Atonement
The Atonement: Is it Past or Future?
Leviticus 23:27 Also on the tenth day
of this seventh month there shall
be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye
shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the
LORD.
Leviticus 23:28 And ye shall do no
work in that same day: for it is a
day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God.
Hebrews 4:1 Let us therefore fear,
lest, a promise being left us of
entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
Hebrews 4:11 Let us labour therefore
to enter into that rest, lest any
man fall after the same example of unbelief.
There is much confusion in religion
today over the issue of atonement.
The word “atonement” carries the idea of reconciliation. It is being
reconciled to God. Well, have we been reconciled to God by the cross of
Christ or is there yet a future day that we must endure for in which we
will be reconciled? Is there something, some work that we must do in
order to maintain our salvation? In order to keep God’s favor?
The confusion over the issue of
atonement stems from the fact that
rather than use the bible as the basis for doctrine most in religion
today study religious literature. They study publications written by
the leaders of religious organizations rather than the written word of
God. In other words, they are substituting the wisdom of men for the
word of God. People do that, or else they simply don’t study at all,
and if they have any thoughts or ideas about God, about their own
future destiny, they come from what some preacher says, either in a
pulpit or on television. Some even make up their own god’s, or
goddesses and their own religion. Now the book of Hebrews carries a
strong warning. It warns someone that there is the danger of falling,
of falling away. It also says that if they do fall away, as in chapter
six:
Hebrews 6:4 For it is impossible for
those who were once enlightened,
and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the
Holy Ghost,
Hebrews 6:5 And have tasted the good
word of God, and the powers of the
world to come,
Hebrews 6:6 If they shall fall away,
to renew them again unto
repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh,
and put him to an open shame.
So the implication is clear in the
book of Hebrews. It is an “endure to
the end message.” It is clear that the message in the book of Hebrews
is in one accord with the message of the Lord Jesus Christ in the book
of Matthew.
Matthew 24:11 And many false prophets
shall rise, and shall deceive
many.
Matthew 24:12 And because iniquity
shall abound, the love of many shall
wax cold.
Matthew 24:13 But he that shall
endure unto the end, the same shall be
saved.
Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the
kingdom shall be preached in all
the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
So people in religion today have good
sound verifiable bible reason for
teaching and believing in a salvation that consists of repentance,
confessing of sins, and doing good works in order to maintain favor
with God, and hoping to the end, enduring to the end in order to be
saved at some future date…at the end. And I suppose that “the end”
would mean to them, the end of their lives or the end of the world as
we know it, whichever comes first.
Are we already atoned? Are we already
AT ONE with God by the cross of
Christ, or is there something more? Is there yet some future day of
atonement? Well, the answer is YES. The answer is YES to both
questions. But it depends on knowing where you fit in the purpose of
God as to whether you are saved, safe, sealed and secure in the
finished work of the cross, or whether you are a lost, doomed, damned
and condemned sinner on your way to Hell. You see, you cannot be saved
by a message that was given to people in TIME PAST but is not the same
message that is given to people NOW. You cannot be saved by building an
ark, although you can look in your bible and find someone who was. In
other words people are saved by faith in what God says, but God doesn’t
always say the same things.
Because at a point in time, God
interrupted one purpose so that he
could institute another. It’s the two-fold purpose of God that most in
the religious system of the world today seem to know nothing at all
about. It’s the difference in HERE and THERE. It’s the difference in
GOING and COMING. In other words, are you GOING to Heaven to be with
the Lord or is the Lord COMING from Heaven to be with you? Both are
going to happen.
At some future day, and I don’t think
that day is far off, the Lord
himself will descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel, with the trump of God and a certain group of people are
going to be CAUGHT UP. They will literally be snatched out, caught away
from this present evil world, up into Heaven, and so shall we ever be
with the Lord. And then, AFTER THAT, Jesus Christ, the same Jesus those
12 Jewish men in Acts chapter one stood and watched ascend into Heaven
from the Mount of Olives east of Jerusalem is going to come again to
the exact same spot.
