Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate.  Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach.  For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.

 
 
 

Going to Jesus

Daily Thoughts

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Thought for Today
Apr. 27

NO MORE TARRYING

From a sermon at Grandma's farmhouse by Preacher Clark in mid-May, 1975.

The risen Lord Jesus sent his disciples back to Jerusalem when he ascended to the Father. On the Mount of Olives, he "commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father". They obediently returned from the Mount of Olives , as the Lord had commanded them, into the holy city, where they gathered in an "upper room". The reason the disciples had to wait for the "promise of the Father" (the holy Spirit) to come was that Jesus had not yet offered himself to the Father for the sins of the world. The killing of Jesus took place on earth, but the sacrifice for our sins took place in God's temple in heaven. That is why the Spirit was not given to those who believed in Jesus until after the Lord ascended and was glorified in heaven (Jn. 7:39). Jesus ascended into heaven to complete the work of redemption. This is why Paul told the saints in Corinth that if Christ had not risen from the dead, they would still be in their sins (1Cor. 15:14-18).

As soon as Jesus' sacrifice was offered to God in heaven and accepted by Him, the holy Spirit was poured out upon those humble Jewish disciples gathered in the "upper room" (Acts 2). The Spirit was given as God's witness that Jesus' sacrifice had been accepted and that, at long last, cleansing from sin was available in his name. The disciples were born again on the day the holy Ghost came upon them, in Acts 2.

From those days, recorded in Acts, when God poured out His Spirit on the Jews and Gentiles, the baptism of the holy Spirit has been available to all sinners from the moment that their repentance is complete. The disciples were waiting in that upper room for the holy Ghost because the price for its coming had not yet been paid, not because they had failed to completely repent. They were in a spiritual condition in which no man now can be: clean and right with God without receiving the holy Ghost baptism. After God accepted Jesus' sacrifice and poured out His Spirit as a testimony to that fact, all who "hunger and thirst after righteousness" immediately receive the holy Ghost when they repent in full. There is no more waiting on God to do His work.

"There is no more tarrying for the holy Ghost." So Preacher Clark said in that meeting in 1975. And this was his point: The Spirit is here! We no longer must wait for God to do His part so that the holy Ghost will be made available, as the disciples were waiting in that upper room for the Father and His Son to do their parts. Rather than that, God waits on sinful man to do his part, to repent and to seek Him with the whole heart. And every time that anyone does that, the holy Ghost baptism is given and received.

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