9. Confess your sins when they occur and commit yourself to obedience once more. God will forgive you every time you truly repent. Then be baptized and begin reading, studying, and meditating in the Law day and night. Keep listening to the radio broadcast and begin growing in grace and knowledge. The number to call is (704) 938-6415. Call today. When you are baptized as a commandment keeper you become a member of a worldwide spiritual family prophesied in Revelation 12:17 and 14:12. You will now be in God's TRUE RELIGION and will be preparing for a great reward in the Kingdom of God!
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