Category: Paul’s apostleship

What Does God Want Me to Do? #4

Sunday, April 1, 2012

“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13 KJV).

Today is April Fools’ Day, but our world abounds with fools year-round. According to God’s Word, who is foolish?

Reigning from 1050–1010 B.C., Saul was Israel’s first king. Mostly a bad king, he repeatedly attempted to kill righteous David (1 Samuel 18:29–19:24, for instance) and Saul even consulted a witch (1 Samuel 28:7-25). But there was one instance of evil (foolishness) that cost Saul his throne: “And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept [obeyed] the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever” (1 Samuel 13:13).

The prophet Samuel told Saul to wait for him to offer a burnt offering (1 Samuel 13:8-12), but Saul proceeded to perform the offering without Samuel. God told Saul through Samuel, “Thou hast done foolishly.” Saul wanted to do his own thing (sin); he did not care what God’s spokesman said. Later on, Saul again ignored and disobeyed God’s Word (1 Samuel 15:2-35).

Sadly, lost people and most Christians are just as rebellious towards God’s Word as King Saul was. God’s spokesman to us Gentiles is the Apostle Paul (Romans 11:13; Romans 15:16; 2 Timothy 1:11), but few people know and most do not care to know. These people are just as foolish as Saul was because they ignore God’s Word to them. They follow God’s will for Israel (Old Testament, Four Gospel Records, Acts, Hebrews through Revelation).

If you want to know God’s will for you (today’s Scripture), you must go to Bible books which document God’s current dealings with man, Paul’s epistles of Romans through Philemon. Paul wrote, “If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 14:37).

When you ignore Paul’s letters, you ignore the commandments of God to us, and by doing so, “thou hast done foolishly!”

What Does God Want Me to Do? #3

Saturday, March 31, 2012

“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13 KJV).

To find God’s will for your life, you need not “endure” Hebrew and Greek. If you can read sixth-grade English (the King James Bible), then you can discover (and thereby appreciate) God’s overall plan for creation, thus learning God’s will for you.

The Bible says that God’s “eternal purpose”—His overall will for creation—is to exalt Jesus Christ in the heaven and in the earth (Ephesians 1:9,10; Ephesians 3:9-11; Colossians 1:16-20). While we are on earth, our lives should bring Jesus Christ glory and honor: it is God’s “good pleasure” to work in us to accomplish this (today’s Scripture). However, we are members of the Church the Body of Christ, so God’s primary goal is to one day take us to heaven and bring Him glory there (Ephesians 2:6,7).

People have utilized religious tradition to greatly confuse and complicate God’s will. Sadly, the average Christian never grasps exactly what God expects of them; what they are to believe and how their daily lives are to operate. No wonder the Body of Christ is so ineffective in reaching the lost!

God’s will is not as specific as religion teaches. Rather than trying to “discern” God’s will for your life through subjective means (hunches, weather, actions of others, religion, et cetera), you need to discover God’s will using objective means—the written, permanent, inerrant Word of God (the King James Bible).

What would God have you to do, fellow Christian? God’s Word points us to salvation in Christ and educates us regarding life’s situations. Paul is our apostle (Romans 11:13; Romans 15:16; 2 Timothy 1:11); consult his epistles first regarding all matters/situations. If Romans through Philemon are silent about the matter, then, and ONLY THEN, seek counsel from the remaining Bible books. In the event these books are silent about the issue, then, and ONLY THEN, should you seek outside (extra-Biblical) advice, bearing in mind that this extra-Biblical advice should not contradict the Bible (especially Paul’s epistles).

The Glory of Our Lord Jesus Christ #4

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

“But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 2:13,14 KJV).

Saints, today’s Scripture tells us that through Jesus Christ’s finished crosswork at Calvary—Paul’s Gospel of 1 Corinthians 15:1-4—we can now obtain “the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In Christ, we have acquired the righteous status before God that Adam had prior to mankind’s fall into sin. God has redeemed our souls from sin and hell and He has given us a new identity in Christ. But, our vile physical bodies have not yet been redeemed from sin’s curse, so we cannot see the glory of that new identity. At the rapture, we will receive glorified physical bodies, and the glory we have in Christ will be manifested (Romans 8:18-25).

