Episode 111: The Unshakeable Faith

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.

The blessed Feast of the birth of our Lord and our Savior Jesus

Christ be upon you. We are still in that celebratory

and week and period of celebrating the birth of our

Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ until Monday the 6th, which is

the Holy Feast of the Epiphany, the Theophany or the appearance

of our Lord. And may the year 2025, I think

it's been a week. Now be blessed upon each and

everyone of you. And as I always say, this is the

best New Year's resolution. Thy will be done.

May the May, the Lord's will be done in everything.

Let's call a spade a spade. I don't want to rain on your

parade. I don't want to ruffle feathers,

rock foundation. But they will be death.

They will be suffering, there will be wars, there will be

persecutions because man has become more evil.

Man worships Satan rather than his creator.

But when we are in the will of God, whatever circumstance,

whatever situation, let God's will be done.

He is in control. Our Lord reigns from heaven

above. Our Lord is an awesome God.

He reigns from heaven above. I love that song.

He reigns from heaven above. God is not that.

God does not fret. He's not moved.

We read from the scriptures in the Gospel according to Saint

Mark, when Jesus was on the boat and the sea was rough and the

disciples became afraid and were frightened that they would die

and drown, They went up to Jesus and said, Lord, it's no time to

sleep now. Do you not see what what turmoil

we're in? He woke up and said, fear not,

stood at the edge of the boat. And I'm just, I'm trying to

imagine this and stretched out his hand and said, be still.

And the ocean was still. Jesus is not moved, Shaken by

the turmoil of the world. The Lord Jesus Christ sits on

his throne and he has power. He holds everything in his

hands. So let this ye be according to

his perfect will wherever He wants us, wants to take us,

wherever He leads us or allows us to go.

We just pray that the Lord's hand, guiding hand protecting

hand be upon us and upon all those who cry to His holy name.

I mean Acts chapter 13, verse 13.

Acts 13:13

We'll begin from verse 13 to 25. Just the recap, we read of the

courageous Saint Paul, unintimidated by his past,

rebuking Barshuma the sorcerer, not to take vengeance, not out

of spite, but to bring him to repentance, just as Jesus Christ

did to him, and in the same manner as Jesus called Saint

Paul to repentance or to conversion.

And what was that? It was blindness.

Blindness for a little while. We read in verse 11 that at that

very hour there fell on his, on him a mist and darkness, and he

went about seeking someone to lead him by the hand.

This is Barshuma. And in verse 12 we read and when

the proconsul who is a governor of a a province in ancient Rome,

when he saw what had happened, he was amazed and believed the

teaching of the Lord, he became even more committed to the

teaching of the Lord by the words of Saint Paul and Barabbas

or bar. I always mention his name.

I, I remember, oh, Barnabbas, Barnabbas.

They say one man's loss is another man's gain.

But in this case, and in the case of repentance, one man's

gain through repentance may be another man's greater gain.

Let's read verses 13 to 25. Then Paul and Barnabas sailed

from the city of Paphos and came to Perga, a city in Pamphylia.

And John, that is John Mark. You know, John had two names.

John, Mark, that this is the, the, the evangelist.

John. Sorry, Mark, a name called by

his first name. And John separated from them and

went to Jerusalem. So John left them or John Mark

left them, but they left Perga and came to Antioch, a city in

Pisidia. And on the Sabbath, listen to

this on the Sabbath, on the Sabbath day, they went into the

synagogue and sat down or they were going to go.

It was a it's going to be a showdown.

Let's continue. And after the reading of the law

and the prophets, the law and the prophets at some proclaim

that Jesus abolished. No, he didn't.

No, he didn't. Jesus did not abolish the law.

Jesus did not abolish the prophets.

If so, then Saint Paul is in error.

So they went to listen to the law and the prophets.

The elders of the synagogue sent to them saying, O men and

brethren, if you have a word of encouragement for the people,

speak. They called him to speak.

He didn't go there and ready with his Bible and ready to

pounce on these people as some do.

No, he didn't. He just went to listen because

the law and the prophets continued.

The law and the prophets continue today, beloved.

They continue to teach us that it is Jesus Christ.

