Follow Christ's Pattern
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"Sharing Rightly Dividing"
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BIBLE STUDIES
SHARING RIGHTLY DIVIDING
Sharing
Right Division part 1
THE BIBLE
In studying what God
dispenses to us and for us, we find that the Lord administers the operations of
God. God’s wisdom is many sided, with two major divisions.
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created
the heaven and
the earth.
In First Corinthians 12:6,
we find that the operations of God are plural, not just one operation throughout
history. God chose to go through a series of stages in the accomplishment of his
two-part, overall operation. Therefore, the operations of God must be determined
for each particular time, in order to believe and understand the Lord’s
administration at that time.
To understand and cooperate
with God’s current operation, we must distinguish it from his previous
operations and find out, from God’s word, the distinctions specific to God’s
administering in the universe today, by this current operation.
The Bible uses several terms in referring to operations, dispensations,
and administrations, such as:
day,
time,
times,
a work,
year,
dispensation,
operation,
ministration,
time past
far off are made nigh
ages to come
week,
ages.
Let’s read in
1 Corinthians 12:3,
“Wherefore I give you to understand, that
no man speaking by the
Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed:
and that no man can say that
Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost”.
That was Paul. Paul is the
one that said that Jesus is the Lord on the Damascus road.
After Jesus had said, “I am
Jesus whom thou persecutest”, Paul said, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? He
said that “Jesus is the Lord”. Remember that First Corinthians 12:3 said that
“no man can say that Jesus
is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost”.
Saul of Tarsus, Paul, had
started speaking by the Holy Ghost.
Continue reading in
1 Corinthians 12:4,
“Now there are DIVERSITIES OF GIFTS,
but the same Spirit”.
So, there were GIFTS.
1 Corinthians 12:5,
“And there are DIFFERENCES OF ADMINISTRATIONS,
but the same Lord.
There were GIFTS, and
ADMINISTRATIONS.
1 Corinthians 12:6,
And there are DIVERSITIES OF OPERATIONS,
but it is the same God which
worketh all in all.
So, there were GIFTS, and
ADMINISTRATIONS, and OPERATIONS.
Can you see that “gifts” are
the out-working of whatever is the “administration” at that time? The Holy
Spirit enables ‘gifts” in people to “administer” the “operation” of God. Can you
see that the “administration” at any particular time is the out-working of God’s
“operation” at that time? Each successive “OPERATION” of God determines that
operation’s “ADMINISTRATION”, “DISPENSATION”, or ECONOMY of the Lord, which is
worked out by that administration’s or dispensation’s “GIFTS” of the Spirit.
Corinth’s sign “gifts” were
an outworking of an “administering”, or dispensing of the “gospel of Christ”.
That dispensing occurred in the “body of Christ” before Christ dispensed the
“gospel of the grace of God” for all men within the same body of Christ. There
is no sign “gift” to be shown to Israel after Israel was blinded, broken off,
and cast away at the end of Acts. That “OPERATION” of God had “ADMINISTERED” the
Loammi of Israel.
Paul's courting of
individual Israelites during Israel's diminishing was a “dispensation of the
gospel of Christ” (First Corinthians 9:17-18), being "a work" which Israel “will
not believe, though it be told him” (Acts 13:41, Habakkuk 1:5).
Let’s review what the Bible
says.
1 Corinthians 12:4,
Now there are DIVERSITIES OF GIFTS,
but the same Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:5,
And there are DIFFERENCES OF ADMINISTRATIONS,
but the same Lord.
1 Corinthians 12:6,
And there are DIVERSITIES OF OPERATIONS,
but it is the same God which
worketh all in all.
1 Corinthians 12:7,
But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit
withal.
To “manifest” is to show.
The manifestation of the Sprit is the showing of the Spirit. In the body of
Christ, if the showing of the Spirit has been given to every man, then every man
has been shown the Spirit.
How are we shown the Spirit
of God today? How do we hear the Spirit manifested today?
In 2 Samuel 23:2, David
said,
“The Spirit of the LORD
spake by me,
and his word was in my
tongue”.
(Prophecy)
John 6:63
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing:
the words that I speak unto
you, they are spirit, and they are life.
The words of the Son of God
are spirit.
Ephesians 6:17
And take the helmet of salvation,
and
THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, WHICH IS
THE WORD OF GOD:
The Holy Spirit's sword is
the word of God, the Bible. The Holy Spirit
speaks
through the word of God.
1 Timothy 4:1
¶Now the Spirit speaketh expressly,
that in the latter times
some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing
spirits,
and doctrines of devils;
How many times have you
heard: “Believe the Bible, not the
teacher”?
That is what First Timothy
4:1 is talking about. “SOME shall
depart from the faith, GIVING HEED TO
seducing
spirits, and doctrines
of devils”;
Today, the Bible is the
manifestation of the Spirit that is given to every man.
So, we are told to “STUDY”
it. (Second Timothy 2:15),
and “Let the word of Christ
dwell in you richly in all wisdom” (Colossians 3:16),
for it “is able to build you
up” (Acts 20:32).
The showing of the Spirit is
given to every man, but few STUDY it to find what the Spirit is SHOWING TODAY
(First Corinthians 12:7).
Proverbs 30:5
says that “Every word of God is PURE:
he is a shield unto them
that put their trust in him”.
First Peter 1:25 says that
“But the word of the Lord ENDURETH FOR
EVER.
And this is the word which
by the gospel is preached unto you”.
“Wherefore”,
as First Peter 2:2 says,
“desire the sincere milk of
the word,
that ye may grow thereby….”
With all that in mind, let
us all agree that what counts is what God said to us in the Bible, what he put
in writing for us, to last, to remain, and to endure forever. He promised that
he would preserve his inspired word,
pure to us, in fact,
pure forever.
So, somewhere we have
his errorless word
today. His word does NOT have a single mistake in it. God's word is
pure. If you find a book that says
it is a Bible, but it has a single mistake in it, then, it is NOT God’s Bible.
God’s Bible is available in the world today.
First of all, can we agree
on the Bible, on sticking to the Bible and to what the Bible says? The term,
having A RELATIONSHIP WITH Christ, or with God, is A CLICHÉ. It is something
that is NOT in the Bible. Many of us have heard it preached as the only way to
get to God or something. But
WHAT GOD SAYS
is what counts, right? Can we each agree on that, is what I am asking? Can we
agree to accept what the Bible SAYS, and if it is not in the Bible to reconsider
the source, where we learned it, and to reconsider why we are clinging to
something that is NOT in the Bible. Then let’s stick to just what is TO US in
the Bible.