Acts 1:11 Which also said, Ye men of
Galilee, why stand ye gazing up
into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven,
shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
So the issue is that during a period
of years represented by the time
period of the book of Acts, there were two different groups of people
who believed TWO DIFFERENT messages. Those who are GOING to Heaven and
are saved by grace through faith in the finished cross work of Christ
have NOW received the atonement, while there remains a future Day of
Atonement for some other people. It’s the difference between going to
be with the Lord, and the second coming of Christ to set up the
Kingdom. Those are two different events and they are separated by a
period of years, at least seven years. The two separate events affect
two groups of people.
1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord
himself shall descend from heaven
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of
God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
1 Thessalonians 4:17 Then we which
are alive and remain shall be caught
up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and
so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Now the two-fold purpose of God is
just as clear as the simple English
of Genesis:
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth.
So there are two places, two
purposes, and two groups of people
involved. The problem with religion today is that most are so blinded
by a false religious system that they cannot and will not see that God
interrupted one purpose so that He could reveal the other. At a point
in time, God STOPPED dealing with people on the basis of his EARTHLY
purpose and started dealing with people on the basis of his HEAVENLY
purpose. It is the SINGLE but the two-fold purpose of God. And what
people fail to see is that God interrupted his calendar of events for
His earthly people and purpose for a different calling.
God’s channel of blessing for planet
earth is Israel. It always has
been, it always will be. Now when we say Israel, when God says Israel,
he is talking about the physical, literal descendents of Jacob, the
grandson of Abraham, who was called Israel. In the book of
Genesis, God singled out a man, Abraham, and he made certain promises
to him. Those promises were unconditional and they were not temporary.
The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. God made covenants
of promise to Abraham, the Hebrew. Abraham was a Hebrew. The book of
Hebrews is written to Hebrews. It is written in a tribulation context.
It is God’s warning to the people of Israel. It is a tribulation
message. It is about the second coming of Christ and a FUTURE Day of
Atonement for Israel. All Israel will be saved at that time, at a day
in the future. The bible says that the deliverer will roar out of Zion:
Joel 3:16 The LORD also shall roar
out of Zion, and utter his voice
from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD
will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of
Israel.
That is God’s covenant with his
earthly people, Israel. God made
promises to Abraham, to Israel. They are called covenants. God will
fulfill those promises to Israel at a future date. Between now and
then, Israel is in blindness just as the bible says:
Romans 11:25 For I would not,
brethren, that ye should be ignorant of
this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that
blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the
Gentiles be come in.
So at a point in time God interrupted
the fulfilling of His promises to
Israel. It is plain that God is not dealing with Israel today. He is
dealing with the church, the body of Christ, His heavenly purpose and
people. But yet, God says, and Paul confirms it, that God will yet save
Israel:
Romans 11:26 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:
Romans 11:27 For this is my covenant
unto them, when I shall take away
their sins.
We see, then, that there is yet a
future day when God’s covenant with
Israel will be fulfilled. God will establish His covenant, the New
Covenant of Jeremiah 31 and Hebrews chapter eight, with Israel. He will
fulfill such passages as this one:
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he
is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Many in religion today try to use
that passage as the basis of a
conditional salvation. In other words, the same message preached in
time past, enduring to the end to be saved at the end. What they don’t
understand is that John, the apostle, is an apostle of the
circumcision. He is an apostle to Israel. The book of 1 John is a
tribulation message. It is about a holy priesthood, the EARTHLY priests
of the Lord. Think about it. If you are cleansed from all
unrighteousness then how much more unrighteousness do you need to be
cleansed of? What is in view in 1 John 1:9 is the Day of Atonement. A
future day of atonement for the whole house of Israel:
Zechariah 13:1 In that day there
shall be a fountain opened to the
house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for
uncleanness.
