Lordship

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 ESV

19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

A temple is the place where God dwells. It is His Place. Set aside for His sacred use.

Public Confession

Romans 10:10 ESV

10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

There must be faith in the heart before there can be a good confession from the mouth - Why?

Matthew 12:34 ESV

34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

Confession of Christ is the first public act of honour that a New Christian gives Christ. Our Confession of Christ is for God’s Glory.

Philippians 2:10–11 ESV

10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Matthew 10:32–33 ESV

32 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

Baptism

Baptism is often the Christians first mass public confession.

Mark 16:16 ESV

16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Notice in this verse some things:

1: It is the Believing (faith) that saves us, but it is the Baptism (confession) that proves our renounce of the devil and that way of life that proves our faith to be true.

James 2:17–18 ESV

17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

Baptism is one of the first of those “works”.

Romans 6:3 ESV

3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

Colossians 2:12 ESV

12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Baptism is the seal of the covenant that we are indeed dying to our sin, and that we are living for God and His Glory.

Concluding the Past

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

There must be a thorough change of the heart.

The old things MUST pass away - we have a new name, a new destiny, a new life, a new lord, a new purpose - and so all the old ways, old thoughts, old habits must pass away.

1: Idols

1 Thessalonians 1:9 ESV

9 For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,

It must be understood that all of us were at some point idol worshippers. Do not picture idols as statues - though they often take that form.

An Idol is any god that we fashion ourselves, be in out of gold, stone, marble and even THOUGHTS.

Any time we make a god that we are comfortable with that is idolatry - IT DOES NOT matter what that god is called.

For example:

“I believe in Jesus Christ, i believe that he is the son of God, i believe that he died on the cross for the sins of the world and i believe that he is perfect and rose form the dead and i also believe that Jesus love me as i am as a practicing homosexual”.

Is this person serving the true living Lord Jesus or an idol that they call the Jesus?

An Idol - why?

1 Corinthians 6:9–11 ESV

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

many people who call themselves christian are idol worshippers, serving a god that they formed who does not punish or condemn sins of all kinds.

1 John 5:21 ESV

21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

He goes on to warn us NOT to get caught up in the false gods of this world.

God is jealous and we must have no part in the idolatries of the world. Money, sex, pleasure, power...

Deuteronomy 5:8 ESV

8 “ ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

Deuteronomy 12:30 ESV

30 take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’

The modern day church is so guilty of this - The bible is warning us not to try and serve God like the world serves its idols.

Perhaps no more do we see this than in te modern perversion of worship.

Darkrooms, with flashing lights, smoke machines - modern worship looks exactly like a rock concert.

What these churches have done is try to make serving the serving of Jesus as much like the serving of idols as possible.

Evil Practices

Acts 19:19 ESV

19 And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.

There are many evil practices that must be stopped immediately when one is saved.

new age aka alternative -

1: Samuel Haneman - homeopathy.

malevolent Miasms, evil - driven out by benevolent Miasms.

2: astrology

Isaiah 47:13–14 ESV

13 You are wearied with your many counsels; let them stand forth and save you, those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons make known what shall come upon you. 14 Behold, they are like stubble; the fire consumes them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before!

3: Fortune telling.

Isaiah 37:13–14 ESV

13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’ ” 14 Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord.

Deuteronomy 18:10–14 ESV

10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, 14 for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.

deut 10

alternative

psychics aka fortune tellers

wichcraft

Consecration

Romans 12:1 ESV

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Basis for:

2 Corinthians 5:14 ESV

14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;

Separation from the World

2 Corinthians 6:17 ESV

17 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you,

Things which ruin your testimony with the world

1 cor 5

1 Corinthians 5:1–2 ESV

1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. 2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

1 Thessalonians 5:22 ESV

22 Abstain from every form of evil.

Things which are inconsistent with the Lord Jesus

Matthew 10:24 ESV

24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.

Revelation 14:4 ESV

4 It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb,

Things which quench the Spiritual Life

1 Thessalonians 5:19 ESV

19 Do not quench the Spirit.

Psalm 66:18 ESV

18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

John 9:31 ESV

31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.

Conclusion

2 Corinthians 6:17–18 ESV

17 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, 18 and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”

2 cor 6