Our Lord Jesus Christ “dwells in the light which no man can approach unto” (1 Timothy 6:16). Christ is so holy that light emanates from His body (remember the Mount of Transfiguration?). When the ascended Lord Jesus appeared to Saul of Tarsus (the future Apostle Paul), Saul was blinded for three days because of “the glory of that light” (Acts 9:1-9; Acts 22:5-11; Acts 26:12,13). This is the glory of God that dwells in us; we just cannot see it right now.

Currently, we live in these limited physical bodies that cannot reflect the glory of Christ that we have inside (in the inner man). That will change at the rapture. “As we have borne the image of the earthy [these physical bodies linked to fallen Adam], we shall also bear the image of the heavenly [the glorified bodies that will reflect Christ’s glory; Philippians 3:20,21]” (1 Corinthians 15:49ff.).

After the rapture, we will have bodies that will be just as radiant as Jesus’ body on the Mount of Transfiguration. Then, we will be glorified together with Christ (Romans 8:16,17). Glorious truth!

The Wisdom Given to Our Beloved Brother Paul

Sunday, March 11, 2012

“And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:15,16 KJV).

The Apostle Peter, in verses 3,4, references scoffers who ask, “Where is the promise of [Christ’s] coming?” Decades after the Lord Jesus had resurrected and ascended into heaven, James, Peter, and John spoke of His Second Coming as if it were just moments away (James 5:8,9; 1 Peter 4:7; 2 Peter 3:3; 1 John 2:18). They wrote 2,000 years ago, and Christ never came. Is Christ ever coming back?

In today’s Scripture, Peter admits that when he and the Apostles James and John met with the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 15 (Galatians chapter 2) circa A.D. 50, Paul taught them something. To Paul alone God entrusted a body of truth that not even Peter fully understood (even at this late date of 2 Peter circa A.D. 68)—Peter and Paul preached separate messages (see Galatians 2:1-9). Peter acknowledged that Christ gave exclusively to Paul “the revelation of the mystery” (Romans 16:25,26; Ephesians 3:1-9). Furthermore, Peter verified Paul’s 13 epistles, Romans through Philemon, as “scripture.” Peter warned that people “wrest” (corrupt) Paul’s epistles as they do the other Bible books.

Why has Christ not come back, Peter? “The Lord is not slack [lazy, unreliable] concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). God wants all people to be saved. He wants no one to suffer His wrath and judgment (the seven-year Tribulation) because His Son Jesus paid for our sins at Calvary’s cross!

Yes, Christ will be back, but God is postponing Israel’s prophetic program in order to extend this the Dispensation of Grace and give more people a chance to be saved before His wrath comes on earth.

Avoid Them

Monday, March 5, 2012

“Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple” (Romans 16:17,18 KJV).

When a believer in Christ Jesus comes to understand dispensational Bible study—that is, Pauline dispensationalism—he or she comes to a crossroads in the Christian life. They struggle between two choices: Do I continue attending my local denominational church, where my friends and family go? OR Do I find and attend a local grace church where sound doctrine (right division) is taught? For some time, my family and I struggled with that issue. What would God have us to do?

What makes this situation most difficult is that a local grace church is hard-to-find (my “local” grace church is over an hour’s drive away!). There are scores of denominational churches that are much closer to my house, but I would rather an hour-long drive to hear God’s truth (the King James Bible rightly divided) than drive five minutes and hear Satan’s error (denominationalism, church tradition, human viewpoint, et cetera).

In today’s Scripture, the Apostle Paul gives the Roman believers a strong admonition: the teachers and preachers who depart from or ignore the doctrine that the ascended Lord Jesus Christ committed unto Paul’s trust (Romans through Philemon) are to be “marked” (identified, singled out) and they are to be avoided. We should only attend a local church where sound, King James Bible Pauline dispensationalism is believed, preached, and taught. Paul wrote, “If any man thinketh himself to a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 14:37).

Paul is our apostle (Romans 11:13); we find our doctrine, duty, walk and destiny for this the Dispensation of Grace in Paul’s epistles alone. Those who do not teach the Bible rightly divided teach religious tradition, and they “serve not our Lord Jesus Christ.” Beloved, the Bible says avoid them (2 Corinthians 6:14-18; 1 Timothy 6:3-5).

*Adapted from a larger Bible study titled “Be Ye Separate.” The Bible study can be read here or watched here.