Well what day is that? The Day of
Atonement for Israel is the second
coming of Christ. This same Jesus, they saw, that they stood and
watched ascend into Heaven will so come in like manner. He will come
down from Heaven, and at that day He will “take away Israel’s sins.”
The sins of Israel are not yet taken away. They crucified their King.
They murdered their Messiah. But God raised him from the dead, He
ascended into Heaven and at the day and at the hour God has in His own
hand, Christ will come again.
But between then and now, between the
time of Acts two, three, four,
five and so forth, between the time that Peter preached a murder
indictment against Israel on the Day of Pentecost in the book of Acts
and the second coming of Christ, there is a GREAT parenthesis. There is
a TIME-OUT in the fulfillment of prophecy. God interrupted his
prophesied earthly kingdom, that Kingdom which was preached in Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John, that which was spoken by all the prophets since
the world began, for something different. God stopped the prophetic
time clock, and in here is a great parenthesis. It is called the
dispensation of the gospel in 1 Corinthians. It is referred to as the
dispensation of the grace of God in Ephesians:
1 Corinthians 9:17 For if I do this
thing willingly, I have a reward:
but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto
me.
Ephesians 3:1 For this cause I Paul,
the prisoner of Jesus Christ for
you Gentiles,
Ephesians 3:2 If ye have heard of the
dispensation of the grace of God
which is given me to you-ward:
A dispensation carries the idea of an
administration. A pharmacist
dispenses medicine to patients who are sick. If your child is sick with
a fever, you administer medication to him to make him well. So God’s
economy was changed. God didn’t change. God never changes. Jesus Christ
is the same yesterday, today and forever. It was not God who changed,
it was God who changed HIS ECONOMY. God, through Moses dispensed THE
LAW. The Law came by Moses. In an economy of Law, God deals with men on
the basis of Law. In the case of the children of Israel, and of those
who worshipped God THROUGH the nation of Israel, (and that was the only
way it could be done at the time) men worship God, they learn and
observe and do the things of God, by means of the law. In the Old
Covenant it was done on the basis of a WRITTEN LAW.
In the New Covenant, which is out
there in the future, God will write
His Laws on their hearts and in their minds, the bible says, and they
will all know God, from the least to the greatest and nobody will be
teaching anyone else about God, because they will ALL KNOW HIM. God’s
laws are not written in your heart and in your mind today. Can you
recite ten of God’s laws right now? God is not dealing with you on the
basis of Law today, but on the basis of GRACE. He is dispensing grace.
Have you heard of the “Dispensation of the Grace of God?”
Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that
bringeth salvation hath appeared
to all men,
Now it is important that we
understand these differences in scripture.
All of the things said in the Old Testament, that which was “spoken by
the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began,” pertained to
Israel. The earthly Kingdom purpose of God is through the nation of
Israel. But Israel fell. When Peter preached to the men of Israel in
Acts chapter two, he told them to “repent and be baptized every one of
you,” but they did not. For the most part Israel rejected both their
King and their Kingdom. Now, did this catch God off guard? Did God have
to scramble around and come up with some other idea? Absolutely not!
All through the Old Testament, God was SILENT about his Heavenly
calling and purpose. He was silent about things that he revealed to the
Apostle Paul. Before the foundation of the world, God had already
decided that he would have a Heavenly body of people. It is called the
Body of Christ. It is not “spiritual Israel.” There is no such thing as
“spiritual Israel.” That is nothing more than a made-up religious idea.
So when the nation of Israel rejected their King and Kingdom, God
revealed the MYSTERY to Paul. It was about a joint spiritual body of
believers. It is not about a “kingdom of priests and holy nation.” (as
in 1 Peter 2:9)
So the question we are dealing with
is: Have you NOW RECEIVED the
atonement, or, are you working and waiting and enduring to the end for
a future day of atonement? If you are, then you have been reading the
wrong mail, watching the wrong TV evangelist, or listening to the wrong
religious leader. What we need to see, what we need to understand is
the DIFFERENCE between the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ
and His heavenly calling in the church, the body of Christ. The Lord’s
ministry was to Israel. It was about Israel, and it was FOR Israel.
