Words of the Apostles

I wanted to follow my last two posts on the Words of Jesus #1 and #2 with a post that brings forward the words of the Apostles.  As you will see, taken in full context, Paul, John, Peter, Jude, James and Luke in their other non-gospel books NEVER contradicted the very words of the Lord.  We will all be judged by the words of the Lord.  Scriptures that are not the very words of Jesus testify and affirm all that He the Sovereign Lord has told us. 

John 5:38-5:40 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.  But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

The scriptures are not GOD.  They testify to God as Jesus said.  We must have a relationship with Jesus and be His sheep, otherwise He will say to us “depart from Me I never knew you.

My catalysts in writing this series on the “Words of Jesus” was reaction I got from a comment I left on someone else’s blog.  My comment was to correct some teaching that implied that our sins matter not to God once we come to Faith.  They DO matter and I have compiled this series as a testimony to the truth right there in the Bible.  The verses below will come from each non Gospel book of the New Testament.  They are in perfect harmony with the Words of Jesus but when these books are taught, we rarely hear these verses preached on.  I wonder why?

For brevity,  I am going to limit myself to just a fewverses from each Epistle or New Testament book.  When reading these verses, remember, in almost all cases they are written to the “church”, these are people that believe in Jesus otherwise they would not be in “church”.  I believe in the whole counsel of God.  This means the words of the Lord and these inspired words of the Apostles are in sync and if we read them with this holistic understanding,  confusion about sin, obedience, righteousness, repentance, salvation and holiness come into clarity as there is no contradiction in scripture.

 

Acts 3:19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.  Without  true repentance, we are not forgiven and will not stand in the grace of God.

 Romans 2:13 It is not the hearers of the law who are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified.  The prior verse Romans 2:12 reinforces what Romans 6:23 says, “all who sin apart from the law, shall perish apart from the law”.  Practice sin and you still perish.  Nothing Paul said changed that or contradicted the words of Jesus. 

 

 1 Cor 6:9-10 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites,  nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.  This list of evil deeds is fairly comprehensive.  Idolatry is anything we put in front of God and could be almost anything even so called good things like fitness, school, work, and friendships.  Some will teach that unrighteous means unbelievers.  While unbelievers will be unrighteous, believers that practice unrighteousness will also be declared unrighteous by God.  The mistaught doctrine of the imputed righteousness of Christ is at the root of this grevious error.

1 Cor 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.  Grace including the Holy Spirit which is part of Grace enables us to defeat sin.  Here we are told we can resist ALL temptation.  If we are taught we can’t stop sinning and worse that we don’t have to, we will indeed be overtaken by temptation. 

1 Cor 15:2  By this gospel you are saved IF you hold fast to the word I preached to you—otherwise you have believed in vain.” .  Another if then statement regarding salvation.  The gift of salvation is a conditional gift.  Call God an Indian Give or whatever, but He is the Lord, it is His Kingdom and He sets the rules.  We either accept them or we don’t.

2 Cor 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive what is due them for the things DONE while in the body, whether good or bad.  The wages of continued practiced and unrepented sin is death.  If we do that, what will be due to us is for us to be thrown into the lake of fire.  Proverbs 8:13 says The fear of the LORD is to hate evil.  Solomon told us the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  We should indeed fear God and teach that as it would go a very long way in keeping believers walking uprightly with God.  Jesus said to fear the one (Him) who has the power to throw you into the lake of fire.  If we don’t fear God or teach it we are not very wise.

2 Cor 13:5-6 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?  What is the test?  The test is that we obey His commandments.  Just because you believe, you do not pass the test, Paul tells us here in unambiguous terms.  If we are saved by faith alone, a simple belief Jesus is God, there would be no need to examine ourselves. 

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.  If we claim to be His sheep yet walk, talk, act and live the way we did before, we deceive ourselves, we are not saved.  You must be BORN AGAIN to enter heaven Jesus said and the old us must DIE and a new us must be Born by the Spririt of God.  This is more complicated and harder than just saying a prayer one time.

Col 3:23 Those who do wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism.  God does not play favorites and hates it when we do here on earth.  His words will judge our deeds and there will be no prejudice shown.  Sow evil, reap destruction, sow righteousness reap eternal life.

Ephesians 5:6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.  Paul just rattles off a laundry list of sin and tells us no to be deceived.  Do this things and you will endure the wrath of God.  That is the lake of fire my friends.

Phil 2:5-8 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus….He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.  We are called to do the same thing Jesus did.  Remember when Jesus said in three places, we must be willing to lose our life to gain it eternally?  Remember when Paul told us we must crucify the flesh, remember when Jesus said to pick up our cross daily?  Yes, we must be obedient and lay down our lives and our will just as Jesus did.  This is a breakthrough for all that are blessed to get the revelation.

Phil 4:13 I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me.  All means all, and that includes obeying Him, practicing righteousness.  With God all things are possible Jesus answered the Apostles when they asked how can anyone be saved just after the Lord said the famous verse about a rich man, the camel and the eye of a needle.

  2 Thess 1:7-9 This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.  He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.  They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.  Knowing God and obeying the commands of Jesus are not mutually exclusive.  You cannot do one without doing the other.  You cannot not do one and claim you do the other. So if you don’t obey you don’t know God.  Jesus said depart from me I do not know you.

Thess. 4:3-8 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body[a] in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. Jesus excuses no sin without true repentance which means we turn from that sin. Many will be surprised on the last day to know that this was the true gospel, not that their sin did not matter and their faith alone saved them. They were just phony Christians living like the world and we were actually enemies of God not friends of God.

May God Bless You Richly!!!

2 Tim 3:1-5 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away. 

PS – Christianity, the true kind is a powerful Christianity.  God gave us power from upon high, The Holy Spirit.  It is by His grace that we can come to obey Him.  It is not our own power, we cannot save ourselves but we still must DO the things Jesus told us we must DO to enter His kingdom.  Anyone teaching you that you have no power or ability to be obedient is deceived my friend.  We cannot play religion, we must practice our true faith.