Ep. 157: Today is the day of new life

In the name of the glorious Trinity, Father and Son and Holy

Spirit, forever Amen. Glory be to the everlasting

mercies which sent you to us, O Christ, the light of the world

and the life of all. Give us wisdom by Your law and

enlighten our impulses by Your knowledge.

Sanctify our souls by Your truth and grant that we may be

obedient to Your words and may fulfil Your commandments at

every hour. O You who enlightens the

rational with the knowledge of Your greatness, do enlight, O my

Lord, our thoughts, that we may meditate upon Your holy and

divine Scriptures at all times. O Lord of all, Father and Son

and Holy Spirit, forever. Amen.

Chapter 16, Verse 31 And they said to him, that is Paul and

Selas believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, and both you and your

household will be saved or live. And they spoke to him the word

of the Lord and all who were of his household.

And he took them at that hour of the night and washed their

wounds, and then was baptized or he was washed in that very hour.

And he and all his household. And when he had brought them up

into his house, he set food before them.

And he and all the members of his household rejoiced,

believing in God. Last episode we spoke about the

jailer who saw that there was a trembling and the the the doors

of the prisons were opened, took out his sword and he was about

to commit suicide. By the way, thrash it in his

heart because obviously he thought, well, you know what, I

might as well do it myself and get it over and done with with

as opposed to being tortured and executed by the magistrates.

So the jailer Saint Paul stops him, Saint Paul and Seles, they

both stop him and said, listen, don't, don't do that.

Wait, wait, don't do that. We're all here.

No one's gone. No one's gone.

We're all here. No one's escaped.

So your life, physical life is not in danger.

Your physical life is not in danger.

We're here. You can always close the the

doors and we'll stay here. But no, no.

But God had other plans. So what must I do to be saved or

to live? It was more like at that point,

I think what the jailer was asking is what must I do?

What can I do to escape execution and torture?

You know, it seemed that he had failed his job and he would have

been on death row basically, right?

Not so much. How can I be freed from the

bondage of the law of Moses or how can I enter eternal life?

Nothing about that, no. So we see here that his

understanding of salvation was temporal.

But we know having hindsight and we know and according to the the

teachings of the Church Fathers and the understanding of the

Church of the Scriptures, we know that the salvation we today

and Saint Paul and Selas perceive is not that of the

world. It's not temporal salvation or

life. It's not physical salvation or

life. It's not governmental

constitutional salvation or life, but it's eternal

salvation, eternal life, spiritual salvation, and

providential, an act of an act of divine economy or Providence,

which we know is of God. And we know and Saint Paul and

Celis both knew that we don't fear those who kill the body

that are not able to kill the soul.

Rather we are afraid of those who can destroy or of him that

is God, who can destroy soul and body in Gehenna in hell.

Matthew 1028. Now before we get into Paul's

reply, who sets straight the concept of salvation, which

today's very much misunderstood when the church began and we're

reading the Acts of the Apostles.

And this is where we need to refer to to understand the

concept of salvation. Many people claim that they are

saved pertaining to eternal life.

They enter eternal life. Nothing's mentioned about

eternal life here. Are you saved?

Yes, I am. I'm going into eternal life

because Jesus did everything for me on the cross.

Yeah, but you need to do a few things as well.

Jesus gave us commandments. We need to fulfill commandments.

We need to fulfill those commandments, not just believe

in those commandments. You know, a great analogy is

this. You go to your physician, to

your local doctor, and he examines you and you speak to

him. That's prayer.

You know, the physician, that's prayer.

Our heavenly physician and the and the glorious physician is

Jesus Christ. You talk to him, you pray to

him, you know, confessing, We confess.

When you go to your physician, you need to confess.

OK, what have you been doing? You got to tell him what?

You've been drinking too much, smoking too much, whatever,

right? OK, well, you need to do this,

this and that. That's the Scripture when he's

talking to the physician, your physician gives you the, the,

the, the advice he's talking to you.

The scriptures give us advice as well.

And then that you know, what he, what the physician tells you is

not of his own accord. It's according to the right

practice. The, what do you call it?

The the ethical practice of medicine he can't say, oh, you

know, I think I, I, I feel no, no, no.

What the books tell him what, what science has has taught him

and what the Ethical practice of medicine, medicine, he will then

advise you and give you that spiritual, that spiritual

medicine. When you come to Jesus Christ,

the, the, the, the amazing and holy and pleasing physician, we

talk to him, we confess to him. He doesn't need us to confess to

he knows exactly what we've done.