Look at what the Lord said:
Matthew 15:24 But he answered and
said, I am not sent but unto the lost
sheep of the house of Israel.
Now to “spiritualize’ the passage and
take what the Lord said and twist
it so that you can make it conform to your own religious tradition, or
to be duped into doing that by some crooked theologian comes from a bad
motive. He said I am “not sent” but to anyone but Israel and there are
some preachers who will insist that He didn’t know what He was talking
about. They will insist that He was and they have now even come to the
point to where they will print new “translations” to show that He was.
But your bible is plain:
Romans 15:8 Now I say that Jesus
Christ was a minister of the
circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto
the fathers:
Now tell me, are you the
circumcision? Of course not. There is no such
thing today. Once again that program was interrupted. A new program was
instituted, a new message was given, and a new apostle was called. And
during the period of time in the book of Acts, when the church at
Jerusalem was still in existence, a conflict arose because of Paul’s
new and different message and the Lord sent Paul to Jerusalem to clear
it up. As the result of that meeting, at the time of Acts chapter
fifteen, a conclusion was reached and there is NO BIBLE AUTHORITY
anywhere after that which would indicate that anything has changed:
Galatians 2:7 But contrariwise, when
they saw that the gospel of the
uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision
was unto Peter;
Galatians 2:8 (For he that wrought
effectually in Peter to the
apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the
Gentiles:)
Galatians 2:9 And when James, Cephas,
and John, who seemed to be
pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me
and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the
heathen, and they unto the circumcision.
The gospel OF the circumcision is a
message pertaining to the
circumcision, about the circumcision, FOR the circumcision. Jesus
Christ in the red letters of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John was a
MINISTER of the circumcision and here in Galatians, those apostles
agree to confine THEIR ministry to the circumcision and NOT go into all
the world and teach all nations. (as in the so-called “great
commission) The question is, do you believe your bible? Paul was given
the message for you today, not Peter, James and John. The message to
the Hebrews in the book of Hebrews which is written to Hebrews about
the future salvation of Hebrews is NOT the same message written by Paul
to the Gentiles in Rome in the book of Romans:
Romans 5:11 And not only so, but we
also joy in God through our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
So, once more, the question is: Have
you NOW RECEIVED the atonement or
are you still waiting and hoping and enduring to the end for it. All of
the bible is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable. All of
the bible is FOR YOU but it is NOT ALL about you. There are some things
that are different in the bible and we need to study them out. Else,
how can we be “approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be
ashamed?” A workman who is working with the wrong set of plans, the
wrong instructions, is not doing very good work. He is not doing a good
job.
So let’s reason these things out.
Let’s look at what God was doing IN
TIME PAST, what God is doing NOW and what will be going on in the AGES
TO COME. The time past we want to talk about specifically here, is the
time of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and the time of Peter’s ministry
in Acts two, three, four, five and so on. In TIME PAST, God was dealing
with men on the basis of the Covenants of Promise. The promises made to
the fathers, as in Abraham, Isaac and Jacob being the father’s of the
nation of Israel. It all started here:
Genesis 12:1 Now the LORD had said
unto Abram, Get thee out of thy
country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land
that I will show thee:
Genesis 12:2 And I will make of thee
a great nation, and I will bless
thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
Genesis 12:3 And I will bless them
that bless thee, and curse him that
curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
That great nation was the nation of
Israel. The name of Jacob, the
grandson of Abraham, was changed to Israel. He had twelve sons and from
them you have the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel. From Genesis
chapter twelve 430 years went by, Jacob and all his house, seventy
people in all went down into Egypt, and then God called Israel out of
Egypt. Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt, a great nation of
people by that time, hundreds of thousands of people. (Exodus 12:37-38)
Now let’s pick up in the book of Hebrews:
Hebrews 3:1 Wherefore, holy brethren,
partakers of the heavenly
calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ
Jesus;
Hebrews 3:2 Who was faithful to him
that appointed him, as also Moses
was faithful in all his house.