Now that salvation is through Jesus Christ, when we talk about

Jesus Christ and we want to confirm and and prove and, and,

and, you know, emphasize that Jesus is the Savior of the world

and salvation stops as Jesus Christ.

We use the law and we use the prophets and after the reading

of the law and the prophets, the elders of the synagogue sent to

them saying, oh man, and brethren, if you have a word of

encouragement for the people, speak.

So Paul stood up and lifted his hands.

Wow, this man is so courageous. He was a murderer.

Remember, he was persecuting the Church of Christ.

But when he's called and chosen, wow, glory be to God.

So Paul stood up and lifting his hands, said, This is the first

time we're going to hear Saint Paul preach, O men of Israel,

and those of you who feed God, hear my words.

Hear my words, because he speaks the words of God.

The God of this people of Israel chose your forefathers and

exalted and multiplied them when they dwelt as strangers in the

land of Egypt. And with a strong arm he brought

them out of it, and he fed them in the wilderness for 40 years.

He took care of them for 40 years, and he destroyed seven

nations in the land of Canaan, and he gave them their land for

an inheritance. And for a period of 450 years he

gave them judges until the time of the prophet Samuel.

Then they asked for a king, a big mistake.

They asked for a king and gay, and God gave them Soul, the son

of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for a period of 40

years. And when in time God took soul

away because he was naughty as well, God took soul away.

He raised up to them David, to be their king, concerning whom

he testified saying, And this is God speaking.

I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart

to do my will. And this was the youngest of the

six brothers, The youngest. He was a shepherd, but God

wanted him to do his work because it was God doing it, not

David of this man's offspring. He's talking about David.

God has, according to his promise, raised to Israel a

Savior, Jesus. Now he's hitting the nail on the

head. Is that what that's saying?

Yeah, hit the nail on the head. Before who's coming, He goes

back again. He before who's coming.

He had sent John, that's John the Baptist, to preach the

baptism of repentance to the people of Israel.

And as John fulfilled his ministry, he said, Who do you

think I am? I am not he.

But behold, there comes one after me, our brother, the

Sabine, the Madigines. Listen to this, our friends, I

should say, listen to this. This is John the Baptist

speaking. I am not he.

But behold, there comes one after me, the strings of whose

shoes I am not worthy to untie, because He is the true heavenly

Bridegroom. Praise and glory be to his name.

Now we see, let's stop there. We see that the unintimidated

Saint Paul the Apostle not only rebuking, but for the first time

now preaching so confidently, so confidently.

Remember, we spoke last week. Don't be intimidated by a past

notice that they Barnabas and and Saint Paul going to the

synagogue on the Sabbath. Was this an abomination?

We've discussed this, haven't we?

In the earlier years of the, of Christendom, when the church

began, when the Gospel was preached, when the word meaning

Jesus watch was preached, the apostles would still go on the

Sabbath to the synagogue and they would listen to the law,

they would listen to the prophets.

You know, during the, the Eucharistic service, the

liturgical service, there are two readings.

We usually just read 1. And I'm, I think if I'm not

mistaken, Saint Mary's parish in Toronto, Canada, to date, read

both the readings of the law and of the prophets.

So they went to listen because they adhere to it.

They didn't abolish it. They didn't frown upon it.

It wasn't a dirty word. The law and the prophets are not

dirty words. No, Jesus spoke about them.

We're going to, we're going to show you some examples as well.

We're going to talk about some examples.

So they went to the synagogue to listen to the readings, to

partake in that liturgical service that happens today,

maybe. But now the Christians don't go

to the synagogues because the Christians have been expelled

from the synagogues. And thank God for that.

We go to church now they went to the on the Sabbath to the

synagogues to preach Christ the word that is Jesus Christ on the

Sabbath. Then those who believed in the

name of Jesus Christ, they would bring them and bury them, bury

those who believed with Christ in baptism.

Colossians chapter 2, verse 12, clothing them with Christ.

Colossians 2:12

Galatians chapter 3, verses 26 to 27, and saving them from the

Galatians 3:26–27

bondage of the law, which was weak in the flesh.