We confess to him, and he gives his instructions through the

Scriptures, and then he gives us the medicine of life, which is

the Holy Eucharist. Right.

See. So it's not just go to your

doctor, speak to him and walk out.

Oh, thank you, doctor. I totally believe in what you

just said. And I totally believe that this

medicine you have prescribed me will heal me, but you don't take

it. What happens then?

It's flawed. And we're going to read

scripture about that, OK. And we're going to now see what

Saint Paul, how they set salvation, what it actually

means. Notice earlier a girl was

released from a spirit and what happened?

They were thrown in jail because they had freed her from the

demons. They had exposed the evil, but

here they're only showed. They only showed the door.

That's all with God. You don't need to ram the

message in people's hearts and minds.

You don't need to do that. You just need to preach the

gospel, not not hammer it in people's hearts and minds and

love. Just preach the gospel.

Simple. The gospel is the power and the

Saint Paul says Jesus is the power and the and the the wisdom

of God. Just preach the gospel, preach

Jesus Christ right. Yet God opens the doors of this

jailer's heart and we'll see not only his heart, he loosens those

double shackles, those chains, the physical and the spiritual

chain that had this jailer in, in the darkness of the law of

the Old Testament, right? Not that the law was bad, right?

But he was still, he was a Gentile, by the way, but you

know, paganism, right? He, there was a light, something

happened to this jailer and that light that was sparked was

kindled by God. He was moved to the point where

he rushes in and falls before them.

Wow, what a move. He didn't ask him what happened.

What did you do? What have you done?

Where is everyone? Is everyone here?

Roll call, everyone roll call. No, no, he didn't.

He asked what must I do to live or to be saved?

And what was Paul's answer? Believe.

Listen to this very carefully, word by word.

Believe faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, no one else, no one

else, no one else. If I am the last person to

remain on earth, and if God permits me, this foolish, this

Sinner, this miserable, unworthy servant of God, the last person

to be standing on earth and to proclaim that no one comes to

the Father except through Jesus Christ, there is no salvation,

no life, and no eternal life except through Jesus Christ, I

will do it. You want to join me?

You want to join me, Do that. Proclaim it.

Don't worry about who says it and who's compromising it.

Which church leader, what color their cassocks are?

No, no, no, no. Believe in the Lord Jesus

Christ. Don't tell me Saint Paul didn't

know what he was talking about. Because we have AI now.

We had ChatGPT. Now.

Who cares? Who cares?

Used for evil at times. Yeah, there's goodness in there.

All right. Paul.

St. Paul, the chosen vessel of God,

the chosen vessel of Jesus Christ, to whom Christ

personally appeared, demands believe faith in the Lord Jesus

Christ, no one else, and you will will not You're saved.

Are you saved? This just refutes it.

You know, sometimes I may come across disrespectful, Believe

me, I'm not being disrespectful, but sometimes there's a little

bit of ridiculousness in some of the words, some Christians or

the terminology we use, right? Are you saved?

Yes. I'm entering the Kingdom of

heaven. Oh, I didn't know you're greater

than Saint Paul who says and writes that whether he has

gained it or not, he doesn't know.

But listen, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will will

be saved. It's a future act, a future

state. You will be saved.

So right now believe and then he adds saying you and your

household right now when you read the the passage, there's

two households that it's alluding to. 1 is the jailers, 1

is the prisoners, all the prisoners.

He was the head of the prison. He was the head of that house,

that prison house, right? He was the head of that prison

house and also he was the head of his own family household,

right? So when Paul here is talking

about believe you and your household, he could be

pertaining to both the jailers there who are listening, who are

listening, the prisoners there and his personal family as well.

And why does he say if you believe, if he believes that all

the prisoners who may have been pagans as well and those who are

Jews as well who had believed that maybe they were in prison

because of their belief would then accept and be they would be

encouraged even more who probably believed and baptized,

we're not told. And they would be encouraged

more to continue and to suffer for Christ.

And those who are from the Pagan faith would then come and

believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why? Why if he believed his family

would have also been saved because the man is the head of

the woman extending to the children, to the family.

Relax, relax, my dear sisters, don't get your feathers ruffled.

Don't get your feathers ruffled. Keep calm and listen intently.

Yes, the man is the head of the woman.

And if you want to have a perfect explanation where it

puts it in that beautiful, divinely spiritual perspective,

read 1 Corinthians 11/3. I'm not going to read it.

