Receiving Forgiveness

 In Mark 16:15 Jesus says, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." Then He goes on to say, "And these signs will follow those WHO BELIEVE: In my Name they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people and they will get well. After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was taken up to heaven and He sat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere. And the Lord worked with them and confirmed His Word by the signs that accomplished it."

We see God confirmed His Word in Acts 28:3, when a snake came out of the sticks in the fire Paul was making and latched onto his hand and he was not hurt. We also see through out scripture that God worked through Paul to heal the sick.

Its interesting to me that in Matthew 7:22, Jesus says, "Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never KNEW you. Away from me you that work iniquity.' We know that Paul healed the sick and cast out devils, picked up a snake and was not hurt etc. So it would be foolish to believe that signs and wonders aren't for today. How many of y'all know that works means anything that you do for God and not from God? Even New testament believers can believe in the Name of Jesus yet never come to know Him. That is why Jesus said, "Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." Lawlessness is a state of disorder. What they were doing was not wrong. But it was out of order. These things are to follow those that believe and have been baptized. They were trying to prove their belief by their works. They did not come to believe and be baptized. John 17:3 says, "And this is Eternal Life that you may know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent." These signs flow from Eternal Life. These signs are not the way to Eternal Life. Order is always important in the Kingdom of God. Keep in mind where Jesus says, "believes and is baptized."

What does it mean to be baptized?

There is the baptism of John. And there is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. They are not the same. 

In Acts 10 we read, after the baptism John preached, God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power and how He went around doing good and healing ALL who were under the power of the devil, because God was with Him. He was killed and hung on a cross, but God raised Him from the dead on the 3rd day and caused Him to be seen. He was not seen by all people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen- by those who ate and drank with Him AFTER He rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to people and to testify that He is the One whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about Him, that EVERYONE who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His Name! 

A few thing I want to point out here: the witnesses who are already chosen are the ones who commune with Jesus who is raised from the dead. It is not those who know Him in death only, who are chosen witnesses but those who have seen Him in the Resurrection. The risen Jesus is the One God has appointed as judge for the living and the dead. Some of you will understand what this means and some will need to pray that The Holy Spirit will teach you. But we all can understand that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His Name! If our sins are not forgiven, it is because we have not received forgiveness. If our sins are forgiven, we have received forgiveness. To believe is to receive. That is the order. And in order to not bear false witness or not to be a false witness we must come to know this Jesus in which we testify about. We must know the power of His Resurrection. 

I want to go to Acts 18:24 for a minute. There was a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria and he was a learned man with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the Way of the Lord and he spoke with great server and taught about Jesus accurately, though he only knew the baptism of John. Priscilla and Aquila heard him and invited him into their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. This man only knew the baptism of John. He did not know the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He had full knowledge of Scripture and could teach on Jesus accurately but he only had the baptism of John. What does this mean? The baptism of John is the baptism of repentance. It is to prepare the way for the one who comes after John. It is important for us to understand that repentance means change mind. Johns baptism is when we go from thinking our works are great and make us good people to believing that we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Johns baptism prepares us to receive Jesus, the one who comes after him. This is the first baptism, the acknowledgment that we are sinners and need saved. This is the only baptism that Apollo knew. He knew he was a sinner. After we are baptized in Johns baptism there is one who comes after him. I believe much of the church is still only knows Johns baptism and have not yet met the one who comes after him.

The one who comes after John is the one who removes the sin of those who call on His name. The Pharisees would not acknowledge their sin. They were white washed tombs, cleaning the outside to be seen by man, but inside they were corrupt and self centered. Unlike the Pharisees, I believe the majority of the church acknowledges their sin but there are quite a few people that I know that have yet to receive the forgiveness of sin. They still consider themselves a sinner as if Jesus did not take away their sin. Those people only know the baptism of John. Look at Acts 2:32, God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, He has RECEIVED FROM THE FATHER the promised HOLY SPIRIT and has poured out what you NOW SEE AND HEAR. There is so much in this Scripture. What did Jesus receive? The promised Holy Spirit! Who did He receive it from? The Father! Who pours out to us from the right hand of God? THE RISEN CHRIST! When do we see and hear what He pours out? NOW! We no longer see things from a world point of view! We have a new perspective. We see what is not temporary, we now see what is eternal! When we receive and are baptized in the Holy Spirit we don't see things the way we used to. We now see by faith in the Son of God who LOVES us and gave Himself up for us! In this new life called Eternal Life, which means knowing the only true God and Jesus whom He sent- In this new life we now live from the finished work of the cross. We are not beggars who glorify our sin, we are sons restored back to the image of God. Fully!! People will argue that we are not restored or made new until heaven someday after we leave our physical body and my answer to that is go read your Bible and get baptized with the Holy Spirit.

In Acts 7:51 these people are called stiff necked because their hearts and ears are still in works. They are just like their ancestors who ALWAYS RESIST THE HOLY SPIRIT, persecuting the prophets. 

To resist the Holy Spirit is to not receive forgiveness of sin and to not walk in the newness of life that Jesus paid for you to have. To resist the Holy Spirit is to live by what you see and not by faith. We are saved by grace through faith after all! To still consider yourself partially saved until you make heaven is not biblical. Salvation is for today. The Kingdom of Heaven is in you (Luke 17:21). Jesus did not partially save us. He paid it all. If you notice in Scripture it was always those who were filled with the Holy Spirit that were being stoned and persecuted. Those who lived by faith in Jesus were always the people everyone wanted to kill or lock up. Those who received the law tried to live by the law and they wanted to punish those who had put their faith in Jesus. They always made claims against them. In Johns baptism we agree we are sinners who cannot keep the law. This prepares us for the one to come! Hebrews 10:36 tells us, "You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised. (Remember, Jesus also received this promise from His Father, The Promised Holy Spirit). For, in just a little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay. And, "But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back." But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and are saved. Shrinking back is to go back under the law and leave the faith. By faith, when He died, we died with Him. When He rose, we are raised in Him. This is what it means to be baptized in Christ Jesus. Without partaking in the Resurrection we cannot receive forgiveness of sin. When we receive forgiveness that comes through Jesus Christ, the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead makes His dwelling in us and gives life to our mortal bodies. This is the deposit, the seal the guarantee, who makes us stand firm in Christ. Everything we now do is by this faith in Jesus Christ. Everything we have is because He purchased it for us. Everything we are is a testimony to His perfect work. This is why we no longer are in agreement with the evil one. We no longer believe that every experience we have is Gods will. We know His will because He reveals it to us in His Son. Its the Lords will that no one perish, yet people perish everyday. We cannot stay ignorant and build a false doctrine around experience that does not line up with scripture. We cannot believe what we see. It is time to repent and actually live by this grace that saves us through faith. Go read Isaiah 53 and tell me it might still be Gods will for us to be sick and die. Do you believe JESUS SAVES or not?  Because of sin, we could not enter the Kingdom of God. God sent us His Son to take away our sin- completely demolish sin in order for us to enter the Kingdom of God without fear of death. If your sins are not forgiven, maybe you only know the baptism of John and would like to be baptized by the One who baptizes with fire. He is the One who came after John and surpassed him because He was before him.