So we see then, that Moses had a
HOUSE. It is referred to as the “whole
house of Israel.” Moses led Israel out of Egypt to go into the promised
land, the land promised to Abraham.
Hebrews 3:3 For this man was counted
worthy of more glory than Moses,
inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the
house.
So Moses had a house and he was
faithful in all his house, but Jesus
Christ made the house. In Genesis 1:1 when God created the heaven and
the earth, it was Jesus Christ doing the creating:
Colossians 1:16 For by him were all
things created, that are in heaven,
and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones,
or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by
him, and for him:
Hebrews 3:4 For every house is
builded by some man; but he that built
all things is God.
Hebrews 3:5 And Moses verily was
faithful in all his house, as a
servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;
Now from Mount Sinai in the
wilderness, Israel received the Law of
Moses, the Old Covenant. And God told Moses to say certain things:
Exodus 19:5 Now therefore, if ye will
obey my voice indeed, and keep my
covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all
people: for all the earth is mine:
Exodus 19:6 And ye shall be unto me a
kingdom of priests, and an holy
nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of
Israel.
Now you can’t have a “kingdom of
priests” without having a Kingdom, so
in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John you have the gospel of the kingdom:
Matthew 4:23 And Jesus went about all
Galilee, teaching in their
synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all
manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
The gospel of the kingdom then has to
do with the setting up of that
promised kingdom, the forming of that holy nation Moses spoke of. The
message was that the time had come, the period of time spoken of by the
prophets of the coming of the Messiah and it was time for the kingdom
to be set up.
Mark 1:14 Now after that John was put
in prison, Jesus came into
Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
Mark 1:15 And saying, The time is
fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is
at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
But, the people and the leaders of
the nation of Israel did not repent,
they did not believe the gospel. The bible says:
John 1:11 He came unto his own, and
his own received him not.
The leaders of the nation of Israel
as well as most of the people of
Israel rejected their King and their Kingdom, but a “little flock” of
people did listen, they did recognize their King. In other words, they
were believers. But the majority rejected the Kingdom and the King. So
the Lord said to them:
Matthew 21:43 Therefore say I unto
you, The kingdom of God shall be
taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
So we know then that the nation the
Lord is talking about is that
“little flock:”
Luke 12:32 Fear not, little flock;
for it is your Father's good
pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Now the salvation which is in view
here is the whole house of Israel.
The individuals who will believe are a part of that house but it’s the
whole house which is in view. Hence Moses was faithful in all his
house, but Christ built the house. That house, by the way, is also
referred to as a church, the “church in the wilderness.”
Acts 7:37 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.
Acts 7:38 This is he, that was in the
church in the wilderness with the
angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who
received the lively oracles to give unto us:
So we see then that we have a nation,
which is a priesthood, which is a
house, which is also a church. In Matthew 16, shortly before his
crucifixion, the Lord tells the disciples HOW he is going to build HIS
church. It has to do with Peter’s confession:
Matthew 16:16 And Simon Peter
answered and said, Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God.
So the church in view here is a
Messianic church. It is a church based
on the fact the Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the heir to the throne of
David, the King of Israel:
Matthew 16:17 And Jesus answered and
said unto him, Blessed art thou,
Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but
my Father which is in heaven.
Matthew 16:18 And I say also unto
thee, That thou art Peter, and upon
this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it.
Please note now, that this is near
the end of the Lord’s ministry, just
before he is crucified. Notice that Peter confesses that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of the living God. That confession is what was in view
in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, NOT THE FACT that Christ died for our
sins. They had no clue that Christ was dying for theirs or anyone’s
sins. We know that by what takes place just a few verses later. The
Lord tells them that he is about to be crucified, buried and raised
from the dead and they know nothing at all about it. Look at Peter’s
attitude:
Matthew 16:21 From that time forth
began Jesus to shew 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 16:22 Then Peter took him,
and began to rebuke him, saying, Be
it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.