You read it. Go and read 1 Corinthians 11/3

and it's about God and Jesus Christ and the husband and the

wife or the man or the woman. Verse 32, Paul and Selas spoke

to them. What did they speak?

What did they say? Are we filled?

No, no, no. What did they do?

Did they open the Scriptures and they had a Bible studies with

them? They each gave them their Bibles

and said turn to Romans and Hebrews and Ephesians regarding

salvation. They weren't even written yet.

There's no books, there's no gospel.

There was no Bible. There was the gospel.

This is Jesus Christ. The words were of the

resurrection of our Lord, the Kingdom of heaven, and of a life

of devotion to Jesus Christ. That's what they were speaking.

And that Jesus was the fulfillment of all prophets.

That's what's they spoke. These are the words they spoke.

So when you speak to someone who doesn't know Jesus, who has no

is, has no relationship with the Christian faith, this is what

you need to don't talk to them about grace and and salvation

and the the Trinity, the Father's.

Just talk to them about Jesus being the fulfiller of the

prophets, evidence from the scriptures, he was resurrected,

evidence from the scriptures and history and the Kingdom of

heaven whom he has promised and a life of devotion.

We need to live a life of devotion with him.

These are very important words, beloved.

So they spoke the words of resurrection, of Kingdom of

heaven and the life of devotion to him and to all those who are

in his house, like the either the prisoners or his actual

family. And what does he do?

Verses 33 to 34 that night? Keep in mind that night he

washed them. That means he took them and he

washed them. He healed their wounds, He'd

clean their wounds and he was also washed.

He was baptized. Now when you see some versions

translating baptism was washed, I think they want to downplay

those who've translated. I'm not sure.

I don't want to, you know, I think just downplaying baptism

because many believe baptism has got no relationship with your

salvation. It's just a symbol.

Well, no, no, he was baptized. Washed means baptized.

He himself was washed, baptized of his sins and then he fed them

and then he rejoiced. He took them to to his house and

then fed them and then he rejoiced and his family because

they believe. Now notice it was not when he

was told that he would be saved or leave if he believed that he

rejoiced. No, when Saint Paul and Selas

say just believe in you will be saved.

We don't read that. He rejoiced and said,

Hallelujah, I am saved. Now I am entering the Kingdom of

heaven. No, no, no, no Scriptures

quoting Scripture. I'm quoting.

I'm quoting to you scriptures, right?

It was not when he was told that he would be saved or live.

I keep saying live because you know the life of devotion that

they were preaching. That's life.

Salvation from old from of the old but new life with Jesus

Christ salvation from the old covenant of the flesh wash that

have a part of that have a part of the fulfillment.

We fulfilled it in Jesus Christ. We have fulfilled the law

beloved, when we were crucified with Jesus Christ in baptism, we

fulfilled it. Now we have new life in the new

covenant, a spiritual life, a covenant of the Spirit with

Jesus Christ. So the joy came when he had

believed in God, right? They rejoiced because believing

in God, him and his family. And when are we told that he

believed in God? Or when was his faith in God

seen a living faith, a productive faith?

After he was baptized, after he received baptism, he received

the joy. Now yes, there are bells

ringing. I'm sure there are bells ringing

for those who read the scriptures.

If you don't feel any bells ringing, you don't read your

scriptures. Do that.

James chapter 2 verses 14 to 24. It's a, a long verse, a long

James 2:14–24

reading, but just bear with me. James chapter 2 verses 14 to 24,

James 2:14–24

What good is? And I, I feel people say, well,

he's going to quote that again. And you know, yeah, Scripture,

what am I? This is a Scripture quoting,

preaching, exposition on the Scriptures.

James chapter 2, verses 214 to 24.

What good is it, my brethren, if a man says I have faith and he

does not have deeds, can his faith save him?

And if a brother or sister is naked and lacking daily food,

and any of you will say to them, go in peace and be warm and be

fooled, and he would not give them the bodily necessities,

what good is that? So also faith alone.

There's the key alone, alone. You know, the man had faith

because he believed alone. Faith alone without works is

dead for him. And if you don't, if, if there's

a dead faith, then means that faith does not have eternal life

because it's a dead faith, right?

So faith alone without works is dead for a man may say to you,

you and I have faith. I have works.

Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my

faith. By my works.

You believe that God is 1 great, you do well.

The demons also believe. The demons believe.

That means they have faith. So are they justified by faith?

So the demons will enter the Kingdom of heaven?

No, because their deeds are contrary to their faith,

contrary to to the commandments of who they tremble from.

