Paul’s Grace Message

        “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.” (Romans 4:7).

“Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” (Romans 4:8).

“He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities” . . . For He knoweth our frame: He remembereth that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:10 to 14).

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE HUMAN RACE?

It would require one or more lengthy volumes to record all that is wrong with this world; that is, with the people on this earth. There are more than two billion human beings on this earth. Every person on this earth, who is rational and honest, old enough to consider the question, “what is wrong with the human race,” whether saint or sinner, will readily confess, “Lord, I have done the things which I should not have done: and I have left undone the things that I should have done.”

Now of course some of the people on this earth have done more of the things that they should not have done, and left undone more of the things that they should have done, than others. About 3450 years ago God gave to the human race ‘TEN COMMANDMENTS’, called ‘THE LAW’. In those ten commandments God has told the people on this earth the things that they should not do and the things that they should not left undone. So God, in His Bible, defines ‘SIN’ . . . “Sin is the transgression of the LAW.” (I John 3:4).

When we read in Romans 3:23, that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” we learn that “the glory of God” is the high and holy standard by which a word, thought or deed is or is not defined as ‘SIN’. In case we do not have a clear understanding of the mean­ing of “the glory of God,” let us consider the statement in Romans 3:20; “by the law is the knowledge of sin,” and plead guilty, or not guilty, after reading the preceding verse, “by the law let every mouth be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God.” (Romans 3:19).

“GUILTY BEFORE GOD.” God says ‘ALL’ are.

GOD LOOKED DOWN FROM HEAVEN.

Centuries before the Lord directed His servant to de­clare that by Adam sin entered the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned (Romans 5:12), centuries before that servant was directed to write Romans 3:9, “Jews and Gentiles are all under sin,” Romans 3:10 and 12, “there is none righteous, not one” . . . “there is none that doeth good, no, not one,” the Old Testament servant of God gave us this important truth in both Psalm 14 and Psalm 53: “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside; they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no not one.”

Note how this verdict concerning the universality of sin is confirmed in Ecclesiastes 7:20: “there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.” So again we learn that all of the inhabitants on this planet are sinners and are unjust.

We all should know of one exception. He, in Acts 7:52, is called “THE JUST ONE.” We learn in Hebrews 4:15, that this ONE was tempted in all points like we are, and yet He was without sin. But it was prophesied that He was to be numbered with the transgressors and bare their sin. (Isaiah 53:12). So we have this wonder­ful ‘good news’ in I Corinthians 15:3 and in I Peter 3:18: “Christ died for our sins.” “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the JUST for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” Note what happened to some sinners, who had been wicked sinners, “atheists” (Ephesians 2:5 and 12) “but now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometime were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” “God, for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:32).

TWO WICKED WOMEN AND TWO GUILTY MEN

CONDEMNED BY THE LAW . . . PARDONED BY CHRIST

     Let us think of two very sinful women and two very sinful men, whose sins were forgiven by the Lord Jesus. The first woman is mentioned in the seventh chapter of Luke. The second woman is mentioned in the eighth chapter of John. In Luke 7:37 the woman is thus described: “a woman in the city which was a sinner.” Note then the Lord’s words of forgiveness: “her sins which are many are forgiven.” (Luke 7:47). And He (the Lord Jesus) said unto her, “thy sins are forgiven.” (7:48). As we think of this sinning woman and this sinless Saviour, let us note Ephesians 4:32, that when God forgives a sinner his sins, He does it for Christ’s sake. Let us also note Colossians 2:13, that when God forgives the sinner, He forgives all of his sins. So we read in I John 1:7, “the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin.”

The other sinful woman was caught in the very act of a sin that was not only condemned by the law, but which called for the death penalty. This woman is mentioned in John 8:1 to 11. In John 3:17 we learn that God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. So Christ said to the penitent, sinful woman, “neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more.” (John 8:11). If you want to call her a scarlet woman, think of Isaiah 1:18; “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”

When the believing sinner receives Christ as Saviour and trusts in His shed blood, that believer has God’s Divine guarantee of redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of God’s grace. (Ephesians 1:6 and 7). Has any one ever been able to comprehend, measure or compute or estimate “the riches of God’s grace?” This will be fully revealed in the ages to come. (Ephesians 2:7).

Now concerning the two very wicked men who were forgiven all their sins by the Lord Jesus Christ. One was Zacchaeus, the publican, who was up in a tree (Luke 19:1 to 10); and the other was the penitent thief on the tree, nailed fast to the cross which stood beside the cross on which the Prince of Life was killed (Acts 3:14 and 15), on which the Lord of Glory was crucified. (I Corinthians 2:8).

To the publican up in the tree the Lord of Glory said, “make haste, and come down; for today I must abide in thy house.” (Luke 19:5). Zacchaeus received the Saviour joyfully. (Luke 19:6). The Saviour said to the convicted sinner; “this day is salvation come to this house.” (Luke 19:9). After reading Luke 19:1 to 10 we would conclude that Zacchaeus was a business man who had been dishonest in his business transactions, “a man that is a sinner.” (Luke 19:7). He learned that where sin abounded grace did much more abound. (Romans 5:20). This forgiven publican learned the meaning of I John 2:12, “because your sins are forgiven you for His Name’s sake.” Zacchaeus became the happy man of Romans 4:7 and 8: “blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered”. . . “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.”

The other very sinful man, the thief on the cross, confessed that his sin or crime had been of such a serious nature that he deserved capital punishment. (Luke 23:40 and 41). It was at the time that both the sinner and the Saviour were dying that the sinner confessed his sin and called on the Saviour for mercy. The Saviour immediately responded, saying; “I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43). Saving faith and pardoning grace worked together for the salvation of a guilty sinner and for his guarantee of eternal glory in heaven with his Saviour.

The best that man’s law or God’s law could do for that guilty thief was to condemn him to death, and after death judgment. (Hebrews 9:27 and II Corinthians 3:7 and 9). This we are told in Romans 3:19: “to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all of the world may become guilty before God.” “The law worketh wrath.” (Romans 4:15). Christ made peace through the blood of His cross. (Colossians 1:20). Christ died to deliver from the curse of the law those who were struggling to attain righteousness by that law, which law demanded a sinless and righteous life. (Galatians 3:13 and Romans 8:3 . . . Colossians 2:14 to 16). Note God’s truth, in Galatians 3:21 and 22: “if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law; but the Scripture hath con­cluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.” “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” (Romans 10:10).

ABOUNDING SIN—ABOUNDING GRACE

Remember that God is called “THE GOD OF ALL GRACE”; and that He is rich in mercy, and even before the wicked sinners of Ephesians 2:1 to 10 were saved by His grace God loved them with a great love. (Ephesians 2:3 to 6). God wants every sinner on this earth to be­lieve the truth of Romans 5:20, “where sin abounded grace did much more abound.”

Some centuries after God looked down from heaven and saw a filthy human race He looked down again. Note in Titus 3:3 the people God saw on earth . . . “foolish . . . disobedient . . . deceived . . . serving divers lusts and pleasures . . . living in malice and envy, hateful, and hat­ing one another.” Note in the very next verse, the attitude of the sinless God toward such awful sinners . . . “The kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared.” (Titus 3:4). “The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath ap­peared to all men.” (Titus 2:11).

Surely by now we know God’s answer to the ques­tion “what is wrong with the human race?” Moreover it would seem then that we can answer, with one word, the question, “what is wrong with the human race.’“ The one word is, ‘SIN’. Of course nice people prefer the quotation from the writer who said, “to err is human: to forgive, Divine.” They prefer the words ‘mistake’ and ‘blunder’ to the word ‘SIN’. ‘SIN’ causes them to think of God and the Bible, and occasionally, the next world. They prefer to acknowledge human weakness instead of confessing with the apostle Paul, “the good that I would I do not; the evil that I would not that do I . . . it is no more I that doeth it, but sin that dwelleth in me.” (Ro­mans 7:19 and 20).

The great majority of nice, religious people abso­lutely reject, repudiate and oppose the statements in the Bible, “there is none good; no not one” . . . “I know that in me, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing” (Romans 7:18) . . . “I acknowledge my transgressions . . . behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother con­ceive me” . . . (Psalm 51:3 to 5) . . . “were by nature the children of wrath.” (Ephesians 2:3).

It is a known fact that many, many so-called Christian preachers are so cultured, so refined, so deceived by the one who is called ‘the god of this age’, that they do not even think of offending their hearers by preaching Revelation 21:8: “the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the sec­ond death.” Of course they do not believe that Jesus Christ was God in human form, that He died on the cross to deliver us from the wrath of God, that He rose from the dead and was seen by a great number of believers in the resurrection, glorified body in which He ascended up to heaven, where He is now the glorified Man at God’s right hand. They seem to be ignorant of the fact that a Christian infidel is an impossible paradox. They are de­scribed as deluded messengers in II Corinthians 11:13 to 15, proving the truth of Christ’s words in Luke 16:15 and Paul’s words (by the Holy Spirit) in I Corinthians 1:18: “that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomina­tion in the sight of God” . . . “the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us who are saved it is the power of God.” “THEM THAT PERISH” . . . “US WHO ARE SAVED.” What a contrast! Where do you stand?

THE WORLD AND THE LUST THEREOF PASSETH AWAY.

Note the testimony of one of the outstanding Chris­tians of all times, that disciple whom Jesus loved in a very special way, the apostle John; “we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness (in the evil one).” (I John 5:19). We are told in Revelation 12:9 that Satan has deceived the whole world. We are told in II Corinthians 4:4 to 6 that Satan, as the god of this age, does everything within his power to keep the sinner from believing the gospel and thereby, by grace through faith, from becoming a saint. Every sinner, who is transformed by believing God’s saving gospel and re­ceiving Christ as Saviour, is a new creation in Christ Jesus. (II Corinthians 5 :17 . . . Ephesians 2:10). There is a great difference between religious reformation and a Divine transformation, regeneration by the work of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

So again answering the question, “what’s wrong with the human race,” we quote I John 2:16 and 17: “all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. The world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for­ever.” In this connection we must know the difference in doing the will of God to be changed from a ‘dead sinner’ into a ‘living saint’, and doing the will of God after we have experienced the Divine transformation, regenera­tion, or being “God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, ‘UNTO’ good works, which God hath before or­dained that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10).

TRANSFORMED THIEVES, ADULTERERS

AND DRUNKARDS

We read in Revelation 21:8 where murderers, idola­ters, adulterers and liars go. But in I Corinthians 6:9 to 11 we learn that they need not go there. First we read in verses 9 and 10, that fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, drunkards and others shall not inherit the kingdom of God. We read in Revelation 21:8 that all of these will reach the lake of fire. Why? For two reasons: because they are such sinners and second because they refuse to let the forgiving God forgive them and transform them from ‘dead sinners’ into ‘living saints’. If they let God for­give them and change them, note in I Corinthians 6:11 what happens to believing sinners: “such were some of you; but ye are washed, ye are sanctified (made saints), ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” So in the final analysis wicked people reach the lake of fire because they refuse God’s remedy for sin.

THE SUM TOTAL OF MAN’S SPIRITUAL DUTY

The sum total of man’s spiritual duty and responsi­bility is “to know God,” and “to make God known.” This means to believe the words of Christ in Matthew 11:27 and John 17:3: “neither knoweth any man the Father, except the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him” . . . “And this is life eternal, that they may know Thee the only True God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent.”

Every person on this earth when asked to answer the question, “what is wrong with the human race,” should believe that the question can be adequately answer­ed in a few words, important words, namely: First, be­cause the very great majority of sinners refuse or fail to let God save them in God’s way. Second, because the very great majority of saved people will not avail themselves of God’s all sufficient grace and power, and yield to the indwelling omnipotent Holy Spirit, in a determined effort every hour to walk worthy of the calling wherewith they are called. In giving this answer we are not forgetting the mighty power of Satan and the weakness of the flesh.

GOD LOVED THE WORLD GOD GAVE HIS SON

We read in the Bible, “GOD IS LOVE.” (I John 4:8). In I Peter 5:10 God is called “THE GOD OF ALL GRACE.” In Colossians 1:13 the Lord Jesus is called, “THE SON OF GOD’S LOVE.” In Romans 5:20 we read, “Where sin abounded grace did much more abound.” We read in II Peter 3:9, “The Lord is longsuffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” We read in I Timothy 2:4 to 6, that God will have all men to be saved; and that Christ Jesus gave Himself a ransom for all. We read in I Timothy 1:15, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” We read in Hebrews 9:26, that Christ appeared once to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. In I Peter 3:18 we read, that Christ suffered for sins once, the JUST for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. We read in I Peter 2:24, that Christ bare our sins in His own body on the tree.

Now let us be assured that God cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18 and Titus 1:1 and 2), as we read I John 4:10 and John 3:16: “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” . . . “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The truth in these two verses is confirmed in Romans 5:8; “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” As we read these words, “Christ died for us,” let us read with them I Corinthians 15:3: “Christ died for our sins.”

What Christ did in the matter of suffering and dying for all the sins of all the sinners that have ever lived on this earth was all in harmony with God’s will and in ful­fillment of prophecies which the Holy Spirit directed holy men of old to foretell. Several centuries before Jesus was introduced as the Lamb of God Who beareth away the sin of the world (John 1:29) , it was prophesied that God would make His soul an offering of sin; that the Son of God would be wounded for the transgressions of sinners. (Isaiah 53:10 and 53:5).

The sacrifices that God’s appointed servants offered for sins, for centuries before Christ appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, had “a shadow of good things to come.” (Hebrews 10:1 to 3). “It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.” (Hebrews 10:4). But now read Hebrews 10:12 concern­ing the once for all sacrifice of God’s sinless Son, the Saviour of the world: “THIS MAN, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down at the right hand of God.” (Hebrews 10:12). “When He had by Himself purged sins sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on High.” (Hebrews 1:3).

Has any human being ever heard more wonderful news than is recorded in Acts 13:38 and 39 concerning the sinning sinner and the sinless Christ, “be it known unto you, that through ‘THIS MAN’ is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by HIM all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses?”

Again hear and believe Hebrews 10:18 and 17: “where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin” . . . “And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”

A MORAL, PRAYING PHILANTHROPIST NEEDED SALVATION

Perhaps, we are all agreed that the two very wicked women and the two wicked men, whom we have mentioned, certainly needed forgiveness and transforming power to change their lives. But now by way of contrast, we read in Acts 11:14 that the Lord sent His gospel messenger to preach to Cornelius, “words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.” Cornelius was a sinner quite different from those we have mentioned. Hear the Bible Record of Cornelius: “a devout man, and one that feared God with all His house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always” . . . (Acts 10:2) . . . “a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews.” (Acts 10:22).

Cornelius, like the thief on the cross, had to be saved by the grace of God and the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Like religious Nicodemus, Cornelius had to be born anew to enter the kingdom of God. Nicodemus was not only a very religious church member, but he was a very important religious leader, a ruler of the Jews, which of course meant that he was supposed to be a Bible teacher. His name means “ruler of the people.” Nicodemus needed to hear words whereby he should be saved, should be born anew, born from above. He heard these words from the heart and lips of the Son of God, “ye must be born anew” . . . “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:14 and 15). Hear this good news, recorded in Romans 6:23: “the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Hear the ‘good news’ in Christ’s words in John 10:28, “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.”

As we think of Nicodemus, the Jew, and Cornelius, the Gentile, we are again reminded of the truth of Romans 3:9 and 10: “we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are under sin . . . there is none righteous, no, not one.” But hear the ‘good news’ in this same Epistle to the Romans (10:12 and 13): “There is no difference between the Jew and the Gentile: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him; for whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved.”