The LORD is On My Side #2

Thursday, March 1, 2012

“Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me” (Hebrews 13:5,6 KJV).

Today’s Scripture is God’s Word to Israel’s believing remnant, who will suffer the wrath of Satan and the antichrist during the seven-year Tribulation. Despite the dire circumstances around them, God comforts His people Israel by reminding them of His faithfulness, that He will be with them as He was with their ancestors (Deuteronomy 31:6-8; Joshua 1:5; Psalm 118:6). But, Israel’s faithful God also happens to be our faithful God!

The vicissitudes of living in this “present evil world” (Galatians 1:4) can be very depressing. Our Apostle Paul endured depression in the ministry, especially after the pagan riot in Ephesus in Acts 19:22–20:1 (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:8-11). But, Paul wrote, “we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:9; cf. 2 Corinthians 4:7-11). Beloved, our flesh is too weak to endure, so we must rely on God’s strength if we are to get through this life!

Romans 8:31 asks, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” No matter what we face in this life, we have the victory through Christ Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:57). The “peace of God [will] keep [guard] our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6,7). Rather than succumb to despair, we rejoice that “our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)! God’s grace is sufficient for us to endure all of life’s troubles (2 Corinthians 12:9,10; Philippians 4:13).

We join believing Israel in declaring, “The Lord is on my side! The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me!” Brethren, despite our persecution in this life, Israel’s faithful God is our faithful God and He is on our side too! 🙂

The Jews, the Greeks, and Paul’s Gospel

Friday, February 24, 2012

“For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:22-24 KJV).

Jews were fixated on “signs,” miraculous demonstrations that God had long used to teach them and their forefathers, whereas Greeks were obsessed with “wisdom” (philosophy, human viewpoint). These distracted them from focusing on what really mattered—salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ!

  • JEWS AND SIGNS: After Jesus performed miracles before Israel the Bible says “many believed in his name,… but Jesus did not commit himself unto them…” (John 2:23-25). Jesus understood they were just awed by the miracles; they overlooked the doctrine He was teaching through the miracles!! When Paul preached the Gospel of Grace to Jews, they too just wanted miracles, not the salvation that the miracles represented. Also, to Jews, “Christ crucified” was a “stumblingblock,” something offensive, for did they not crucify Christ (today’s Scripture; cf. Isaiah 8:13,14; Romans 9:32,33; 1 Peter 2:6-8)?
  • GREEKS AND WISDOM: In Acts chapter 17, when Paul encountered the Athenian philosophers near Mars’ Hill, they wanted to learn from him “new doctrine… for all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing” (verses 19-21). Notice again how these Greeks focused on learning/philosophy. Yet, once they learned God’s wisdom, Paul’s Gospel, the Gospel of Grace, they considered that “foolishness” (today’s Scripture; cf. Acts 17:18,32; 1 Corinthians 1:18).

Thankfully, today’s Scripture teaches that for Jews who were “called” (members of the Church the Body of Christ), Christ was TRUE POWER, “the power of God”—for God demonstrated His miraculous power by raising Christ from the dead (cf. Romans 1:4; 2 Corinthians 13:4). For Greeks who were “called” (also members of the Body of Christ), Christ was TRUE WISDOM, “the wisdom of God”—for God demonstrated His unrivaled wisdom in saving us using “the foolishness of preaching” (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:21, 25-30; Colossians 2:2,3).

The Greeks Seek After Wisdom

Thursday, February 23, 2012

“For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:” (1 Corinthians 1:22 KJV).

Having been in college for nearly six years now, I have learned firsthand that most educated people avoid God’s Word. The Bible, say they, is not a credible source because it cannot be proven using the “scientific method” (that is, tested in a lab). Because the Bible is not the “wisdom of this world,” these individuals have little to no respect for it. After all, “the Greeks seek after wisdom” (today’s Scripture).

In the ancient world, Athens was an intellectual hub. So, when the Apostle Paul visited it in Acts 17:15-34, who do you suppose he met? “Certain philosophers, of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection” (verse 18). To these pagan philosophers, Paul was a “babbler,” someone who preached hearsay (unreliable rumors).

“And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them” (verses 32,33). What did some of these philosophers do upon hearing God’s Word? Mock it! Paul preaching the Gospel of the Grace of God was nonsense to them. (Do we not get the same response today?)

