church

A new creature, part 2.

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This new creature we have been made in Christ was a complete and total mystery, an unknown entity, until the Apostle Paul.  Up until Paul, and through the first half of Paul’s ministry, God was dealing with mankind in terms of the separation between Jew and Gentile.

Deuteronomy 7:6… “For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.”

After the nation Israel failed to come to terms with their Redeemer, God set them aside.

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.”

Paul went to both the Jew and to the Gentile/Greek (non-Jew) with the gospel of Christ and, I believe, this is where the confusion begins as to whether or not Peter and Paul preached the same gospel message, which we have demonstrated they could not have been.

Romans 1:16… “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

If the Kingdom gospel was for the nation Israel (as is clear) why did Paul go to them (first even) with the new “gospel of Christ” (free grace/zero works) that the risen and glorified Lord Jesus Christ gave to him specifically for the Gentiles?

Romans 11:13… “For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:”

Let’s take a look back in Matthew 12 to get an idea.  Most professing Christians have heard of the “unpardonable sin”.  What was it exactly?

Matthew 12:31-32… “Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.  And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.”

The one thing that was unpardonable to the nation Israel then was blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.  Commit this sin and you were not going into “thy Kingdom come”.  Israel rejected and thus blasphemed God the Father by way of their rejecting the prophets He sent specifically to the nation.  This was forgivable.  They rejected and ultimately blasphemed His Son in Christ at the cross.  This too was forgivable.  They rejected and thus blasphemed the Holy Ghost during and after Pentecost as only a relative few heeded the message of repentance Peter preached in Acts 2 and 3.  Paul himself as well was a blasphemer…

1 Timothy 1:13… “Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.”

This was unforgivable.  Few in the nation Israel then could have hoped to attain everlasting life in the Kingdom as only a few successfully recognized their prophesied Messiah when He arrived among them.  Only relative few were baptized with the Holy Spirit.  Paul did not recognize his Messiah.  God was justified to sent His wrath upon the world right then and there at the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7.

Long before this time, at the tower of Babel in Genesis 11, the “Gentile” nations (those nations Abram was called out of) were concluded in unbelief.  Now His nation Israel had come to their “third strike” if you will and rejected the giving of God’s Holy Spirit, the new covenant, that the Law would be written in their hearts (Jer 31:31, Heb 8), that they would be able to walk worthy of their calling.  In short… Israel (and the rest of the world) was up a creek without a paddle, all concluded in unbelief.

Romans 11:32… “For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all.”

Since these could not have been saved into the Kingdom program, God, in infinite and longsuffering mercy; NOT YET wanting to pour His Just Wrath out upon the world, saved the Apostle Paul, giving not only His nation Israel but the whole world a new possibility at salvation.  Something the world had never before seen nor experienced.  Absolutely free grace with zero effort required or accepted.

Ephesians 2:8-9… “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Mankind’s very essence is to boast in what he has done.  We ARE prideful creatures by nature.  God will have none of it.  I heard brother Steve Atwood say just the other day that if salvation required the wiggling of our little finger just slightly, we would boast in eternity just how amazingly well we wiggled our little fingers… and he is right.  It is only the Divine Activity of God Himself could save such prideful creatures as we; humbling us in the process.

This zero effort/free grace dispensation produces the heretofore unprophesied new creature and offers all men, Jew or Gentile, salvation completely apart from inherent “Jew-ness” or “Gentile-ness”.  The new creature is neither Jew nor Gentile and, as a matter of fact, neither male or female!

Galatians 3:28… “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”

What once were Jews and Gentiles are now NEITHER as God is not recognizing His chosen nation Israel at this moment in time.  They are NO LONGER His people in this dispensation.

Romans 9:25-26… “As he saith also in Osee (Hosea 1:9-10), I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.  And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.”

God NOW recognizes the new creature and the new creature alone.  But in this, for the past 2,000 years, He is giving (Israel and the Gentiles) ALL MEN EQUALLY yet another chance at redemption before His just wrath is poured out on a most deserving world.

The new creature is an individual man saved by the gospel of grace (he becomes a new creature) AND it is a body of believers as well.