MORE GOOD NEWS FOR THE HUMAN RACE

We have quoted the ‘good news’ in Romans 4:7 and 8, the truth that a believing sinner can become happy by having God forgive him and his sins. The related truth is in Romans 4:6, in which verse is described the happiness of the man unto whom the sinless, righteous God will impute His own perfect, Divine righteousness, not requiring any religious doings or good works of the believer or any worthiness on his part.

The truth of Romans 3:24 to 28 should prepare any interested person for the wonderful, ‘good news’ of Romans 4:6. In Romans 3:24 to 28 we learn that a believer is justified (forgiven and declared righteous) by God’s grace ‘freely’ (without a cause) through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

When the Lord revealed the ‘good news’ of I Timothy 1:15, the truth that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” we read in the same verse concerning this ‘good news’, “this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation.” Surely this ‘good news’ is worthy of the prayerful, thoughtful, serious consideration of every rational human being on this earth. It is not only worthy of all acceptation, but is worthy of the acceptation of all. This statement should be accepted as Divine, infallible truth at full face value. Every person on this earth should do more than give mental assent to this glorious message of salvation, the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ came down from heaven and died on Calvary’s cross for the sins of the whole world, and in a resurrection body went back to heaven where He now sits on His Father’s throne.

To believe this great truth and to receive Christ as Saviour is by far the most important decision any human being can make. When one convicted sinner cried out, “what must I do to be saved,” God’s answer was, “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. (Acts 16:31) .

According to the Word of God, every person who is not saved before that person leaves this world will be eternally, irrevocably lost. No person need be a profound student of the Holy Scriptures to know that the Bible plainly teaches, “no unrighteous man shall inherit the kingdom of God” (I Corinthians 6:9) ; that except a man be born anew, from above, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. (John 3:3 to 7).

THE ONE AND ONLY WAY TO BECOME RIGHTEOUS

So far as it is humanly possible every person on this earth should lay aside every plan and task and duty until he or she learns from God’s Book how to be changed from an unrighteous man or woman to a righteous man or woman. According to Romans 4:6, this means how an unrighteous person can become truly happy, a happiness that will never, never cease, although faithful, spiritual, aggressive saved people may be in heaviness through manifold temptations, satanic attacks and suffering for righteousness sake. But they know “that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18).

Every month many are added to the ranks of those who are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God (II Timothy 3:4) and fewer added to those who are like Moses, who chose “rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” (Hebrews 11:25). He “had respect unto the recompense of the reward.” (Hebrews 11:26). Moses, like Paul and millions of God’s people, looked not “at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen,” things not temporal but eternal. (II Corinthians 4:18).

Now hear prayerfully the good news of Romans 4:6, believe it with your whole heart, and become the happy man or woman described in this verse: “THE ‘BLESSEDNESS’ (HAPPINESS) OF THE MAN UNTO WHOM GOD IMPUTETH RIGHTEOUSNESS WITHOUT WORKS.”

This surely is the best news that any person on this earth ever heard. When the apostle Peter seemed to have become somewhat confused Paul gave to Peter the straight ‘grace’ message of Galatians 2:16: “knowing that a man is not justified (declared righteous) by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ . . . for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” Note again how the Holy Spirit directed the Lord’s ‘grace’ messenger (Paul) to state this great truth, this fundamental Christian doctrine, in Titus 3:5 to 8: “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved, us.” Immediately preceding the ‘good news’ of Romans 4:6, quoted above, we read in Romans 4:4 and 5: “to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt . . . but to him that worketh not, but believeth in Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”

“HIM THAT JUSTIFIETH THE UNGODLY.” The ungodly can be justified. God is ever ready and will­ing to justify the ungodly. The ungodly cannot justify themselves or become righteous before God by good works or religious deeds. They can become righteous by grace through faith in the perfect redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit; and this without good works or religious deeds. God’s Word states clearly and definitely in Romans 11:6: “if by grace, then it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace.”

“TO HIM THAT WORKETH NOT.” Read this again in Romans 4:5, in II Timothy 1:9, in Ephesians 2:8 and 9, in Titus 3:5, in Romans 3:28; and receive and be­lieve the truth of Galatians 2:21, that if any man can be­come righteous before God by “LAW” works or religious doings, Christ died in vain. This is confirmed in Galatia is 3:21: “if there had been a ‘LAW’ given which could have given life, verily ‘RIGHTEOUSNESS’ should have been by the law.” . . . Then let God, by the Holy Spirit, open your heart to receive with meekness and faith the truth in the verse that follows Galatians 3:21: “but the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.”

Woe unto the religious leaders who use James 2:24 to frustrate the grace of God and bewitch and beguile and bewilder those who follow these confused leaders! Where may we find the expert religious judge on this earth who is competent to instruct any person the exact number of religious deeds and good works that person must do every hour of every day of every year in order to be justified? The judge by his own rule, with those whom he judges, may fail by just two or three good deeds to attain unto the righteousness that will qualify him and them for heaven.

GOD’S ALL SUFFICIENT GRACE FOR GOOD WORKS

Inasmuch as the Lord directed the apostle Paul to use the word ‘GRACE’ more than 100 times in Paul’s ministry and messages recorded in the Bible, and inasmuch as Paul testified that “the dispensation of the grace of God” was given to him by the ascended, glorified Christ, by special revelation (Ephesians 3:1 to 3 . . . Galatians 1:11 and 12 and II Corinthians 12:1 to 12), we have the ‘BIBLE’ right to call the apostle Paul, “the Lord’s ‘GRACE’ mes­senger.”

In Ephesians 2:5 this ‘grace’ messenger was directed to write, “by grace ye were saved.” Note what he wrote in the three verses; Ephesians 2:4 to 6, “but God, Who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us . . . even when we were dead in sins hath made us alive . . . and hath raised us up together, and made us sit (down) together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.” Then after repeating that salvation was by grace through faith, with­out man’s work or interference, the apostle Paul was di­rected to tell the human race that saved people are to do ‘good works’ and not unsaved people, however religious. Note Ephesians 2:8 to 10 . . . “by grace through faith, without works” . . . “God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus ‘UNTO GOOD WORKS’, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

It would seem that almost every person, who is ra­tional and of average intelligence, would know the very great difference between, not being saved, regenerated or being created in Christ Jesus by ‘good works’, and being “created in Christ Jesus ‘UNTO GOOD WORKS’.” In God’s Gospel of Grace God’s one requirement of the sin­ner is ‘FAITH’, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and in His perfect work. The believing sinner must be God’s work­manship before God will accept that believer, or new creation (II Corinthians 5:17), as a workman. The sinner need not work for salvation or regeneration, to pass out of death into life. An unbeliever is dead in sins. The believer is said to be ‘alive from the dead’. (Romans 6:13 . . . Colossians 2:13 . . . John 5:24 and 25 . . . John 11:25 and 26). God will not reward or even accept the ‘good works’ of a dead man. Concerning those who have passed out of death into life, we read in Romans 6:13: “YIELD YOURSELVES UNTO GOD, AS THOSE WHO ARE ‘ALIVE FROM THE DEAD’, AND YOUR MEM­BERS AS INSTRUMENTS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS UN­TO GOD.”

Bible Christians are men and women who have been made alive (Colossians 2:13 . . . Ephesians 2:5 and 6) , who have passed out of death into life (John 5:24 and 27 and 11:25 and 26). Thus we see that the adults of this world are divided into just two groups with respect to salvation, “dead sinners” and “living saints.”

To the “living saints,” saved people, new creatures in Christ, who have received from God, as a free gift, His own perfect, Divine righteousness, God’s instructions are to behave as becometh saints (Ephesians 5:2 to 4) to “walk worthy of the calling wherewith ye are called.” (Ephesians 4:1). In Titus 3:8 Christians are instructed to be careful to maintain ‘good works’.

GOD IS ABLE TO MAKE ALL GRACE ABOUND

Keep in mind that God is called, in the Bible, “THE GOD OF ALL GRACE.” (I Peter 5:10). Keep in mind, that, according to God’s message of salvation in this age and dispensation of grace, which message and dispensa­tion differ in many respects from the message and pro­gram of God while Christ was on earth and in the first chapters of Acts under the direction and supervision of Peter and the other eleven apostles, any and every kind of sinner can be saved “by grace through faith” (Ephesians 2:8 and 9), can be justified freely by God’s grace and faith in Christ and His shed blood. (Romans 3:24 and 25). In God’s ‘GRACE’ program good works have no place until after the sinner, by faith receives Christ and becomes a new creation in Christ Jesus. (II Corin­thians 5:17 and Ephesians 2:10). Only the good works of a God made saint are recognized or rewarded by God.

Remember no person is a saint because he behaves. He is a saint because he believes. But every saint should behave as becometh saints. Saints are those who were sin­ners but were turned to God, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for God’s Son from heaven. (I Thessalonians 1:9 and 10). Saints are expected to be labourers together with God. (I Corinthians 3:9). Saints are speci­fically instructed not to continue in sin, that grace may abound. (Romans 6:1 and 2 and 6:15). Saints are in­structed to speak and work in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks unto the Father, through His Son. (Colossians 3:17 . . . John 5:23). God assures all saints that His mighty Divine power that He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him to the highest heavens is at their disposal. (Ephesians 1:18 to 23 . . . Ephesians 3:20).

 

BY THE GRACE OF GOD

 

Great statement is this one made by the Apostle Paul about 58 A.D.

“By the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” (I Corinthians 15:10).

Can you say, “I am?” Not one of us can say, “I labored more abundantly than they all.”

I am. Are you? I am saved by the grace of God. I didn’t labor abundantly or even for one moment to be saved by grace.

“If by grace then it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace.” (Romans 11:6) .

Perhaps you desire to “amen” this testimony: “I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I hope to be. But, by the grace of God, I am not what I once was.”

When Christ was here on earth He said to those who would get a place in the kingdom of heaven, “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” (Luke 13:24). “Agonize” or “labour” to get in. That certainly is not our message for today. It is in direct contrast with Romans 3:24: “Declared righteous without a cause by God’s grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” For us the great preacher of Grace had “the dispensation of the grace of God.” This differs from “the dispensation of law” and “the dispensation of the kingdom of heaven.”

Eternal life is the free gift of God. (Romans 6:23). It cost God more than can ever be computed or measured or even estimated. God spared not His Own Son. With Him He shall also freely give us all things. (Romans 8:34). “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.” “It is the Gift of God.”

“We are His workmanship created in CHRIST JESUS, unto good works that God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10) .

Rather a unique statement: “Walk in good works.” This is the will of God concerning His children, believers who are in Christ. God demands that we must be IN CHRIST before we can ‘‘WALK IN GOOD WORKS.

In Christ we are the righteousness of God, accepted, perfect (in standing), complete and blessed with all spiritual blessings, free from condemnation. (II Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 1:6; Hebrews 10:14; Colossians 2:10; Ephesians 1:3; Romans 8:1).

We are a redeemed people zealous of good works, saved to maintain good works, labourers together with God, fishers of men, shining lights, soldiers of Jesus Christ, witnesses, ambassadors, sowers and workmen that needeth not to be ashamed.

“Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” (I Corinthians 15:58).

Our labour is not in vain, if it is in the Lord. Neither was Paul vain or boastful when he uttered that great truth, “I laboured more abundantly than they all”; for there he gave credit to the grace of God. God is “the God of all grace.” (I Peter 5 :10).

Paul needed all the grace of the God of all grace. That all sufficient grace was available. “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” (II Corinthians 9:8).

Paul set himself up as a pattern; and while the same illimitable grace of God is available for every member of the Body of Christ, we can never measure up to Paul’s standard. But let us do our very best to abound, by the grace of God, in good works.

“Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.” (Philippians 2:14 and 15).

“Say not ye, There are four months and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.” (John 4:35 and 36).

“So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now. they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. (I Corinthians 9:24 and 28).

 

INGERSOLL . . . THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH

 

By many people Colonel Robert Ingersoll was rated as a very brilliant agnostic. He was often referred to as “Ingersoll, the infidel.” He was an uncompromising opponent of the doctrines of Christians who accept the teachings of the Bible concerning the statements in Romans 3:24 to 28 and Acts 13:38 and 39. In these Scriptures we read that any kind of believing sinners can be declared righteous by God, by grace, without a ‘good-behavior’ record, without good works and religious deeds; but by faith alone in the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. In these verses we learn that all of the sins of a believing sinner, whose faith is in Christ, are freely and fully forgiven; that then and there that forgiven sinner is so completely justified by God that he stands in God’s holy presence as though he had never sinned in word, thought or deed. (Acts 13:38 and 39). The explanation of the good news in Romans 3:24 to 27 is that God can be just and be the believer’s justifier, or be both just and merciful to the vilest reprobate in society, because of the propitiatory work of Christ in His death and resurrection.

I heard Colonel Ingersoll speak on this subject. He said that he could not believe in this Bible doctrine or believe that it would be just on the part of the Christian’s God to send to eternal torment an unbelieving, law-abiding moral person, who had been an influence for good in a community for many years, while on the other hand a person, who had been an indecent law breaker, an immoral, vile and wicked sinner, can be completely pardoned and exonerated by God after years of a life worse than wasted; and will because of faith in Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection, spend eternity in heaven.

We would say to Mr. Ingersoll and others, that God’s ways are as high above the ways of man, as the heavens are high above the earth. Way back before Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, to be the friend of publicans and sinners, God said, “Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” (Isaiah 1:18).

God does not enter into any bargain with any sinner, telling that sinner that he may sin against Him for years, and then have the guarantee of death bed repentance and eternal life. Hear God’s Word: “he, that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.” (Proverbs 29:1).

The Pharisees, who heard Christ on earth, were sorely displeased because He assured them that their good works and religious activities would not save them. They hated the sinless Christ without a cause. (John 15:25). After they had derided Christ (Luke 16:14), Christ said unto them; “that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.” (Luke 16:15).

Colonel Ingersoll repudiated the unique claims of the eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, sinless Christ, Who said, “I came down from heaven” (John 6:38), and scoffed at the truth of Romans 3:24 to 28, that a believing sinner is justified (without a cause) by God’s grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. He did not believe Romans 8:8 and Hebrews 11:6, that they that are in the flesh cannot please God, and without faith in the Lord Jesus Christ it is impossible to please God. Of course he did not for one moment accept the Divine truth recorded in Ezekiel 33:13 and Romans 4:4, that God will not recognize or reward the good behaviour of the most benevolent, philanthropic, religious person, who trusts to his own righteousness. In Romans 9:29 to 10:4 God describes the tragedy of some very religious people who erred so seriously that they fell under God’s awful wrath: “going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” “BEING IGNORANT OF GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS.” (Romans 10:3).

Divine righteousness is available for every human being. It cannot be attained by man’s best works or religious deeds. It is the free gift of God to every believing sinner who will meet God at Calvary and receive Christ as Saviour. (Galatians 3:14 . . . Romans 10:9 and 10 . . . II Corinthians 5:21 and Romans 4:5). (Romans 10:4) .

Like the unbelieving self righteous Pharisees of Christ’s years on earth, Colonel Ingersoll objected to Christ being the friend of publicans and sinners. See Christ’s explanation in Luke 18:9 to 14.

 

Rightly Dividing The Word (Chart)

http://paulsgracemessage.org/rightly.htm

 

Posted by Cecil & Connie Spivey

cspivey1953@gmail.com
E-mail this Bible Study to all your friends and share the Gospel of the Grace of God.