Today’s Scripture is an excerpt from Paul’s first epistle to Corinth, which, unfortunately for the Corinthian believers, was only about 45 miles (72 km) due west of Athens. The pagans in Athens obviously worshiped philosophy and science, and this idolatry trickled into nearby Corinth. Not surprisingly, one of the 10 major problems in Corinth was believers were rejecting God’s wisdom and embracing human wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:17-31, 2:5, 3:18,19)!

The Greek philosophy spoken of in the above verses is still with us in the sciences, the arts, and politics. Like the aforesaid philosophers, many educated people today are still “too intelligent” to be bothered with learning true wisdom, God’s Word, so they mock and reject it.

The Jews Require a Sign

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

“For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:” (1 Corinthians 1:22 KJV).

Today there is much discussion in Christendom about signs, miracles, and wonders. Charismatic preachers filled with the supposed “Holy Ghost” claim they cast out devils, handle snakes, speak in tongues, heal the sick, and, yes, allegedly raise the dead! The Bible does teach these practices, but are they really doing God’s work, or merely “wresting” God’s Word to make it say something God never said?

Unquestionably, the Lord Jesus Christ told His apostles to “heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils” (Matthew 10:8). He instructed them to “cast out devils,” “speak with new tongues,” “take up serpents,” drink poison, and “lay hands on the sick [so] they shall recover” (Mark 16:17,18). But, notice the context—Jesus is sending His apostles with “signs” to lost Israel (Matthew 10:5-7; Mark 16:17,20). Jews will only believe if they first witness God’s miracles.

Signs, miracles, and wonders were significant in Israel’s program. Jews always “required signs” (today’s Scripture). The Lord Jesus said (John 4:48): “Except ye [Israel] see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.” Miracles in Israel first appear in Exodus 4:1-9, when God gave Moses the ability to heal sickness and handle snakes (to teach Israel that he was God’s servant to deliver them from Egypt). Verses 30 and 31 explain that once Israel saw these signs, “the people believed” (cf. John 4:48).

Jesus performed many miracles during His earthly ministry to prove to Israel that He was God’s servant, their Messiah-King, the God whom their fathers worshipped. Sadly, sinful Israel crucified Him in unbelief.

When God began turning to the Gentiles through the Apostle Paul, these miracles transferred to the Gentiles, teaching Israel that God was now working amongst the Gentiles (Romans 11:11,12; 1 Corinthians 14:21,22). Eventually, when Israel’s program ceased, these miracles faded, and at the close of Paul’s ministry, he could no longer heal (1 Timothy 5:23; 2 Timothy 4:20).

So, it begs the question, today’s charismatic preachers are using whose power to perform their “signs, miracles, and wonders?” Not the God of the Bible!

Our Gospel Hid #4

Monday, February 13, 2012

“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:3,4 KJV).

God’s will is “to have all men saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3,4). That is, God wants every lost person saved from hell, and He wants every Christian saved from religious tradition. The goal of Satan’s policy of evil is the opposite: to keep lost people unsaved (lost) and to keep Christians unaware (spiritually immature) of God’s doctrine for them (Paul’s epistles). Satan accomplishes this using over 4,200 world religions, 38,000-plus “Christian” denominations, in excess of 200 (corrupt) modern English Bibles, and various false gospels (some even mention “Christ!”). This is how Satan “blinds the minds of them which believe not.”

To Satan’s dismay…

  1. By the grace of God, we are “saved!” We who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ alone as Saviour can rejoice today that “the light of the glorious gospel of Christ” shone unto us despite Satan’s attempts to keep us lost (today’s Scripture)!
  2. By the grace of God, we have “come unto the knowledge of the truth!” We who use the King James Bible can rejoice that we found God’s preserved and inerrant Word for us English-speaking Christians! By the grace of God, we who understand the “revelation of the mystery” (Paul’s special ministry) are no longer deceived by vain church tradition.

As King James Bible believers and Pauline dispensationalists who have trusted in Christ Jesus alone for salvation, we praise the Lord. Despite all the deception out there, we sought truth, and God made sure we found it!

How we are eternally grateful to God our Father to have found our Saviour (the Lord Jesus Christ), to have found God’s Word (the King James Bible), to have found our apostle (Paul), and to have found our place in God’s program (the Church the Body of Christ).