It is in the epistles of Paul alone that we find mention of “the church – the body of Christ”, of which Christ is the Head.  While there are many “churches” mentioned in the Bible, they are not all the same church.  The Jerusalem church was in the Temple Beautiful (Acts 3)… the wandering Jews belonged to the “church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38), for example.  Men were first called “Christians” at the church in Antioch (Acts 11:26) which was NOT a temple.  This church, the body of Christ (an assembly of believers, a church is not a building) is made up of ALL believers saved by the gospel of Christ in this dispensation of free grace.  It expresses itself in local areas via individual “churches” of which Grace Country Bible Church is but one.

The church – the body of Christ is made up of NEITHER Jew nor Greek, male nor female…  No man today is lifted up above another man for any reason whatsoever, as God has concluded ALL men equally in unbelief.  The above verse in Deuteronomy (7:6) has been made temporarily void by the verses in Hosea (1:9-10).

1 Corinthians 12:13… “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.”

The reason saints in time past (Jews AND the Gentiles who blessed them) could NOT acknowledge the “unsearchable” riches of Christ, is because these riches were not prophesied in scripture.  One could not search the scriptures in time past to find out about what God is doing today because God kept it secret. Paul writes:

Romans 11:33… “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgements, and His ways past finding out!”

Ephesians 3:8… “Unto me, who am less than the least of all the saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;”

While Christ’s birth, death and resurrection WAS prophesied, the fullness of the riches of His death, burial and resurrection was completely unknown.  A Jew and a Gentile in time past could indeed search the scriptures to learn what they had to do to be saved: the Jew was to believe on Christ his prophesied Messiah risen from the dead, and the Gentile was to somehow bless the Jew (Gen 12:3, Mat 25:31-46… notice carefully these did not understand how they made it into the Kingdom!).

The unprophesied new creature (NOT Jew and NOT Gentile) has only to believe that Christ died for his sin nature and rose again for his justification, and eternal salvation is his!  The only place in scripture a man can learn this, is in the epistles of Paul.  The new creature (believers today) was therefore hidden in God since the foundation of the world and a part of the mystery given unto the apostle Paul alone (therefore Peter could NOT have spoken of it), and of which Paul was the first.

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.”

What believers are today therefore, is not only NOT found in what is called the Old Testament section of the Bible, we are NOT found in Matthew, Mark, Luke John or the first half of Acts, as these are all books of the Law or the “old testament”.  Nor is this new creature, the church the body of Christ found in the Hebrew epistles of Peter, James and John, as God is once again dealing with the Jew and the Gentile in these “New Testament” books.  Where we see the distinction existing between Jew and Gentile we do not see the unprophesied new creature.

Right division therefore, is NOT dividing between the old and new testament sections of the Bible, it is NOT dividing between Christ and not Christ, IT IS dividing between that which God kept secret versus what God prophesied throughout time.  It is dividing between Israel and their relationship to the Gentile nations, and the NOT Jew / NOT Gentile “body of Christ” being formed today to eventually take up residence in the heavenly places with God.

Where we see, even in Paul’s epistles, the distinction between Jew and Gentile, we must “rightly divide”.  Romans chapters 9, 10 and 11 are NOT about the church the body of Christ.  These are about the condition of Israel today, and their dealings with the Gentiles in time past, and in the ages to come, when God will once again be dealing with the Jew and the Gentile.

I have one last issue to tackle with the new creature in the next post: “The new creature, part 3.“

The god of this world.

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“What do you mean, the god of this world?” you ask.  “Is that not the God of heaven?”  Lets examine scripture closely and from the beginning.  When satan first appears on the scene, with what incentive did he tempt Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit?

Genesis 3:4-5… “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, AND YE SHALL BE AS gods, knowing good and evil.”

He said she would NOT surely die when God said she would, AND he told her that she would be like (note carefully); “gods”; little “g” and plural.  Clearly then, Eve was aware enough of the existence of these “gods” (creatures) to know she wanted to be “as them” comprehending things she did not currently understand.  They knew more than she did… they were smarter, they were “above” her… “god-like”.  Indeed the angelic host were created to exist above mankind; for Jesus, taking upon himself sinful human flesh, was made “lower” then they.