 

“No one hath ascended into heaven, but (except) he that descended out of heaven, even the Son of man, who is in heaven” (John 3:13). The entire New Testament bears record to the fact that the Son of God found it necessary to come out of heaven in order to become the Saviour of the world. “The second man is the Lord out of heaven” (I Corinthians 15:47). The preposition “ek” meaning “out of”, often translated “of, from”, proves conclusively that Christ came out of heaven once to die a redeem­ing death, and although now in heaven, will come out of heaven again. Most Christians profess to believe in His first coming out of heaven, but are ignorant of or deny the fact that He will come again, although the entire New Testa­ment with the exception of three books, Philemon, 2nd and 3rd John, bears wit­ness to the fact and in the same lan­guage which describes His first coming. No doubt fanatical date-setters have spoiled this glorious truth for most Christians, but such cannot alter the in­fallible Word of God. The whole philosophy of Christianity is hopeless and pessimistic apart from it; for the Bible no where holds out hope of immortality and resurrection apart from it, and if it will never occur, then Christians are of all men most to be pitied (I Corinthians 15:23, 19). A failing and powerless Christendom surely presents to the world a defeated God, when it throws away the hope of Christ’s coming with power and great glory (Matthew 24:30).

Every true Christian has been made conformable with Christ’s death (Phil­ippians 3:10), i. e., has been crucified with Him (Galatians 2:20; Romans 6:6; Colossians 3:3) for the penalty of sin, and has been given the hope of having his body of humiliation made conform­able with Christ’s body of glory Philip­pians 3:21). This redemption of the body (Romans 8:23) is to be realized when Christ next comes out of heaven. We have already received everlasting life, the salvation of our souls, but we await the salvation of our bodies. Those who spiritualize or misplace this resur­rection err and overthrow the faith of some (II Timothy 2:18). This will not be a general resurrection; for it is called an “ek (out) resurrection ek (out of) dead ones” (Philippians 3:11), signify­ing that some of the dead will remain in the grave after this takes place. It would seem to include only the Body of Christ. Paul had the hope of attaining to this out resurrection, not by meritor­ious effort; for the word “attain” here merely means to come to or arrive at, as is seen from its usage in Acts 26:7 “come”; Acts 25:13 “came unto”; I Corinth­ians 10:11 “come”; towards which he pressed (Philippians 3:12, 14).

Some teach that the Body of Christ began after God set Israel aside in Acts 28:28, and therefore the hope of resur­rection in I Corinthians 15:51, 52; I Thessalonians 4:13 to 17 (given before Acts 28) is not for the Body of Christ. They say our hope is found in Philippians 3:11, 14, 20, 21 and Colossians 3 :4, and claim that these passages teach that our Lord is not coming out of heaven as in I Thessalonians 4, but that we will be called up on high, to meet Christ, not in the air, but in heaven. This theory seems to be contradicted, however, by the very scripture they use. Philippians 3:20 reads: “For our citizen­ship is in Heaven, from whence (ek ou—­out of which, i. e., out of heaven) also we look for (or eagerly await—same word used in Romans 8:19, 23, 25; I Cor­inthians 1:7; Hebrews 9:28) the Sa­viour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” It is ex­actly what the Thessalonians were do­ing: they were “waiting, for His Son from (ek—out of) heaven” (I Thessa­lonians 1:10). Christ is now in heaven; we are to wait for Him out of heaven He must descend from heaven as in I Thessalonians 4:16 before Philippians 3:20, 21 can be realized. The day in which the Corinthians and Thessalonian event is to be realized is called “the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Corinthians 1:8), and the one in which the Philip­pian hope is to be realized is called “the day of Jesus Christ” and the “day of Christ” (Philippians 1:6; Philippians 2:16). If these are two separate events, then lan­guage seems useless in making the distinction. We must, of course, recognize the distinction between His two com­ings or parousias; for there will first be a parousia or coming “for His saints” (I Thessalonians 4:15; II Thessalonians 2:1) in which the Church takes part; and then there will be the parousia “with His saints” (I Thessalonians 3:13). The former is called a Mystery (I Corinthians 15:51); the latter is the subject of prophecy and not a mystery, being the Second Coming of Christ back to the earth. Our hope is not to die and go to be with Christ in heaven, but to be caught up with Him when He next comes out of heaven, and to ever be with Him where ever He is.

 

 

 

Rightly Dividing The Word (Chart)

http://paulsgracemessage.org/rightly.htm

 

Posted by Cecil & Connie Spivey

cspivey1953@gmail.com
E-mail this Bible Study to all your friends and share the Gospel of the Grace of God.

 

 

The Bible declares, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” After the creation of all else, God said, “Let us make man in our image….So God made man in his image.” He then created Eve, a wife for Adam, and gave them the easiest command possible: of the innumerable trees of delicious fruit He had planted in the Garden paradise, there was only one of which they were not to eat: “the tree of knowledge of good and evil” (Gn 2:9). It could have borne any variety of fruit. There was no spiritual power in the fruit of this tree any more than in any other fruit just like it.

The command not to eat of that particular tree was a test of His creatures’ obedience. Disobedience even in such a simple thing would be rebellion for which they would be cut off from God, the giver of life, resulting in physical and spiritual death and expulsion from His presence forever.

Critics find it incredibly cruel that eating forbidden fruit should result in today’s world of painful and deadly diseases, poisonous insects and reptiles, the suffering of innocent babies and children, wars, murders, rape, theft, and other horrors that continue, in pain and sorrow, to spell out human history. Yet Adam and Eve’s seemingly insignificant act was done in defiance of their Creator. The rest, as they say, is history–the history of persistent rebellion against the God who created mankind to be the recipients of His love and blessing.

Here we are today, 6 billion-plus little egos, reaping the awful consequences of our own selfishness. We cannot blame God for today’s world but only ourselves. This is not the world God made but the one we have made in our defiance of Him.

It is said that President Bush is a born-again Christian who prays on his face before God every morning. Yet Bush calls Islam a “religion of peace,” even though it is the most vicious religion in history, responsible for the slaughter of untold millions–a slaughter that continues today worldwide. How can Bush be a true Christian and tell such a lie, not once but repeatedly? He calls Muhammad (the founder of this murderous “faith” and himself a murderer of many) a prophet of the true God-and the Qur’an the Word of God! Bush can hardly be ignorant of the fact that sixteen times the Qur’an denies that Jesus is the Son of God. It also denies that He died on the Cross for the sins of the world, denies the resurrection, and every other Christian doctrine.Yet Bush praises Islam?

Where is the practical evidence in everyday leadership that Bush is following Christ with his whole heart and not just playing both sides for political purposes? The rebellion that began with Satan in heaven and spread to Eden is rampant in America and worldwide. Neither God nor Christ is honored in the United Nations. What country’s leaders actually seek and follow the guidance of the Creator of all? America is right where Israel was when God lamented, “Judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter” (Is 59:14).

As Creator of His universe, God must rule. Satan led a cosmic rebellion in heaven, taking many angels with him. Tragically, man followed this insurrection that God will not tolerate. No ruler can allow anarchy–this is why treason warrants the death penalty. How infinitely worse is a revolt against the Lord of the Universe!

God has written His moral laws in every human conscience (Rom 2:14,15). We each know when we continue the rebellion. Sin is high treason against the Lord of the Universe. Thus God told Adam and Eve that in the day they rebelled against Him they would “surely die.” All of their descendants have likewise failed the “obedience test.”

The Bible warns, “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). If treason against an earthly government warrants the death penalty, how much more would high treason against the Lord of the Universe warrant eternal separation from the Life-giver! Jesus himself decreed for rebels eternal banishment from His presence into “outer darkness [where] there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mt 8:12; 22:13; 25:30).

Does God sentence us to a severe but temporary punishment, then welcome us into heaven as having been “purged” of our sin in physical flames? On the contrary, the Bible says that Christ “by himself purged our sins” (Heb 1:3). If we could be purged of sin in any other way, then why did Christ die on the Cross? This erroneous idea of being purged of sin by torment in fire is common to both Roman Catholicism and Islam. The latter’s concept of hell sounds as though Muhammad borrowed it from Catholicism’s purgatory.

In Catholicism, the “purging” occurs in a place called purgatory, invented by Pope Gregory the Great in A.D. 593. Roman Catholicism declares that if one has not suffered sufficient “sorrows, miseries and trials of this life” then “expiation must be made in the next life through fire and torments or purifying punishments…” (”Apostolic Constitution on the Revision of Indulgences,” Vatican II).

The idea that physical fire consuming one’s body could have a morally purifying effect (affirmed by both Catholicism and Islam) is not only heresy but unreasonable. Evangelicals, too, accept the idea of torment in physical fire as a fitting eternal punishment for moral and spiritual rebellion against God. That concept has numerous problems.

Bodily immersion in fire (as Islam, Catholicism, and many evangelicals propose) would cause such unbearable pain that it would be impossible to have a moral or rational thought. There couldn’t even be a sincere regret for sins committed-only an overwhelming rage against the “God” who would torture in this manner and the desperate promise of anything in order to get relief. Of course, promises made under such duress would be worthless!

If those in the Lake of Fire have physical bodies (which the rich man in hell did not), their bodies would be consumed instantly. Thus, the “God” torturing them would have to instantaneously and continuously reconstitute their bodies to maintain the physical torment. This is the hell of Islam: “…cast into the Fire: As often as their skins are roasted through, We shall change them for fresh skins, that they may taste the penalty: for Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise” (Surah 4:56). The body is much more than skin, so this makes no sense. Yet Catholics and even some evangelicals have a similar view.

The question is often asked, “What about the bodies of evildoers mentioned in John 5:28-29? And what about ‘I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God….The sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them’ (Rv 20:12,13)? Doesn’t that sound as though their bodies have been resurrected?” No, it couldn’t be. Nothing is said in these passages about “the dead” having bodies. How could those standing before God in judgment be described as “dead” if they had been raised body, soul, and spirit? Only through Christ’s resurrection is death conquered. The bodies of the redeemed alone partake in that victory.

The fact that the dead are “judged…according to their works” (Rv 20:12) surely means nothing unless they are punished “according to their works.” How could that happen through the torture of being thrown into the Lake of Fire? Will Hitler be in a hotter section? But how could physical bodies suffer greater or lesser heat in the split second of consumption? And how could degrees of physical torture distinguish between sins of so many different kinds and the motivation behind each? Physical flames could not do that.

The rich man in hell did say he was tormented in a flame; and death and hell will one day be cast into “everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels….The lake of fire…where the beast, and the false prophet…shall be tormented…for ever and ever” (Mt 25:41; Rv 20:10,14). But the “devil and his angels” have no physical bodies, so how could physical flames, to which they would be impervious, have been prepared for them? The rich man’s body was in the grave, not in the flames of hell, even though he spoke of his tongue.

Certainly, the fire that shall “try every man’s work of what sort it is” (1 Cor 3:13) is not physical. It must be the “fire” of God’s justice, holiness, purity, and truth that exposes motives and would surely torment the conscience of the damned forever. This alone could constitute the flames in the Lake of Fire. No longer is any excuse plausible even to the most perverted. With no tree to hide behind, no fig leaf to cover, and standing naked before God, the flame of His justice burns the conscience with supernatural conviction. That eternal torment will be beyond anything we could imagine.

The Qur’an has far more to say about hell than does the Bible. Qur’anic descriptions are vivid and terrifying. Hell is for those who reject the teachings of the Qur’an (Surah 5:86). And like Rome’s purgatory, every Muslim must spend at least some time in hell (S 19:71,72). Some “will abide therein forever” (S 2:217), while others will be delivered after they have sufficiently suffered in the flames: “Whoso is removed from the Fire and is made to enter paradise, he indeed is triumphant” (S 3:185, etc.).

Of the rich man, Jesus said, “In hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments” and begged for a drop of water to be placed on his tongue (Lk 16:23,24). That strange request betrayed confusion between the physical and spiritual/moral, since his body and its tongue were rotting in the grave. Having sought pleasure, joy, and fulfillment in the physical alone to the exclusion of the moral and spiritual, the rich man was apparently locked into that delusion for eternity.

Why wouldn’t torment in the Lake of Fire bring the most hardened sinner to repentance and thus to salvation? As already noted, if physical, the pain would be too severe to allow any rational thought, much less a genuine free-will response to the gospel, even if offered. Biblically, it is too late. After death comes “judgment” (Heb 9:27), not a second chance.

Every parent knows that a child caught in disobedience will tearfully repent and promise the moon to escape punishment. The same is true of criminals. I helped a former chairman of the Federal Parole Board write his biography. He learned that prisoners begging for parole could bring one to tears with their apparently sincere promises to “go straight” and never return to prison. Yet very few fulfill such promises. Prisons have revolving doors, with a high percentage of “graduates” returning to continue the lesson they never learned.

The United States, with by far the highest per capita church attendance in the world, also has the highest percentage of its population behind bars at any time. This reflects both the fact that many criminals live more luxuriously in prison than they did in the outside world-and that prison sentences for criminals are not biblical. Instead, God requires restitution to the victim, and that has a morally restorative effect for the offender. Of course, most people never commit a crime that sends them to prison, but they could be engaging secretly in adultery, fornication, lust, homosexuality, envy, pride, jealousy, etc., and “repent” only when caught.

A number of high-profile religious leaders, both Catholic and evangelical, have within the past few years been exposed for committing horrible sins and have supposedly publicly repented, some with tears. The shame is hard to recover from and the suspicion can never be removed that no matter how sincere the repentance may seem to be, it didn’t come because the one exposed was truly repentant but was merely embarrassed at being caught. If the sin had remained hidden, would the person have come forward to repent, or would he have continued to enjoy the sin in secret? God alone knows the answer to that vital question (Jer 17:9).

There is no way for any sinner, no matter how repentant, to cleanse his heart! God knows that we cannot change from what we are to the new creation He wants us to be. For God to justly forgive, the penalty must be paid. Since it is infinite and pronounced by God upon all mankind, no one but God himself could pay it. But that would not be just, because He is not one of us. So God became a man through the virgin birth to take our place under His wrath, paying the penalty for everyone’s sins so that all could be justly forgiven.

The penalty of eternal death having been pronounced by God even He cannot change. Why? Whatever God says is a reflection of His holy character. For God to go back on His word even once would undermine His perfection. If He could change His mind once, why not twice, or three times-or any number of times? If He only once broke His Word, we could never again rely upon what He says. The possibility would always remain that He might change His mind again-and again.

But this is impossible: “I am the Lord, I change not….For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven” (Mal 3:6; Ps 119:89).

In contrast, Allah says, “Such of our revelations as we abrogate or cause to be forgotten, we bring (in place) one better or the like” (Surah 2:106).

The redemptive work that Christ accomplished on the Cross is the foundation of our faith and for that very reason it is the object of continual attacks aimed at discrediting it. Islam, in the Qur’an, denies that Christ is God come as a man (though it affirms the virgin birth) and denies that He died on the Cross, much less that He paid or even could pay the penalty for others (Surah 4:157-8). The very concept of Christ, the sinless One, dying in the place of sinners is attacked not only by Islam but by atheists who claim it violates the principles of justice.

In Romans 3:21-26, Paul argues the justice of Christ’s death as the substitute for all mankind. His conclusion sounds as though he has fully proved it: “…that he [God] might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (v. 26). Paul gives no explanation why this, which seems so contrary to all human reason, could be true.

To understand, consider Barabbas and Paul. The former was the only one who ever lived who could say that Christ literally died in his place. What a testimony he could have given! But Christ’s death in his place effected no transformation in his heart but merely set that criminal free to live for himself. In contrast, Paul testified, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20).