Romans chapter 8, verse three, I'm quoting Scripture.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

But what they would do then they would then commune or they would

finally commune. These people, those who were

baptized, faithful in the body and the blood of Christ through

the Holy Eucharist in the upper room on the first day of the

week. I'm not going to say Sunday,

Sunday. If you break that down, it's

Sunday. It's a sunny day.

Well, sometimes it's pouring rain on a Sunday day, on a

Sunday. Let's use the original, original

Aramaic title, Chad Shabba. Those who are not Assyrians,

listen, say it Chad Bishabba. Chad means one Bishabba, means

of the week, first day of the week.

So until the 2nd century, I believe, or close to the 2nd

century, they were doing this. They were practicing this, going

to the synagogue on the on the Sabbath and then then going to

the upper room. And those who believed and were

baptized, partaking the Holy Eucharist until they were

expelled. And then they began to meet up

on the first day of the week. Still read the law, still read

the prophets which point to Jesus Christ, but then partake

in the Holy Script. Break the bread as well.

But notice how he starts preaching from the captivity.

Why? Well, number one, to remind them

using not just the history of the world, but using history,

the history of how God worked for mankind from the Old

Testament and they were quite familiar with they knew it.

So he's reminding them, Hey, I'm going to I'm going to speak

about what you already know. I'm going to preach to the

choir. You know this, but right at this

moment you are so stiff necked and and you are so stubborn.

You do not want to expect or accept he who fulfilled all your

law and all your profit. We learn, beloved, when we want

to preach religion, when we want to talk religion, we need to

begin with God. You know, people come to me and

I get messages. Which church is the true church?

I say, well, you know what? It's not one of those one or two

line answers. Do you know the history of the

world as God has worked? No.

Well, you know, we need to go back to the beginning.

We can't just come to the end. If we come to the end, it's

going to be a jigsaw puzzle without a picture to guide us to

put together. We need to go back to the

beginning. God.

There's a lot of understandings and philosophies and and

knowledges and feelings of God. We need to tackle that.

The supreme power there is AI don't believe in God, but I know

there's a supernatural and a supreme power of great.

Yeah, you're, you're you're one step ahead of those who just

don't believe. Like we're nothing like we're

zombies. We're just walking in this world

like we're robots, you know, moved around by some power.

No, no, no, no. There is a power and that is

God. Let's talk about that.

Let's come to a conclusion first that there is God.

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty.

When we've come to an understanding, an agreement,

when we've ascertained there is one God could take us weeks,

months, years, through the scriptures, through nature

itself, then we must begin the next step.

The next phase is how do we have a relationship with this God?

Because there are so many ways, so many people that claim that

through them there is a relationship with Allah and a

God. We need to come down and

ascertain that no, no, no, no, no, no, no, this true one true

God is only known and accepted and fathomed.

I mean, we can't fathom God, but we have an understanding through

Jesus Christ because he was human.

God, the word, they saw him, they touched him, and this why?

And if you ask why we say, well, this Jesus Christ has set it

straight and no man, no leader of any, no author of any other

faith has dared to speak what Jesus spoke about himself.

You know why not? Because he was mighty, He was

powerful, He was a custody, He was a magician, He could put

people to death. No, no, no, because he was true.

It was true. John chapter 14, verse 6.

John 14:6

He is the way to God. That's what he claims.

And I mean, he is the only way. Listen to me, it doesn't concern

me. If you're not going to listen to

this podcast anymore, I'm sorry. It doesn't concern.

It's not about numbers. How many views do we get?

How many listeners? You know what?

That one listener is a soul. That one listener could be God

bringing that one listener to hear the message of God.

It's not about numbers. It's not about likes and clicks.

How many views? We have millions of views so

that we can make money. It's not about making money.

It's about the truth. There is only one way to God and

that is Jesus Christ. Praise me to his name.

He's the truth, he said. He is truly Word Incarnate, God

Incarnate. He is God.

What he spoke was, is, and will eternally and into eternity be

true. No one has claimed this,

beloved. No one.

Muhammad didn't. Buddha didn't.

Gandhi didn't. Vishnu didn't.

I'm trying to remember all these.

