Truth Lessons Series in Paris
The church in Paris began a series of truth lessons on Saturday, March 15, at the new meeting hall in Palaiseau. We covered the assurance and security of salvation, the precious blood of Christ, and baptism. The group times were full of rich fellowship and sharing, and the saints enjoyed spending the day together. We aim to continue these lessons approximately every six weeks so that the saints will be perfected in the truth, and as a way to shepherd new ones into the experience and practice of the church life.
The following are sharings from the ones contacted during gospel trips:
“When we sin, as Christians, once we confess a specific sin, there is no need to confess it again. When we keep thinking about the sin we already confessed and feel bad, this is actually the devil who’s coming to bother us. He’s the accuser, the one who makes us feel guilty all the time. God, when He forgives us, that’s it, there’s no need for us to come back again and again with the same thing. Once confessed, once forgiven. When God forgives, He forgets. 1 John 1.9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness!”
“I really liked participating in this Truth Conference. I learned things about the truth that I had never heard before. For example, Jesus is righteousness, and what He says is right, so it gives the Bible the authority to be reliable and full of truth. Also, Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross paid the price for the sin that was on us.”
“The blood of Christ is for us! This is something so liberating, it is there to wash us and cleanse us and forgive us from our sins! When we sin, we shouldn’t be hiding from the face of God, but we should come to Him and let Him expose us, and we should then confess our sin and apply the blood of Christ. His blood has already been shed (“without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness”—Heb. 9:22b); we need to realize that and apply His blood daily. We need to understand and believe that we are forgiven, and that when God forgives, He also forgets! Don’t remind the Lord what He has already forgotten! The devil is constantly tormenting us by accusing us day and night, so let’s declare to the enemy that by the precious blood of Christ, we have been forgiven and justified by God!”
“I enjoyed the matter of the assurance of salvation. John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life.” God gave His only begotten Son so that we could be saved. Just believing into the Lord Jesus saves us; we can have the assurance that we have received eternal life. This is a fact; it is true; it is what God says. And also, we may feel that we’re a bit far from God. When this happens, it’s because of sin; we need to confess our sins to restore our fellowship with Christ and maintain it always uninterrupted.”
“Baptism – we can be baptized at any time of our life; there’s no need to prepare ourselves beforehand. It represents also a contact with our Father. Even if the event and the fact happen once for all, the reality of this baptism needs to be lived on a daily basis. Every day we need to be immersed in this water, not physically but by experiencing His death, by getting rid of all the negative things, by applying His precious blood. It is a way also to be reconnected to God, to be identified with Him, inwardly. Also, baptism always needs to involve the Holy Spirit; the ritual alone is not enough. We see it also during the Lord Jesus’ baptism in the Gospels; we see the Spirit descending upon Him and His Father declaring,
“This is My Son, the Beloved, in whom I have found My delight.” Through baptism God can also see us as His sons, not only as His children.”
“Once we believe into the Lord and are baptized, we may wonder whether this baptism is physical or spiritual. There are actually two aspects: we are baptized in the water, physically, and in the Holy Spirit, spiritually. We then become a disciple of the Lord. We are baptized into the Triune God, into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We are also identified with Christ; we are immerged in Him. We were born in the realm of Adam, but through baptism we have been transferred into the realm of Christ. We were baptized into His death, and His death terminates our natural life, our old nature, our self, our flesh, and even all our past. After our baptism we become a new person in resurrection. This is not only a future condition; it is also a process in the present; it happens now. And we can experience this reality every day, at every moment.”
“I was touched by the love of Christ for us that caused Him to go through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion and resurrection in order to deal with our sin, to pay the debt for us, and to save us. Now we can enter into this process by entering into the water of baptism. We are baptized into His death. He suffered long hours on the cross. He died, He was buried, and three days later He resurrected. We just need to believe and be immerged in water; it only takes a few minutes. He made things so easy for us; we don’t need to suffer anymore. He already accomplished everything. This liberates us; it frees us from a big burden, since the work has already been done by Him.”
“I really enjoyed hearing that when we confess our sins and are washed by the blood of Christ, the guilt we feel afterward is the work of Satan. We often hear that guilt is a good thing because it proves that we sincerely regret our sinful deed, but thank the Lord that when He cleanses us, He also cleanses us from our guilt; it has no power anymore on us! We are completely washed.”