Those who truly believe on Christ as Lord and Savior are accepting His death as though it were theirs. The life that one once aspired to live for self has been crucified with Christ, and His life has been accepted in exchange. Faith in Christ effects a miraculous transformation in the believer’s heart that can only be described as being “born again…of the Spirit” (Jn 3:3-8). Those who do not know Christ in this way can receive Him by faith right now and begin this new life that will last for eternity! tbc

“But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident, for, the just shall live by faith” (Gal. 3:11).This verse was written by the apostle Paul as he was rebuking the Galatians for turning away from the gospel of grace and observing certain ordiances of the law of Moses. It is important to note that in this one verse there are two quotes from the Old Testament. These were written by two men who lived under the law, David and Habakkuk.The first part of the verse is from Psalms 143:2. David prays, “And enter not into judgement with thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.” David knew that he would be condemned if he entered into the judgement of the law, therefore he often mentions God’s mercy, compassion, and forgiveness (especially in many of his Psalms).

In Romans 3:20, Paul refers again to David’s prayer saying “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight.” In defending salvation by faith, Paul states that the law was given “that all the world may become guilty before God,” and “by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:19-20). Then in Romans 3:24 the principle of God’s grace is emphasized: “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” In the following verse we learn the very important truth that this redemption that in Christ’s sacrifice was not just for our sins, but for the sins of those in the Old Testament. According to this verse and verse 26, God is declaring Himself righteous and just in forgiving sins in the past because Christ’s death was for their sins also.

Hebrews 9:15 also brings out this truth: “And for this cause He is the mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.”

In Romans 4, we have an important passage showing that those in past ages were saved by faith without works. Verse 3 states, “Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (Quoted from Genesis). But we read that Abraham offered sacrifices, paid tithes,
and received circumcision. Yes, but Paul says that he was not justified by works, and adds in the following verse (Romans 4:5-8) that David was not justified by works either. “But to him that works not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also described the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (taken from Psa. 32:1-2). So God declared Abraham and David righteous without works.

Another example from the Old Testament is Abel. Hebrews 11:4 says, “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous.” This verse states that he obtained witness that he was righteous, that is, he was justified by faith before he brought the sacrifice.

But some will say, “Did not God command a sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins?” Several times in Leviticus 4, we read, “and the priest shall make an atonement (sacrifice) for him concerning his sin and it shall be forgiven him.” The key word here is atonement, which is a translation of the Hebrew KAPHAR, meaning “to cover.” The sacrifice covered the sin, but did not take it away, for Hebrews 10:4 says, “It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goat should take away sins.” God commanded an offering because, is His mind, it signified the future perfect sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. Therefore righteousness could not be by the sacrifices of the law, even as we read in Galatians 2:21. “for if righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” Paul told the Jews in Acts 13:39, “And by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.”

Galatians 3:11 was mentioned at the beginning o this study as containing two references from the Old Testament. The second part of this verse is from Habakkuk 4:2 which reads, ”the just shall live by faith .”This reference is so important that it is also quoted in Romans 1:17 and Hebrews 10:38. It is interesting to note that in Galatians 3:6-13 we have seven quotes from the Old Testament. They all illustrate the truth that the just are blessed through faith. Otherwise, they are under the curse of the law.

Some believe that salvation was by faith plus works because of Mark 16:16. This Kingdom ordinance states, “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved.” However, Hebrews 9:10 says that the law “stood in meats and drinks and divers washings (baptisms), carnal ordinances. “But carnal ordinances cannot save; they were a type of the spiritual reality. Therefore water baptism was a type even as were the sacrifices and offerings. There is no such thing as baptismal regeneration. Sins cannot be cleansed by washing. That water baptism was a type of cleansing from sin can clearly be seen in Acts 22:17, “arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins.” This is similar to various washing of the law which were cleansing and purifying ceremonies (see Leviticus 14 and 15). We now understand why there is no command for water baptism in Paul’s epistles, and why Paul says. “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.” (1. Cor. 1:17).

Although it is obvious that today we are saved by grace through faith without works, we must also understand that this was also God’s principle in every dispensation. This gives God all the glory and praise in salvation, as often declared in both the Old and New Testaments. “For thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth”(Psa. 86:15).

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness; according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions” (Psa 51:1). Also in Psalm 51, “For thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it, thou delightest not in burn offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Vs 16,17).

Paul’s writings likewise give glory and praise to God, saying, “To the praise of the glory of His grace, whereby He has made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:6,7).

This study would not be complete without considering the passage in James 2:14-26, where we read, “Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only”(v. 24) This seems to contradict Romans 3:28 which says” a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” The key to understanding the passage in James is to first understand that the word justify (to declare righteous) is used two different ways in the Bible.

The most general use of the word means “to be declared righteous in God’s sight.” As defined in Unger’s Bible Dictionary, is “to show to be just, right, or in accord with reason: vindicate.” This meaning could be clarified by its use in the following verses: Matthew 11:19” Wisdom is justified of her children.”
Job 9:20 “If I justify myself, mine own mouth would condemn me Psalms 51:4 “that thou (God) mightiest be justified when thou spikiest”
1 Corinthians 4:4. “For I know nothing against myself, yet am I not hereby justified”
It should be evident that James is using the word justify, meaning “to show to be just, right: vindicate.” He is saying that you must have good works to be justified before men. Nowhere in James 2 does it say that God justified a person by his works. Therefore the passage must be interpreted with the idea of being justified in men’s eyes, or in other words, justified as far as man is concerned. This can be demonstrated by the following phrases from James 2:1:4-24: Verse 14: What does it profit?
Verse 18: Shew my thy faith without works, and I will shew theemy faith by my works.
Verse 21-22 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when He offered Isaac? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works?
Verse 24: Ye see then how that by works a man is justified.
We know that Abraham was declared righteous or justified before God in Genesis 15:6, many Isaac was offered. So he was justified forever in God’s sight by faith alone, but he was justified in man’s sight when by faith he offered Isaac.

We know that Abraham was declared righteous or justified before God in Genesis 15:6, many years before Isaac was offered. So he was justified forever in God’s sight by faith alone, but he was justified in man’s sight when by faith he offered Isaac.

James also emphasized a fundamental principle demonstrated throughout God’s Word; that is, that a true and living faith produces obedience and works. So in James 2 it is stated three times that “faith without works is dead.” A good illustration of this principle is found in Hebrews 11, where we read of many whose obedience and works were the results of their faith. So it is evident that living faith will produce good works as a result of faith (see Titus 2 and 3). Note Titus 3:8 where we read”…that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works.”

These observation concerning James 2 are not an exposition, but are meant to be helpful in interpreting the verse and reconciling them with the great truth that justification before God is by faith alone, and this because of HIS grace. “Being justified freely by His grace through redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).

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  Sermon Delivered November 15, 1959 By PASTOR CLARENCE E. KRAMER At Berean Church, Holland Michigan . . And over WJBL, 1260 K.C.

, Whenever someone teaches a doctrine that Is contrary to popular opinion, most people automat­ically reject It without thinking It through. This Is especially true In the matter of water baptism. Chris­tendom has always practiced water baptism, though In many differing modes and for many different reasons. Some teach that water baptism actually contributes to one’s salvation while others teach that baptism Is •only- a witness of some Inward transformation. But though most baptizers differ among themselves as to the significance of the ceremony, yet they all band together to reject the sufficiency of the one divine baptism by which the Holy Spirit places the believing sinner Into Jesus Christ

A remark often heard Is: “How can you say that the whole Church has been wrong all these centuries and now only you have the truth about baptism.” Let us first remember that we do not know If all believers practiced water baptism even though the Church as a whole did; and don’t forget there is a difference between all believers, and the religious hi­erarchy of Christendom. But further, is It so strange that most have been misled regarding this truth? It will not be so strange to the one who knows the tragic history of Israel And Martin Luther must have been faced with the same problem when he, a mere monk, challenged the entire Church of Rome on the question of justification by faith. Truth has never been pop­ular, and spirituality Is not usually found with the majority. Rather than look around us to see what others believe, lest we be found different, we should stand for God’s truth In spite of Its unpopularity and the Church’s indifference to It.

Now, we believe that the one basis of fellowship among all believers Is the blood of Jesus Christ which saved us from our sins. Our relationship with the blessed Son of God is what relates us to each other. I love every Christian not because they all agree with me doctrlnally but because they all love my Lord, and we are brethren in Him. Water baptism should never be made a basis of Christian fellowship, unless, of course, water baptism makes us children of God, which no true evangelical, Bible believing Christian teaches or believes.

As for me, I cannot practise water baptism because:

1 WATER BAPTISM IS AN OLD TESTAMENT ORDINANCE (Heb. 9:10).

In Heb. 9:10 we read, regarding Israel’s worship under the law:

“Which stood only in meats and drinks, and diver* wash­ings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.”

The Greek Word for “washings” In this verse Is baptismois or baptisms. This Incldently shows that water baptism In the Bible Is a ceremonial purification and not a symbol of death and burial. There were no Immersions under the old covenant or law. John the Baptist’s disciples had a dispute with the Jews m John 3:5 about purifying, not burying.

This first covenant (now the old covenant) “had also ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanetuary” (Heb. 9:1). The religious worship of Israel under the law consisted In “meats and drinks and divers baptisms.” So water baptism was a part of the law worship and not a “New Testament” ordinance as so many try to make it. One need only read Exodus and Leviticus to find there the numerous ablutions and purification ceremonies. In Leviticus alone there are some 20 references to washings or baptisms. The lavcr, an important piece in the Tabernacle furniture, was used to wash or baptize the hands and feet of the officiating priest.

 

Then we read, in Heb. 9:10, that the various regulations of the law, including baptisms, were “car­nal ordinances’¹ (the “and” after “washings” is not in the original). Water baptism as a ceremonial cleans­ing was a physical ceremony, a shadow of good things to come (Heb. 10:1) which never could “make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the con­science” (Heb. 9:9). It would be interesting to con­trast this passage with I Peter 3:21 where the baptism which “doth also now save us” is a baptism that does meet the demand of “a good conscience toward God,” something which a water ceremony could never do. This baptism is the antitype of Noah’s baptism and must surely refer to the death baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ who experienced God’s wrath for us on Calvary. We are safe from God’s wrath being in Christ the same way that Noah was safe from God’s wrath while in the ark.

We also read in Heb. 9:10 that water baptism was “imposed on them until . . . .”Here was law. It was not left up to the believer’s conscience; nothing was ever said about it not being absolutely necessary. It was “imposed,” but only temporarily. Like the law covenant Itself which was “added because of transgresslon, (iH the seed should come” (Gal. 3:19) water bap-flam was a temporary institution.

Many fine Bible believing Christiana who are sure that believers today are not under the law, itill Insist that believers ought to be under the water. But the water Is part of the law. Whatever we do with the law we must do with the water, and since the believer is not undethe law he should not be under the water!

Further, I cannot practise water baptism because:

WATER BAPTISM IS NOT A PART OF THE PAULINE REVELATION (I Cor. 1:14.17)

1. The Important question regarding water baptism Is not whether or not It Is taught In Scripture. It very plainly Is, and for that reason I believe In water bap­tism. But Is water baptism to be practised today? This Is the vital Issue. Though God’s Word does teach water baptism, It also teaches the need for blood sacri­fices, circumcision and speaking in tongues. I believe In these things too. But are they to be practised today?

 

How can we know what Is to be practised today and what Is not? By what principle of Bible study can we rule out some things that do not seem to fit, and hold on to others? The key to this Important problem is in the Word itself. God has dealt with men in various ways under differing programs. God is now dealing with men in grace, and this dispensa­tion of grace under which we live was first revealed to the Apostle Paul who made it known to us In his epistles (see Eph. 3:1-9; Col. 1:24-27; Rom. 16:25). This Is why we must be “Pauline.” Some things once commanded by God are now strictly forbidden (com­pare Gen. 17:9-14 and Gal. 5:2, 3). The Word of God which is specifically addressed to us today is that revelation committed by the glorified Lord to the Apostle Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles (Rom. 11:13). Pauline truth Is our guide, and all truth must be taught In the light of this revelation.

Now, what does Paul command In regard to water baptism? Absolutely nothing! There Is not one com­mand In the Pauline epistles to the effect that members of the Body of Christ should practise water baptism. Paul himself says he was not sent to baptize (Read I Cor. 1:17 again). True, he did baptize some, as he also spoke In tongues, but water baptism was not a part of that particular revelation he received from the Lord for us. He was not sent to baptize and neither are we.

Now If Paul was working under the same com­mission as Peter (and the one most believers today are trying to obey) he could never have said: “Christ sent me not to baptize.” Peter was sent out under the com­mission of Matt. 28:19,20 and Mark 16:15-17. Under that commission, Peter and the circumcision apostles were told to baptize all nations and he that believed and was baptized would be saved. Furthermore, miraculous signs would follow those who believed. Read the commission In Matthew and Mark again and see all It commands. This “great” commission defi­nitely required water baptism.

But Paul was not sent to baptize and hence could not have been working under that commission. What was his commission? It was a new commission for the new dispensation of grace which he received from the Lord in glory (Gal. 1:11,12: Eph. 3:1-3). Water bap­tism Is not Included in this commission or in the program for this dispensation. (See 11 Cor. 5:18-20)

Finally, I cannot practise water baptism because:

3. THE “ONE BAPTISM” IS THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT THAT MAKES US ONE WITH THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. (Eph. 4;5; I Co12:13).

   Paul does say a great deal about baptism but It Is not water baptism. In Eph. 4:5 he mentions as part of the unity of the Spirit the one baptism. The fol­lowing verses will show what this one baptism Is:

Rom. 6:3,4: “Know ye not, that so many of us as were BAPTIZED INTO JESUS CHRIST were BAPTIZED INTO HIS DEATH? Therefore we ire buried with Him by BAPTISM INTO DEATH; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the (lory of the Father, even so we also should walk In newness of life.”

I Cor. 12:13: “For by one Spirit are we all BAPTIZED INTO ONE BODY. whether we be Jews or Gentiles. …”

Gal. 3:27: “For as many of you as have been BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST have put on Christ.”

 

Col. 2:11,12: “In whom also ye are circumcised with the cir-cumciiion made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of Ihe ftesh by the circumcision of Christ. BURIED WITH HIM IN BAPTISM, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of Cod, Who hath raised Him from the dead.”

It Is quite obvious from a simple reading of these Important passages that the one baptism that Is com­mon to every believer, Irrespective of denomination, is the baptism into Christ and His Body. This baptism occurs the very moment one believes the gospel. If this baptism Is by water then water baptism saves, for It Is a baptism into Christ.

 

But it is only God who can save and only the Holy Spirit who can put anyone into Christ. In Rom. 6:3,4 we are told that those who have been baptized Into Christ (by the Holy Spirit) have been baptized into His death. It is In His death that we died to sin (verse 2). Since we died with Him we were also buried with Him by means of that baptism Into His death; burled, not In water but In His tomb. And when He arose we arose with Him to new life.

This is not symbolic language for water could never symbolize crucifixion, burial in a rock tomb or resurrection to new life. This is all a spiritual reality which we are to reckon true by faith. This baptism into Christ transforms the life and breaks the power of the sin nature. Could water ever do this? Only God can, and God did, by making us one with Christ through this divine baptism.

This divine baptism, then, presents a spiritual obligation. Because we have been baptized into Christ and thus have died to sin and are now alive unto God, we are commanded to “reckon” ourselves “to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:11). Our baptism into Christ is the only true basis for Christian living. We died to sin only in Him and are alive spiritually only in Him. Put water here and we miss the whole lesson God would teach us. Yea, we miss the power to live pleasing to Him!

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      The question, “when is a Baptist not a Baptist,” may be more difficult to answer than the other question we shall ask in this message, “when is a Non Baptist a Baptist?”

