What is the Gospel and how do you obey it (the Spirit, the water, and the blood)? | Ep. 114

Prepare yourself for a profound journey as we dissect the Gospel of the Kingdom, as recorded by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 and probe the significance of obeying it. We challenge you not just to know the Gospel but to understand and obey its message.

Following the thread of the Spirit, the water, and the blood, referenced in 1 John 5:8, we travel from Genesis to the accounts of biblical figures such as Adam, Noah, Moses, and the Mosaic Tabernacle. You will see how these elements are vital to the Gospel message. In the footsteps of John the Baptist, we'll examine the importance of repentance, baptism, and preparing for the coming of the Lamb of God.

Finally, we grapple with the challenge of obeying the Gospel. By analyzing scriptures such as Romans 10:16 and Acts 9, we unravel the concept of calling upon the Lord as an act of obedience.  

No matter where you are on your spiritual journey, this episode will enrich your understanding and deepen your faith.

Transcript

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 0:03

The vision received was that of blood cells traveling throughout the body, supplying the much needed oxygen and other nutrients to the differing members of the body to fulfill their purpose. Once the blood cells are spent, they must return back to the heart to be refilled before being sent out again and fulfill their purpose. Good morning Saints. It's good to be with you again this week. I echo the words and sentiments of my brother in that this is a highlight of the week a place where you can gather together with more than just you, more than just your local blood family, but come together with like-minded Saints who love the Lord, who are seeking the Lord steadfastly and have designated a day and a time that they can gather together to seek His face and praise Him and worship Him. Very little, if not anything, that is better than that, for if we all endure into the end, that's exactly what we're going to be doing praising Him for all time, for eternity. Let's begin today with a question, seemingly simple question. Hopefully we can get a biblical answer, so let me just give it out. Somebody, raise your hand and tell me what is the gospel? Yes, ma'am, it is the word of God. Word of God through His disciples. Does that follow Him? Anybody else got what the gospel is. Maybe you can add on to that and we can come up with the full counsel of all the Saints here. What is the gospel, anybody know? Oh, mary's just chewing her gum, just chewing her gum, don't know what I'm looking for. She's saying in her head. I'm not quite sure what he's getting. That's a very simple question. What is the gospel? We could talk about it so much. The gospel of the kingdom, the gospel oh, we've got a brave one, sister Wilda. The gospel is the message, that good news that Jesus Christ came. Five or six, most again the third day. Most again, there were penses and rish-pins in the first day. Okay, she just added that initial flavor there. Okay, she got specific. She was general. The gospel, the word of God, the kingdom. She got very specific. All right, okay. So everybody turn to 1 Corinthians, chapter 15. I'm going to turn it with you so that'll give you time to find it like I am, and I'm going to have Mr Katie read it loud and proud. 1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4. So I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also receive have that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again in the third day, according to the Scriptures. Do you know who said that? Who wrote those words? Paul, paul wrote those words. Who did he write them? To the church? I was at Corinth, that's right, and he said I delivered to you the thing that I received, and I received the specific in Christ that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried and that he rose again in the third day. Very, very, pretty much word for word what Sister Wilder said. And then my question was what is the Gospel? Well, if you go back to verse one, paul starts out this chapter saying more over brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you where you have received, and it's the same Gospel that you stand in. So, having now read all that not negating what Chloe said is that the Gospel? Would y'all say that's the Gospel? Oh gosh, we're not sure. I thought that would be emphatic. That is the Gospel, guys. That is the Gospel.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 4:50

Some people abbreviated the DBR the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus. Why? For your sins? That's why it's the good news. It's not just that some man died, it's not just that some man was buried for three days. It's not just that some man rose again on the third day, no, he did it all for your sins, he became the atonement for your sins. In other words, he paid the penalty for your sins.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 5:14

So one of the things that caught my attention after I started not just reading the word but studying the word is two Scriptures in particular. In first. Let's see first Peter 417. And you can mark these down and then go to it, and I'm going to have Ralph read first Peter 417 because his lovely wife is going to get it for him. Oh, unless she got it. Oh, there you go, that'll work. Oh, he's getting them glasses on.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 5:47

And what does it say? The first time for the judgment to begin at the house of God. And it begins with us what will be the end of those who will not obey the gospel of God? So there's judgment that's coming, and the judgment that is coming is going to first come to the house of God. And when it continues in the house of God, he questions and he says well, what's going to be the end of those who do not what? Obey the gospel. See, that to me caught my attention because that was very important because I knew and I could repeat the gospel that we all just said was the death, the birth, the resurrection of Jesus Christ for your sins. I could repeat that and countless of others in the world can repeat that, and tell you that, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That Jesus died. He was buried and rose again on the third day. But the judgment that and the wrath that is to come, is not only going to come on the house of God first, but it's going to come on those that don't obey the gospel. Well, let me ask you this, Without getting too biblical on me and without getting too super religious on me when we read that the gospel is the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, did it say how to obey it there? No, see, that caught my attention. So I know the good news messages that, that the birth of resurrection Jesus Christ for my sins. But what? How do I obey it? That's important, according to that scripture, because judgment is coming upon those that don't obey it.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 7:34

