CONTINUES FROM NEXT WEEK
They would ask; after all, what is the Church doing for me? What is Christ doing for me? That is why you are called now to contend for the faith. Our forefathers in this Church stood firm in the faith: one fold, one shepherd; one faith, and that is what we have as the Church.
(6) One Baptism: Baptism of the body through the Church, the Body of Christ. We are just using typical water or we go to the stream or to the river. The Bible has told us that except we are baptized with water, you cannot be in the kingdom. The fellowship we are having now is the fellowship of the Spirit. You are here enjoying the fellowship of the Spirit in this Convention. Even though we in the Church must not force anybody who has not been baptized to be baptized with water.
When I was talking about being baptized, a man said, why do you want me to be baptized? And I said, do you know how you were baptized? He said he doesn’t know. I told him, and said I myself I was baptized three months into the Church of my mother and I don’t know what they did to me. Can I hold that one as baptism? The person to be baptized will renounce this and this, and that, and accept Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Asking many questions, and debating on baptism is not allowed. We are all baptized into the Body of Christ. I am an ordinary member of that Body just like you. The only head of that Body is Jesus Christ, the head of the Church. That baptism, the teaching concerning right hand of fellowship and the other things we do here must be properly done.
(7) One God and Father of all of us: we are not having two Gods. You may say God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, He is the same God that appeared to Moses. This God that we have is the one we should believe and follow till the end. We cannot go in details more than this on the sevenfold unity. If you cannot accept them and stand by them, how are we going to hand over to the coming generation?
Let us read Psalm 11:3, “If the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” The Lord will establish us on the foundation, the true foundation, in Jesus Christ’ name. Amen. As we are to fight for the faith, (that is what we are doing in this Convention), we must also prepare to contend for the faith of our fathers. How do we achieve that? Build yourself in the most holy faith. (Jude 20): Build your faith on the Rock. Jesus is the Rock, Jesus is the truth and so, you must build yourself on Jesus so that you can contend and be ready to face every eventuality. You must handle this truth very well. The Bible says “buy the truth and sell it not” (Prov. 23:23; Isa 55:1).
Also, understand the need for spiritual purging from sin. By the blood and fire (Lk.3:17; John 15:2; I Cor.5:7). Sin must be decisively dealt with. If you play with sin, it will play with you. There was an incident in the Bible God used Phinehas to avert, (Numbers 25). We the leaders especially must rise up, and stand against sin. I want to remind everybody when you are talking about sin in the Church, it is not a matter of smiling and laughing; if you are not against it, it will finish you. Sin is delicate.
When the Israelites were seduced in the wilderness, they mingled themselves with women and the girls of Moab, because there was a piece of advice from Balaam, so that they would compromise and confuse their relationship with God. Now, even when there was punishment from God in the presence of the leaders, the priests, and a man met a Midianite woman entered their camp. In Numbers 25:7-8; “when Phinehas, son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand; and he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel”. You have read it and I have read it very well from verse 6-13; Phinehas had to avert the plague that day by removing sin. So when God is telling us to contend for the faith we must understand what we are to contend against. When we compromise with the bad habit or attitude of the people, we are not contending for the faith.
Sacrifice of self (Rom.12:1-2; Gal.2:20). And you must make a sacrifice of self, i.e. dedicate yourself as a living sacrifice. The devil cannot cast away devils; so when you are not against them, when you don’t have power over them, it doesn’t work. Paul said, “I am crucified with the Lord; leave me alone because I have the mark of Jesus.” If you must have that mark as a believer, sacrifice yourself.
Also, you have to mortify the deeds of the flesh. The flesh and carnality must be subdued, buried and interred for the Spirit to reign.
The fire of true worship has to be ignited and rekindled. That’s part of what we are doing: To raise up the fire of the Holy Spirit through Apostolic Worship. Your worship must be filled with the power of the Holy Ghost not just going there praying in the morning and worshipping. The Bible says, in Galatians 3:3; “are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Where are we ending? Where are we heading to? Even till this morning the Lord is still reminding us as leaders, as parents; what are they going to take over from us? Our Apostolic Heritage, many have forgotten it. Power of the Holy Ghost is disregarded: they don’t believe in any power; they just believe in education, reading; education only without the power of the Holy Spirit.
Spiritual unity is a very crucial part of our heart for the Christian faith and the life in Christ of this Church. Spirituality cannot be given second position, it is primary. That is what Paul presented.
Let us conclude because of our time. I have so much to say but because of our time; are you ready to contend for the faith, or you just hold the faith loosely? Are you ready to receive new power during this Convention? To contend for the faith, the will of God must be done. His will must be done, not your will, not my will, not our will but the perfect will of God in all ramifications. In everything, in the administration of our doctrine, in our movements, in our prayers, in our meetings, the perfect will of God must be done. And that is contending for the faith.
Not doing or joining any side that is contrary to the perfect will of God; the great thing is, holding the truth. It is a pity many of us do not hold the truth. That is why hypocrisy is growing wings amongst us. Deceit: Jesus will kill it from us now; he will kill it from our midst because it is the truth that sets free. Therefore, equip yourself from this Convention by seeking the power to contend for the faith.
TO BE CONTINUED
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