Of the LEADING so called Protestant churches perhaps no denomination can rightfully claim more saved, evangelical, aggressive, spiritual members than can the Baptists. Every one of these saved, spiritual Baptists is willing and ready to admit that there are ‘saved Baptists’ and ‘unsaved Baptists.’ Therefore, they admit that some Baptists are en route to eternal glory and some are en route to eternal perdition. These saved Baptists are not on the way to heaven because they are Baptists; for they know that no member of the Body of Christ is called a Baptist in the Bible. They are going to heaven because they are saved by grace, not of themselves and not of works; for salvation is the free gift of the God of all grace to any sinner who will receive the Lord Jesus Christ and by faith appropriate His perfect work of redemption. As a denomination, perhaps none emphasize the sovereignty and grace of God in salvation more than do the evangelical Baptists. (Ephesians 2:5 to 10 . . . Romans 4:4 and 5 . . . II Timothy 1:9 and 10). And of course the unsaved Baptists are not going to miss heaven, because they are Baptists, but because they are lost, religious sinners, even church members, who have not believed God’s saving gospel, unto the saving of the soul. (Hebrews 10:39). Saved Baptists cannot truthfully say that the unsaved Baptists are not Baptists, but they can say that they are not Bible Christians.

All of the adults of this world, with respect to salvation, are divided into two groups, ‘living saints’ and ‘dead sinners.’ In Ephesians 2:5 to 9 and Colossians 2:13 and I Corinthians 6:9 to 11 and Titus 3:5 to 8 and Colossians 1:12 to 14 we are told how a ‘dead sinner’ becomes a ‘living saint.’ From these Scriptures, and others, we learn, as every person on this earth should learn, that a ‘dead sinner’ does not become a ‘living saint’ by what man does for God, but by what God does for man. Then, as God’s workmanship, the ‘living saint,’ alive unto God and righteousness, should walk in newness of life. He is dead to sin. He should walk in the good works unto which he was ordained. (Ephesians 2:10).

Every ‘living saint,’ whether a Baptist saint, or a Presbyterian saint, a Lutheran saint, a Plymouth Brethren saint, or just an ordinary undenominational Bible saint, is a member of the one true Bible Church described in Romans 12:4 and 5 and Ephesians 4:1 to 6. If a rational adult has not been baptized by one Spirit into the one Body, according to I Corinthians 12:13, he is not a saint, although he may be a moral, religious, cultured sinner, a church member in good standing in some church organization; but lost. If there is any truth clearly, definitely and dogmatically taught in the Bible, it is the all important truth, that there is in this age and dispensation of grace one and only one true Bible Church, the Body of Christ; in Which no church officials or leaders can induct a believer. This is a Divine reception. Every member of the Body of Christ should be identified with a company of redeemed saints of like precious faith; but this is not ‘joining the church.’ All saints are members one of the other, as we learn in Romans 12 and I Corinthians 12; and every member should pray for every other fellow member, whether or not they bear the same unscriptural, sectarian name. This we learn in Ephesians 6:16 to 20.

CHRIST AND THE BELIEVER BAPTIZED INTO DEATH

Meditate carefully and prayerfully on the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the shadow of Calvary’s cross, as recorded in Luke 12:50; “I have a BAPTISM to be BAPTIZED with”; “how am I straitened until it be accomplished.” Christ’s death on the cross was His BAPTISM. It was His THIRD BAPTISM; for we read in Luke 3:21 and 22 of His other two. If we would think of Christ’s death as His THIRD BAPTISM when we read Romans 6:3 and Colossians 2:12 and Ephesians 4:4 and 5, we might be delivered from sectarian baptism and tradition. Every member of the Body of Christ was baptized into the THIRD BAPTISM of Christ at the time he became a member of that Body, and at that same moment he passed out of death into life. (Colossians 2:13 . . . Ephesians 2:5 to 7 . . . John 5:24). Body members are alive from the dead. (Romans 6:13). They are new creatures in Christ (II Corinthians 5:17), raised to walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4). They are to constantly put off the old man and put on the new man. (Colossians 3:8 to 17 and Ephesians 4:22 to 32) . . . SPECIAL NOTICE . . . “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor; for ye are members one of another.” (Ephesians 4:25).

According to Romans 6:3 and Colossians 2:11, every person must have Christ’s baptism and Christ’s circumcision to be saved and get into heaven. All who received this baptism and circumcision of Christ are joined to the risen, glorified Christ is an inseparable and eternal union, all joined together, all members one of the other; and all the members together, ‘CHRIST.’ (I Corinthians 12:12). Therefore the Church, in Ephesians 1:20 to 23, is called the Body, “the filling up of Him that filleth all in all,” and, in Ephesians 3:6, “THE JOINTBODY” (not the same Body). “Fitly joined together.” (Ephesians 2:21).

God’s plain Word is, “that there should be no SCHISM (split or division) in the Body.” (I Corinthians 12:25). Perhaps, the Holy Spirit was not referring to this ‘schism’ when He said, “mark them which cause divisions” (Romans 16:17). But certainly God has marked all who are responsible for sectarianism, no matter how much they may have rehearsed or proved their spiritual or denominational achievements.

Who has escaped God’s marking? God raised Christ far above all heavens and there the glorified Christ gave gifts unto men, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the Body of Christ, until the perfect man and unity of Ephesians 4:13 is reached. Then Christ and the Church will be one flesh (Ephesians 5:31 and 32). Then God, Who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will, will have accomplished His eternal purpose (Ephesians 1:11), and will have completed ‘THE ONE NEW MAN’ of Ephesians 2:15. Then Christ will present to Himself, the glorious, holy, spotless, blameless Church of Ephesians 5:25 to 27. Then we, as members of His Body, will know that the highest truth in ‘THE MYSTERY,’ is what God and Christ have in the saints as well as what the saints have in Christ (Ephesians 1:15 to 19), because Ephesians 1:4 and 5 and II Timothy 1:9.

PAUL WAS NOT A BAPTIST

Paul instructed saints to follow him. (I Corinthians 11:1 and Philippians 3:17). Paul called himself a pattern of believers. (I Timothy 1:15 to 17). Paul declared himself to be the wise masterbuilder who laid the foundation, and instructed other saints to build together with him. Just how far shall we follow Paul? He said, “forbid not to speak with tongues.” (I Corinthians 14:39) . . . He said, “I thank God I speak with tongues more than ye all.” (verse 18). Shall we follow Paul and speak with tongues? Do Baptists? Paul healed diseases with blessed handkerchiefs and aprons. (Acts 19:10 to 12). Shall we? Paul was directed by trances and by the angel of the Lord. Should we be? Paul was delivered from jail by an earthquake. Should we expect such an experience? Paul circumcised Timothy, because of the Jews (Acts 16:3) and became as a Jew, as one under the law, to reach the Jews. (I Corinthians 9:20 to 23). Should we? He said, “follow me.” Where shall we begin and stop? Paul said, “Christ sent me not to baptize, and I thank God I baptized none . . . but a few.” Do Baptists thus thank God? The last record of water baptism in the Bible is in Acts 19:2 to 6. Should we follow this order, water baptism, laying on of hands, Holy Spirit baptism, speaking with tongues? Is this a Baptist program? It was Paul’s program in Acts 19. Now, really doesn’t it sound very much like a Pentecostalist program? We must acknowledge that the greatest of all Christians (Paul) was not a Baptist.

During the three years that Paul was preaching at Ephesus he preached day and night publicly and from house to house and much of his preaching was with tears. (Acts 20:20 and Acts 20:31). Paul was willing almost to be accursed from Christ to get his fellow Israelites saved. He was a debtor to the idolatrous heathen. He travailed in birth until Christ was formed in them. (Romans 9:1 to 3 . . . Romans 1:4 . . . Galatians 4:19). Paul became all things to all men that by all means he might save some. (I Corinthians 9:20 to 24). No messenger of the Lord ever agonized for lost men and women, whether Jews or Gentiles, as did Paul. Of course, the Lord Jesus is excepted. Paul labored, by the grace of God, more than all. (I Corinthians 15:10). Paul shaved his head and took vows, and circumcised Timothy, becoming as one under the law, to win the Jews for Christ during the transition while there was one order for believing Jews, another for believing Gentiles. (Acts 15:19—Acts 21:24 to 28).

If what the Church of Christ teaches were true, that water baptism helps to save the believing sinner, Paul would have thanked God that he baptized day and night publicly and from house to house every one he could get his hands on. If what some Baptists teach concerning water baptism, as a door of entrance into the local organization, were true, or if it were true that water baptism in Romans 6:4 is the believer’s ‘burial’ witness of salvation and identification with Christ, Paul, in I Corinthians 1:14 to 17, said in so many words, that he thanked God he personally helped very, very few to join the church or witness to the world.

Just imagine, if you can, a Baptist preacher or a Church of Christ preacher, remaining for eighteen months in a large city where many were saved, and then writing back to those saints that he did not remember of baptizing more than five or six of the great number who were saved. If what the Church of Christ preacher teaches were true, regeneration in or by water, Paul would not have permitted five minutes to lapse between the exercise of faith and the water baptism. Neither should any Church of Christ preacher wait a minute. Thus we see that water baptism, with Paul, was not even important enough to be included in the ‘all things’ that he became to save some.

If Christians would only use their God given faculties, enlightened by the God given, infallible Holy Spirit, they would certainly know that there was no saving value or efficacy in water baptism after Christ sent Paul forth with the gospel of the grace of God. (Acts 20:24). (Galatians 1:11 and 12). There is not one Christian practicing water baptism today who gives a sound Scriptural reason for his ceremony. Behold what the devil has done to Christian unity and fellowship with the 20 varieties of this so called Christian ordinance.

I am reminded of some lines I penned a short time ago; We’ve been taught it all the time; it must be right; No, we haven’t searched the Scriptures for the light; Tradition’s been our guide: and we are satisfied: We’ve been taught it all the time; it must be right. We’d better search the Scriptures, so we’ll know If what our preacher says is really, really so: Like Bereans who first heard, then daily searched the Word, We too will search the Scriptures, so we’ll know.

‘ONE BAPTISM’ is one of God’s requirements for Christian unity. (Ephesians 4:1 to 5). When the Lord Jesus gave Paul the truth of Ephesians, for members of His one Body, surely He knew all about the utter confusion and disunity and strife that twenty different modes and interpretations and significations of man’s religious water ceremony would cause, and surely He never intended that His ministers, who are supposed to be faithful stewards of the mysteries of God (I Corinthians 4:1 to 4), should read their religious water ceremony into Ephesians 4:4 and 5, Romans 6:3 and 4, Galatians 3:27 and Colossians 2:12.

What must the sinner on the outside think when he beholds the religious feud that has been going on for years between Baptist preachers and the Church of God preachers, with anything but Christian unity, because the Baptist preachers say, “be buried in water to get into our Baptist church,” and the Church of Christ preacher says, “be baptized to get into God’s heaven:” Is Christ divided? “Endeavouring to keep (not establish) the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace:” (Ephesians 4:3).

Surely tradition and sectarian prejudices keep the great majority of God’s people from being Bereans and from obeying II Timothy 2:15, “rightly dividing the Word of Truth:”

 

WHAT SECTARIAN CHURCH WOULD RECEIVE PAUL AS A MEMBER?

Paul spoke in tongues and wrote, “forbid not to speak in tongues.” Paul circumcised Timothy, because of the Jews; and then restrained other apostles from having Titus circumcised. (Galatians 2:1 to 6). Paul shaved his head and took vows. (Acts 18:18 and Acts 21:24 to 28). Paul raised the dead. Paul laid his lands on disciples, who thereby received the Holy Spirit. (Acts 19:3 to 6). Paul healed with or without handkerchiefs and aprons all manner of sickness. Paul said that Christ sent him not to baptize. Paul declared that he was preaching God’s mercy to Gentiles because of Israel’s unbelief. (Romans 11:30). Paul claimed that he received from Christ in heaven a special revelation of God’s great Secret, not before revealed to man. (Colossians 1:24 to 26 . . . Colossians 4:3 and 4). He called this ‘MY GOSPEL.’ (II Timothy 2:8). Paul called himself the wise ‘masterbuilder’ (architekton), ‘chief builder.’ (I Corinthians 3:10)

Paul would find it just about impossible to adjust his creed and practice to be acceptable as a member in any sectarian church today. Paul taught that members of the Body of Christ were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, predestinated to Divine sonship and glorification. (Romans 8:28 to 31 . . . Ephesians I:4 and 5 and 1:11). He taught that God’s grace was given these Body members before the world began (II Timothy 1:9); that eternal life was promised them before the world began (Titus 1:2), and that this great truth was committed to him. (Titus 1:3 . . . II Timothy 1:11 . . . Colossians 1:23 and 24). This doctrine of ‘predestination’ would exclude him from most denominations.

The Church of Christ would rejoice in his testimony in Acts 22:16, stating that the Lord told him to arise and be baptized and wash away his sins. But they would immediately turn against him when he testified, “Christ sent me not to baptize,” which would mean to them, “Christ sent me not to do both things necessary for regeneration,” preach the gospel and immerse in water. Then they would ask him to agree with James (James 2:21), who wrote that a man is justified by works. According to the Christian Church, their members can lose their water regeneration, if they do not do good works and refrain from works that are not good. Their only hope of security and holding out to the end is life in a submerged submarine.

CORNELIUS ALSO A MISFIT

 As the apostle Paul would have to change much of his doctrine and practice to be acceptable for membership in sectarian churches today, Cornelius would also be somewhat of a misfit. Cornelius was a just, God fearing man, who gave money to the Jews and prayed to God very much before he was saved. (Acts 10:1 to 4—Acts 10:22). The Holy Spirit directed Peter to preach to Cornelius, that he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted by God. The prayers and alms of Cornelius had already gone up to heaven before he heard words where by he should be saved. All of this we read in the tenth chapter of Acts. In the gospel of grace this is not the order. (Romans 4:3 and 4). Then of course Peter preached what Jesus of Nazareth did in the land of the Jews, the Word which had been preached to Israel, the death and resurrection of Christ. (Acts 10:34 to 43). As Peter began to preach, before he could say, “be baptized for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Sprit,” the Holy Spirit fell on Cornelius, as the Holy Spirit had fallen on the Jews on the day of the Pentecost. And then Cornelius spoke in tongues. And then who could forbid him water baptism?

Now, let’s see: whose program is this? The Church of Christ preachers would all throw in and raise a considerable amount of money, if they could get Cornelius and his experience off the Record. No baptismal regeneration there; they must admit. Only saved people receive the Holy Spirit. Cornelius received the Holy Spirit while the gospel was being preached to him. Then again to eliminate himself from membership in the Church of Christ Cornelius spoke in tongues. If Cornelius could and would give his testimony before the receiving committee of the Baptist church, and rehearse all the events and factors and the program in his salvation and water baptism and tongues speaking, they would not take him in. The Pentecostalists would hesitate to receive him, because he received the Holy Spirit without a second blessing or the imposition of hands: they would like the ‘tongues’ and they would not object to the prayers and money giving coming before salvation. Poor Cornelius, he was a misfit. Although few could measure up to the morality of this splendid man, no one wants him. Some might receive him, if he would keep silent as to some of his experiences.

But the Pentecostalists invite the Church of Christ preachers and the Baptist preachers over to their assembly in the nineteenth chapter of Acts, and these other preachers refuse the invitation. They can’t make that program fit into their programs; water baptism, then imposition of hands, then Holy Spirit baptism; then tongues; then healing with blessed handkerchiefs and aprons. The Pentecostalists like this; and say others should be convinced they are right, especially since in Acts 19:3 to 11 we find the last Bible record of baptizing with water of a disciple. This was at Ephesus. Then Paul spoils everything for them, by writing to Ephesian saints, “there is one baptism.” There was certainly more than one baptism in Acts 19:2 to 5.