So then I started thinking about well, there's another scripture that I knew of, second Thessalonians 1, verse 8, written by another apostle. By the way, who was the apostle that wrote this, peter. Peter, thank you very much. Okay, and then we got the Second Thessalonians chapter or book that was written, or actually it's a letter. It's not even a book, it was a letter written to the church at Thessalonica, chapter 1, verse 8. And I'm going to have Sister Tammy read out loud Second Thessalonians 1, verse 8. And if that's too far for you, you go ahead and read it from the back of your ear. Bible, because I understand if you can't read that. That's pretty far.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 8:22

I got a second apostle that's basically saying the same thing Not that there's judgment, but that there's a flaming fire of vengeance that are going to come upon those who don't know God and those that don't obey. So it's not a matter of knowing the Gospel, it's a matter of obeying the Gospel. So that got me thinking. There's a lot more to just this Christian walk than just simply knowing that a man who said he was the Son of God died and was buried and rose again on the third day. It's a lot more than that. There's some sort of obedience that needs to take place. There's something that I need to do with that message in order to obey with it, in order to comply with it, so that the vengeance that is talked about, or the judgment that has to come, doesn't come upon me.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 9:19

So that's an important question for us to answer today, and we're going to answer it through a pattern that is seen from the scriptures, from the Old Testament all the way through the New Testament, and for some of us it may be. Oh yeah, we know that, we've been taught that, and then for some of us I didn't know that. So I want to go over it again and not take anything for granted or any assumptions. But let's look at there's a witness that is in the earth and that witness is found in 1 John 5.8. And I'm going to have Sister Joy read that out loud First John 5.8,.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 9:55

There is a particular witness in the earth and I'd like for us to tell us what that witness is. We'll give you time to find it, yeah, okay. So the tree that bear witness in the earth, the spirit, the water and the blood in these three are created, all right. So there's a witness in the earth. There's a testimony that is going on in the earth. I could talk about the testimony that goes on in heaven. It's the previous verse but I'm not going to focus on that. I want to focus on the witness that is in the earth. What were the three? The spirit, the water and the blood. Now some people will read that I'm like what was Apostle John talking about? I don't know what he's talking about. So let's look at what he was talking about. Let's see if we can go from the Old Testament right on through to the New Testament to see what this is about. And remember that my context of my message is not merely on knowing what the gospel is, but in order, but it's about how to obey the gospel.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 11:02

All right, so the first witness that we see of the spirit, the water and the blood goes right back to the first book of the Bible, the beginnings. What is it, monica? I saw you saying it Genesis. Yeah, everybody turned to Genesis. In the beginning, god created the heavens in the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness over the surface of the deep and the spirit of God and the spirit of God was brooding upon the waters. Right in the very beginning of the beginnings, the spirit of God was there. Now there's a witness in the earth the spirit, the water and the blood. And right there we see the spirit of God is proving over the waters, because at that time the earth was just waters, it was a globe of waters.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 11:55

And then it says in particular in Genesis, chapter one, verses six through nine, that he caused a separation the waters from the waters. We can read it God said let the firmament in the midst of the waters, let it divide the waters from the waters. Thus God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. What we may not know is that the earth started as a globe of water and he separated waters from the waters and there was a canopy of water that surrounded the earth. It's one of the reasons why they lived so long way back, when they had an extra barrier or layer of protection from the sun that allowed them to live a whole lot longer than we do today, because we don't have that barrier protection. So there's a separation there between the waters and the water.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 12:49

But if we scroll down just a little bit further, there's also something else about the waters, the waters that made up the earth. You had waters around, there was that canopy and then you had the waters. It says God said let the waters that were under the heavens, underneath the canopy, it says let them gather together one place and let dry land appear. Again, there was separations. Are not the earth made up of a huge amount of water? And what is separating waters from the waters, earth, land? So he brought about a separation. Okay, and I told you that the spirit, the water and the blood are all throughout the Old Covenant and they started right back in the beginning. So we talked about the spirit, we talked about the waters.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 13:34

Where is the blood? Anybody remember where is the blood in the beginnings? Anybody have any idea where that element was, where that witness was Brother John, specifically Elder John. They were, we had many skins and they were naked and they covered themselves with leaves. The Lord covered them with skins of animals, so they had sacrifice to cover them. Did you all know that? Anybody remember that the blood was needed when, after the fall? The blood was needed after the fall of man Because there was a problem.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 14:25

It says in another verse of scriptures, which I don't have right now, but it just came to my mind that without the shedding of blood there is no what Remission of sins? In other words, sin cannot be taken care of without the shedding of blood. So the first time we see this issue about the blood and it's implied is in Genesis, chapter 3, verse 21. Adam and Eve had fallen. Well, she was deceived and he fell with his eyes wide open. And it says here that the Lord God made for Adam and his wife tunics of skin and clothed them. And if you look at the words of the skin it would say flesh or flesh of animals. That was the moment where blood became an element.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 15:25

Now you read the book of the beginnings, Genesis, and you look about the Spirit and you look at about the water and you look at about the blood and you kind of just read over it. It's just something that was a part of the account. But if you go back to the end of the book, which is where we were in 1st John, it says that there are three that bear witness in the earth the Spirit, the water, and the blood. And when you see those three you think whoa, there's something more important than just oh. The Spirit of was brooding upon the waters and he created the separation of the waters. There's more than oh. He created tunics of skin for them. Those were witnesses in the earth and He made a covenant with Adam. He made a covenant with Eve and those three elements were seen in his relationship with them. So there's another time that we see the Spirit, the water and the blood.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 16:23