The principle is that God
did NOT make any mistakes. He did NOT leave something out of the Bible that we
are supposed to speculate on. If he does not say it in the Bible, we are NOT to
go beyond what is written. We are only to believe all that he says, to whom he
says it. Can we agree on that? Can we all agree to accept what the Bible says
and not go beyond what the Bible says? Can we all agree to reconsider what we
believe, if we can see that the Bible does not say what we were told that it
says. Can we agree on that?
If others talk about things
that are NOT in the Bible, we will mainly talk about what the Bible actually
says. We need to just brush off the extra biblical things that they say and not
pay too much attention to it. Can we agree to do that?
Pay attention to what the Bible says.
That is my view anyway. That is my approach, when THEY SAY something that
is NOT confirmable in the Bible to us, that you cannot confirm in the Bible, OR
IN THE BIBLE TO US.
1 Timothy 4:1
¶Now the Spirit speaketh expressly,
that in the latter times
some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing
spirits,
and doctrines of devils;
Sharing
Right Division part 2
DIVIDING
RIGHTLY – part 1
Do you understand what I am
saying when I say that there is a big difference in Scripture? One part of that
difference is what was revealed and prophesied in the Old Testament about the
coming of Christ, and what Jesus Christ himself even prophesied about his coming
back to earth to reign in Israel?
There is a difference
between THAT WHICH WAS PROPHESIED, and WHAT WAS KEPT A SECRET, as a mystery that
was revealed to Paul, and ONLY TO PAUL . Do you understand that there is an
absolute difference between, what WAS TOLD, and what WAS NOT TOLD? Do you
understand what I am saying when I say that?
Here is a verse from Acts 3,
verse 21, that refers to what was "SPOKEN by the mouth of all his holy prophets
SINCE THE WORLD BEGAN."
“Whom the heaven must
receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by
the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began”.
That has to do with Israel,
and the coming of the kingdom, etc. Israel was offered the gospel that Peter
preached, that is the same gospel that John the Baptist preached, and that Jesus
preached when he came to his own (John 1:11, Mark 1:14-15). Peter was not in the
body of Christ that came later, being revealed only to Paul, and of which Paul
was the first member.
I guess a starting point
would be to come to an agreement that we understand that some of the things in
the Bible were spoken, or written in the word of God, but they are NOT TO US.
For instance, Noah In Genesis 6:14. Are we supposed to keep this command
by God?
"Make thee an ark out of
gopher wood”.
Well, we do not go out to
our backyard and start building an ark, three football fields long, do we? We
don't do that because IT WAS NOT SPOKEN TO US.
It was spoken to Noah.
We have to pay attention to
who it is that God is addressing when he makes promises or covenants. He will
keep all his promises and covenants to the ones with whom he made them.
But, not to me just because I happened to pick up a Bible and read the
words that he said when He promised something to somebody else. Let us all agree
that we have to determine TO WHOM each statement was
spoken? That is called “pronoun identification”.
After the Tower of Babel and
the confusing and separating of the languages, God called out Abraham in Genesis
12, and made promises to him, and to his seed, and those promises were confirmed
through Abraham’s son Isaac, not through Ishmael. Then, they were confirmed
through Abraham's grandson through Isaac, which was Isaac's son, Jacob, not
through Isaac’s other son, Esau. So God made those promises, and then, confirmed
them to the seed of Jacob. And these promises and covenants were confirmed to
the 12 tribes. For instance, “I will bless them that bless thee”.
Can we take a minute, and
just look at them? We will look in Genesis, chapter 12. In those first three
verses it gives several things that are basic promises that were made by God, to
Abraham, and to his seed, or, later on, it actually turns out to be to the
children of Israel.
Before Abram's name change
to Abraham, God said:
Genesis 12:1
"Now the LORD had said unto Abram, GET THEE OUT of thy country, and from
thy kindred, and from thy father's house, UNTO A LAND that I will shew thee".
So, God is telling Abram to
GET OUT of his country, And to GO TO A LAND, and that GOD WILL SHOW IT TO HIM;
And God said Abram:
Genesis 12:2 "And I will
make of thee A GREAT NATION, and I will BLESS THEE",
So he says to GET OUT of the
land where you are, the country, and the kindred, and your father's house. And
he says to GO TO A LAND that I will show you, and the FIRST thing that he says
is, "I will make of thee A GREAT NATION". SECONDLY, "I will BLESS THEE".
THIRDLY, "I will make thy NAME GREAT". And FOURTHLY, "thou shalt BE A BLESSING".
Then, verse three says the
FIFTH thing, "and I will BLESS THEM THAT BLESS THEE". And the SIXTH thing is,
"and CURSE HIM that curseth thee". And then the SEVENTH thing, "and IN THEE
SHALL ALL FAMILIES OF THE EARTH BE BLESSED".
So seven covenants the Lord
made, with Abram, and it was contingent upon Abram DOING what it says in verse
one "GET THEE OUT of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's
house, UNTO A LAND that I will shew thee".
Well, he did that, didn't
he? He left and went up to Haran,
and Tereh, his father died there.
Then, he came down into the land, then called Caanan.
In Genesis 13:14-15, "the
LORD said unto Abram,
Lift up now thine eyes, and
look from the place where thou art
northward, and southward,
and eastward, and westward:
For all the land which thou seest, to
thee WILL I GIVE IT,
and to thy seed for ever."
Well, the boundaries of the
land that he saw are marked out in scripture.
Genesis 15:18
In the same day
the LORD made a covenant
with Abram, saying,
Unto thy seed have I given
this land,
from the river of Egypt unto
the great river, the river Euphrates:
Genesis 15:19
The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,
Genesis 15:20
And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,
Genesis 15:21
And the Amorites, and the Canaanites,
and the Girgashites, and the
Jebusites.
So, the boundaries of the
nation of Israel are to be huge. It goes up into Syria, over into Iraq, and down
into Egypt. So, it is NOT what is over there now. God is going to provide a
land. He will give it to the seed of Abraham, down through Isaac, and down
through Jacob. God said, “TO THEE will I give it, and TO THY SEED for ever."
It is NOT there now.
So, it has NOT YET BEEN GIVEN, or it would still be there. So, it will
still be in the future that he will give it to them.