Then as we turn to the last verses of Acts 16 and read of the experiences of Paul, Silas and the Philippian jailer and his household, the Church of Christ preachers and the Baptist preachers and the Pentecostalist preachers all wish Paul had omitted, “and his household,” because they have had such a difficult time trying to get all that household immersed between midnight and morning. Moreover they choose to forget the ‘miracle’ earthquake. And the Church of Christ preachers are sure they will not get in jail for casting out an evil spirit, for that ceased when water baptism did. They go together as we learn in Mark 16:16 to 18.

JOHN THE BAPTIST WAS A BAPTIST

John the Baptist was indeed a Baptist. But in the closing verses of Acts 18 we learn that a splendid student of the Scriptures (Apollos) had to be led from John’s message and taught the Word of God more perfectly. Comparatively few Baptist churches would today receive into their membership a man believing and teaching what John the Baptist believed and taught, or what Apollos believed and taught before Aquila led him more perfectly into the up to date truth. The premillennial, grace preachers in the Baptist denomination are sure that the majority of the Baptist preachers need to be led more perfectly into the truth, especially if they are ignorant enough to believe that John the Baptist was a member of the Body of Christ, or that the Body had its historic beginning before Christ died on the cross.

John the Baptist preached baptism into repentance for the remission of sins. (Luke 3:3). This is the message of Acts 2:38. The Baptist preachers do not preach Luke 3:3. They think they preach Acts 2:38; but they do not. John the Baptist did not baptize with water to admit penitents into the local church. Those who received John’s water baptism did not receive it as a witness to the world that they, having died with Christ by a Divine baptism, were being buried with Him in water. Read Luke 18:31 to 34 and John 20:9. No, John came baptizing with water, that Christ might be made manifest to Israel. (John 1:31). This is not why Baptist baptize with water. Comparatively few Christians are interested in making Christ manifest to the Jews. The Baptists, or any other Christians, who obey II Timothy 2:15, know full well that Christ never instructed any one who was a member of the Body of Christ to baptize with water some other believer who was already a member of that Body. And they know that if any laymen has the right, by the great commission of Matthew 28:19 and 20, to disciple nations, or to evangelize individual sinners, that layman has the right to finish the work and baptize with water. Hence they know they have no Scriptural right to tell the laymen to do the evangelizing and let the clergymen do the baptizing. This too is tradition and sectarianism.

The message of the twelve apostles, in Acts 2:38, “repent and be baptized for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit,” sounds very much like the message and baptism of John the Baptist (Luke 3:3 . . . Matthew 3:11 . . . Mark 1:4 . . . John 1:31). Compare John 1:31 with Acts 2:36 and note that the message of Acts 2:38 was for the nation Israel. If Christian baptism by water began on the day of Pentecost, the twelve apostles never received Christian baptism. The Baptists would give quite a sum, if Acts 2:38, Mark 16:16 and the message and program of Acts 8:5 to 15 were not in the Bible for they certainly do revise the messages in these verses, changing them beyond recognition; and they do the same with Paul’s testimony concerning his own baptism (Acts 22:16).

Thus we see that John the Baptist, like Cornelius, could not get into an evangelical Baptist church in 1948. We may be more than positive that the apostle Paul would get a very cold reception in a Baptist church, unless he would agree not to mention Ephesians 4:4 and 5 and I Corinthians 1:14 to 17 and many other truths he taught. By all means he would have to remain silent on the mystery. But, of course, Paul would let the saved Baptists into the Church of which he was a member; in fact they got into that Church at the moment they were saved, for only The Father, Son and the Holy Spirit can receive believers into God’s one and only true Bible Church, the Body of Christ.

 

THE BAPTISTS SHOULD STAY OUT OF MARK 16:14 TO 18

Baptists, who are determined to continue under this unscriptural, sectarian name, should get out of Mark 16:14 to 18; for they do not believe or teach the message and program recorded in those verses. Christ’s message in those verses is, “he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved . . . and these (four) signs shall follow those who believe.” The Baptists fix this all up to suit their convenience and necessity. They have it read, “he that believeth and is saved should witness the salvation by a burial in water; but no signs following.” The Church of Christ can use the sixteenth verse; but they balk at the next two verses concerning the signs.

Just about the best Bible teacher the Baptists have produced was Dr. I. M. Haldeman, pastor of First Baptist Church of New York City. Dr. Haldeman was a Baptist to the end, a zealous immersionist, and proud of his affiliation with the Baptist denomination. He remained too long in Mark 16:16 to 18. In his closing days he spoke and wrote that God had joined together ‘believing’ and ‘water baptism,’ in the matter of salvation. He said, “what God had joined together, let no man put asunder.” He went just about far enough to please some of the Church of Christ preachers, but too far for some of the evangelical Baptists. Then when one of the outstanding ‘healing’ evangelists went to New York and taught Mark 16:17 and 18, the signs, as a part of Christ’s commission, Dr. Haldeman went after him publicly in no uncertain language; but not with the Word of God, rightly divided. The ‘healing’ preacher used Dr. Haldeman’s own language, when he proved, or attempted to prove, that he was laying hands on the sick for their healing on the authority of the Lord Jesus, in obedience to His commission of Mark 16:18. This ‘healing’ preacher replied to the criticism of Dr. Haldeman in the very same language Dr. Haldeman had used to defend water baptism, “what God hath joined together let no man put asunder.” God joined faith, water baptism and signs together, in Mark 16:14 to 18. Also with the gift of ‘faith,’ in I Corinthians 12:7 to 11, God gave the gift of healing, tongues and miracles. See what God put in the Church in I Corinthians 12:28; and then tell who put them out. Any Scriptural exegesis, approved by the Holy Sprit, for the elimination of ‘signs’ and ‘sign gifts’ from God’s grace program, will likewise eliminate water baptism. They remain or go together. Dr. Haldeman was consistent in linking faith and water together, because he worked under Mark 16; but inconsistent when he ridiculed signs.

 

THE SIXTH CHAPTER OF ROMANS NOT BAPTIST TERRITORY

By carefully reading the sixth chapter of Romans we learn that a great transformation has taken place in the position and spiritual condition of the believer, and that God expected a great change in his walk and behavior. The believer had been baptized into the death of Christ (into Christ’s THIRD BAPTISM), and raised to walk in newness of life. He was now dead to sin and alive from the dead. He was now righteous, no longer unrighteous. All of these radical changes had been brought about by ‘baptism.’ The believer had been baptized into Christ. He had passed out of Adam into Christ. The Church of Christ preacher dogmatically declares that water baptism is absolutely essential to make the unrighteous sinner a righteous saint, that without water baptism no person can pass out of Adam into Christ, out of death into life. Therefore, water on the outside performs a miracle. Along with their water regeneration teaching they teach that a baptized saved believer can lose his salvation, and they are strong on justification by works (James 2:24). This means that a living saint can again become a dead sinner, pass back out of Christ into Adam; for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1). After a dead sinner becomes a living saint, by faith and water, if the living saint becomes a dead sinner, he will either be eternally lost or he must again become a living saint by faith and water. This is why we say that his only hope of eternal security is to live in a submerged submarine.

But it is certainly true that the Church of Christ preacher, with his favorite verse, Romans 6:17, “ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you,” should read water regeneration into the chapter, if it is true as we are told by the Baptist Baptists and the Non Baptist Baptists that there is water in Romans 6:4.

We are truly sheep like in many respects when it comes to our Bible thinking, if we can really call it thinking. Some one calls a church building, ‘the house of God’; the Lord’s Supper and water baptism, ‘sacraments’; Sunday, ‘the Lord’s day’; an assembly place, ‘the church’; the preacher, ‘reverend’; and the sheep forget to be Bereans to see how unscriptural are all of these blunders, and they use the same terms. For the same reason we have at least twenty different theories concerning water baptism.

The very word in Romans 6:4 that the evangelical Baptists use to prove their watery grave witness theory is the death blow to their teaching. They teach Romans 6:3 is a baptism without hands, ‘baptized into death of Christ,’ and Romans 6:4, ‘buried with Christ by baptism unto or into death,’ is a baptism with hands, a human, physical, religious water ceremony. In so many words they say to the new creature in Christ, “by a watery grave you are to witness to the world that your old man has been crucified; you are dead and raised and seated in the heavenlies in Christ; you are alive from the dead: so put on some old clothes and some old shoes and bury your old man in water.” But they forget to tell them where their new man is while the old man is under water.

If the very moment the believer receives Christ and eternal life he is crucified, dead, risen and seated in the heavenlies, without water, how can you get a ‘water’ burial’ in between the instantaneous death, resurrection and ascension? The burial takes place at the same time.

The ‘THEREFORE’ of Romans 6:4 means the very opposite of what the Baptists claim: the very Divine power, or baptism, that places the believer into the death of Christ, raises him to walk in newness of life. Therefore, by that Divine power he is buried with Christ into death. Think of the ‘ego’ of a man who thinks he can bury a fellow saint into Christ’s death by immersing him in water. One dear man of God, who has this ‘ego,’ has contended earnestly for, this doctrine in a book, “What Saith The Scriptures About Baptism?” In this book we read this plain contradiction of his other statements:

“IT IS NOT OF COURSE THAT THE UNIMMERSED ARE NOT BURIED WITH CHRIST, IF BELIEVERS. ALL SUCH HAVE DIED WITH HIM, BEEN BURIED WITH HIM AND RAISED WITH HIM.”

How true is this statement? Then think of the folly of demanding that the believer buried by God’s baptism should submit to man for man’s water burial. If the unimmersed have been buried, why try to improve on, or supplement, God’s perfect work by man’s imperfect work? Water baptism has made many religious people more religious, but never has it made a believer more spiritual. Little wonder this brother has lost the light on ‘The Mystery.’

For a witness to the world of the believer’s death, burial and resurrection with Christ, the immersionists use the wrong ‘THEREFORE,’ when they use the ‘THEREFORE’ of Romans 6:4 to explain their water ceremony. The ‘THEREFORE’ of Colossians 3:5 tells why the believer should witness and how he should witness. He has been raised up into the heavenlies (Ephesians 2:5 and 6) . . . Prove it. How? By a water ceremony? Certainly not. By seeking those things where Christ is in heaven. By putting to death the members of sin on earth. Then the unbeliever will believe that God in Christ hath wrought a great change in the believer; that the believer is spiritual rather than religious. Think of the inconsistency of making the circumcision of Colossians 2:11 spiritual, and the baptism of Colossians 2:12 physical.

 

HOUSEHOLD IMMERSION . . . CROSSING THE RED SEA

In I Corinthians 10:7 to 3 we read how the Israelites passed through the Red Sea and “were all baptized unto Moses in (by) the cloud in (by) the sea.” Although God had given Israel many signs by Moses they were slow to accept his leadership; so God performed by Moses two other great miracles. Then they believed and followed Moses, at least until they needed some more signs. It was by signs in the midst of Israel that God approved Jesus of Nazareth. (Acts 2:22). The Egyptians passed into the Red Sea after Israel, but not through it. They were certainly immersed in water, but they did not rise to walk in newness of life or any other kind of life.

Think, if you will, of men, claiming to be ‘grace’ preachers, who teach that because the little Israelites were with their parents in the Red Sea the little children of Christians should be baptized with their parents. One of these preachers today, who is the ungracious enemy of other ‘grace’ preachers believe that God’s one Divine baptism is altogether sufficient without man’s ‘water’ ceremony, puts little children in bath tubs filled with water, quoting I Corinthians 10:1 and 2. Little wonder this man, who is far above the average as a Bible teacher, is blind to God’s great truth for this age, “The Mystery.”

We do read in the Book of Acts that several households of Gentiles were baptized. It is interesting to hear the explanations of the immersionists as to how the Philippian jailer and his household were immersed between midnight and day light. (Acts 16:31 to 34). These brethren know, or should know, that after the close of the ‘Acts’ period God did not deliver Paul miraculously from jail as He did at Philippi; that in Paul’s Epistles written after the close of Acts (Titus, Philemon, I Timothy, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and II Timothy) we find no record of miracles, signs, tongues, angelic visitations, the sign­gifts of I Corinthians 12:7 to 11; but we do find that which abideth, ‘faith,’ ‘hope’ and ‘love.’ We find in these Epistles no water ceremony, but the abiding one (Divine) baptism of Ephesians 4:4 and 5 and Colossians 2:12. The household immersionist, who baptizes little babies in bath tubs, is no more unscriptural than is the immersionist who ridicules this practice but reads water into Ephesians 4:4 and 5. As long as a Christian’s eyes have ‘water’ in them they will not have the eyes of their understanding opened to see the great truth of Ephesians 1:14 to 23 . . . and Ephesians 1:11 and Ephesians 3:9. But apparently they care little about the knowledge of this wonderful truth, preferring to cherish their water ceremony which appeals to their religious flesh and mind.

It is a well known fact that some loyal, evangelical Baptists have remained as members in the Northern Baptist Convention and have been unequally yoked together with unsaved Baptists (Liberals), in disobedience to God’s Word, while they positively refuse to have fellowship with members of the Body of Christ, who contend earnestly for all evangelical truth but who believe that water baptism has no place in God’s present ‘grace’ program. Do they not thus show that man’s water ceremony means more to them than the precious blood of the eternal Son of God? We must admit there are Baptists who are ‘water’ worshippers.

The evangelical Baptists say that the Liberal Baptists are not Baptists at all. Surely they are Baptists, though they may not be Christians. There are members of the Body of Christ in many Baptist churches. Unbelievers, unsaved persons, may join some Baptist churches. But no unbeliever is a member of the Bible Church. A believer can get into the Bible Church without Baptist baptism.

 

THE NON BAPTIST BAPTISTS

There is a new organization of Baptists within the Baptist church. They prefer not to be called ‘Fundamentalists’; for they are rather ashamed of some of the wild fanatical healers and religious people in the ‘tongues’ movements, who call themselves ‘Fundamentalists.’ Dispensationally, the ‘fanatics’ agree with these Conservative Baptists. Some one recently said to one of their leaders, “if you are ashamed of the ‘fanatics,’ who agree with your dispensationalism, you should have changed your dispensationalism while you were changing your name; then you might help the ‘fanatics’.”

Any intelligent, spiritual student of the Scriptures should know that, if this present ‘grace’ dispensation and the Church of the Mystery began on the day of Pentecost, and if God has not changed His dispensation or program, and if Mark 16:14 to 18 gives us God’s commission for this age of grace, and if we have no intelligent exegesis to show that all of the program during the Acts period is not for the obedience and practice of members of the Body of Christ, the Baptists have no Scriptural right to criticize the program of the Pentecostalists, who are in full agreement with the Baptist’s dispensationally. No; but rather these Baptists should confess that the Pentecostalists are right.

In the matter of water baptism, the Plymouth Brethren Baptists who teach ‘believer’s baptism,’ teach what is taught by evangelical, premillennial Baptist Baptists. So do the undenominational immersionists, who are identified with the premillennial Fundamentalists, men who claim to be ‘grace’ preachers. Certainly these undenominational ‘Non-Baptist’ Baptists put over the Baptist’s ‘water’ program with many people that the Baptist Baptists can not reach. Just take an inventory of the presidents and leaders and Bible teachers in most of the Bible Schools, supported by the premillennial Fundamentalists, and of the Fundamentalists’ associations, organizations and fellowships. These undenominational ‘Non Baptists’ Baptists are the ‘front’ for the premillennial, evangelical Baptists who reward their ‘Non Baptist’ Baptists by inviting them to their pulpits.