If we turn to Noah's account, noah's account starts in Genesis, probably around chapter six, probably around chapter seven. We'll start with Genesis six nine. There was a man that was found in the earth that was very different from all the rest of the men in the world. It says that Noah was a just man. Noah was perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God, and we scroll down just a little bit further. God was angry. The whole earth was corrupt. He was upset with every single one of them. And God looked upon the earth. He said all flesh was corrupt. And then he said to Noah the end of all flesh has come before me. The earth is filled with violence through them. And behold, I will destroy the earth. And he starts giving him instructions.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 17:19

So what element is seen there? Is it the blood? Anybody see any reference to blood there? I don't Okay. Well, what about water? Any reference to water there? He's mad at the world. Is there any reference to water there? Not quite. So then how did God, how did Noah walk with God. Did he relate to him by his spirit? If you read the scriptures, does it not say that the spirit of God, the spirit of God, the spirit of God. Is there any difference between God and the spirit of God? No, so it's a. Noah found favor in God's sight. He walked with God, he spoke with God, and so you see the spirit element there, because we relate to the Lord, spirit, to spirit. So there's that spiritual element there.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 18:19

Brother Murray, you have something. Do you not see the spirit element through the type of shadow coming from the Ark and returning with the old bridge, the, actually leading them to dry land? You could? He needed a sign. If you remember that part of his account, he was on the Ark and he needed to know if the land was dry, because he probably didn't know how to swim, I don't know. He needed to wait for the land to dry and he started sending out birds, and then the dove was one of those birds that was sent out. Chloe, do you have something? I mean, chelsea, sorry, where'd I get Chloe? Was it Mount Sinai or Mount Ararat? I think it was Ararat. Yeah, I think it was Ararat. So we're getting to the account. So this is good. You guys know the account of Noah.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 19:14

Noah found favor with the eyes of God. He was going to destroy the whole earth. Now, where does the water come in? How is it going to destroy the whole earth With water, something that had never been seen before the floods? The earth broke up and water started spewing out. The rains came crashing down and so it was coming from out of the earth. It's coming from above the earth. Do you remember that canopy that surrounded the earth? That's probably what inundated the earth with water. So if you think about that, that makes a lot of sense. So it came crashing down, that canopy of earth that separated the firmament from the waters and the waters, and then all that dry land just started to disappear because there was just too much water, and so it rained. How many days? 40 days and four. It was a big, huge, thick canopy of water. It lasted for 40 days and nights, and once it was over, it took a long time for the dry land to appear. It was there. I forgot how many days 100 and something days. Anybody remember? It was a long time.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 20:18

But the point is you have God relating to Noah, spirit to spirit. You have the waters coming in to bring the destruction. And really it is a separation. Remember, when we first saw the waters, he came, he brooded upon the waters and then he separated the waters from the waters and he created the heavens and the earth and then he separated the waters from the waters to create land. And so there's that connotation that when the waters are being dealt with, it's a separation. Well, where's the separation here? Who did he separate with the waters? Noah and his family? Who represented? Who the righteous in the earth? Who did they separate it from the unrighteous, the wicked, all the people that he was angry with? So we see that element of the water.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 21:06

Where do we see the blood? Anybody remember Noah's account that you would? Oh yeah, that's where the blood comes. In Mount Cicerovina, when it was all said and done and when that arc set itself on Mount Errorat afterward, remember, he put a rainbow in the clouds and he promised I'm never going to do that to the earth again. Well, noah then took some animals and he sacrificed and built an altar before the Lord. So there's the blood.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 21:37

Remember, the blood is needed because without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. So we see the spirit, the water and the blood in Adam's covenant. We see the spirit, the water and blood in Noah's relationship covenant with the Lord. And the next time we see it is in the Exodus account. Moses was chosen after 40 years. He had killed somebody. He ran away. 40 years later God came back to him, said I'm sending you back to Egypt. You need to take out my people. And so God is relating with Moses again, spirit to spirit, calling him and saying listen, I need you to go, do this, you need to go do this, I'm going to walk with you, I'm going to be with you. Yes, you can bring your brother Aaron. And so he's relating with the Lord. He saw him in the burning bush and he was talking with the Lord. So there's the spirit of God. So where do we see the blood? Hmm, the blood, the blood. Anybody remember where you saw the blood?

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 22:37

In the Exodus account, mr Melvina. Again there, the doorpost. What happened? The angel of death was coming. Angel of death was going to take out all the firstborn in all the land of Egypt, including the Israelites. But it was told to them by Moses, because God had given to them, said take some of the time's blood with oil and his and spread it upon the doorpost. Spread it over the doorpost and the angel of death will pass over that house and none of your firstborn will die.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 23:19

Now you think about that. Somebody has a house, has doorpost. We have doorpost over a door because that's where we enter in, that's where we exit, that's where we have family going in and out, that's where we have guests going in and out, and I'm supposed to put blood on the doorpost so that it could drip on my guest and my family. What if they would have said that Just because? Oh no, that's just ill. What I do know is that whoever did that, their children were not touched. Whatever were their cattle touched. Why? Because they obeyed, they did exactly what they were told to do, and when they all the firstborn died, except the Israelites, they were released, but then they were chased.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 24:18