Quoting Psalms 8:5 the writer of Hebrews says in 2:7-9… “Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.  But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.”

satan refers to himself being “AS” the Most High God, as that is his ultimate desire… to rule the heaven and earth as God.  What exactly does scripture show that satan “wills” for himself?  Count 5…

Isaiah 14:12-14… “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!  For thou hast said in thine heart, (1) I will ascend into heaven, (2) I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: (3) I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: (4) I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; (5) I will be like the most High.”

Adam, by ignoring Gods single commandment (thou shalt not eat of it, Gen 2:17), was subsequently cursed along with creation itself (Gen 3:17-19) and forfeited the dominion God gave him over the world and placed it into the hands of satan.  This is demonstrated when satan offers Jesus that same dominion in:

Luke 4:5-6… “And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.  And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.”

The Lord does not argue the fact that dominion was given to satan because it is an accurate portrayal of the situation.  Dominion of this world and all its kingdoms with all their earthly glory, was given to him.  Note carefully that it is satan also that chooses who he gives that power to.  (Who has power in the world today?)

The “gods of this world” then are those angels, made higher and mightier than man, which kept not their first heavenly estate, but chose to follow satan in his rebellion against the One True God of heaven.  These are they which Adam and Eve (mankind’s first parents) wanted to be like and thus chose to follow over the Creator God.

Jude 1:6… “And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.”

The singular “god of this world” can therefore be none other than satan himself, the leader of the angelic rebellion.  People are extremely misled about the character of this creature however.  Nearly everyone reading these words have seen “devil” movies like “the exorcist” which portray satan as being overtly evil and a rather disgusting character… a boogyman if you will.  What is he really like?  Scripture shows in:

Ezekiel 28:12-18… “Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.  Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.  Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.  Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.  By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.  Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.  Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.”

Full of wisdom, perfect in beauty, covered in gold and gems, perfect in thy ways, multitudes of merchandise, beautiful and bright… is this what the common conception of Lucifer (light bearer) is?  Not at all… most think of him as a monster when in reality he appears as just the opposite.  He is trying to deceive the world that he is the Most High that the world will worship him.  This is his ultimate desire… worship, because he feels that he deserves it.  His heart was lifted up because of his beauty.  What is the easiest way to attract worshipful attention from people?  Give them what they want.  Since satan possesses all the power and therefore money this world generates, he can give such to whomsoever he desires.  He offered such to our Lord when our Lord was contained within sinful human flesh and our Lord turned him down.  We have a far harder time…

satan does not appear as most of us expect him to appear (evil) and actually looks like all that is good in this world, rich, beautiful, bright and full of “blessings” for people.  How does this effect the world on a daily basis?  Paul, speaking to the Corinthian believers, cautioning them about straying from the gospel of grace he preaches and the false teachers which abound, writes in:

2 Corinthians 11:13-15… “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”

Notice carefully what these are up to and where they practice their “craft”.  These are religious teachers putting forth a false christ… pretend “ministers of righteousness”.  Where do we find ministers of “christ”?  In churches.  satan is therefore not out and about haunting houses and possessing little girls, he and his ministers are out spreading false gospels and lies about the Lord Jesus Christ in order to keep lost people lost, saved people confused and “rightly divided” people slandered.

Paul is jealous over believers with a Godly jealousy (2 Cor 11:2) and warns these same believers in:

2 Cor 11:3… “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

The saving gospel of Christ which Paul preached is so very simple.  Know you are a sinner in need of a Savior.  Know that Christ as Savior died the death you so richly deserve.  Anything more or less is a satanic departure from the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus.  This amazingly simple gospel message for today is nearly completely hidden in today’s churches in favor of all manor of religious zeal.

Those of us who are truly saved by the blood of the Lamb can only speak the words we have been given that anyone we might come into contact with would hear them and simply believe.

2 Corinthians 4:1-6… “Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.  But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.  For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

I commend myself to your conscience in the sight of God.  Believe not the god of this world.  Open your eyes to Bible Truth.  Believe the words our Apostle Paul was given FOR you, that I share here with you.  Amen.

satan is the ultimate deceiver.  He has deceived the world that he is in fact god just as he said he would.  He has the means by which to do it, and those means came from us.  The world served him from the very beginning and nothing has changed.  God made a door which any and all people can step through.