The president and other leaders of I.F.C.A. are Baptists, although they claim to be undenominational. This is true of the archbishop of fundamentalism. There is no more zealous Baptist than he, in the matter of Baptist doctrine of water baptism: for he even goes beyond some of them, seeing water in Colossians 2:12, Galatians 3:27, Ephesians 4:4 and 5, as well as in Romans 6:4. This dear brother is truly a religious man, when it comes to water. .

We might mention many undenominational Baptists such as the leaders of ‘The Youth For Christ’ movement, the Grand Rapids Bible Class broadcaster and pastors of hundreds of undenominational churches. Zealous immersionists are truly the men who aggressively (and some viciously) oppose the most wonderful truth in the Bible, truth acknowledged by the archbishop of fundamentalism to be ‘the lost precious gem.’ Perhaps no one man is doing more to hinder the recovery of this glorious truth, which he states was lost in Judaism, than is he, especially with his pamphlet, well named judged by its contents, ‘Wrongly Dividing The Word Of Truth.’ These Non­-Baptist Baptists not only ungraciously, and without mercy, attack the messengers of the Lord, who are obeying Ephesians 3:9, Ephesians 4:1 to 6 and II Timothy 2:15; but they intimidate, bluff and ridicule and threaten others who would like to be faithful in this matter. They have succeeded in influencing some to change conviction for convenience. And so ‘the lost precious gem,’ remains lost.

No man teaching water baptism for this dispensation and age of grace obeys Ephesians 3:9. But those of us, who believe in one (Divine) baptism for this age and who are obeying Ephesians 3:9, are told that these ‘Non Baptist’ Baptist Fundamentalists agree with us 95%; agreeing 100% on all of the fundamental, evangelical truth of the Bible. To this we reply that those who disagree with us only 5% are our real enemies, or real enemies of the truth of God called ‘The Mystery Of God’s Will.’ When we say this we know that it is in connection with this glorious truth, for which Paul was in jail at Rome, he wrote that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies. The truth called ‘The Unsearchable Riches of Christ,’ ‘The Mystery of The Gospel,’ is God’s answer to the fanaticism that is abounding and ever­ increasing as a rebuke to the leaders among the Fundamentalists, who are supposed to be ‘grace’ preachers. These leaders ridicule, boycott, condemn (frequently resorting to verbal attacks both ungracious and untruthful) other ‘grace’ messengers who are presenting God’s antidote for every ism and ill with which the Body of Christ is doctrinally afflicted.

The fanatical Pentecostalists and other fanatical groups all over this land attempt to prove their ‘Second Blessing, Holy Spirit Baptism’ fanaticism by holding before their audiences a book written by the late Dr. R. A. Torrey, who, like Apollos, was mighty in the Scriptures, but who exceedingly erred when he magnified a certain experience that he had above the Word of God rightly divided. In that book he claimed that he received Holy Spirit Baptism as a Divine work separate from, and subsequent to, the Divine work at the time He was saved and was baptized by one Spirit into one Body. So the people who have visions and speak in tongues tell their audiences that this wonderful man of God, accepted by all Fundamentalists, received his ‘BAPTISM’ after salvation. Friends tried to persuade Dr. Torrey to repudiate this false teaching before he went to be with the Lord; but he refused.

Now all over the country the same fanatics and others, who follow the blind leaders of the blind and teach that ‘the dispensation of the grace of God for Gentiles’ (Ephesians 3:1 to 4) began on the day of Pentecost of Acts Two, support their faulty dispensationalism and other unsound teaching by quoting from the pamphlet ‘Wrongly Dividing The Word of Truth. In this pamphlet the archbishop of fundamentalism says that ‘the dispensation of the mystery,’ ‘the dispensation of the grace of God,’ ‘the One Body of Ephesians 4:4 and 5,’ began when Peter and the Eleven stood up to address devout Jews on the day of Pentecost. In this pamphlet he says that the apostle John had the revelation of the mystery before Paul received it, even before Christ died; that Peter received it on the housetop, in Acts Ten. In this pamphlet he says there is not even a transition period in the Book of Acts. In other writings the same man of God says, in plain contradiction, that the risen Lord made known His mystery to Paul alone; and this was not until Israel had been given every opportunity to receive Christ after Christ was raised from the dead. He plainly states in several other writings that the mystery was not made known while Christ was on earth. Then he states that when he wrote his ‘Wrongly Dividing’ he had not changed his mind concerning the contradictory statements in his other books.

Every intelligent, spiritual student of the Scriptures, who is a faithful steward of the mysteries of God, should write this dear brother to repudiate his faulty dispensationalism in ‘Wrongly Dividing’ and apologize for ever have written this pamphlet in the flesh, as he did. God’s Truth is more important than any man and his pride. This pamphlet is very largely responsible for keeping fanatical, deluded Christians in their fanaticism, and he should do something about it before he goes to be with Christ, acknowledging that he wrote the pamphlet because he was angry with ‘grace’ messengers whom he believes to be troubled with spiritual hydra-phobia, because they believe ‘one Baptism’ means ‘One Baptism,’ which is not water.

So while this dear brother, who is considered an outstanding leader among Fundamentalists, rejoices that he discredits and disqualifies men of God who are obeying Ephesians 3:9 and Ephesians 4:1 to 6 with those who blindly follow his faulty dispensationalism ‘THE LOST PRECIOUS GEM’ remains lost and the Baptist enemies of ‘THE MYSTERY’ cheer him on and open their pulpits to him because he certainly ‘out Baptists’ most Baptists in his love for water. This dear brother once knew the truth of Romans 16:25. Let us pray that he will again as clearly (even more clearly) declare himself before he leaves for heaven.

WHAT RELIGION DID GOD GIVE TO MAN BEFORE SINAI?

God has definitely marked a period in His dealings with the human race called, ‘FROM ADAM TO MOSES.’ (Romans 5:12 to 15). That period covered about 2500 years, when there was no law (the ten commandments and carnal ordinances). The law was added at Sinai. (Galatians 3:19). A religious program too was added. (Hebrew 9:10). The law (at Sinai) entered that the sin that entered by Adam might abound. (Romans 5:20). When God added the law He added ‘meats and drinks,’ ‘carnal ordinances’ and ‘divers washings’ (baptismos). Some of these ‘BAPTISMOS’ were sprinklings, some pourings, some immersings. In describing these ‘BAPTISMOS’ in Leviticus, Exodus and Deuteronomy we read much about water in God’s religious program. There were ‘BAPTISMOS,’ in which there was no water. All of these began with a new covenant, the law covenant, at Sinai, with Moses as the mediator. The beginning of the new ‘law’ covenant at Sinai is recorded in Exodus 20 and Jeremiah 31:31 to 37. At that time Moses was 80 years old. (Exodus 7:7). At the time God gave to Moses the new ‘law’ covenant. Abraham had been dead 330 years. (Galatians 3:17 . . . Genesis 12:4, Genesis 15:6 . . . Genesis 25:17). In Galatians 3:19 and Galatians 3:17 we learn that God added the ‘law covenant to the Abrahamic covenant 430 years after Abram (the uncircumcised heathen) believed God and was thereby declared righteous. (Genesis 15:5 to 8). So we learn in Romans 4:2 to 11 and Galatians 3:6 to 8 and Galatians 3:17 that God preached the gospel of the uncircumcision unto uncircumcised Abram 430 years before He gave the ten commandments and a very complicated system of religion to circumcised Israel.

At Sinai something new was added; something very new and radically different. It was certainly not at that time ‘THE OLD TESTAMENT.’ Moses spent his last 40 years, under the law and the religion of Hebrews 9:10, but not his first 80 years. If we had been Moses on that burning mountain when he received the law which worketh wrath (Romans 4:15), the ministration of death and condemnation (II Corinthians 3:7 and 9), we would have known that God was giving a new testament, which was added to the promise and gospel given to Abram. In Hebrews 9:15 we learn that Christ is the Mediator of the New Covenant, but that He died for redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant (given at Sinai). That first covenant (testament) was made ‘OLD’ after the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. (Hebrews 8:7 to 13). If on that cross the eternal, sinless Son of God, took out of the way, nailing to the cross, only the ceremonial part of the law given to Moses, we are a condemned, doomed, helpless race. (Colossians 2:14 and Hebrews 12:20 . . . Romans 6:14 . . . Galatians 3:13).

No man from Adam to Noah and the flood was under the law, except the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2), with a law written in their hearts, called ‘conscience.’ After the flood Shem, Terah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel), Levi, Judah, Joseph, Ephraim and others were not under the law, and upon them God did not impose the religious program of Hebrews 9:10. If we call the ‘law’ covenant, entered into between Jehovah and Israel at Sinai when Moses was 80 years old, ‘THE OLD COVENANT’ or ‘THE OLD TESTAMENT,’ and learn that this was recorded in Exodus 20 as having taken place several months after Jehovah led Israel out of Egypt, about 1500 B.C., why are Christians so foolish as to speak of Genesis as ‘THE OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES,’ when that ‘TESTAMENT’ did not begin until Exodus 20, about 330 years after Abraham had died?

So we learn that Abraham was not an ‘OLD TESTAMENT’ character; but that God preached the gospel to Abram (in uncircumcision) (Galatians 3:8 and Romans 4:7 to 11); and that Abram was a pattern of the uncircumcised heathen, to whom the apostle Paul preached the gospel of the uncircumcision (Galatians 2:7 to 9). As Abram (in uncircumcision and not under the law or a system of religion) believed God and his faith was counted for righteousness, so the believing heathen, to whom Paul preached the gospel of the uncircumcision, were justified without the deeds of the law, without religion, without any water ceremony or any ordinance whatsoever. (Romans 4:20 to 25 . . . Romans 4:1 to 5 . . . Romans 3:28 . . . Romans 3:24 to 26).

Twenty four years after Abram was justified in uncircumcision God instituted ‘the covenant of circumcision.’ (Acts 7:8 . . . Genesis 17:9 to 27). Isaac was born when Abraham was l00 years old. Abram was circumcised at the age of 99 and at that time became ‘ABRAHAM.’ (Genesis 17:5 . . . Genesis 17:24 . . . Genesis 21:5 and 4). The descendants of circumcised Abraham by physical birth, under the covenant of circumcision, were promised all the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession. (Genesis 17:8). But this promise is not for the heathen who received the gospel of the uncircumcision from Paul. Of these heathen, Abram, justified in uncircumcision, was the pattern. So as we read from Genesis 12:1 to Genesis 17:27, we learn that the gospel of the circumcision was added to the gospel of the uncircumcision. We learn from Galatians 3:19 and Galatians 3:17, that the law (the ten commandments and the divers baptisms), was added to the gospel of the uncircumcision which God preached to uncircumcised Abram 430 years after Abram was justified in uncircumcision. Surely from now on we will not call Abram an ‘OLD TESTAMENT’ character.

THE TWO PHASES OF THE INHERITANCE

Let us not confuse the two aspects or phases of the inheritance God gave to Abram and Abraham; the one for circumcised Israel (including Canaan), and the other given to uncircumcised heathen (not promised Canaan); but both given before the law and not under the law. Then we shall better understand why Christ, as the Minister of the circumcision with a ‘CONFIRMATION’ ministry for Israel in their land (Romans 15:8), was circumcised and baptized (that He might be made manifest to Israel . . . John 1:31); why before going back to heaven the resurrected Christ committed to the Twelve the gospel of the circumcision with a ‘RESTITUTION’ and ‘CONFIRMATION’ ministry (Acts 3:19 to 21 . . . Hebrews 2:1 to 4 . . . Galatians 2:7); and why He later from heaven instructed another man (Paul) to preach to heathen the gospel of the uncircumcision, ‘the unsearchable riches of Christ,’ (Ephesians 3:8), God’s eternal purpose (the unprophesied Mystery) to make a Joint Body, while Israel would remain out of the promised land, out of God’s special favor, while the rest of the ‘CONFIRMATION’ ministry to Israel would be held in abeyance until the glorious consummation of Ephesians 4:13 and Titus 2:13

From Abram to Sinai we read of no water washings, no religious water ceremonies, no sabbath keeping. From Sinai until after the death of Christ God demanded that His people should be both righteous and religious. Their obedience to, and practice of, God’s religious program was not optional; it was mandatory. From Calvary to the full revelation of ‘THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST,’ ‘the dispensation of the mystery,’ there was a transition, during which time God’s order was, ‘to the Jew FIRST, . . . (Mark 7:27 . . . Acts 3:26 . . . Acts 13:46). During that temporary period God demanded righteousness by faith in Christ and permitted certain religious practices, including circumcision for believing Jews; and the preaching of the gospel to both Jews and Gentiles was accompanied by signs. (Romans 15:18 and 19). During that same period even the least spiritual of all saints exercised the signgifts of I Corinthians 12:7 to 11 and I Corinthians 12:28, because they were included in God’s program for a limited time.

Then in I Corinthians 13:8 to 13 we read of things that would pass away and that faith, hope and love would abide. The Book of Acts came to a sudden ending several years before the end of the earthly career of the apostle (Paul), whose sayings and acts occupy the prominent place in the last half of the Books of Acts, although the human author of the Book of Acts (Luke) remained with Paul unto the end. (II Timothy 4:11). In the last chapter of Acts we find the record of the healing of a number of heathen, ‘sign’ healing by Paul. (Acts 28:8 and 9). In the last chapter of Paul’s last Epistle, in connection with his farewell message, we read that he left a faithful saint sick. (II Timothy 4:20). Why such a radical change? In Acts 16:25 to 31 we learn of Paul’s miraculous deliverance from jail at Philippi, but after the close of the Acts period, when Paul was in jail at Rome, we do not read of any such experience. The sign gifts and ‘sign’ miracles and ‘sign’ judgments, angelic visitations and tongues ceased, so far as we can learn by reading Paul’s prison Epistles. God’s religious and ‘sign’ program ceased after God cast way His religious nation, Israel. (Romans 11:15).

So after that casting away of Israel God demanded righteousness, but withdrew religion and signs from His spiritual program of unmixed, unprophesied grace. Any intelligent exegesis showing that signs and sign gifts ceased with the close of Acts will also show that with them water baptism ceased; for miracles and water baptism are linked together in the Scriptures. Water baptism and the Lord’s Supper are not linked together and are not called ‘sacraments’ in the Bible. The Lord’s Supper is a memorial, which the risen Christ gave by revelation to Paul for the members of His Body. (I Corinthians 11:23). This is the same way that Paul received the gospel from Christ. (I Corinthians 15:3 and Galatians 1:11 and 12). During the Book of Acts ‘sign’ blessings. and judgments accompanied Paul’s ministry: there were several baptisms, including water baptism. Some received water baptism, during that period, before they received the Holy Spirit; some, after. Some received the Holy Spirit by imposition of hands; other, without. After the close of the Acts period we find the Divine record, ‘ONE BAPTISM.’ (Ephesians 4:4 and 5). In the matter of the exercise of the seven or eight sign gifts of I Corinthians 12:7 to 11 we learn by reading I Corinthians 3:1 to 5, I Corinthians 6:1 to 9 . . . I Corinthians 11:29 to 34 that the Corinthians were not especially 0faithful or spiritual, but rather the opposite. Therefore, they did not exercise those gifts, because they were super­-spiritual for many of them were carnal.

Have you answered the question asked in a Moody Bible Institute pamphlet, which they have printed (with a strong endorsement by Dr. C. I: Scofield) and distributed for more than 20 years, “Is it the Holy Spirit or Satan who turns the eyes of sincere Christians back to Pentecost instead of onto Paul’s prison Epistles?” Then the author added “In Paul’s last Epistles we find a new order and the normal course of the Church.”