And so where's the water element in this account? Anybody remember? There was a party, Would you say a separation. There was another separation. God separated the waters for them to walk through on dry land. So we have the spirit and the water and the blood in the Exodus account.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 24:43

You know the account, but can you grab ahold of these elements and realize, if I grab ahold of these elements. I know what the gospel is about because he was showing us through what we call types and shadows. This is all I'm going through. I'm going through patterns that are found in the scriptures to help us realize that God was giving us cues and little clues and little elements that he was going to what our brother, pastor Jeff Rogers, termed progressive, repetitious revelations. There were revelations that were given that he kind of snowballed in a much bigger way and it kept growing and growing. As he used it With Adam, we saw that with Noah it got bigger. With Moses it got bigger, it got more concrete, if you will.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 25:41

Because if you just look at the Genesis beginning, you're like, okay, he has spirit, water, blood, but I don't get a connection. But as you read it again, you start oh, it's about a covenant, oh, it's about deliverance. Right now, it was about deliverance. The Israelites were being delivered out of the hand of Pharaoh so that they could go where, into the promised land. And so the next account that we read of the spirit, the water and the blood was also with Moses, but it was outside of Egypt. It was while they were walking through the promised land. He told Moses you need to build me a tabernacle. So we find it in the mosaic tabernacle and we'll turn to. By the way, the spirit was also found If you look at the Exodus account.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 26:29

There was a what by day and a what by night. Anybody remember Cloud by day? Anybody know what they did with the cloud? They followed it. Well, aren't the children of God supposed to be led by the spirit of God? Does led mean follow? Yeah, so they were following the cloud wherever it went. That's where they went, otherwise they'd be in the hot sun, because the cloud was there for shake. And then, when it stopped and it was nighttime, a fire of the Lord came upon the tabernacle, which is what we're going to talk about now.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 27:05

So when you look at the mosaic tabernacle, we see the spirit, the water and the blood. The blood is right in front of the Eastern gate entrance. And if you can open up that picture so that everybody can see it because there may be some here that don't know about the mosaic tabernacle If you go back to the other page and open up and slide it over, I'm going to show you a picture of the mosaic tabernacle so that you can see what it was that they had. There was an Eastern gate and you entered into the Eastern gate and, year by year, you had to bring your daily sacrifices.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 27:45

Well, not daily, but year by year. You had to bring your sacrifices. And the sacrifices were for the shedding of blood, so that your sins would be forgiven. And they did that on a yearly basis. They had to continually do that. So they entered in, they gave their sacrifices to the priests and he would then put them on the altar, and so we have the blood element involved in the mosaic tabernacle.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 28:13

And when the priests were done with sacrificing lots and lots of that I can't even tell you how many animals, but if you figure, there were millions of Israelites that came out of Egypt there were lots and lots of animals, and so they had to deal with that year by year. And when they finished with sacrificing all of these animals on the altar, there was lots and lots and lots of blood, couldn't help themselves. It was a bloody mess, okay, and they had to do that. But then what was the next thing that comes out? You see that there it's called the labor, it was called the brazen labor, the bronze labor, and does anybody know what, a, what a what a priest had to do at that particular labor. He had to wash.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 28:58

I need you to turn. I need you to turn to Exodus 30, 18 through 20. And I need you to see why they had to wash. You can minimize that so we can read it together Exodus 30, 18 through 20. So Moses is giving out instructions about what are the elements, what are the furniture, what are the furnishings that need to be in the mosaic tabernacle, and he's explaining you will also make a labor of bronze. Its base is going to be bronze for washing. You shall put it between the tabernacle of meeting and the altar. So if you go back to that picture real quick, he's basically saying you need to make this brazen labor and it's going to be found in between the brazen altar and the tabernacle of meeting. It's called meeting.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 29:58

Does anybody know what this place was for? It was for the high priest to enter in and you had the holy place and you had the holy of holy places. But in the holy place you had the table of show bread, the candle stick and you had the golden altar. This needed to be in between these two places. So let's go back to that scripture and read why it had to be placed in the between.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 30:21

It was there for washing and it says for Aaron and his son. So wash their hands and their feet in the water from it, and when they go into the tabernacle meeting, when they come near to the altar to minister or to burn an offering made by fire to the Lord, they shall wash with water, lest what Lest they die. They could not go into the altar, do all of the blood sacrifices and be all full of all that blood and just bypass the altar because they felt like it and go into. The holy of holies Could not do that, they would die. There were people that did far less or worse than that, that tried to enter into the tabernacle or the temple and they were struck down dead. They came with a strange fire of incense before the Lord and he struck them dead.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 31:20

God doesn't play when he tells you what to do and how to do it. He expects you to do it in the same way that he told you to do it. Did someone try to save the Ark? They had great intentions, but they were struck down dead because they tried to do something out of good intentions but it violated the word of the Lord. The commandment of the Lord said only the Levitical priests can carry the Ark. Don't touch it if you're not a priest. And if you're not a priest, don't touch it Lest you wash your hands, lest you take care of yourself and be in right standing with me.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 31:53

I'm connecting obedience to this now because it's about obeying the Gospel. It can't be just I know what it is, I can repeat it to you, I can share with you. It has to be about how do I obey the Gospel? So they should wash their hands and their feet lest they die. And that's going to be a statue forever. That element, that witness in the earth is going to last forever.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 32:19