Now today, we know that the Lord was
crucified, and that He was buried,
and that He rose from the dead three days and three nights later,
according to the scriptures. We also know, through Paul, that Christ
died for our sins. We know through Paul that He was raised again for
our justification. We know that the very TRUTH of the gospel, the very
MEANS of our salvation is the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.
BUT, at that time and at that place IT WAS NOT KNOWN. The WHY of the
cross of Christ is not in view in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The
REASON for the cross was not known at that time and it is very plain,
from scripture, that Peter, James and John DID NOT know it. They didn’t
know it then and Peter doesn’t preach it in Acts chapter Two, Phillip
doesn’t preach it in Acts chapter eight, and Peter, at the home of a
Gentile in Acts chapter ten does not preach the fact that Christ died
for his, yours, or anyone’s sins. The worst mistake of ALL fundamental,
denominational religion in the world today is that they ANTICIPATE
revelation. They try to make bible truth, which was not known and not
revealed until a LATER DATE fit in a place where it was simply not
known. The MYSTERY of Christ, the MYSTERY of the gospel was revealed to
Paul and to Paul alone. If you don’t know this you could be unsure
about your salvation! You could be unsure as to whether you have now
received the atonement or whether you are enduring to the end for some
future atonement.
For instance when the Ethiopian
eunuch is reading from the book of
Isaiah, chapter 53, reading a description of what we now know to be the
cross work of Jesus Christ, he doesn’t understand it, and Phillip
climbs up into the chariot with him and explains the passage. He tells
the eunuch WHO it means but he does not tell him WHAT it means because
Phillip at that time, doesn’t know the WHY of the cross.. He preached
unto him Jesus and they came to some water and the eunuch wanted to be
baptized. Now look at his confession:
Acts 8:36 And as they went on their
way, they came unto a certain
water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to
be baptized?
Acts 8:37 And Philip said, If thou
believest with all thine heart, thou
mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God.
His confession is EXACTLY the same as
Peter’s was in Matthew 16 and it
does not include the fact, the good news that Christ died for his sins.
He didn’t know it, Peter didn’t know it. Paul received that message
only by direct revelation from the Lord and Peter only knew it when the
Lord sent Paul to tell it. Peter does NOT glory in the cross of Christ
in Acts chapter two. Now Acts chapter two is in a strictly Jewish
setting. It is a Jewish holy day, the day of Pentecost. Only Jews are
there, and only a Jewish message is preached. And wouldn’t you know it!
It is exactly the same message that was preached by John the Baptist:
Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;
Mark 1:2 As it is written in the
prophets, Behold, I send my messenger
before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
Please note that there is a BIG
difference between that which was
written in the prophets and that which was NOT written in the prophets.
We will be coming to that later on:
Mark 1:3 The voice of one crying in
the wilderness, Prepare ye the way
of the Lord, make his paths straight.
Mark 1:4 John did baptize in the
wilderness, and preach the baptism of
repentance for the remission of sins.
Before Jesus Christ was ever MANIFEST
to Israel by his water baptism in
the River Jordan, John the Baptist came on the scene to prepare the way
of the Lord. And Peter, on the Day of Pentecost preaches the exact same
message with one addition:
Acts 2:38 Then Peter said unto them,
Repent, and be baptized every one
of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Peter’s message of repentance and
water baptism to the men of Israel on
the Day of Pentecost is the same as that of John the Baptist with one
difference. The difference in Peter’s message was the gift of the Holy
Ghost, the power which they would need to endure to the end. That is
the CONDITIONAL salvation in the Jewish Kingdom message that religion
is so confused about today. Men simply do not rightly divide the word
of truth, but instead they wrongly confuse it:
John 1:11 He came unto his own, and
his own received him not.
