What is this thing
called
"The Mystery"?
1 For this cause I Paul, the prisoner
of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, 2 If ye have heard
of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to
you-ward: 3 How that by revelation he made known unto
me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, 4
Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge
in the mystery of Christ) 5 Which in other ages was not made known
unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and
prophets by the Spirit; 6 That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of
the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: 7
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. - Ephesians 3:1-7
One of the most frequently asked questions
about what this ministry believes is; What is this thing called "the
mystery"? Personally I have been asked that question numerous times.
Sometimes I am asked sincerely and other times I am asked with disdain,
disapproval and skepticism! Most fundamental, bible believers will
have heard some of the doctrine I am about to discuss. The main objections
usually
include the following questions:
- What is it?
- What's the big deal?
- What about what Jesus
had to say?
- What do you mean there
are several gospels?
This is not meant to be an all inclusive
study, but this information will allow the reader to "defend the faith"
against legalizers who charge ahead under a false banner of grace.
I pray that we will be able to
press on to the mark of the high calling of God through Christ Jesus!
Let's start at what I call the
'50,00 foot
level' and then we will zoom in for a landing
exploring each component that comprises the mystery which is also called
"the revelation of the mystery" - Romans 16:25.
What Is It?
In the opening verses from Ephesians 3, Paul, with what would appear to be
sarcasm, asks if believers have even heard of the dispensing of God's grace!
Truth be known, most haven't distinguished the gospel of grace between the
rest of the bible or really studied what the risen Christ revealed to Paul! Personally,
I had always 'glossed' over Paul's letters. I had read them but I had
wrongly assumed that Paul was teaching the same message as Peter and the 12 or a
continuation of their ministry (or Jesus Christ's earthly ministry).
"Make Up" of the Mystery:
1) The preaching of the cross as
compared to prophetic scriptures concerning the crucifixion were
not preached until Paul. (see
I
Corinthians 1:17-18.)
2) God's Gentile program (which is now
in the forefront during Israel's blindness) was
unknown prior to Paul's teachings. (see
Romans 11:25
and compare the scripture with Mark 7:26,27.)
PLEASE NOTE: This
is NOT to be confused with the Gentiles
(or the nations) coming through Israel as prophesied and revealed plainly in
the OT. - RICK
3) The catching away (also known as "the
rapture") of the Body of Christ. (see 1
Corinthians 15:51 as well as "our blessed hope" in Titus 2:13).
4) The union of Christ and the Church in one Body.
This concept was never introduced in any
dispensing of God’s prior administrations.
(Ephesians 5:31)
5) The equality of Jew and Gentile alike in the
Body of Christ. (Ephesians 2:11-16)
What
Is The Big Deal? When I first
became aware of the distinctiveness of God's dispensing of grace or the
mystery, I did not really think it would cause that much of a problem. I
soon realized that when I began to point out significant differences, the
friction started with those I was attending church with. In summary, the big deal is you cannot mix law and grace!
By believing that Paul and Peter preached the same doctrine is heretical:
The Ministry of Peter
- As leader of the 12
apostles, the ministry was solely focused on and
to Israel who would be a channel of blessings from God to
the nations (Gentiles). To be saved, Gentiles would have to
come through Israel.
- Peter's ministry continued Jesus Christ's earthly
ministry.
- Christ instructed the 12 to preach
the Gospel of the Kingdom (it is at hand or coming soon) to all of the
world starting in
Jerusalem (LUKE
24:44-49).
- The fact is, they never made it out!
Friends, were they successful? Israel is STILL in unbelief as a nation
today.
The Ministry of Paul
- Paul is the first member
of the Church; The Body of Christ as he received his revelation from the
risen Christ. (see Gal. 1:1; 11 & 12)
- Paul preached on God's
special, abundant grace all as a result of the completed and finished
cross-work of Jesus Christ. Mostly all of his letters start with
"grace be to you and peace from God our Father and The Lord Jesus
Christ".
-
Only Paul preached the distinctive message of grace
according to the revelation of the mystery as shown above.
- Take Paul's letters out
of the bible (because that's all the 12 had) and now tell me
about: justification, sanctification and the eternal security of a
believer! Tell me now about our unchanging position in Christ!