Now, the ceremonial laws didn't, because what did Jesus do with all the law? He fulfilled it. But the principle still remains regarding the water, and if you bypass the water, you die. That still remains. So we have the spirit. Well, no, we didn't get to the spirit. We did the water, we did the blood, we did the water. Now we get to the spirit.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 32:44

And the spirit has to do with that picture, because the high priest would come in, or the priest would come into the holy place and in the holy place they were supposed to eat bread. They were supposed to nourish themselves with bread, which is also representative of eating the word. There was also the candelabra, or the candlestick, and that represented the light, the illumination, the revelation of God. As you're eating the word, taking it in, he then illuminates, he gives you understanding and comprehension and then, once you have both of those things, before the Holy of Holies there's an altar, and it's an altar of incense where your prayers are given before the Lord. So you have all of these things that you need to go through before you get to the place where you can meet God face to face. That was the Holy of Holies. That is where the presence of God reside. But you could not go straight into the Holy of Holies and skip the brazen altar or the brazen labor. You had to go through those first. That's the order that God had. That's his protocol, if you will. So when you are the high priest, you get to meet God face to face. So there's the spiritual element in the Mosaic tabernacle the blood, the water and the spirit.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 34:08

Now, if you put on the second slide, this is just a quick summary. You can just open it up. This is called the Progressive, repetitious Revelation of the Spirit, the Water and the Blood in the Old Covenant. Just to summarize, it started with Adam. The spirit of God was moving upon the waters. He was bringing forth life. God said, and God said, and God said we see that all throughout Genesis we see the water that was separated, creating that canopy. We talked about separating the heavens and the earth, but it also separated the waters from the waters. That land came out, by the way, when God created man, what did he create? Man out of Chelsea? He fashioned him out of the clay. Where does the clay come from? The earth? Okay, so the earth came out of the water, started separating the waters from the water. So that's important.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 35:07

And then we got the blood. And the blood only comes in because of sin. Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. So then we get to Noah. Noah's talking with God, walking with God and doing all of these things, and then he's told some specific directions and he obeys him. He says he starts building an ark and he builds it for almost 100 years. Okay, and then we have the flood. The flood comes in and separates the righteous. It separates the righteous from the wicked. And then we have the blood because afterward he sacrifices some animals, because God made a covenant with him I will never destroy the earth with the flood again.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 35:44

And then we see in the Exodus, spirit of God comes into Moses with that burning bush and he begins to lead. After the exes, he's leading the people of God with a cloud by day and a fire by night. We see the separation of the waters to bring about the deliverance. That's a key component the deliverance of the people of God from their old umbrella of where they live, which was representative of the world, the kingdom of Egypt, the kingdom of Pharaoh. And then you have the blood sacrifices. They had to put it on the doorpost Because the angel of death was come. It's going to take all the firstborn. And then we have the mosaic tabernacle. The Spirit of God dwelt in the holy of holy places. That's where the high priest only the high priest met and face to face talked with him. Then you have the priest had to wash in the brazen labor lest they died. Keep that in mind. That's that water element or component. And then you have the brazen altar which has had the animal sacrifices, and the reason why they brought them is because you had to deal with the sin of the people. It was done on a yearly basis. So that's the old.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 36:52

Some say, well, we're not in the old covenant. Why do we have to know all this? Let's talk about the transition. There was a man who was kind of in the transition period, in other words in the period right in between what we kind of designate as the old covenant, what we kind of designate as the new covenant. Anybody know who I'm talking about? Who is this transition man? I think Melvinah said it John the Baptist. Why do I say he was a transition man? He prepared the way for the Lord. He was the forewarner, he was the one crying out in the wilderness preparing the way for the Lord. But he was a transition man, more so because he was in the old covenant, definitely was. But he was that transition person because the new was about to get started. Now, the new didn't actually get started until the testator died. So that's why I say he was in that transition. He was in that. Oh, you know, he's about to embark on that.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 37:57

But John the Baptist had a message and if we'll turn to John 129. Let's look at what his message was. I'm trying to show you, with this transition, the connection between the old covenant elements or witnesses of the spirit, water and the blood with the new covenant. So try to keep in mind everything we talked about. It says in 1 John 129 that John the Baptist saw Jesus as a behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. John the Baptist is crying out in the wilderness about this man that is going to come after him, and this man is the Lamb of God. Now, why do we need a lamb again, that sacrifice? We needed a sacrifice to take care of our sin. There he is, jesus, the Lamb of God. And then we can also read in Matthew 3.5 through 10. This is not the only thing that John the Baptist said, but in Matthew 3.5 through 10. We see that he was in Jerusalem, he was in all Judea, he was in the region of Jordan and many came out to see him and were baptized in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

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John the Baptist came with a message of repentance and baptism yes man, what would I say? I didn't hear the whole question. I heard about the Lamb of God and dying first. Yeah, what if we had a worship way ahead to be a student of the New York School, uh-huh, uh-huh, because everybody said it's the only way to get a job. Whatever, you had a job. Oh, would our world be worse if we had not died first? No, wouldn't it be better, wouldn't it be better? Here's the thing. That's not how it would have been. No, listen, I'm not God.