Think of all these other authors of faith.

No one claimed this. No, actually, they all allude to

Jesus Christ. Jesus doesn't even speak about

these people. And by the way, my beloved

friends, my beloved Muslim friends, when Jesus says one who

comes after me, it's speaking about the Holy Spirit.

Why? Because he says he is in you and

Muhammad is not in me. Thank God he's not in me.

I don't think Muhammad is in anyone.

Muhammad is dead. He's talking about the Holy

Spirit that is in you, meaning the spirit that has drawn you to

me. And you're going to receive him

in fullness. So his words are true, unlike

some of the ridiculous words and philosophies and and and

prophecies that were spoken by the rulers of other faiths.

And He is truly the way to eternal life through Him.

By him and with him. Now I won't go further into the

true way of worship and relationship with Jesus Christ,

which means directly relationship with God, because

then we go into the churches. We'll do that on another

episode. In verse 23, we notice Saint

Paul very diligently and very wisely led by the Holy Spirit.

Obviously, we must always mention and and understand and

and confess, led by the Holy Spirit.

Notice how Paul knit his dissertation, his speech, his

thesis, whatever you want to call it, with the past, the

prophets. He talks about the past first.

He goes back to when they were in captivity thousands and

thousands of years before the day he was present, standing,

present people. And notice how he stands up,

like he didn't sit down timidly and say, well, you know, yeah,

Jesus loves you. No, he got up and he shook his

head. He's probably calling them and

say, listen, I'm going to tell you something.

But he was very learner, too. Let's not forget he knew the

Scriptures. He knew the Old Testament, so he

talks about them, and then he presents John the Baptist.

He's intertwining them, the old and the new, as he's evidence

for the truth of Jesus Christ. He says from this man David,

from this man's seed, according to the promise, Jesus has come.

And then he presents John, John the Baptist again, both the

prophets and the apostles along with David himself, we're

witnesses to the resurrection, remember.

So when they have foretold, when David has foretold the

resurrection, you shall not leave my soul in hates or Shoal.

It's a prophecy about Jesus Christ resurrecting praise and

glory be to his name. The prophets all prophesied

about Jesus Christ. How a a virgin would give.

And it's not a little young woman, young lady, don't change

the Scriptures. It's Mary, ever virgin.

We're going to talk about that. The prophet spoke about and John

pointed to Jesus Christ. I'm not worthy to take off his

shoelaces. You know why?

Because neither do the Old Testament proofs and evidence

seem so they're not so persuadive when persuasive when

taken by themselves. If you only want to preach Jesus

Christ from the Old Testament and ID many people do that many

of these televangelists. I I want to ask you this

question. Why do you only refer to the Old

Testament and then one verse from the New Testament?

It's usually from the book of Revelations, right?

To put fear in people so that the collection becomes more you

hypocrites, hypocrites. Just the Old Testament is not

enough, is not, is not persuasive enough to be taken by

itself. No, we need the New Testament.

We need the fulfillment of the Old Testament in the New

Testament together complementing one another.

Lo, a virgin will be with a child Saint Mary, he's he was

wounded for our transgressions. Jesus Christ.

There was no no image of to be seen of him that was attractive.

I'm paraphrasing Isaiah chapter 53, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

I saw the the ancient of time sitting at a throne, Jesus

Christ. Abraham sees the three people,

calls them Lord, and they eat Jesus Christ.

So both the Old and the New Testament beloved complement one

another. It is through both that Saint

Paul makes his discourse trustworthy.

Again, a great lesson to adhere to when reading or discussing

Scripture in relations to certain doctrines and sacraments

and traditions. Let me give you an example.

And this is just an example, Infant's baptism, for example,

it's not just one that you can't just base your understanding of

infant's baptism against using 1 words.

And I can't base my understanding or not my

understanding, the understanding of the church for infant's

baptism just by one verse. No, we can't say Mark 1616, he

who believes and he's baptized is saved.

Well, how can children believe? They don't have that that

capability of believing. They don't have the capability

of understanding. Do you understand the holy

sacraments? I don't.

Let me tell you, I Ioffer them on behalf of the Congregation,

but I don't understand them. But I believe that they work.