Now, Israel was a nation that had rejected their Messiah at His
crucifixion. When they stoned Holy Ghost filled Stephen, they blasphemed the
Holy Ghost, and they fell as a precious treasure, a holy nation, and a kingdom
of priests. Israel was never again offered the kingdom as Christ and Peter had
been offering them the kingdom.
We can see how the kingdom
had been announced as being at hand. Look in the first chapter of Mark where
Christ preached the kingdom.
“Mark 1:14,
Now after that John was put in prison,
Jesus came into Galilee,
preaching the gospel of the
kingdom of God,
What was the gospel of the
kingdom of God? It was what Jesus was saying.
Mark 1:15,
And saying,
The time is fulfilled, and
the kingdom of God is at hand:
repent ye, and believe the
gospel.”
In other words, believe that
“the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.”
That was the gospel of the
kingdom. That was the good news that it is “at hand.”
So what were they supposed
to do? REPENT! In other words, they
were in apostasy. There were very
few that still believed that God would keep His covenants to Israel. Remember
Simeon and Anna in the temple in Luke 2, verses 34 through 38, shortly after the
birth of Jesus. They believed, but they were rare.
The Scriptures were
consistent that He was coming. Daniel had marked out 69 of the 70 weeks to bring
in the Messiah. Micah had said that He would be born in Bethlehem Ephrata.
Isaiah said that He would be born of a virgin. There were many Scriptures about
His coming.
Isaiah 53:11 said,
“... shall my righteous
servant justify many;
for he shall bear
THEIR iniquities”
Israel’s
iniquities.
So, He was expected. He came
but he was rejected by the religious hierarchy there, and by the majority of
Israel. But, they were still offered the kingdom.
That was future from when
Hosea prophesied it. But that is what happened during the book of Acts. We can
read it in Acts 28. Paul was under house arrest there in Rome, and yet called
the Jews together to give them this message, He told him that THEIR HOPE, THEIR
ONLY
HOPE was that gospel that Christ had revealed to him, that he was preaching,
that he was in jail for, in chains for.
Acts 28:20 "For this cause
therefore have I called for you,
to see you, and to speak
with you:
because that for the hope of
Israel I am bound with this chain".
Paul had been captured
because he had been preaching that Christ was raised from the dead, AND THAT ALL
MEN HAD THEIR SINS PAID FOR, and could have their sins forgiven. He was
preaching the gospel of the grace of God to them,
that they could that be saved from God's wrath by believing that Christ
died for their sins.
So Paul goes on, and he says
in Acts 28:25:
Acts 28:25
"And when they agreed not among themselves,
they departed, after that
Paul had spoken one word,"
...or one message. I don't
think Luke was saying it was one syllable.
People often use the word "word" that way, like this:"Just a word of
warning, if you do that, it will be costly."
And here is what he said
"Well spake the Holy Ghost
by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers",
Acts 28:26 "Saying, Go unto
this people, and say,
Hearing ye shall hear, and
shall not understand";
Paul wasn't saying, "you
don't listen when I speak to you." Paul was saying, this is what is going to
happen to you for disbelieving God all these centuries, and disbelieving your
Messiah, and disbelieving my gospel to you, from Christ." Paul was saying, "You
will hear, but you will not understand." It is an internal blindness, a
spiritual blindness, a true blindness. And that is what we see today, isn't it,
when you try to talk to a Jew about the word of God? It's like they are deaf, or
blind.
Acts 28:26 Saying, Go unto
this people, and say,
Hearing ye shall hear, and
shall not understand;
and seeing ye shall see, and
NOT PERCEIVE:
Acts 28:27 For the heart of
this people is waxed gross,
and their ears are dull of
hearing,
and THEIR EYES HAVE THEY
CLOSED;
LEST THEY SHOULD SEE with
their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
In other words, they had
PASSED THE POINT. God was moving on, according to His will, to something else.
Acts 28:27
"THEIR EYES HAVE THEY
CLOSED;
LEST THEY SHOULD SEE with
their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and understand with their
heart,
and should be converted,
and I should heal them."
Sharing
Right Division part 3
DIVIDING
RIGHTLY – part 2
Israel had passed the point,
not right then, but by that time. Israel had already fallen, back in Acts 7. But
in God's mercy, Israel was given a "DIMINISHING" that still allowed individual
believing Jews to become part of the little flock, as in
Acts 21:20. "And when they
heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him,
Thou seest, brother, how
many thousands of Jews there are which believe;
and they are all zealous of
the law":
But in that diminishing, Israel’s door of opportunity was slowing
slamming shut. Later, here in Acts 28,
individual Israelites received THEIR LAST SPECIAL OFFER to become part of the
body of Christ. Let's go on with Paul's inspired words, sealing the nation of
Israel in their casting away and blindness.
Acts 28:28 "Be it known
therefore unto you,
that the salvation of God is
sent unto the Gentiles,
and that they will hear it".
That was Paul talking. He
was Christ's only apostle of the Gentiles. He had already been sent to the
Gentiles, but during Acts, Christ gave him "a work", in Acts 13:41 and Habakkuk
1:5,
Acts 13:41 Behold, ye
despisers, and wonder, and perish:
for I work a work in your
days,
a work which ye shall in no
wise believe,
though a man declare it unto
you.
That work was also called "a
dispensation of the gospel" in First Corinthians 9:17-18. That work, and that
dispensation did NOT limit Paul's gospel of salvation, or its effect, but Christ
did limit his sending of Paul with that saving message during that "work",
during that "dispensation of the gospel of Christ." During that "work", and that
"dispensation of the gospel", Christ sent Paul with the gospel to the Jews and
to the Greeks that would believe it, and from whom five times. Christ delivered
Paul according to Acts 26:16-17.
That “work” was also to cap God’s grace toward disbelieving Israel. It
was for the "despisers" that would not believe, but would perish, as God
prophesied in:
Habakkuk 1:5 Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder
marvelously:
for I will work a work in your days
which ye will not believe,
though it be told you.
Please don't get confused by
the Bible term "Greek". Greek does NOT mean Gentile. The word Greek is more
specific than the word Gentile. The word Greek does NOT mean "all the Gentiles".
The Bible says "all the Gentiles" when it means "all the Gentiles." The term
"all the Gentiles" regarding Paul's sending, does not appear in the Bible until
after Acts 28:29, in Titus 2:11, and First Timothy 2:4-6.