And believe you do well. The demons also believe and

tremble. Are you willing to know a feeble

man that faith without works is dead?

Was not your father Abraham justified by works when he

offered up Isaac because he believed?

And then he went to offer up with free will and, and, and

willfully OfferUp Isaac his son upon the altar?

Do you see that his faith upheld his deeds and by deeds his faith

was perfected and the scriptures were fulfilled which said

Abraham believed in God, Amen. And it was accounted to him for

righteousness because of what he did, because taking up Isaac,

and he was called the friend of God.

You see that by works a man is justified at not by faith alone

alone. That means faith needs some.

There's a partner in faith. There are two partners in not

crime, in this glorious and gracious work, faith and deeds.

Nothing mentioned here about eternal life, by the way,

nothing mentioned about eternal life.

Why? Why do not they?

Saint Paul and Selah says you will enter the Kingdom of heaven

if you believe or if you're baptized.

Both. They rejoice because they

believed in God and their faith was justified.

Their faith was confirmed by their baptism.

Why wasn't eternal life still mentioned here?

Because there was a life ahead of them, right?

Because they were baptized into Christ's death, they were buried

with him in baptism into death. And as Jesus the Christ arose

from among the dead in the glory of his Father, in this way also

they shall walk in a new life. Romans 634 There's a new life.

You need to walk. And walk means to live in that

new life. And to live you need to act.

I can't be sitting still and say I'm living.

No, you're not. You're motionless.

You're not moving. Living pertains to move, moving,

doing, acting. Romans six to three to four,

'cause they too were his creation who were created in

Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ. Pray anyway.

No, no, no, focus, Asha, focus, focus.

They too were his creation who were created in Jesus the Christ

for good works, good works, those things which God had from

the first prepared that he and his household should walk in

them. I've changed, but I'm just

relating this to the jailer. That's why I say he's in his

household should walk in them. So they were good works that

they need to work and walk in them.

Ephesians 2 chapter verses 9 to 10.

Notice they didn't wait to they didn't wait.

They did this at night. He did this at night because

that was the acceptable time and that was the day of new life

salvation for them. It was the appointed time. 2

Corinthians 6, two. So what are you waiting for?

What are you waiting for? You've been baptized, great.

You believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, excellent.

You've been baptized, great. But what's your life reflecting,

beloved? What is it?

Where are you now with Jesus Christ?

Do you have demons? And we've spoken about those.

Do you have addictions? Do you have demons?

And we got it. We need to continue to do this.

And we're going to have some episodes in the Assyrian

language, talking to parents, to the parents.

And we have some English episodes talking to our youth,

talking to those newlywed, talking to those, talking to

everyone. We need to really, really speak

openly. We need to call the spade a

spade For those mothers who are living a life that is not

becoming of a mother, a Christian mother.

For those husbands that have no relationship with God except

that cross that is on their necks and that one time a year

that they come to the church and have no relationship with the

Scriptures, with the Holy Word of God, nothing.

We need to talk to those parents when you talk to talk to them

about their children, just because they're in Sunday

school. Well, that's, that's a bit young

even then, you know, just because they're in Sunday school

and they they transition into the youth.

Some are in the the, the church choirs and some are involved in

some, you know, a nationalistic political arena is great.

I mean, to that perfect, right, perfect.

That's good, but that does not make them holy and pleasing

because we know what's happening.

We know what's happening behind the scenes.

We know what's happening when you have your own Instagram

account and only your friends can see because some of your

friends snitch on you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they do.

They do. And it's so disheartening.

So let me tell you this. What are you waiting for today?

What are you waiting for? I Do you have a demon?

Do you have an addiction? Are you Is your relationship

with God? It's just a relationship that is

by the the service of the lip Is it Do you have no relationship

with Christ in regards to his scriptures in regards to his

holy church, his Holy Eucharist, the body and blood of Christ.

Just listening to the podcast of double edged sword.

I, but it's I won't say it's useless.

No, it's not. It's very beneficial.

Continue. They will be an appointed day

for you. There is an appointed day for

you and that is today, today, now, now pull over if you're

driving, if you're driving, pull over.

If you're vacuuming, stop. If you're washing dishes, stop.

Pull over. Stop for one minute, 630

seconds, 30 seconds. And right now cry out to the

Lord and, and commit to beginning a life of returning

back to the Lord. Commit to a life that is devoted

to God. Beloved, let me tell you, what

the world has to offer is temporal.