What about the 8th day circumcision?

Genesis chapter 17 verse 12, repeated Leviticus chapter 12,

Genesis 17:12 Leviticus 12:3

verse 3, eighth day child, excruciating pain.

Not with a scalpel. And I was always saying with a

mask and hands clean and gloves on and scalpel and sutures.

No, no, no. With a sharp piece of stone.

The 8th day young male was circumcised.

I can't stop there. I gotta come to the New

Testament now that's been fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

Colossians chapter 2 versus 11, verse 12 versus 11 and 12.

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

Circumcision without hands that occurs in baptism.

So there it is. Hey now, let's start.

Let's use both, using both the Old and the New Testament as

evidence. What about the Virgin, the ever

virginity of Saint Mary, our Blessed Mother?

Ezekiel chapter 44. God's Spirit enters a gate,

Ezekiel 44 · chapter mention

exits the gate. The gate doesn't open.

Why is God entering and exiting a gate?

What is? What's the significance of a

gate not opening? What what it is?

Well, there is a lot of significance.

Ezekiel chapter 44, the gate. God commands, listen to this,

Ezekiel 44 · chapter mention

the gate shall be shut, and it shall not be open, and no men

shall enter by it. Lord Moses stood at the same

platform where you were. Yes, you told him to take off

your shoe because he's standing on holy ground.

So Moses was permitted to stand in the same place that you but

your spirit entering this gate and dwelling at this place and

leaving the gate and the gate not open and you're commanding

no man shall enter by it because the Lord God, the God of Israel

has entered by it. It shall be shut.

What it is, it's Mary's virginity for the glory of God

and his Son, our Jesus Christ. Jesus himself refers to the

prophets. He refers to the prophets and

law. If he would have said, I have

abolished, if Christ had abolished the law and the

prophets, why was he referring to them?

Oh, well, at that time he hadn't abolished it.

You know, let's not be, let's not be little children.

It's, you know, we become the we become the, the, the main reason

for the blaspheming of the name of our Lord God, because others

look at us and say they don't even know what they're talking

about. No, Christ himself refers to the

prophets and law as a type of him.

John chapter 3 verses 14 to 15. And just as Moses lifted the

John 3:14–15

serpent in the wilderness, thus the Son of Man is going to be

lifted so that every person who believes isn't amazing.

Not every person who, but every person who believes.

And you know, he who believes must be baptized.

So we're talking about baptized faithful.

Every person who believes in him, in Jesus Christ shall not

be lost, but shall have, shall have eternal life when the Lord

returns, shall have. And you know what happened,

right? Yeah.

The Israelites always grumbling today they're grumbling.

They're always grumbling. Oh, we were better off in in

Egypt. We were eating and we were

drinking. They forgot that they were

constantly being tortured. And then God sends serpents and

they start biting them and many of them died from the poison.

And who did they run to? Now this is the people of God.

They run to Moses because he was their priest, he was their

leader and said Moses, do something.

Moses praise to the Lord. The Lord says, make yourself a

brass serpent. Whoever is bitten shall look at

these serpent and this serpent and the the the venom will not

inflict any terminal wound. What is this it's Jesus Christ

today. That serpent was a a prototype

of Jesus Christ that when we are stricken by Satan, his venom

although within us and sometimes harming us, but cannot cause us

eternal damage because we look at the cross of our Lord and our

Savior Jesus Christ. So again, learning from Saint

Paul and the early activities of the Church, we got to keep

reminding that because these are the Acts of the Apostles, the

early activities of the Church, don't be intimidated, don't be

deterred, don't be discouraged, don't refuse the work of God

when called and chosen because our past has been done.

We spoke about this last last episode also when working in the

ministry of Christ within the one Holy and Apostolic and

Catholic Universal Church, take heed and proclaim the Word of

God or the work of God through the prophets and the apostles.

That is the Old and the New Testament to proclaim the one

true God worshipped as three in one, Father and Son and Holy

Spirit forever. Amen.

We hope you enjoyed this week's message.

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Show notes link. TR EE forward slash double edged

sword. Until next time, God bless you

all.