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Okay, god, before the foundation of the world, already knew what he was going to do. Why did he choose what he did? I have no idea, but he knew that when he created Adam, a person whom he loved and cherished, I mean, he made everything for Adam. He said Adam, this is all yours. I'm giving you dominion. Take dominion over this Name, all the animals, this whole thing is yours. This is my gift to you, this is my love for you. And knowing that he was going to give him all this love, shower everything for him so that he doesn't have to work, he doesn't have to dress, he can be completely transparent before him, and Eve the same. He knew that they were going to fight and he just decided why, I don't know. He just decided I'm going to take care of their sin by coming and dying for them, and it's going to be torturous and it's going to be brutal and it's going to be ugly. But why are we going to sorrow over that? When he did it out of love for us, to save us and rescue us, I rather glory in what he did for me, because that's only going to give him all the more praise and all the more glory that he did something so nasty and sick just so that he could say that's his love and that's what I'll glory in. I won't question why he chose that way. I'm just glad he did, because without him doing it I wouldn't be saved, I wouldn't be rescued, I wouldn't be redeemed.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 42:05

So here we have John the Baptist. Thank you for the question. Don't hesitate to ask. Here's John the Baptist. He's talking about the Lamb of God who's going to take away the sins of the world. So there's that blood issue, but he's also preaching about hey, you need to get baptized and you need to be confessing your sin Because you need to prepare the way for the one that is to come. That was his whole message. That was his whole reason for being. I am preparing the way for the one that is to come, and in order to prepare the way, you need to get baptized and you need to confess your sins. So there's that repentance, confessing, repenting, changing your ways, changing your thoughts, changing your actions, changing your deeds, changing your words, changing your heart, because you've got to change in order for the one to come to come in. Jesus talked about that in a pair of how are you going to put new, fabulous wine in an old wine? It doesn't fit. No, you make a new wine skin so that you can fill it in with a new wine. So, Jesus, is that new wine? But you can't stay in your old skin. You've got to repent, you've got to change, you've got to make preparations to have the one who is to come to come in.

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They even challenged the Pharisees, who were the religious leaders of the day, saying you brood of vipers who warned you of the flee to the wrath to come? Why don't you bring forth fruits worthy of repentance? If you scroll down, that's what it says Bring forth fruits, bring forth the sign of your true repentance. And what was he saying? Why aren't you getting baptized in the Jordan? They wouldn't do that, they would not humble themselves, because then they would say that they were sinners and they were looked up to by all the Jews. They were so highly esteemed by all of them, that for them to say that I'm a sinner like you, now I'm on your level. They didn't want that and that's why they stayed as a group of vipers.

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So we have this water element that John the Baptist is stressing because that was his ministry. It wasn't about miracles of Elisha and Elijah, it was about getting people's hearts ready to receive the one that was going to come after him and that came. That comes only by repentance, baptizing in the water. And so then you got two elements there You've got repentance and baptizing in the water. Now you may not realize it, but that repentance is connected to the blood aspect because, as John the Baptist is telling everybody, go get yourself an animal and sacrifice it Unto the Lord for your sins.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 44:43

He didn't say that. He said listen, there's one that's coming after me, whose truth I'm not worthy to lose. He is the land. Behold, he is the land that is slain, that is going to take away your sins. Now, what do you need to do? Repent, come and confess your sins. He's baptizing in the water. So we see the water element. And then he also talks about the one who's coming after me, whose sandals I'm not worthy to lose. He's going to come and baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire. There's the spirit that's in John the Baptist message and it said that John the Baptist preach the gospel of the kingdom. And it says that Jesus came after him preaching the gospel of the kingdom. He's continuing the gospel that we see in just little elements of spirit, water, blood throughout, and they're just coming more and more into a crescendo of what Jesus was going to do. So Jesus, we already talked about how John referred to him as a lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

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So read Hebrews 10 10. Turn with me to Hebrews 10, 10 through 19. By that will we have been sanctified. We, the author of Hebrews is saying, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was the offer. Jesus Christ is the one that was going to take away the sins of the world through his own sacrifice. Turn to Mark 115. Jesus not only was the sacrifice, but he came after John and it says the time was fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. That's Jesus words.

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Jesus came after preaching what John the Baptist was preaching. That's what John the Baptist prepared. We can turn to Luke 13, verse three. Jesus said I tell you and he stressed this, he the one that stressed it. He says I tell you, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Do you think that that's an option? Do you think that Jesus is giving out a suggestion that, right there, my friends, is called a commandment? I don't know if you remember this particular passage, but they were coming to him and talking about well, what about those people that died because the the building fell on them? Or what about those people that died because of this and that? And he says listen, I'm not answering that, but I'll tell you this If you don't repent, you're going to perish in the same way they did. Repentance is not an option. John the Baptist preached repentance. Now you got Jesus preached repentance, and so where does the water come in?

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Well, jesus, if I remember correctly, was taken into the River Jordan by John the Baptist himself, and it says that he was baptized to anybody. Remember To what? Why was he baptized? Did he need to be baptized? He was Jesus, he was perfect, he was holy, he was pure. Why did he get baptized? As an example, I heard somebody say fill, fulfill what. Fulfill what the law? Was it the fulfill the law. Was that? No, it says to fulfill all righteousness.