The Creator God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3).  The Creator God does not bless us, His heavenly people, with earthly things as He did Israel, His earthly people.  He did bless Israel abundantly with such in time past as He always promised He would (IF they obeyed) and will again in the ages to come, but His earthly program is halted today in favor of His heavenly program.  If you are expecting earthly blessings from God and somehow receiving them, they are coming from the god of this world who has them to give.  You are being deceived by the great deceiver.  If you are hearing a gospel message different from the most simple message Paul has to share, you are being deceived by the god of this world who is thrilled to deceive you away from the simplicity that is in Christ, and to cause such confusion in the professing church – those who “would know” the Lord Jesus.  Please… come to know the True Jesus, our Creator.

You need to get a King James Bible and learn the difference between God and the god of this world.  Paul can and will show you; as to Paul was given the fulfillment of Gods plan for humanity by the Creator directly.  We must know the Lord Jesus in HIS Truth for believers today.  This is what God wants for all mankind.

1 Timothy 2:3-4… “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”

Get saved by trusting that the Lord Jesus died for your sin and the come unto the knowledge of the truth by learning what God wants us to know about Himself.  Paul writes in:

1 Corinthians 14:37… “If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.”  We learn these things from Paul.

Reality is a far different place than most realize.  Reality is found only in the King James Bible.  What people see everyday is a near perfect but perfectly opposite replica created by the god of this world that this world would serve him.  It is called “the course of this world” in Ephesians 2.  Most of the world is only too happy to comply.  Paul continues, as all men do have free will to believe whatever they wish to believe:

1 Corinthians 14:38… “But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.”  Don’t be willfully ignorant.  Trust in Christ and Christ alone; as the Triune God is head over all and will have the final word; and far more (a new heaven and a new earth!).  As Job writes in 12:16… “…the deceived AND the deceiver are His.”

Next Post: “The new creation, a future dispensation for Gods people.“

Deceived…

/ grace country pastor / 5 Comments

I’d like to expound upon the statement in my last post, namely, that the VAST majority of churches in the world are teaching the wrong gospel.  Sure, they are teaching Jesus Christ, the “object” of our worship (and what He’s done for Israel); but they are NOT teaching correct “content” or what that “object” has done on our behalf.  We are NOT Israel.  The salvation message from God to man is the single most important message a man can receive.  Failure to recognize what God requires us to recognize (no matter how simple and beautiful) spells eternal doom, as we are all eternal creatures.  Israel was required to recognize Christ their Messiah and follow His instructions (content) to them.  Believers today are required to recognize what Christ our Savior has done for us!  Is your church guilty of deceiving you?

Anything other than: “Christ died for your sins” (period, end of discussion) is MORE than the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus and therefore, deception.  Deception can be remarkably subtle.  Paul writes:

2 Corinthians 11:3… “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

The simple and personally stunning realization a man (hopefully) comes to in his life; that he is actually no good whatsoever and can not do a single thing to save himself; is what I call facing Biblical reality.  Facing this ultimate reality is a difficult thing to do as we humans, generally speaking, are very prideful creatures.  The local church is almost always where people go in order to obtain that “feel good/you are good” reinforcement about themselves (which we all do crave); therefore the local church (professing christian or otherwise – “churches” come in many flavors, some secular) is the underlying support mechanism by which “good and polite society” operates.  “Atheists” simply believe in the inherent “goodness” of creation creating itself with man somehow (more and more) guiding his own “evolution”.  The university is his church and the religion of evolution (as opposed to a more formal deity) says he gets “better and better”.

The Bible, however, says otherwise.  How do I know God wrote the Bible?  Because it is ultimately critical of mankind.  Man would never say such things as these about himself:

Jeremiah 17:9… “The heart is DECEITFUL above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

Romans 3:10-18… “As it is written, There is NONE righteous, NO, NOT ONE: There is NONE that understandeth, there is NONE that seeketh after God.  They are ALL gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is NONE that doeth good, NO, NOT ONE.  Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Romans 3:23… “For ALL have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”

Romans 6:23(a)… “For the wages of sin is death; …” (continued below)

All means all.