What about what Jesus
had to say? An old time
pastor that I knew once told many of us that he was frustrated at those
bibles that included Christ's words in red. This pastor felt that publishers
who did this attempted to minimize the importance of the rest of the bible. Friends,
although this pastor does not embrace the message of grace as this ministry
does, he was on to something! The fact is, Paul's letters should be in red! Is his message not the
words of the risen Christ??
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Satan is alive and well across
the churches of the world.....
Our Adversary's main objective is to
keep mankind from knowing the plain truth contained in the gospel of the
grace of God. Paul warns believers not to be led away from the
"simplicity that is in Christ". Unfortunately, Satan has
done his best work by utilizing the Body of Christ to achieve mission
success on the earth today! Friends, Satan is not in the bars, drug halls,
strip clubs, porno shops or in rock music. Man does fine enough
on his
own in these areas. Satan and his "angels of light" are in the church
where most would least expect him to be. He has set up camp with shoes
off, cigar in mouth and newspaper in hand while sitting in the arm chair
of pulpits across the world. He and his angelic cohorts smile and nod
delightfully as law is mixed with grace with commonplace today!
Galatians 1: 6-9
I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called
you into the grace of Christ unto another
gospel: Which is not another; but there be
some that trouble you, and would pervert
the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any
other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him
be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach
any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be
accursed.
Notice that when Paul spoke of "another gospel", he did not say it was a false gospel. The Greek "heteros"
is simply saying that it is indeed another gospel, but of a
different type. The apostle reiterated, "which is not another" (Gk -
allos). The point being is that the devil is most
successful using God's word against man by taking it out of context or
as in this case by trying to preach a 'good news' message not meant for
the Body of Christ. Paul continued to say that if I come back to you
and preach any other gospel then the one that I preached to you
let me be accursed!
Erroneously, Christians give Satan too
much credit and importance in the obvious areas that focus on the flesh
while neglecting to even consider how crafty and deceptive he is
through the mishandling of God's word. Paul said that we battle not
against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities of this
world. This is the so called 'spiritual' hierarchy (influenced by
'another gospel' of Satan) that despises the message of grace by mixing
in law! Unfortunately, most of our church leaders, deacons and teachers
are too concerned with congregational numbers. They figure that since
people are coming that God must be blessing! However, Paul had a
different understanding as to what was really going on. In
2 Timothy 4,
Paul told the young pastor that believers would not be interested
in sound doctrine but would instead embrace those teachers who tickled
their ears with words of empowerment, delight and
 purpose.
Christian bookstores and distributors are making millions of dollars on
self-help books that are nothing more than Christian psycho-babble. You
may think that I am being too harsh but friends, where would God want us
to find our sufficiency? Should our trust be in man's word or
God's Word? We are too soon ready to ask God to change our
environment rather than have us renew our minds through Christ:
Romans
5: 1-5
Therefore being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom
also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and
rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in
tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And
patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not
ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the
Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Tell me, if I am already
saved, why then would I need access "into this grace wherein we
stand"??? As God's ambassador for us, Paul received Christ's special
dispensing of grace so that we can "rejoice in hope of the glory of
God"! It is this message that Satan despises and has successfully
fooled many Christians into believing otherwise. How clever the
Adversary is to convince children of God to believe that they do not
have all of the sufficiency of Christ!
I am growing weary of the
piles of self-help books that quote and wrangle scripture out of context
to sell a man's philosophy. Most of the time, this type of psycho-babble
is deemed acceptable as long as it has a Christian title, origination or
author! The focus of these books rarely point to contextual bible study
but instead use verses to fit a particular agenda. Friends, does God
need help or is His doctrine sufficient? Rather than edify
ourselves through good feelings and emotions, we need to understand that
the accomplishments of Jesus Christ at Calvary did not stop at atoning
for our sin debt and salvation alone. His cross-work was all sufficient
for us to live In Him too! It is at this point where many Christians
fail to understand what God has for us. We need to read and study more
of the books of Colossians, Ephesians or Romans. How much more do we
need from God when Paul says (for starters) in Romans 8:
Romans 8:
38,39 - For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall
be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. "Rather than edify
ourselves through
good feelings and emotions, we need to
understand that the accomplishments of Jesus Christ at Calvary
did not stop at atoning for our sin debt and salvation alone. His
cross-work was all-sufficient for us to
live in Him too!"