Hamanun hamanun Walla Bella. They say Walla Bella in English,

right? Truly, truly, I say to you, what

is in the world is temporal. It will die, will go.

What remains is that faith and the deeds that we have possessed

in life. You believe in the Lord Jesus

Christ. Great, excellent doesn't make

you a a candidate to the Kingdom of heaven yet No, no, no.

You got to continue fight the fight, fight the good fight.

Even Saint Paul for those who come and say to you, are you

saved? That means you're going to the

Kingdom of heaven. You say to them, away from me,

Satan, away from me, get away from me.

Yes, I am saved. I was baptized, I have a

participation. I've participated in the

fulfillment of the old law in Jesus Christ, in his

crucifixion. I have participated and I have

gained new life in Jesus Christ. But right now, whether I have

gained it or not, echo what Saint Paul writes, whether I

have gained it or not, I do not know.

One thing I know I'm a fool, I'm a weak, I stumble, I fall, I

sin, but I have redempt, I have forgiveness, I have cleansing in

the Church of my Lord Jesus Christ.

And I will continue to fight this fight until the Lord comes

and He will determine eternal life for me, not you and not

even myself, because I am standing now, but the

Scriptures, the Bible, only the Bible teaches me in one

Corinthians that though I am standing, I must be careful that

I do not fall. I do not fall because some

disciples fell, but they were reinstated.

Simon fell. He denied Jesus three times.

Jesus reinstated him three times.

Judas, if he hadn't hung himself, you know, now we got

hindsight. If he hadn't hung himself and

begged for forgiveness, he may have been forgiven.

He would have been forgiven. But this is hindsight now or if

and this that. No, it's been done.

OK, there's lessons to learn. So what are you waiting for?

What? In Psalm chapter 95, which is

Psalms 95 · chapter mention

cross referenced by Saint Paul in Hebrews 3, we are commanded

that today if we hear his voice. So my beloved brother and my

beloved sister who's parked on this.

I said 30 seconds, but it's been a while now.

I mean, if you're driving, my dear.

Yes, you, You. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Don't look in the rear mirror. If you're driving, don't look at

yourself. No, no, I'm talking to you.

Those who are watching and those who are listening.

We've been commanded that today if you hear his voice in some

money from the Hebrews 3 today, if you hear his voice, are you

hardening your heart? Because we are told not to

harden our heart, not to look at our friends and what the world

portrays as good, 95% of what the world portrays good is evil.

95% of what the world is portraying evil is good.

Let me tell you that, you know, maybe I don't.

I'm not a Bureau of Statistics, but just for, for statistics to

say majority of what the world claims good is evil and vice

versa. Do not hearten your heart.

You want to put your joy, your temporal joy, your temporal

fulfillment of your sexual desire, of your glamour, of your

pride. You know that 10 minutes, that

15 minutes, that hours, that months that people brag about

you and send you love and woot, woot.

What a sexy picture. Oh, gorgeous honey.

That's, that's, that's a deception.

That is a lie. That is evil.

Do not harden your heart. Today the Lord is calling you to

first and foremost examine yourself, beloved.

Examine yourself. And then when you see those

deficiencies, don't make a judgment.

Don't ride yourself off. Now call me, call me.

Whatever you're lacking, whatever you're going through,

call me, send me a message. You may get my voicemail.

Leave me a message. It may take me a few days to

reach back, get it back, get back to you.

Do that. Write me a message on on

messenger text message in any way you can.

Contact me, contact, contact me. Do that.

Or even better still, better still, before you pick up the

phone and, and reach out to me, reach out to your, to your

spiritual counselor, be the priest or a shamash who has been

set as a counselor or an advisor.

Reach out to those and let's work together.

This is my nationalism, beloved. This is my spiritual Assyrian

nationalism. I don't fight for dirt, for

land. I have brothers and sisters who

are tirelessly and diligently advocating for that, and God

bless them. We pray for them.

I will reach out for a spiritual land for my Assyrian nation that

is the Kingdom of heaven, and we really need to reach out to our

people spiritually. And that through that, when our

people are living a life that is appeasing and pleasing to the

Lord, then the Lord will bless things that immeasurably, things

that we didn't even think of. And if one day we regain our

rights as human beings on this earth, praise and glory be to

His name. If not, I want to see my nation

in the Kingdom of heaven. I may not make it, but I want my

nation to enter the Kingdom of heaven, that heaven that is

being prepared for all the children of God through Jesus

Christ our Lord. Praise and glory be to His name.

Now and all times and forever, I'm in.

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