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We could probably read that in, maybe Matthew 3, 13 through 17. Think that's it Matthew 3, 13 through 17. This is the account where Jesus came to John so that he would be baptized. And John was like I need to be baptized by you, what are you talking about? And he says no, no, no. In 15, jesus answered and said to him permitted to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. If we are going to fulfill all righteousness, then it is fitting that we be baptized. So was he in contradiction to John the Baptist who said to get baptized and confess your sins? No, he was preaching the same message Repent, be baptized. And where is the spirit? We could probably read it there. But let's turn to John 131 through 33.

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Because God told John the Baptist, upon whom you see the spirit of God descending like a dove, that is the one who might have sent. So we read here I didn't know him. John the Baptist said I didn't know, but he should be revealed to Israel. Therefore, I came baptizing with water and John bore witness. See, not everybody saw the spirit of God. It was for John to understand and to identify for himself who it was, that that was the Messiah. That was the land, he said. I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove and he remained on him.

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One more verse now. I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me upon whom you see the spirit descending and remaining on him. This is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. See, john wasn't quite sure. John knew Jesus was his cousin, but even God had to tell John the Baptist listen. Upon whom you see the spirit descending that is the one that I've been telling you about is going to come after you, is going to baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire. And that's why John told everyone else behold the land slain. Who's going to take away your sins? He is the one that comes to baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire.

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So you see the three elements in John the Baptist is preaching. You see it as a testimony in Jesus Christ's life. But are there sacrifices, actual sacrifices that people needed to bring? Not anymore. John the Baptist referred to the sacrifice, the last sacrifice, the one and only necessary sacrifice to absolve all the world of all their sins once and for all, men, once and for all time. Nobody needs to sacrifice after Jesus. If you did, then Jesus sacrifice wasn't good enough. That's what it's saying Anybody who's still waiting for a temple to be built so they could start the sacrifices, saying that Jesus sacrifice is not sufficient yet it is all sufficient because he is now requiring us to bring any more sacrifices. But what he does require us, what he does command us, is what Repent. Change your mind, change your ways, change your actions, change your actions. And so now we see the Jewish apostles. I'm going to give you one scripture. We're going to see all three in regards to the Jewish apostles acts, chapter two, verse 38.

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Because John the Baptist started the gospel of the kingdom, jesus continued preaching the gospel of the kingdom. And then you see the Jewish apostles, not surprisingly, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and basically saying repent. There's your blood, be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. There's the water and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. There's the spirit. So what we come to find out is that this testimony, this witness in the earth of the blood, the water in the spirit, is how a man is born again. Jesus said to Nicodemus unless a man be born again, he cannot see or enter into the kingdom of God. He was talking about the blood, the water and the spirit. Nicodemus didn't understand that. Why? Because he had an old, covenant mentality. Peter didn't even understand it until he received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. So where do we see the testimony as well, not only in the message.

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What happened in Acts, chapter two? They were waiting in Jerusalem. Why were they waiting in Jerusalem? For the promise of the father, the blessing of Abraham, for the gift of God, the blessing of Abraham, in other words, the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And the hundred and twenty were there waiting for the gift to come. And within 10 days of Christ ascension, they received the baptism of the Holy Ghost on the feast of Pentecost. So there's your spiritual aspect. Where is the blood? Where's the water? It's in that message.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 53:39

He says to all the people you're the ones that crucified the Lord of glory. He was made both Lord and Christ. He was the one that God was with to create all of these miracles. And yet, 50 days ago you were praying, you were crying out to crucify him, and they were all convicted, they were all pierced in their heart and wanted to know. Men and brother, what do we do? That's what it says in verse 37. What do we do? What do we do about this? How do we fix this? We just crucified our Messiah, the one that we've been waiting on all of these centuries, who came in our day. We just crucified. We just crucified Peter says repent, change your ways, change your mind, change your actions, get baptized in Jesus name so that your sins will be forgiven and then receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, because that promise is for you and your children and your children's children, as to many that will call upon the name of the Lord.

j - Jesus M. Ruiz: 54:37

So we see the blood, water, Spirit all the way through. So now we return back to my question what is the Gospel and how does one obey it? It's right there. We obey the Gospel through the blood, the water, and the Spirit. Just as they did in the days of old, so do we in the days of the new covenant, in this period of grace that it's called. But we're not going to continue ceremonial laws. We're not going to continue the old covenant, because that was done away with by what Jesus did. Jesus fulfilled all the law.

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So now it looks different, but the principle is the same. There's still a spirit, there's still a water, there's still a blood. The blood is that you repent, you come clean, you prepare your heart, because that's what John the Baptist was doing. In order for you to see the one that's coming after me, you must prepare yourself through repentance and baptism. And so there's the message you want to be born again. Then you need to repent, you want to be born again, you need to get baptized in the name of Jesus, and then you will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and there the blood, the water and the spirit is the witness in the earth of your salvation, of your healing, of your deliverance from the kingdom of darkness, from the Prince of this world.

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Turn to Hebrews 5.9. I'm going to conclude with these last couple of verses and last couple of thoughts. Hebrews 5.9. It says in Hebrew, in regards to Jesus, that he was perfected and he became the author of eternal salvation. To all who hear the gospel, does it say to all those who believe in the gospel, like I did for 20-some-odd years, that he died, buried in Rose again? No, it says to all those who obey, all those that obey.

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So let's look at now Romans 10. And I shared this with Bible study that was going on in my house, so for you it's going to be kind of a reinforcement, a whole. You can see a big, clear picture of why Romans 10 was so important. It's 10 verse. What did I say? 16? Yeah, romans 10, 16.