The first hint of the dispensing of the
gospel of the grace of God being extended to all men is in:
Acts 20:24
But none of these
things move me,
neither count I my
life dear unto myself,
so that I might
finish my course with joy,
and
THE
MINISTRY, WHICH I HAVE RECEIVED OF THE LORD JESUS,
to testify the
gospel of the grace of God.
Yes, the "devout Greeks" in
that period were Gentiles. But, according to the Bible (in Acts 17:1-4), the
"devout Greeks" were Gentiles that had blessed Israel according to Genesis 12:3.
Also, according to history, the "devout Greeks" were Gentiles that sought the
wisdom and knowledge OF GOD. The "devout Greeks" came to the synagogues to learn
about God, because they feared the God of Abraham, and they had faith that God
would keep His covenants with Israel.
So, the "devout Greeks" were
Israel blessers that came in under the covenants given to Abraham. That is how
the "devout Greeks" got into the commonwealth of Israel. The "devout Greeks"
were Gentiles that believed that God worked with man through Israel, and
Israel's coming kingdom.
So, after Paul read to
Israel, Isaiah's casting away curse from Isaiah 6:9-10, the Bible says:
Acts 28:29
"And when he had said these words,
the Jews departed, and had
great reasoning among themselves".
It says that the Jews
departed. That was three verses from the end of the book of acts. The book of
Acts closes because there is no more to hear about the Jews. The Jews were
blinded, broken off, and cast away. God no longer worked with man through
Israel. They are not God's people,
and God is not their God.
However, there is a promised
future for Israel. It is obvious that God is not going to break any of his
promises. But, when it comes into practice, what it means is that God will bring
them back together into "the land".
Remember that all those
things that happened in Matthew Mark Luke and John happened to Israel, the
descendents of Abraham through Isaac, and Jacob.
And that is not us, is it?
It's not me, and it's not you. They were not written either to the Gentiles, or
to the body of Christ.
Even those physical
descendents of Jacob that are still around, would now have to seek God, as the
Gentiles have to seek God. They cannot come to God the way that they could back
then before they were cast away as it says in Hosea 1:9 would happen, and as we
read by the end of Acts did happen.
Paul was inspired of God to
read Isaiah’s casting away curse that was prophesied in Isaiah, centuries
before, that they would be cast away in the future. That is where Paul got what
he read to them. We see it there in,
Isaiah 6:9 "And he said, Go,
and tell this people,
Hear ye indeed, but
understand not;
and see ye indeed, but
perceive not".
Isaiah 6:10 "Make the heart
of this people fat,
and make their ears heavy,
and shut their eyes;
lest they see with their
eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and understand with their
heart,
and convert,
and be healed".
It was past the time for
that. God was keeping this secret,
and sending his Messiah to die on the cross, and to pay for everyone's sins, and
he had to keep that a secret. He blinded these, His people.
This should not have been a
shock to Israel. Isaiah was roughly 700 years before Jesus came to earth, and
they were warned then, in the Isaiah 6:9-10 prophecy.
Isaiah 6:9 "And he said, Go,
and tell this people,
Hear ye indeed, but
understand not;
and see ye indeed, but
perceive not".
Isaiah 6:10 "Make the heart
of this people fat,
and make their ears heavy,
and shut their eyes;
lest they see with their
eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and understand with their
heart,
and convert,
and be healed".
Even before Isaiah, David
said it. In Psalms 69:22-25, David warned the people that they were going to be
cast away if they kept blinding their eyes, and not following God.
Psalms 69:20 "Reproach hath
broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness:
and I looked for some to
take pity, but there was none;
and for comforters, but I
found none".
Psalms 69:21 "They gave me
also gall for my meat;
and in my thirst they gave
me vinegar to drink".
Psalms 69:22 "Let their
table become a snare before them:
and that which should have
been for their welfare, let it become a trap".
Psalms 69:23 "Let their eyes
be darkened, that they see not;
and make their loins
continually to shake".
Psalms 69:24 "Pour out thine
indignation upon them,
and let thy wrathful anger
take hold of them".
Psalms 69:25 "Let their
habitation be desolate;
and let none dwell in their
tents".
Psalms 69:26 "For they
persecute him whom thou hast smitten;
and they talk to the grief
of those whom thou hast wounded".
Even way back before that,
at the beginning of the nation, Moses said it in Deuteronomy 29:24-28,
Deuteronomy 29:24 "Even all
nations shall say,
Wherefore hath the LORD done
thus unto this land?
what meaneth the heat of
this great anger"?
Deuteronomy 29:25 "Then men
shall say,
Because THEY have forsaken
the covenant
of the LORD God of THEIR
fathers,
which he made with THEM when
he brought THEM forth out of
the land of Egypt":
Deuteronomy 29:26 "For THEY
went and served other gods,
and worshipped them,
gods whom THEY knew not,
and whom he had not given
unto THEM":
Deuteronomy 29:27 "And the
anger of the LORD was kindled against this land,
to bring upon it all the
curses that are written in this book":
Deuteronomy 29:28 "And the
LORD rooted THEM out of THEIR land in anger,
and in wrath, and in great
indignation,
and cast THEM into another
land, as it is this day".
But all through their
history they were warned they would fall, be blinded, and be cast away if they
DID NOT BELIEVE their God. But, they just ignored it.
It was like Israel was daring God by saying, "Well, we have not been cast
away yet (so why worry) ."
2 Peter 3:3 "Knowing this
first,
that there shall come in the
last days scoffers,
walking after their own
lusts",
2 Peter 3:4 "And saying,
Where is the promise of his coming?
for since the fathers fell
asleep,
all things continue as they
were from the beginning of the creation.
But, then it happened, in
the book of the Acts of the Apostles,
Israel fell, and diminished,
and was blinded and cast away".
Mankind would have been
without access to God except for the fact that our loving and gracious God had
another part of His two-part plan that he had already introduced in Acts 9, and
which Paul started preaching sequentially in Acts chapters 9, then 11, then 13,
then 20.
Look at Colossians 1:18,
Colossians 1:18 And he is
the head of the body, the church:
who is the beginning, the
firstborn from the dead;
that in all things he might
have the preeminence.
In connection to Israel,
Christ is the firstborn from the dead in order to be their Messianic king in the
land.
But for us, we are NOT promised the land,
are we? That was only promised to Israel. Those of us that are in the body of
Christ by believing the gospel of Christ crucified for our sins are promised
heaven, even though Israel was never promised heaven.
