Lecture 4: Glorious spiritual step called ‘Believing’

(GB Message)

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek”, Rom 1: 16.

Let us go through this verse and consider carefully the meaning and implications of the step called “believing” in the life of a believer, and how the under-noted expressions in the same verse garnish it.

• the power of God
• not ashamed of
• the Gospel of Christ
• every one
• the Jew and the Greek.

The power of God
What does an average man understand by this expression “the power of God”? He does not even know what ‘God’ means and so there is no chance of his knowing anything about matters pertaining to God. Even to understand the meaning of the word “power” a man does not have sufficient knowledge.

There was a time when man worshipped the sun, moon, stars, lightning, rivers, mountain, mud, stone, animals, and birds. Things have not changed much since those days. Man is still ignorant, and his ignorance of the fact that he is ignorant leads to more transgression. This ignorance coupled with his sky-high pride are his greatest handicaps in understanding God.

Lecture 3: Faith

(GB Message)

The word faith is like an icon on a computer desktop. The icon by itself serves no purpose unless it directs the user to a document. Quite a number of believers stop with admiring the size and shape of the icon as it were, by being content with a superficial knowledge of ‘faith’. I urge every one of you to get better acquainted with the concept behind the icon rather than the glorious looking icon.

In order to have a sound knowledge of the concept of faith, let me divide it into two parts:-

1. Faith in the inerrancy of scripture (a belief in the truthfulness, inerrancy and the urgent message behind the word of God James 2: 17, 24)
2. Faith in the atoning work of Christ (the acceptance by the believer of God’s salvation offered by grace through the atoning sacrifice of Christ. It is to be availed with deep gratitude to Him, and also believing that other than Christ Jesus there is no salvation in any other Acts 4: 12)

We shall try to understand these two parts of faith in some depth. At this stage it will be useful to introduce the concept what I call the twin side principle, with respect to each of the two parts of faith viz.: (i) The theological aspect and (ii) the work aspect.

Tragedy of “. . . but few are chosen”

(GB Message)

When those originally invited by the king refused to come to the wedding feast, the king’s servants went into the streets and invited all the people they could find to come to the wedding feast. Many of this second group of invitees came, but even in that group, we are told about one man who did not come appropriately. Jesus concludes this parable by saying, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matt 22:14). We know that we have been invited to the kingdom of heaven. But are we among the few who are chosen?

We see the earliest group of godless people in the book of Genesis, at the time of Noah.

• 6:3 And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”
• 6:5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
• 7:4 For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.”

The story of the Caliph of Bagdad

(GB Message)

Click for Tamil translation

There was once a caliph of Bagdad who was known for his justice, fair play, and also for cruelty. A Christian prisoner awaited capital punishment and according to the usual practice, the caliph wanted to give him a last chance to escape. He summoned for him and said to him, “What is the most important factor or requirement in order to be saved; is it faith, repentance, baptism, or something else? If you answer me correctly in one word, you will be set free; otherwise, you will be executed.” Because the prisoner was a Christian, the caliph had arranged, with the help of the local missionaries, to prepare a question such as this.

Are infants included in the word ‘household’?

Look at the following verses:

And he told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house, who said to him, ‘Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon whose surname is Peter, who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved.’ (Acts 11:13-14)

So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. (Acts 16:31-32)

I do not think that infants could have been included in the word ‘household’ in the contexts of these verses.

Was election an arbitrary act of God?

(GB Message)

The theology of Election has given rise to many a confusion and resulted in the production of voluminous books containing hair-splitting explanations, making the remedy worse than the disease. The following are some of the various questions about Election, which usually confuse believers or give rise to dangerous conclusions.

• Once saved is for ever saved. Is it correct?
• There are many who are very different from us in spiritual status. Is it because they were not chosen by God?
• If God has chosen only some before the foundation of the world, He has rejected the rest. Why is it so? (The usual reply that He has every right to do so is not every edifying though we cannot reject that either)
• “Many are called” Does that mean that some were not even called.

Born of Water and Spirit Part 2

(GB Message)

A compendium for the guidance of those who have the anointing for the preaching of the Gospel of Lord Jesus

Post-baptism teaching

As far as this church is concerned, the word “Baptism” should convey the following meanings.

• The ritual in which the person is immersed in water in the name of Lord Jesus.
• The theological or doctrinal meaning of the word
• The word when used as a code for the entire doctrinal teaching concerning salvation or until the “born-again” stage (recently we had several sessions on this subject that totalled 12 hours of teaching)

By ‘post-baptism’ teaching, I refer to teaching that the believer requires after he is born again.

Born of Water and Spirit Part 1

(GB Message)

A compendium for the guidance of those who have the anointing for the preaching of the Gospel of Lord Jesus

Who is a truth seeker?

The sole purpose for being in the church is to be trained by the guidance of the Bible to be in heaven. The Bible can be understood only with the help of the Holy Spirit or with the help of one who has the anointing of the Holy Spirit for preaching the gospel of Lord Jesus.

Gospel concerning Jesus Christ Part 2

(GB Message)

Click for Tamil translation

The first lesson was an introduction about the contents of the Bible. I taught you that the Bible is God’s announcement to the people of this earth about the availability of a glorious opportunity to attain immortality and to inherit a place in God’s celestial region, free of cost with a little effort on the part of the individual. Even for that little effort, God is willing to grant the strength if one sought for it earnestly, trusting Him.

After that initial little effort God shows the next step. Through many such steps God leads him in the heavenly path of sanctification. When people do not complete a step, God waits, and does not show the next step. Many stop along the way and do not progress. This is how dead churches are formed and over such churches alone, the gates of Hades prevails.

You have learnt earlier that God is really in search of genuine truth seekers in order to enable them to escape from the clutches of Satan and from the worldly influences dangerously poisoned by the powers of all kinds of evil forces. After all, no one is born with any adequate knowledge of God. A desire for the knowledge of God develops in an individual only gradually and progressively and not at once. The process may vary from person to person. To some it develops with an accelerated speed. But to some others, it is rather slow and progressive.

Gospel concerning Jesus Christ Part 1

(GB Message)

Click for Tamil translation

This is the commencement of my teaching about Jesus Christ and His Gospel (good news), which He proclaimed to the entire world through the Bible.

What is the Bible?
The Bible is one of the greatest literary writings in the world of literature. No book of literature can come anywhere near it in the quality, nature, and purpose of this book. But as true Christians, we are not excited because of this high honour bestowed upon this book, but are exceedingly delighted that it is a spiritual book par excellence and above all the very word of God.

The world does not believe the Bible, and there is nothing we can do about it. The Bible itself makes mention of the world’s rejection. “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him”, Jn 1:10. Sad as it is, this is true.

The oldest manuscript of any ancient publication available in the world is the Bible in the forms called Codex Sinaticus, Codex Vaticanus and the like. I myself was fortunate to spend a few hours looking at these great materials while I was in London.