John 1:12 But as many as received
him, to them gave he power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
That was a baptism performed by the
Lord Jesus Christ. They were
baptized WITH the Holy Ghost. Not BY but WITH. And there is a
difference. They did not have the seal of the Spirit as believers do
today. They had a performance to do. They had a trial to go through,
the trial of their faith. Read Peter’s doctrine which was written to
that group of people:
1 Peter 1:5 Who are kept by the power
of God through faith unto
salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
1 Peter 1:6 Wherein ye greatly
rejoice, though now for a season, if
need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
1 Peter 1:7 That the trial of your
faith, being much more precious than
of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found
unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
So the Day of Pentecost was fifty
days after the crucifixion of Christ.
Jesus Christ had been raised from the dead, appeared to them and taught
them for forty days and ascended into Heaven. He had told those 12 men
to wait for this power baptism:
Acts 1:5 For John truly baptized with
water; but ye shall be baptized
with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
And on the Day of Pentecost, from
Heaven, Jesus Christ SHED FORTH the
Holy Ghost. They were baptized WITH the Holy Ghost. There is a
difference in being baptized WITH the Spirit and being baptized BY the
Spirit. Today if you are saved you are baptized BY the Spirit INTO the
body of Christ. Not them. They had to endure to the end. Their
atonement was yet future. Their atonement is the second coming of
Christ when that fountain will be opened as in Zechariah 13:1, when He
will cleanse them from all unrighteousness as in 1 John 1:9.
Peter preaches to men of Israel in
Acts chapter two and his message is
not a message of grace. He does not say believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and be saved. He does not say that the grace of God which
bringeth salvation has appeared to all men. In other words, Peter is
not preaching Paul’s message. At the time Peter knows nothing of Paul’s
message. It was Paul who received the message of salvation by grace
alone through faith alone in the FINISHED WORK of Christ. And what
Peter says he says he says to Jews only. Not Gentiles. Look at it:
Acts 2:5 And there were dwelling at
Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of
every nation under heaven.
Acts 2:14 But Peter, standing up with
the eleven, lifted up his voice,
and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at
Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:
Acts 2:22 Ye men of Israel, hear
these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man
approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God
did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:
Acts 2:36 Therefore let all the house
of Israel know assuredly, that
God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and
Christ.
He says you have killed your King.
You have murdered your Messiah, you
have slain the Prince of life, but God has raised Him from the dead.
And the good news he has for Israel there is the “acceptable year of
the Lord.” On the cross Christ had said, “Father forgive them, for they
know not what they do,” and that prayer was answered and God gave
Israel a year to repent. It is called “the acceptable year of the Lord”
and you can clearly see it in the parable of the fig tree in Luke
chapter thirteen. So Peter preaches:
Acts 3:17 And now, brethren, I wot
that through ignorance ye did it, as
did also your rulers.
Acts 3:18 But those things, which God
before had shewed by the mouth of
all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.
Do you notice that the sufferings of
Christ have been fulfilled, but
that he doesn’t mention the glory? In prophecy, the sufferings of
Christ are never, ever mentioned without the glory to follow. Now
watch, because here is the glory:
Acts 3:19 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.
Acts 3:20 And he shall send Jesus
Christ, which before was preached
unto you:
So when Jesus Christ comes again,
that’s the glory of the Lord revealed:
Matthew 25:31 When the Son of man
shall come in his glory, and all the
holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
Peter’s message then is the
atonement. It is yet future for the nation
of Israel. Before then, before the second coming of Christ is the
tribulation. People who today are saved by grace through faith will not
see that tribulation. But in the gospel of Matthew, the Lord
answers their questions about his coming
Matthew 24:3 And as he sat upon the
mount of Olives, the disciples came
unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and
what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
So He begins to tell them about the
coming destruction of Jerusalem and
of the temple and about the coming tribulation:
Matthew 24:10 And then shall many be
offended, and shall betray one
another, and shall hate one another.