The first part of Colossians
1:18 tells us our connection to Christ.
“And he is THE HEAD of the
body, the church:
who is the beginning….”
To us, Christ is the Head.
To Israel, Christ is the earthly King. He is the same person, and He did die on
the cross for both groups of people. But to them, he died on the cross and rose
again for the reason Peter tells in Acts 2:25-30, especially in verse 30.
Acts 2:25 "For David
speaketh concerning him,
I foresaw the Lord always
before my face,
for he is on my right hand,
that I should not be moved":
Acts 2:26 "Therefore did my
heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad;
moreover also my flesh shall
rest in hope":
And, he did rest in hope, HE
DIED. The phrase “REST IN HOPE” is interesting. Today we say rest in peace, but
Old Testament believers did not yet have their salvation that was ready to be
revealed in the last time according to First Peter 1, verse 5. They fell to rest
in hope of the coming of their Messiah to blot out their sins.
Acts 2:27 "Because thou wilt
not leave my soul in hell,
neither wilt thou suffer
thine Holy One to see corruption".
Acts 2:28 "Thou hast made
known to me the ways of life;
thou shalt make me full of
joy with thy countenance".
Peter had been speaking from
scripture about David. Now, Peter turns and addresses the Jews and proselytes to
whom he is talking.
Acts 2:29 "Men and brethren,
let me freely speak unto you
of the patriarch David,
that he is both dead and
buried,
and his sepulchre is with us
unto this day".
In other words, David
himself was left in the grave. So, did God lie? Or was God prophesying about
someone else?
Acts 2:30 "Therefore being a
prophet (David),
and knowing that God had
sworn with an oath to him,
that of the fruit of his
loins, according to the flesh,
he would raise up Christ to
sit on his throne";
That tells us some important
information. Why does it say that Christ was raised up again? It was:
… “To sit on his throne”.
That is the reason that
scripture gives TO ISRAEL for
Christ’s resurrection. It was to sit on his throne.
Sharing
Right Division part 4
DIVIDING
RIGHTLY – part 3
Scripture gives the body of
Christ a different reason for why Christ was raised up again. We are told an
additional reason why Jesus was resurrected.
And today, for us that are
invited into the body of Christ by the gospel of Christ, and the gospel of the
grace of God, Paul tells the body of Christ our reason why Christ was
resurrected:
Talking about Abraham,
Romans 4:3, and 19 through 25 says:
Romans 4:3 "For what saith
the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for
righteousness".
Romans 4:19
"And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead,
when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's
womb":
Romans 4:20 "He staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving
glory to God";
Paul goes on in the next
verse to describe what he had called being “STRONG IN FAITH”. Still talking
about Abraham’s faith, the Bible goes on to say:
Romans 4:21 "And being fully
persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform".
It was God that had promised
things to Abraham. Abraham merely believed that God would do
what he said he would do.
Romans 4:22 "And THEREFORE
it was imputed to him for righteousness".
Abraham’s FAITH that God
would give him a son, that faith was accounted to him for righteousness IN THAT
CASE.
Romans 4:23 "Now it was NOT
written FOR HIS SAKE ALONE, that it was imputed to him";
Romans 4:24 "But FOR US
ALSO, to whom IT SHALL BE IMPUTED",
(…the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God
shall be imputed)
"if we"
And, here is our part, the
stipulation, the condition. Here is Paul’s gospel for today. Here is how to be
justified today.
Romans 4:24 "BELIEVE ON HIM
THAT RAISED UP JESUS OUR LORD FROM THE DEAD";
Romans 4:25 "Who was
DELIVERED FOR OUR OFFENCES,
and was RAISED AGAIN FOR OUR
JUSTIFICATION".
It says,
Romans 4:25 "Who was
delivered"
(That is, delivered to death
on the cross)
"for our offences",
(It was not for His own
offences, because JESUS CHRIST WAS SINLESS).
He was delivered to the
cross for your offences, for my offences, for our sins. Christ died for our
sins.
Now you can either think to
yourself,
“Oh, no, you are NOT going
to blame Christ’s death on me. He probably knows that I do the best that I can."
Or, you can think to
yourself, “Wow, what love Christ has for me, to take on Himself, the guilt of
the death judgment against me, and so, to die for my sins to save me from
wrath".
The only positive response
to God’s grace today is to trust that He will justify and save you AS HE SAID he
would.
Romans 4:25 "Who was
DELIVERED FOR OUR OFFENCES,
and was RAISED AGAIN FOR OUR
JUSTIFICATION".
Being “RAISED AGAIN FOR OUR
JUSTIFICATION” is an altogether additional reason from the reason that Peter
gave to Israel for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to sit on his throne.
So, you can see in the
Bible, two different reasons for his resurrection. In one of Paul's early
sermons, he nails it. He hits the nail on the head. He talks about Israel having
rejected their Messiah, and slaying him. He was in the sepulcher three days and
three nights, and God raised him from the dead, and then he says in
Acts 13, verses 38:,
“Be it known unto you
therefore, men and brethren,
that through this man is
preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins….”
Not remittance of sins like
Israel had, remitting them to a future date when Christ returns and blot them
out.
When you divide between
Israel and the body of Christ, you can see that difference. But, he says
Acts 13:38, “through this
man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins":
Acts 13:39, "and by him all
that believe are justified from all things….”
That is one way to be
justified, by believing Christ, believing on him.
Acts 13:39, All that believe
are justified from all things
from which you could not be
justified by the law of
Moses.
Do you see the difference
there? the division, the separation between them?
There are two different ways to be justified in that one verse. But, in
only one if them does it say, by him all that believe are justified from all
things.
That includes
all sins,
all transgressions,
all iniquity,
all trespasses,
all past sins,
all present sins, and
all future sins.
“…by him all that believe
are justified from all things,
from which ye could not be
justified by the law of Moses.
So the law of Moses was
different, It was on the other side, It was a different way to be justified that
left them unjustified of certain things, until Christ returns.
I hope that helps to see
that there is a difference between what was Israel's way to be saved, and the
way we are saved today.
We are not given the gospel
that says to believe that the kingdom is at hand, and that Christ is coming back
to rule on Earth. That is not our gospel.
IT IS TRUE. It will happen.
but it is not our gospel. That is not the gospel that God said He uses to save
people today. It’s believing that Christ
died for our sins, was buried, and rose again for our justification.