These scripture references are but a few
as there is plenty of doctrine for us to help us "renew our mind" by the
operation of God through The Holy Spirit! It appears that man thinks his
way is better than God's way. It is my continued prayer for the
Body of Christ that they would be receptive to what God has for them and
that they would study to show themselves approved unto God and not unto
man! |
Today's World News
Galatia - The saints at Galatia had the
same problem Darren Stevens had!
1 O foolish Galatians,
who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose
eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? 2
This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of
the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are ye so foolish? having begun
in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? - Galatians 3:1-3
The book of Galatians is about re-teaching believers on correct
doctrine. As noted above, Paul was rebuking the saints when he
candidly called them "foolish". He was not joking or poking fun at them
beloved. They were being unwise, unintelligent or plain old idiots in
regards to what Paul had previously taught them! The apostle
wanted to know who or what had caused them to be "bewitched" in their
thinking? The saints had been charmed or swayed by someone who would
bathe them with praise in order to convert their way of thinking. My,
isn't this interesting when thought about in comparison to what goes on
in many assembles today. In the previous chapters of Galatians, a
dispute had arisen between the kingdom saints and those grace-age saints
taught by Paul. So much so, Barnabas himself was carried
away with these issues in that he didn't say a word when Peter
was separating himself from believers when it came time to eat! What are
the issues you may ask? The same issues that plague our churches today!
Have we fallen from grace in our mind-set too? Do we substantiate our
position in Christ by realizing (and studying) the accomplishments
of the cross or do we attempt to keep our righteousness through
law-keeping or any equivalent "church-type activity? Pastors do a great
job at talking about how Christ and His atonement for the debt and
penalty of our sins in regards to salvation, but they fail miserably
when talking about the results of Christ's work that transcend well
beyond salvation. Friends did you know that:
-
We are rooted up, built up, established in "the
faith" and complete in Him? (Col. 2:3-10)
-
Circumcised made without man's hands but through
Christ's payment instead? (Col. 2:11)
-
We buried with Him in baptism and risen with Him
through the power of God? (Col. 2:12)
-
Resurrected together with Him and forgiven all
trespasses? (Col. 2:13)
Folks, this is just the
beginning! Read Ephesians, Philippians and the rest of of Paul's letters
in order to be edified, encouraged and equipped. But most of all, I pray
that we would not be "bewitched" into thinking that law keeping
would surpass the riches of His grace as we understand the manifold
(revealed) riches of God in our Lord Jesus Christ!
"The Mystery"
(continued.....)
The message of Jesus Christ and His
earthly ministry was,
is and will be very important! However, when reading the
bible and especially Christ's message as recorded synoptically in
the four gospel accounts, readers must:
- Read the bible in it's complete
context.
- Understand who is speaking and who
the audience is.
- Understand how God was dealing
with mankind at the time of the reading!
Although God is unchanging, (thankfully)
the way He deals with mankind does change! In fact the worse man gets,
the more gracious God has become...
Romans 5:12-20
What Jesus had to say was to Israel.
He wanted to set up His kingdom on earth. However, as a nation, Israel
would not accept Jesus as God or their Messiah. They remain in
blindness as of this writing. This blindness is to "provoke them to
jealousy" as God the Father uses Gentiles under this glorious dispensing
of grace to communicate the riches of His love to us through His Son
Christ Jesus. Please remember that Jesus Christ Himself said that
He came not to destroy the law but instead fulfill the law! In addition,
the thoughtful bible student is aware of the fact that Jesus Christ
ministered under the law and commanded his followers to abide by it.
In no way does Christ's message to Paul minimize the validity of His
word or His earthly ministry which was TO another people. However,
it is obvious that He wonderfully, and gloriously revealed something new
through Paul for our benefit!
What Do You Mean There Are Several Gospels?
Shortly after I became a believer, a pastor once told me that there was
only one gospel. This in fact was a half truth since despite what we may
have been taught, the bible is full of messages of good news (or
gospels) from God! The bible is chock full of historical examples of
God's deliverance for mankind including:
- Hebrews chapter
11
- In
Genesis 6:17, 18 Was it not good news to Noah that he and
his family would have the opportunity to be delivered from God's
pending judgment?
- Gospel of
the Kingdom
Matthew - 4:23; 9:35;
24:14 Mark - 1:14. This gospel was that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God who was ready to set up his kingdom amidst His favored
nation Israel. Any reference to this 'good news' in Luke and
John is referring to how God was dealing with man at this time.