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But they have not all obeyed the Gospel. For Isaiah, or Esaias, sayeth, Lord, who have believed our report? So, then, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Is it really simply hearing, though? Is it just that you heard what the Gospel was? The death, burial, and resurrection? It's got to be more than that because he said they have not all obeyed the Gospel. It wasn't a matter that they heard it. It wasn't a matter that they understood it. It wasn't a matter that they received it. It was a matter of whether they obeyed it or not.

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Now, in order for one to obey the gospel, it says just a couple of verses back whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, a lot of our Protestant denominations say well, that's really all you have to do Just call upon the name of the Lord. Call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But they took it out of context and I want to give you some context for it, so that you can see that when you call upon the name of the Lord, it's not just literally calling out Jesus, I saved me, it's about obeying the gospel. So let me show you how. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The next verse says but how will they call on him in whom they have not believed? So in order for you to call upon the name of the one who's going to save you, you need to first believe. But in order for you to believe, it says in verse 14, how are you going to believe on someone when you have not heard? So you've got to call upon him. But in order to call upon him, you've got to believe on him. But in order to believe on him, you've got to hear about him. But in order to hear about him, you've got to listen to the one whom he sent. So it says in the very next verse how shall they hear without a preacher?

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There are a lot of preachers out there, but they're not preaching the gospel of the kingdom. So you've got to make sure that that preacher was sent of God, because when a preacher is sent of God, that preacher is preaching God's words. The preacher is not an ambassador of himself, he's an ambassador of Christ. So if you see those dominoes there, you've got to make sure that the person, the finger of God, was the one that sent the first domino. Otherwise you may be listening to another gospel, you may be listening to another preacher and you may receive another spirit which you do not want to receive.

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Now, how do I know that calling upon the name of the Lord has to do with obedience to the gospel? Anybody remember the testimony of Saul, who became Paul, in Acts, chapter nine? You remember he was riding down on the Damascus road and he saw a blinding flashing light and he was blinded. And he immediately responded to this blinding light in his voice as Lord, what do you have me to do? I want you to go, wait over there and I'm going to send someone to you. And he chose Ananias, elder in the church somewhere, and he said I want you to go, I want you to lay your hands on him and I want him to receive his sight and be saved. And it says in Acts, chapter nine. I'm going to read it real briefly, the first account of it, and we're going to read the second account of it so we have a better picture to create the context of what it is to call upon the name of the Lord. It says in verse 17 of Acts, chapter nine. He went to the house, he put his hands on him and he said Brother Saul, the Lord even Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way came to me that you might receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately the scales fell from his eyes and he received his sight and forthwith he was baptized. Now, that's the original account.

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I want you to listen to Saul, who became Paul's own account. He retold his testimony in Acts, chapter 22. And listen to what he says, because it gives a little bit more detail, and that little bit more detail gives you all the context you need to understand. He's retelling a story starting at about well, I mean, it's all of chapter 22. He talks about how Jesus said Saul, saul, why are you persecuting me? In verse seven he said I'm Jesus of Nazareth. I'm the one you're persecuting.

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In verse eight and Paul says what do you want me to do, lord? I can't believe this. I don't know what you want me to do. He says arise, go to Damascus, and it'll be told to you all the things which are appointed for thee to do. In other words, all the things that is necessary for you to do is going to be told to you. So think about that. He was going to be told what he needed to do. He just realized that in persecuting the Christians, the church, he was persecuting Jesus himself. And he immediately realized oh my God, lord, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? How do I fix this? Remember Acts, chapter two. Remember all the people were piercing their heart, wanting what do we do to fix it? We crucify the Lord of glory. Paul's responding in the same way what do I do? What do you want me to do, lord? How do I fix this? Go to Damascus.

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So then Ananias, he's chosen and he's sent to him. And it says in starting in verse 12, he was a devout man according to the law, he had a good report. The Jews, he says. Paul said this Ananias, this brother came to me. He said to me Saul, brother, saul, come here to receive your sight. And the same hour I looked up upon him and he said that God of our fathers hath chosen thee, paul, that thou shalt know his will, that you should see the just one and that you should hear the voice of his mouth, for thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. And now, why Listen to this? Why do you stay here? Why do you wait here?

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He says arise, be baptized and wash away thy sins. What? Calling on the name of the Lord? That's obedience to the gospel. It wasn't just that he heard it, it wasn't just that he recognized that it was of the Lord. He was going to be told by Ananias what he must do, and that's the first thing he told them to do Arise, be baptized, washing away your sins. What? Calling upon the name of the Lord? That is obedience to the gospel. It is not merely of saying, oh Jesus, come save me, jesus, come, save me. You see what they did back then when they got baptized in the name of Jesus. It seems by implication here that they were calling upon the name of the Lord when they were baptized, and that's what causes them by faith. Their faith, mixed with the word Faith, mixed with obedience to the gospel, causes you to have your sins forgiven because you're repenting, you're obeying the gospel, and then he seals the deal with giving you the earnest of his inheritance, which Brother Murray talked about on Tuesday. The blood, the water and the spirit is your obedience to the gospel, amen. Thus is the ministry of our Father's heart through us. Our utmost desire is to be in the Father's heart, to know the Father's heart and express the Father's heart to you.

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