This is the gospel which
Jesus from heaven revealed to Paul for all men, not only for Israel.
In First Corinthians 15, verses 1, through 4, Paul said in verse 1,
"I DECLARE UNTO YOU the
gospel which I PREACHED UNTO YOU
which also ye have received,
and wherein ye stand";
So, they received it, and
they stand in it, and in the second verse it says,
”…by which also ye are
saved….”
They are saved. Do you see
it there?
“ye ARE saved”
It is not something that
they are waiting for until Christ
returns, to be saved, IF they endure to the end.
“ye ARE saved”
That is immediate, upon
having believed the gospel of Christ crucified for our sins.
That is another evidence of
that division that we are to rightly divide. Verse 2 goes on to talk about
Believing, or believing in vain, which one? These verses are NOT talking about
working to get saved, or about staying saved. These verses are about the gospel
of how to get saved, about the condition or stipulation that God said He put on
you for you to be saved. When you are deciding to trust Christ to save you, or
not, Paul said you need to:
“keep in memory what I
preached unto you”
Keep in memory what Paul
preached from Christ. Over and over,
Paul said to keep in memory
“what I preached unto you“.
Otherwise, it says, you have
believed in vain,
“unless you believed in
vain“.
For salvation, Paul only
preached one saving message, trust Christ to have died for your sins, been
buried, and raised again for your justification.
So, the other gospels in the
Bible for that time, were from Peter and Israel’s 12 apostles, for Israel, and
about heaven’s kingdom coming to earth when Christ returns to blot out the sins
of Israel when Israel was rising. So it is vain, or futile, to believe the other
gospels that were out there then.
At that time, there was
another gospel. There was Israel’s gospel with the law of Moses that Peter was
preaching to keep the law, and to fear God, and to do works of righteousness.
There was Paul’s gospel of the way to be justified from all things, from which
ye could NOT be justified by the law of Moses. We see in Acts 10:35 that Israel
had to fear God, and do works of righteousness. We see in Acts 21, verse 20,
that there are thousands of Jews in the church of God in Jerusalem as late as
Acts 21, and they are all zealous of the law.
They are NOT like us. They
are different from us. They ARE UNDER the law.
Here is what the Bible says
that Christ revealed to us, through Paul
Romans 6:14 "For sin shall
not have dominion over you:
for YE ARE NOT UNDER THE
LAW,
but UNDER GRACE".
And when you rightly divide
between Israel's program, and what Christ has done for all men, without regard
to Israel, you see that we are under grace, and they WERE not. According to
First Peter 1, verse 13, they had to find grace by doing good works.
Sharing
Right Division part 5
THE
GOSPEL
If you look through Matthew
24, and 25, you can definitely see that Jesus Christ knew all about
the fall of Israel, and
Israel’s diminishing, the casting away of Israel, Rome coming in, and destroying
Jerusalem, the casting out of Israel, and Israel’s desolation, and Israel’s
tribulation, Jacob’s trouble, and the
anti-Christ, and the resurrection of the believing prophetic remnant of Israel.
But, he did not give Israel
the specifics about it. However, he knew that beyond being cast away, they were
going to be cast out of the land after blaspheming the Holy Ghost.
But, he kept all of that as
a secret. Do you know why he kept it
as a secret. Let’s read the reason in God’s words, spoken by Paul.
1 Corinthians 2:7 But we
speak the wisdom of God in a mystery,
even the hidden wisdom,
which God ordained before
the world unto our glory:
1 Corinthians 2:8 Which none
of the princes of this world knew:
for had they known it,
they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory.
At first thought, you might
think, “Well, wouldn’t that have been good to keep Jesus from dying on that
executioner’s cross?” But then, you, and I, and every person born since then,
would not have a Savior. Jesus
Christ did not come to earth to turn away and desert us sinners. In First
Timothy 1:15, look at what God later revealed to Paul about why Christ Jesus
came into the world.
1 Timothy 1:15 "This is a
faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners;
of whom I am chief".
He couldn’t have saved us
without having died our death, for our sins.
Romans 5:6 For when we were
yet without strength,
in due time Christ died for
the ungodly.
Romans 5:8 But God
commendeth his love toward us,
in that, while we were yet
sinners,
Christ died for us.
And the other thing there is
that First Timothy states that God's will is that “all men be saved".
1 Timothy 2:4 Who will have
all men to be saved,
and to come unto the
knowledge of the truth.
And so, the second part of
God’s will is that “all men … come unto the knowledge of the truth.”
That is exactly what we are
doing. We are telling how “to be saved,” and how “to come unto the knowledge of
the truth.”
Jesus Christ kept secret the
full effect of the cross for salvation. If they had known all that Christ would
accomplish on the cross, "they would NOT have crucified the Lord of glory".
But, he had to go to the
cross, not only to justify many, for he shall bear Israel’s iniquities as
prophesied in Isaiah 53:11. But also to die for our sins, as in Colossians 1:20.
Isaiah 53:11 He shall see of
the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied:
by his knowledge shall my
righteous servant justify many;
for he shall bear their
iniquities.
Colossians 1:20
And, having made peace through the blood of his cross,
by him to reconcile all
things unto himself;
by him, I say, whether they
be things in earth, or things in heaven.
We have seen why we need to
obey by rightly dividing to find the only salvation gospel by which God’s saves
people today. Now let's look at a
popular teaching that right division debunks, and there are Bible teachings that
right division simplifies and clarifies. So, let’s look briefly at the term
“born again”. Remember that we want to get all our answers from the Bible, which
overrules tradition, preachers, and history books.
Sharing
Right Division part 6
BORN
AGAIN – part 1
Let us look at what we can
find in the Bible about the term “born again”, not born through the flesh, but
born from above. Let’s expose what God has said about it. What does born again
NOT mean in the Bible, and what does it mean in the Bible..
Let's look in Exodus now. We
saw those promises made to Israel.
We can see the seed of Abraham, some 75 or 80 people, going down into Egypt
because of a famine in Canaan (Israel). God had planned out to do good for his
people by placing Joseph, the one that was thrown out by his brothers, into a
position of authority in Egypt, and had him set aside grain for the famine.
Anyway, Israel went down
there, and we see in Exodus 4:22, when 400 years had passed, and they had grown
into a nation of roughly 600,000, as they were to leave Egypt to worship God,
God spoke to Moses and told him,
"... thou shalt say unto
Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD,
Israel is my son, even my
firstBORN...."