“Ouch…”

You yourself must be perfect to be in the presence of a Perfect God.  A single sin negates that perfection.  What is a man to do under these circumstances?  He can lie to himself as most do.  Or… he may realize what God in Christ has done on his behalf and place his trust in that and that alone for his eternal salvation.  “Christ died for your sins.”  What else can there possibly be for a man to do?  “HE took YOUR place on the cross.”  There is only universal hopelessness outside of Christ who is the Creator God.

John 1:1-3, 14… “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”  (object)

Romans 6:23(b)… “…but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Accept Gods ultimate gift!  “HE… God Himself, died YOUR death, the death you deserved to die, FOR YOU!”  (content)

Is your church finding good in you outside of Christ?  Your church is deceiving you.  Is your church instructing you to “do good” in order that you may somehow obtain Gods favor and therefore (hopefully) salvation?  With the above verses observing you, can you honestly say that you are even remotely capable of doing good outside of Christ in you?  Read about Gods book before you answer…

Hebrews 12:4… “The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

Who knows the human heart, Jeremiah?  God does.  He made it and gave it free will, knowing it would fail, also knowing exactly what He would do to make it perfect in the end!

Does your church teach grace; BUT you then have something to contribute?  Something like baptism, attendance, tithing, cleaning up your act, dressing appropriately, praying a prayer, coming to the alter, making Jesus “Lord of your life”, speaking in tongues, confessing sin, or any such religious man centered activity?  If so, your church is deceiving you away from the simplicity that is in Christ.  Can a man who is asking for forgiveness have already received it?  I think not…

Colossians 2:13… “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you ALL trespasses.”

All means all…!

No “ouch” here  🙂

If Christ did not pay it all, now and forever, what hope is there for you, besides you?  Recall what you are!

John 19:30… “When Jesus had therefore received the vinegar, he said, IT IS FINISHED: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”  It is either finished, or… your church is deceiving you.

A church, as the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim 3:15), IF it be in the will of God for this dispensation of free grace in which we live today, should be teaching you first and foremost the truth about yourself, which is very hard to hear.  Without knowing the truth about your own condition, true salvation is NOT possible.  It is only after coming to the ultimate realization of our inherently lost condition, can we subsequently be “found”.  It is only after we are found that we can be of any use to God.  The only way we can be of any use to God is to try and show others their inherently lost condition and what God has done to remedy it.  People, very unfortunately, do not want to know.  Mostly… they are proud, knowing nothing.  Ouch.

1 Timothy 6:3-5… “If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.”

If your church is growing (gaining) by telling people what they want to hear; “you are good”?  From such, withdraw thyself.  If your church is not teaching Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery (the doctrine) given specifically unto the Apostle Paul by the risen and glorified Lord Jesus Christ Himself, you are being deceived.  From such, withdraw thyself.  Is your church is teaching Jesus Christ according to prophesy of Israel?  Are they teaching Matthew, Mark, Luke and John (Hebrews, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, James, Jude, Revelation) as if these are instructions for believers today?  If so, you are being deceived.  While there is precious truth in these books, they contain Israel’s promises and instructions, not ours.  The Apostle Paul alone has the Truth for believers today as given him by Jesus Christ specifically for us.  Our truth is contained in the 13 books of Romans through Philemon.

Ephesians 3:1-5… “For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,  If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given ME TO YOU-WARD: How that by revelation he made known unto ME the MYSTERY; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand MY knowledge in the mystery of Christ) Which in other ages was NOT made known unto the sons of men, as it is NOW revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;”

Is your church guilty of deceiving you?  The answer is VERY likely, yes.  From such, withdraw thyself.  Learn what Christ has done for you specifically, outside of His promises made to Israel.  Learn YOUR Truth from YOUR Apostle, given YOU by Christ Himself… Paul.

Next, we examine the basic and fundamental difference between what Christ instructed Israel via the twelve, versus what Christ instructs you and I, via Paul; as Christ has a job for Israel (earth) and a job for us (heaven).

Next Post: “Peter… following Christ and the Law.“