- Gospel of
the Circumcision
Galatians - 2:7
This was the name of the 'good news' that the apostle Paul wrote of
when referring to Israel's message of hope which was given to Peter
and the 12 by Jesus Christ. Here, the 12 would be continuing Jesus
Christ's message starting at Jerusalem.
The essential point to remember
here is that God has dispensed many types of salvation instructions
to mankind throughout time and eternity. Therefore it is of
utmost importance that we fully understand that distinction if
we are to clearly communicate this hope to others! Of the various gospels that God
has so graciously given to mankind over time and eternity, the
one gospel that matters today is the glorious gospel of the
grace of God as the risen Christ revealed to the apostle Paul,
for without believing it man has no hope!
For more information on this topic click on the bull's-eye! |
COFFEE CORNER
The real meaning of the impending
perilous times
and last days of 2 Timothy! - Part III
(CLICK
HERE FOR PART II)
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their
own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to
parents, unthankful, unholy,
Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent,
fierce, despisers of those that are good,
Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of
God; Having a form of godliness,
but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are
they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women
laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never
able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the
truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no
further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as their's also
was. But thou hast fully known
my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity,
patience, Persecutions,
afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what
persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live
godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and
worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been
assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy
scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through
faith which is in Christ Jesus.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
That the man of God may be
perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.-
2 Timothy 3:1-17
In part three of this study, we will
continue to explore each word that Paul tells young Timothy about
concerning what to look for during the last days....
In our last edition, we began to touch ground in verse 4,
and began discussing the meaning of mankind "loving pleasures more than
God". Although sensual implications may apply here, this is not the
point of what the apostle is talking about. In addition to being
"high-minded" (puffed up or conceited), mankind loves the idea
that God has directed special favor above
anyone else to him. How many times have we implied or even said
that God has blessed us due to our conduct or effort. Often
times, believers will compare themselves
with other believers and pass judgment on
one another according to social or financial status. After all, if I am
well-off...then God must be really looking down on me it is
thought (or taught). In many other instances, it is thought that
'secret sin' has crept inot the lives or were not 'as blessed'. What did Paul receive from Jesus about this
issue? Please click the
following passages in
2 Corinthians 10:7-17! to find out what the scriptures say
concerning this.
Friends, if we have trusted in the death,
burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for our sins, we now stand
justified before God. In other words brothers and sisters in Christ,
we have right now Jesus Christ's very righteousness!! He lovingly
imputed that to us for our behalf. As a friend said, we have Christ's
test score on our paper. How did we get this you might ask? By simply
believing it to be so! That is all that is required today under this
glorious dispensing of God's grace. Because of this wonderful truth,
God now wants us to serve Him out of a heart of gratitude not have to
dude! The man who is a lover of pleasures that Paul warned of, loves the
thought that God loves him because of some meritorious work
independent from how Jesus Christ already sees us complete in
Him! You can now begin to see how outward, religious conduct can
supplant the truth of the gospel of the grace of God. This is why Paul
stated immediately that these people "have a form of godliness but deny
the power thereof"!
(FOR MORE ON THIS SEE THE ARTICLE TITLED "BEWITCHED" - RICK)
What was Paul's warning on how
 to
deal with this?; from such turn away! This means that we are to
shun or avoid that person. Unfortunately today but in line with man's
rebellion against God, it is the fundamental church leaders (who
pervert the truth) that teach their followers (who willingly
comply) to shun believers who embrace the glorious message of the
grace of God committed unto the apostle Paul.
In verse 6, Paul says that
it is these types of people that "creep into houses, and lead captive
silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning,
and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth".
You may ask; Which people Paul? These
"types of people" could be anyone who would be in a position to
influence others' core beliefs and values. Unfortunately, this has
implicated pastors or church leaders. Friends, if you think I am being
too critical just read the paper or surf the net and you can see for
yourself about the sordid stories of abuse and perversion of all
types which happen to transcend across all denominations! In
addition, rather than equip and edify saints with the glorious message
of the grace of God, these leaders abuse their God-given
responsibility while taking advantage of women in particular. The bible
says that they "creep" into the houses of what Paul calls "captive,
silly women". The word "creep" in the Greek is enduno. This
word means that "they" hide in, envelope in or insinuate entrance into
the household or affairs of women. Like a wolf in sheep's clothing, they
persuade those weak and uncertain women of their position in Christ.
With much more to say, we will pick this up again in next months
issue......
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