They were born.
You can see the connection there. They were born. But when they go
further and further into iniquity, and away from God, and they crucify their
Messiah, and they stoned Holy Ghost filled Stephen, they fell as God's holy
nation and as a light unto the Gentiles. What Hosea prophesied in Hosea 1:9, had
come true.
"Then said God, Call his
name Loammi:
for ye are not my people,
and I will not be your God."
Let's look in Ezekiel 37.
By verse 8, God will have
brought Israel back into their promised land, but they're dead still, just
bones, a valley of dry bones.
Ezekiel 37:5 Thus
saith the Lord GOD unto these bones;
Behold, I will
cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:
Ezekiel 37:6 And I
will lay sinews upon you,
and will bring up
flesh upon you,
and cover you with
skin,
and put breath in
you, and ye shall live;
and ye shall know
that I am the LORD.
Ezekiel 37:7 So I
prophesied as I was commanded:
and as I
prophesied, there was a noise,
and behold a
shaking,
and the bones came
together, bone to his bone.
Ezekiel 37:8 "And when I
beheld, lo,
the sinews and the flesh
came up upon them,
and the skin covered them
above:
but there was no breath in
them".
Ezekiel 37:9 "Then said he
unto me,
Prophesy unto the wind,
prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind,
Thus saith the Lord GOD;
Come from the four winds, O
breath,
and breathe upon these
slain, that they may live".
Ezekiel 37:10 "So I
prophesied as he commanded me,
and the breath came into
them,
and they lived,
and stood up upon their
feet,
an exceeding great army".
Ezekiel 37:11 "Then he said
unto me, Son of man,
these bones are the whole
house of Israel:
behold, they say, Our bones
are dried,
and our hope is lost:
we are cut off for our
parts".
Ezekiel 37:12 "Therefore
prophesy and say unto them,
Thus saith the Lord GOD;
Behold, O my people,
I will open your graves,
and cause you to come up out
of your graves,
and bring you into the land
of Israel".
Ezekiel 37:13 "And ye shall
know that I am the LORD,
when I have opened your
graves, O my people,
and brought you up out of
your graves",
Ezekiel 37:14 "And shall put
my spirit in you, and ye shall live,
and I shall place you in
your own land":
There it is. Israel had been
promised “the land”. For awhile, Israel had a part of the land. Israel never got
the whole land through their own efforts, did they?
Ezekiel 37:14 "And shall put
my spirit in you, and ye shall live,
and I shall place you in
your own land:
then shall ye know that I
the LORD have spoken it,
and performed it, saith the
LORD".
Jesus confirmed this in:
Matthew 24:31 And
he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet,
and they shall
gather together his elect from the four winds,
from one end of
heaven to the other.
Then, for more of what God
will do with Israel, not with the body of Christ, look down in,
Ezekiel 37:21 "And say unto
them, Thus saith the Lord GOD;
Behold, I will take the
children of Israel from among the heathen,
whither they be gone, and
will gather them on every side,
and bring them into their
own land":
Ezekiel 37:22 "And I will
make them one nation
in the land upon the
mountains of Israel;
and one king shall be king
to them all:
and they shall be no more
two nations,
neither shall they be
divided into two kingdoms any more at all":
Ezekiel 37:23 "Neither shall
they defile themselves any more with their idols,
nor with their detestable
things,
nor with any of their
transgressions:
but I will save them out of
all their dwellingplaces,
wherein they have sinned,
and will cleanse them:
SO SHALL THEY BE MY PEOPLE,
AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD".
Ezekiel 37:24 "And David my
servant shall be king over them;
and they all shall have one
shepherd:
they shall also walk in my
judgments,
and observe my statutes, and
do them".
Ezekiel 37:25 "And they
shall dwell in
the land that I have given
unto Jacob my servant,
wherein your fathers have
dwelt;
and they shall dwell
therein, even they,
and their children,
and their children's
children for ever:
and my servant David shall
be their prince for ever".
Ezekiel 37:26 "Moreover I
will make a covenant of peace with them;
it shall be an everlasting
covenant with them:
and I will place them, and
multiply them,
and will set my sanctuary in
the midst of them for evermore".
Ezekiel 37:27 "My tabernacle
also shall be with them:
yea, I WILL BE THEIR GOD,
AND THEY SHALL BE MY
PEOPLE".
Ezekiel 37:28 "And the
heathen shall know that
I the LORD do sanctify
Israel,
when my sanctuary shall be
in the midst of them for evermore".
For those who feel the need
to help God express Himself more understandably, these next verses should help
you to simply believe the words that God inspired.
Go back to where we saw in
Hosea 1:9,
Hosea 1:9 "Then said God,
Call his name Loammi:
for ye are not my people,
and I will not be your God".
That is the prophecy of
Israel's fall, diminishing, and being blinded and cast away.
In the very next verse, the rest of that prophecy says,
Hosea 1:10 "Yet the number
of the children of Israel shall be as
the sand of the sea, which
cannot be measured nor numbered;
In other words, Israel still
has a very bright future.
and it shall come to pass,
that in the place where it
was said unto them, YE ARE NOT MY PEOPLE,
there it shall be said unto
them, Ye are the SONS OF THE LIVING GOD".
Hosea 1:11 "Then shall the
children of Judah and the children of Israel
be gathered together, and
appoint themselves one head,
and they shall come up out
of the land:
for great shall be the day
of Jezreel".
Sharing
Right Division part 7
BORN
AGAIN – part 2
So considering all these
verses, can you see that not only had Israel been BORN as a nation coming out of
Egypt in the past, but that in the future, they are going to be BORN, again.
Also, notice that in Ezekiel
37, verse 14, the Bible says about Israel,
Ezekiel 37:14 "And shall put
my spirit in you, and ye shall live...."
Now, compare that with what
we have from God, about Israel in John chapter 3, verse 5.
Let’s look and see what the
Bible says. We need to insist on what the scripture says, because this is
probably pulling the rug out from under some of our long-held beliefs.
We see here He is not
talking about going to heaven. The body of Christ goes to heaven before Israel’s
prophecy fulfillment restarts. Israel, with Christ on the throne, will reign on
earth from the land as covenanted. Things that are different are not the same.
John 3:5 "Jesus answered,
Verily, verily, I say unto
thee,
Except a man be born
of water and
of the Spirit,
he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God".