 

Rightly Dividing The Word (Chart)

http://paulsgracemessage.org/rightly.htm

Posted by Cecil & Connie Spivey

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 Yes, strange as it may seem in this day when money is virtually the god of multitudes, the most valuable thing in life can be had Without Money.

It may not be possible to secure food, raiment, shelter, education and transportation without money; but that which is more important and more interesting than all these is absolutely free.

Undoubtedly it will be agreed that the salvation of God is the most valuable thing in life. And, though at an infinite cost to God, that salvation has been provided as a free gift to man. This is evident from the words of the Apostle Peter to Simon: “Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money” (Acts 8:20). God regardeth not the rich more than the poor (Job 34:19).

And not only is this salvation to be had Without Money, it is also Without Price!

There may be those who will readily admit that it is impossible to purchase God’s salvation with money, but who at the same time insist that there is some sort of price to pay for it. To all such, the following Scripture should make it plain that salvation is without price: “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24).

“Freely” here means “gratuitously,” “without a cause,” “for naught.” And “grace means “everything for nothing to one who deserves nothing but judgment.”

The Lord Jesus Christ paid the price of salvation. He “gave Himself for our sins” (Gal. 1:4). The Son of God “loved me and gave Himself for me” Gal. 2:20). Because He paid the price-His precious blood- there remains no price for us to pay. We are justified “freely” and “by His grace.” Further more, this salvation is also to be had Without Works!

Most persons have difficulty in believing that salvation is without works. They seem to be satisfied that they cannot purchase salvation in any way, but they entertain the thought that they can work for it. Let all such consider the following passages: “Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:9).

“Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Romans 4:4-5).

“Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Timothy 1:9).

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit”(Titus 3:5).

“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law” (Romans 3:28).

Upon believing the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation, you will receive the Holy Spirit. Possessing Him, you will be able to “be zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14). But do not imagine that this is working For salvation. Salvation is “without works”; but every person already saved, should be zealous of good works-not to be saved, but because he is saved. In addition to all this, salvation is to be had Without Waiting!

It is difficult for many to believe that salvation is to be had without waiting. They are laboring under the impression that it is necessary for them to wait until they are better or to wait for certain feelings or to wait for certain sounds and sights. They imagine that they must wait for a “more convenient season.”

All such should be eager to know that the Scripture says: Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2Cor. 6:2). It is not necessary to wait another moment to be saved. This voice, harden not your hearts” (Heb. 3:15). Will you have God’s salvation without money, without price, without works and Without Waiting?

 

Posted by Cecil & Connie Spivey

cspivey1953@gmail.com
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Some church organizations and organizations of churches, make the claim that their particular group alone, represents the ONE TRUE CHURCH. This they seek to prove by the Holy Scriptures.

Surely the Bible teaches that God has ONE TRUE CHURCH in this present age. We believe that every saved sinner, saved by HIS GRACE, through FAITH, is a member of that ONE TRUE CHURCH, by virtue of his salvation, regardless of his membership or non-membership in an earthly organization.

Of course it will be the natural thing for those who are, by their salvation, members of the ONE TRUE CHURCH, which is HIS BODY, to seek fellow­ship with other Christians. To assemble themselves together, to study His Word and to publicly worship their Lord, is truly a Scriptural admonition.

There are then, the visible assemblies of the members of the BODY OF CHRIST. Into these visible assemblies may come some who are not saved, not members of the BODY. Only the Lord can admit members into His Church, so HE alone knows with absolute certainty, those who are mem­bers (2 Timothy 2:19).

The word, used by the Holy Spirit in the Greek language, which is translated by the English word, “church”, could be just as correctly and authori­tatively transferred by the word, “assembly”.

It is used in Acts 19: 32, 39 and 41, and here it is translated, “assembly”. It refers to an as­sembly of the opponents of the Gospel, seeking to drive the apostle Paul out of their city.

In Acts 7:37-38 we read, “This is that MOSES, which said unto the children of Israel, a prophet shall the Lord, your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me. Him shall ye hear. This is he, that was in the CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers who received the living oracles to give unto us.”

Let us compare this CHURCH with the church Paul writes about in his epistles. In Ephesians 1:20-23 “Which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places. Far above all principality and power and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world (age), but also in that which is to come. And hath put all things under His feet and gave Him to be the head over all things to the CHURCH, which is HIS BODY, the fullness of Him, that filleth all in all.” Ephesians 3:1-10 “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 to the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs (joint heirs) and of the same body (joint-body) and partakers (joint-partakers) of His promise in Christ by the Gospel. Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the ef­fectual working of His power. Unto me who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the un­searchable (untraceable) riches of Christ. And to make all men see what is the fellowship (dispensa­tion) of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world (ages) hath been HID IN GOD, who created all things by Jesus Christ. To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenly places might be known by the CHURCH the manifold wisdom of God.” Now read in Colossians 1:24-26, “Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for HIS BODY’S SAKE, WHICH IS THE CHURCH. Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill (complete) the Word of God. Even the mystery which hath been HID from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints.”

Surely the careful student will see TWO CHURCHES spoken of in the Scriptures and also TWO MEN, MOSES AND PAUL, each very dis­tinctively related to his particular church. William R. Newell once said, “there are two great REVELA-TORS or unfolders of Divine Truth in the Bible, -Moses in the Old Testament, and Paul in the New.”

That the CHURCH WHICH IS HIS BODY is the ONE TRUE CHURCH for this present dispensation, no intelligent believer of the Bible can doubt. Also, that no member of the BODY OF CHRIST, obeys all the commands of God through Moses to the CHURCH in the wilderness of Sinai, is common knowledge.

The Church or assembly of the true believers in Israel was under the Mosaic ceremonial Law, and was to continue thus until the deliverer would come to take away their sins, covered by the blood of animals. He will come and this program will be carried out, after the CHURCH WHICH IS HIS BODY is taken up at the rapture. Note Romans 11:26-27 “And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.” And also in Acts 3:19-21. “Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins MAY be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And He shall send Jesus Christ, which was before preached unto you. 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.”

The Lord’s true remnant in Israel in the future will yet receive the earthly kingdom and the authority promised in Matthew 16:18-21, “And I say unto thee, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build MY CHURCH (the church which is His body was at that time still a secret. His Jewish church in the kingdom will be built on Himself in resurrection) and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven (the earthly kingdom of the God of heaven, Daniel 2:44) and whatsoever thou shalt bind ON EARTH shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose ON EARTH shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged He His disciples that they should tell no man that He was Jesus the Christ. From that time forth began Jesus to show unto His disciples how that He must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day.” Matthew 18:17-18, “And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the CHURCH, but if he neglect to hear the CHURCH, let him be unto thee as an heathen man (that is, a Gentile, so in the Greek), and a publican. Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind ON EARTH, shall be bound in heaven.”

Now lest us read Matthew 19:28, “And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

No JOINT-BODY can be found here. The Gen­tiles were still outside of the Commonwealth of Israel (Ephesians 2:11-12) and could only come unto God by way of Israel and the Mosaic Law. From Mount Sinai on through the earthly ministry of Christ and into the book of Acts, God had His Jewish CHURCH or ASSEMBLY on earth, and to them He promised the kingdom with the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Temple was their place of worship, the city of Jerusalem was their capital. They were under the God given religion, “Which stood only in meats and drinks and divers washings (baptisms) and carnal ordinances, IMPOSED ON THEM, until the time of reformation.” Hebrews 9:10. The finished work of the cross could only be applied to them by His coming in Glory to, “take away their sins.”

The fulfilment of all of these promises seemed very near on the day of Pentecost. Acts 2:1-2, “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.” Now look to verse 5, “And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.” Here we still have only, “Jews and Proselytes.” (verse 10). As we come to the close of this chapter we read at verse 47, “Praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the CHURCH daily such as should be saved.” This was surely the Jewish CHURCH, waiting the coming of Christ, as Peter had preached and observing Moses (see verse 46) even as Christ had commanded them in Matthew 23:1-3 and Matthew 28:19-20.

“Then spake Jesus to the multitude and to His disciples, saying, the scribes and the Pharisees sit in MOSES’ seat; All therefore WHATSOEVER they BID YOU OBSERVE, that OBSERVE AND DO.”

“Go ye therefore and teach all nations baptis­ing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them TO OB­SERVE ALL THINGS WHATSOEVER I HAVE COMMANDED YOU.” ceremonial law, with the meats, drinks, divers bap­tisms, and carnal ordinances, the keeping of days and seasons and new moons? Only, as we see that the Lord is forming a new church in this age. As Moses was the mouthpiece of God to the CHURCH in the wilderness so PAUL is the mouthpiece to the CHURCH which is the BODY of Christ.

In Galatians 4:9-11, Paul writes, “But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bond­age? Ye observe days and months and times and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain.” Colossians 2:16, “Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon or of the sabbath days. Which are a shadow of things to come; but the BODY IS OF CHRIST.”

As we read previously in the third chapter of Ephesians, God’s purpose to form the CHURCH, WHICH IS HIS BODY, the JOINT-BODY, was kept secret until revealed through Paul. This Joint-Body could not be formed until Israel, in which the Lord had His Jewish CHURCH, was cast aside. Romans 11:11-15. “I say then have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid, but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles . . . Now if the fall (or the casting away) of them be the riches of the world and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness? . . .For if the CASTING AWAY OF THEM BE THE RECONCILING OF THE WORLD, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead?”

In Ephesians 2:16, we understand how we are reconciled to God, “That He might RECONCILE BOTH (Jew and Gentile) unto God in ONE BODY BY THE CROSS.”

Acts 13:46 shows when the casting aside of Israel took place, so that God could take of the believing Jews and of the believing Gentiles, to form ONE BODY. “Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said, it was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, LO WE TURN TO THE GEN­TILES.”

A NEW CHURCH BEGAN, which was God’s eternal secret purpose. (Romans 8:28, Ephesians 3:11). Even as Moses was God’s architect for the building of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, so Paul becomes God’s architect for the building of the CHURCH WHICH IS HIS BODY and His temple. I Corinthians 3:10, “According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder (ARCHITECT) I HAVE LAID THE FOUNDA­TION . . . FOR OTHER FOUNDATION CAN NO MAN LAY THAN THAT IS LAID, WHICH IS JESUS CHRIST.”

Christ is the center, the Savior and the De­liverer of both churches. To the Jewish church He was the prophesied One, and in the future, their resurrected Glorified King on David’s throne.

To the Church which is His Body He is the Head, “from Whom the whole Body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the BODY unto the edifying of itself in love.”

The Lord GATHERED HIS CHURCH OR ASSEMBLY at Mount Sinai and spoke to Moses from the THICK DARKNESS. (Exodus 20:21-22). He was given the “Patterns of things in the heavens” (Hebrews 9:23) to build the Tabernacle.

THE LORD FORMED THE CHURCH THE BODY OF CHRIST, WITH PAUL AND SPOKE TO HIM IN A GLORY CLOUD OF LIGHT (ACTS 22:6) TELLING HIM TO, “RISE AND STAND UPON THY FEET, FOR I HAVE APPEARED UNTO THEE FOR THIS PURPOSE, TO MAKE THEE A MINISTER AND A WITNESS BOTH OF THESE THINGS WHICH THOU HAST SEEN AND OF THOSE THINGS IN THE WHICH I WILL APPEAR UNTO THEE.”

Paul himself tells us in his first letter to 1 Timothy 1:16, “Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me FIRST Jesus Christ might show forth all long suffering, FOR A PATTERN TO THEM WHICH SHOULD HEREAFTER BELIEVE ON HIM TO LIFE EVERLASTING.”

To Moses, God revealed an earthly CHURCH, for an earthly blessing, to be under the ceremonial law until He comes in Glory to fulfil Psalm 22:22-28. “I will declare Thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation (CHURCH, see Hebrews 2:12) will I praise Thee. Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him, all ye the seed of JACOB, glorify Him, and fear Him, all ye the seed of IS­RAEL . . . All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee. FOR THE KINGDOM IS THE LORD’S AND HE IS THE GOVER­NOR AMONG THE NATIONS.”

Through Paul God has revealed HIS HEAVENLY CHURCH. The kingdom has been postponed. There is no salvation by the works of the law. All who will be saved must look to Him, who is seated in the Heavenlies, as the Head of the Body. They must believe that, “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.”

No meats, drinks, divers baptisms, sabbath days or blood sacrifices now. Only “that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be SAVED.” . . .”So then FAITH cometh by hearing and hearing BY THE WORD OF GOD.” (Romans 10:9,17), For by ONE SPIRIT are we all baptized into ONE BODY, wheth­er we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or Christ is the center, the Savior and the­ deliver of both churches. To the Jewish church He was the prophesied One, and in the future, their resurrected Glorified King on David’s throne. @

To the Church which is His Body He is the Head, “from Whom the whole Body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the BODY unto the edifying of itself in love.”

The Lord GATHERED HIS CHURCH OR ASSEMBLY at Mount Sinai and spoke to Moses from the THICK DARKNESS. (Exodus 20:21-22). He was given the “Patterns of things in the heavens” (Hebrews 9:23) to build the Tabernacle The Lord formed the CHURCH THE BODY OF CHRIST, with Paul and spoke to him in a GLORY CLOUD OF LIGHT (Acts 22:6) telling him to, “Rise and stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen AND OF THOSE THINGS IN THE WHICH I WILL APPEAR UNTO THEE.”

Paul himself tells us in his first letter to Timothy 1:16, “Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me FIRST Jesus Christ might show forth all long suffering, FOR A PATTERN TO THEM WHICH SHOULD HEREAFTER BELIEVE ON HIM TO LIFE EVERLASTING.”

To Moses, God revealed an earthly CHURCH, for an earthly blessing, to be under the ceremonial law until He comes in Glory to fulfil Psalm 22:22-28. “I will declare Thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation (CHURCH, see Hebrews 2:12) will I praise Thee. Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him, all ye the seed of JACOB, glorify Him, and fear Him, all ye the seed of IS­RAEL . . . All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee. FOR THE KINGDOM IS THE LORD’S AND HE IS THE GOVER­NOR AMONG THE NATIONS.”

Through Paul God has revealed HIS HEAVENLY CHURCH. The kingdom has been postponed. There is no salvation by the works of the law. All who will be saved must look to Him, who is seated in the Heavenlies, as the Head of the Body. They must believe that, “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.”

No meats, drinks, divers baptisms, sabbath days or blood sacrifices now. Only “that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be SAVED.” . . .”So then FAITH cometh by hearing and hearing BY THE WORD OF GOD.” (Romans 10:9,17), For by ONE SPIRIT are we all baptised into ONE BODY, wheth­er we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been made to drink into ONE SPIRIT.”

Surely the water baptisms of the Jewish Church are now replaced by the ONE BAPTISM of the SPIRIT OF GOD. Paul said, “For Christ sent me NOT TO BAPTIZE BUT TO PREACH THE GOS­PEL, not with the wisdom of words, lest the CROSS OF CHRIST should he made of none effect,” (I Corinthians 1:17).

“Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is ONE BODY, and ONE SPIRIT even as ye are called in ONE HOPE of your calling. ONE LORD, ONE FAITH, ONE BAPTISM, ONE GOD and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.” (Ephesians 4:3-6).

In Christ, in His Body, “we are His workman­ship (masterpiece), created in Christ Jesus, UNTO GOOD WORKS, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10).

 

Rightly Dividing The Word (Chart)

http://paulsgracemessage.org/rightly.htm

 

 

Posted by Cecil & Connie Spivey

cspivey1953@gmail.com
E-mail this Bible Study to all your friends and share the Gospel of the Grace of God.