Where are all the Acts 2:38 folks (3-steppers)??

[pelathais]

Originally Posted by Michael Phelps

Excellent post.

Thanks, however in striving for excellence, I forgot the attachment.

Here it is...


Lesson 42, J.H.D

FAITH CALLETH THOSE THINGS THAT BE NOT AS THOUGH THEY WERE

Rom. 4:17

Our subject is a far reaching text, and if God were not back of it, it could not be counted as truth; but with Him back of it of whom it is written that there is nothing impossible, we dare to trust it to be workable. The law of faith is as sure to bring results as any other law that is properly complied with. First God promises, then we believe, and the result is that we get what we have believed for.

God made a promise to Abram that he would have a son, and he considered not the deadness of himself nor the deadness of Sarah's womb, but he was strong in faith giving glory to God, While he was yet childless he believed God was able to make alive from the dead; so God called the “things that be not as though they were” and changed his name to Abraham, meaning the father of many nations.

The text is written of Abraham, who by faith became the father of us all. For Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness, for it was imputed to him without works. See Rom.4:5-6. Because Abraham lived before the New Testament came into force (Hebrews 9:16-17) God could not impart righteousness (the Holy Ghost is our righteousness) to him so He just counted him righteous.

Now while Abraham had righteousness accounted to him, yet he with all the other Old Testament worthies died in faith having not received the promise, God having provided some better thing for us. Hebrews 11:39-40. But if he had lived on till the Day of Pentecost, he would have been filled in the upper room with the other believers waiting for the "better things” the promise of the Holy Ghost!

We so often meet with the question, “What are you going to do with the many faithful people who have lived for God and yet never experienced the baptism of the Holy Ghost as in Acts 2: 4?” Then we are glad for our text by which we can answer that God can call those things which be not as though they were. If God would counted Abraham's faith for righteousness and called him the “father of many” while he was yet childless, is it not just like Him to do that for my old faithful grandmother? Yes, He can and does, thank God! I am not talking about all the professors that died before the outpouring of the Spirit, but I am talking about those who really walked with God. When those precious souls surrendered their lives to the known will of God, they were made happy in the blessing He gave them and the blood gave them a clean slate and perfect standing before God. Yet we have to admit that their state was far different from that of a Spirit-filled believer of today. Can we not believe that their standing was just as good as ours, that God through their faith would call the things that be not as though they were?

However, if those same people had lived on to see our day of increased light and had desired to keep their standing, they too would have embraced Acts 2:4 and would soon have been rejoicing in a Spirit filled life. Thus their standing would have remained the same, but their state would have been greatly changed.

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