All The Counsel Of God

Acts 20:27: For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.

Isaiah 30:1: Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin: 2 That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!

When we reject the counsel of God we inevitably get bad counsel. To whatever extent we neglect the Bible we neglect the counsel of God. Satan wants to replace as much of the counsel of God as he possibly can for all of us. He prefers that we ignore the Bible completely. When we neglect the Bible we are already out of the will of God and will go farther out of it. We will add sin to sin.

I have heard of several individuals who sought the counsel of God in a rather strange way. When they sought God*s counsel they opened the Bible and read whatever page opened first. Not very wise but their questions were sometimes answered. Better to study the Bible systematically and habitually. They may have gotten one thing right. They may have asked the Lord for His counsel, unlike the woeful rebellious children in Isaiah.

Luke 7:28: For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. 29 And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. 30 But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.

Like the Pharisees and lawyers, the first counsel of God that unbelievers reject is counsel against themselves, the counsel that tells them that they are sinners, they need to repent of their sin and believe in Jesus. John*s baptism was a baptism of repentance.

Mark 1:4: John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

The Jews received the remission of sins when they were baptized with the baptism of repentance.

Acts 19:4: Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.

The baptism of repentance includes turning from sin and believing on Jesus. Baptism without repentance and belief in Jesus is worthless. Since we sin even after we have repented of sin and received Jesus, the baptism of repentance means that repenting of our sin should become a way of life. We will repent of it whenever we commit sin and the Holy Spirit counsels us about that sin. Repentance is not just a one-time thing. Unbelievers must first repent of rejecting Jesus and ever after as believers, they must repent whenever they sin. If one has not repented of rejecting Jesus and received Him, it does him no spiritual good whatsoever to repent of his other sins. When we repent of that greatest sin, the sin of rejecting Jesus, then and only then can we be forgiven of our lesser sins.

1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

John 1:12: But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

One who has not received Jesus has not become a child of God and NONE of his sins have yet been forgiven. When our sins have been forgiven the counsel of God will include guidance out of sinning and into righteous living.

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