Every person is born of
water. Before a mother delivers, her
water breaks. That is the fluid from her amniotic sac that carries the human
while it grows. That is part of the human birth, being born of water. Jesus went
on to explain,
John 3:6 "That which is born
of the flesh is flesh";
That is our physical birth
when we are born from our mothers.
John 3:6 "That which is born
of the flesh is flesh;
and that which is born of
the Spirit is spirit".
That coincides with what he
had said before.
John 3:5...
Except a man be born
of water and
of the Spirit,
he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God.
Well now, people cannot
understand this when they do not understand the division that God makes between
what was prophesied since the world began, and what was kept secret since the
world began, until God later revealed it to Paul. But, when you divide it
rightly, you can understand that we do not have to make up things about this to
make it make sense. It does not have
anything to do with what the Bible calls being saved. It does not have anything
to do with that.
It has to do with what we
just read, that the Bible says that the nation of Israel will be born again.
They were born in the desert. In
Exodus 4:22. God calls them my
firstBORN. They were born. And then
they lost it. They became Loammi. They became not God's people.
And then it said in Ezekiel
37 that Israel will be brought up out of their graves. That is all part of
Israel's doctrine and program, not that the body of Christ, or of Paul's
doctrine. Isaiah 66:8 describes Israel's process.
Isaiah 66:8
"Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things?
Shall the earth be made to
bring forth in one day?
or shall A NATION BE BORN at
once?
for as soon as Zion
travailed, she brought forth her children".
From these verses we have
read, I hope you can see to whom it is that Jesus is talking in John chapter 3.
The Bible tells us a couple chapters before here, to whom he came.
John 1:11 tells us that
"He came unto his own, and
his own received him not".
But, he came to his own. He
came to Israel.
Christ verifies it by
inspiring Paul to write about to whom it was that Jesus was talking when He
walked the earth.
Romans 15:8, "Now I say that
Jesus Christ was a minister
of the circumcision for the truth of God,
to confirm the promises made
unto the fathers":
That is those promises we
read in Genesis 12, and other ones that were made to narrow it down and confirm
it to them. Jesus Christ came to
confirm those promises, and the promises made in the prophecies about him, the
Messiah, that he would come, and “be cut off, but not for himself“ in the 69th
of those 70 weeks of years.
Let’s get back to John
chapter 3. We have read verses five and then six.
They were born of the flesh when they walked the earth as Jesus did.
To start with, God called Israel His
firstborn in Exodus 4:22.
They had been born of their mothers, born
of the flesh, born of the water, the amniotic water sack.
And yet, he was telling them you need to endure to the end. You need to
be faithful unto death.
And what were they looking
forward to? They could only get into the kingdom by dying, and being born again.
That is the whole thing there in
Matthew 16:18:
“ upon this rock I will
build my church;
and the gates of hell shall
not prevail against it.”
The gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. Though they would lose their lives for Jesus sake and the
gospel’s sake, they would be resurrected into the kingdom, if they endured to
the end to be saved.
Mark 8:35 "For whosoever
will save his life shall lose it;
but whosoever shall lose his
life for my sake and the gospel's,
the same shall save it".
Here is one reason that we
are no longer being born again
John 3:4 "Nicodemus saith
unto him,
How can a man be born when
he is old?
can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb, and be born?"
John 3:5 "Jesus answered,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
Except a man be born
of water
AND
of the Spirit,
he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God."
Born of WATER, AND, born of
the SPIRIT. Verse 6:
John 3:6 "That which is born
of the flesh is flesh;
and that which is born of
the Spirit is spirit".
Can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb and be born.
Now if he could, if he did
that, then, the second time he was born, he would still be born of water, born
of the flesh, wouldn't he? So it would not yet have been born of the Spirit that
Christ is talking about.
Another reason why today we
can no longer be Biblically born again is because the nation of Israel had been
born of the flesh, as God's people, centuries before, in the wilderness.
However, we Gentiles had never been born as God’s people in the flesh. We could
not be born AGAIN spiritually because we, as a people, had not been born of
water, born of the flesh.
There is a verse that can
help to clear up our understanding about what it is to be born again that is not
the same as salvation. Both are spoken of in the Scriptures. But, born again is
only spoken of about Israel. Paul never mentions us being born again.
This is Paul talking about
Jesus Christ, and he starts off talking about Jesus Christ being the creator in:
Colossians 1:16 "For by him
were all things created,
that are in heaven, and that
are in earth,
visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones,
or dominions,
or principalities,
or powers:
all things were created by
him, and for him":
Colossians 1:17 "And he is
before all things,
and by him all things
consist".
Colossians 1:18 "And he is
the head of the body, the church":
So, Paul wrote this after
Christ
revealed the body of Christ
to Paul,
and sent him to preach about
it.
"And HE is the head of the
body, the church:
who is the beginning",
This is talking about Jesus
Christ.
"WHO is the beginning,
the FIRSTBORN from the
dead";
That is exactly what we have
been talking about. This is the very thing, being born a second time, but this
time, SPIRITUALLY.
"who is the beginning,
the FIRSTBORN from the dead;
that in all things he might
have the preeminence".
The Lord patterned something
different for people today, and revealed it through Paul.
1 Timothy 1:16 "Howbeit for
this cause I obtained mercy, that
in me first Jesus Christ
might shew forth all longsuffering,
for a PATTERN to them which
should
hereafter believe on him to
life everlasting".
When we hear and believe
Paul’s gospel of salvation to be forgiven, justified, and quickened, we are not
only in Christ, but also in the body of Christ, "a new creature”. We are not
born again, we are A NEW CREATURE.
Let me just a close with
these verses that tell it very clearly what Paul was teaching us about how to be
saved. He sums it up. We find that in: First Corinthians chapter 15, and verses
1 through 4:
1 Corinthians 15:1
"Moreover, brethren,
I declare unto you the
gospel
which I preached unto you,
which also ye have received,
and wherein ye stand";
1 Corinthians 15:2 "By which
also ye are saved,
if ye keep in memory what I
preached unto you,
unless ye have believed in
vain".
1 Corinthians 15:3 "For I
delivered unto you first of all
that which I also received,
how that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures";
1 Corinthians 15:4 "And that
he was buried,
and that he rose again the
third day according to the scriptures":
Trust Christ!
Abbreviations:
| Please direct questions and comments to mikemcglathery@followchristspattern.com |
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