Matthew 24:11 And many false prophets
shall rise, and shall deceive
many.
Matthew 24:12 And because iniquity
shall abound, the love of many shall
wax cold.
Matthew 24:13 But he that shall
endure unto the end, the same shall be
saved.
Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the
kingdom shall be preached in all
the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
Matthew 24:15 When ye therefore shall
see the abomination of
desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place,
(whoso readeth, let him understand:)
This is a reference to the coming
anti-christ. He will go into the
(rebuilt) temple in Jerusalem and proclaim that he is God. This is the
man of sin, the son of perdition. John calls him the anti-Christ. The
same person Paul talks about in Thessalonians:
Matthew 24:16 Then let them which be
in Judaea flee into the mountains:
Matthew 24:21 For then shall be great
tribulation, such as was not
since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
Then he warns them of false Christs
that will appear and then He says:
Matthew 24:27 For as the lightning
cometh out of the east, and shineth
even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
So it is there, at the second coming
that Israel looks for their Day of
Atonement. So he teaches them about the tribulation and His second
coming. There is not one single hint there about the coming of the
Apostle Paul, about the dispensation of the grace of God. There is
nothing at all about the last two thousand years. He just skipped right
over it as if it didn’t even exist. He is NOT revealing the mystery
that was later revealed to Paul. So what was in view, and what was
revealed at that time, was the repentance of Israel and the coming of
the King. God gave Israel that “acceptable year of the Lord,” and Peter
preached, repent and be baptized every one of you,” but Israel refused
and they were cast away and the bible says that through THEIR FALL
salvation is come to the Gentiles. (Romans 11:11)
So all of that, all of the doctrine
we have looked at, was the doctrine
that pertained to Israel in TIME PAST. It is also the doctrine which
will pertain to Israel in the FUTURE. The books of Hebrews thru
Revelation is doctrine for TIME PAST and doctrine for AGES TO COME.
Those books were written TO and ABOUT people who were living at that
time, who read those letters at that time, and God has preserved those
letters for people to whom they will apply in the future. But in
between TIME PAST and AGES TO COME is that great parenthesis the bible
calls the dispensation of the grace of God.
So unless you can see the difference
between God’s prophetic program
which is EARTHLY, which is for Israel, and the nations who will be
involved in it and the MYSTERY about this age in which we live, the
mystery about God’s heavenly purpose, you miss it. If your preacher
doesn’t see it, according to your bible, he has NO authority to preach
or teach. That would TOTALLY exclude just about every deacon in every
church I know about:
1 Timothy 3:8 Likewise must the
deacons be grave, not doubletongued,
not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre;
1 Timothy 3:9 Holding the mystery of
the faith in a pure conscience.
In your bible there is doctrine for
THEN and there is doctrine for NOW
and there is doctrine for AGES TO COME. In your bible there is a
message for BACK THEN and there is a message for NOW. The message for
THEN is different from the message for NOW or the message in AGES TO
COME. BACK THEN, they did not have the revelation of the mystery given
to Paul. They had a different message. Their salvation was conditional.
Go back to Hebrews:
Hebrews 3:6 But Christ as a son over
his own house; whose house are we,
if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto
the end.
There is a gigantic IF in that verse.
It is the same IF you find in
Matthew 24, IF they endure to the end. That is the consistent message
of James, to “the twelve tribes scattered abroad,” as in James 1:1, the
message of Peter, to the “strangers scattered abroad” in 1 Peter 1:1
and of John, who says they went forth, “taking nothing of the
Gentiles,” in 3 John 1:7. One more time, notice the IF in verse 14:
Hebrews 3:14 For we are made
partakers of Christ, if we hold the
beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
For that Hebrew, faith without works
is dead. If there was any doubt
about it, James makes it clear:
James 2:20 But wilt thou know, O vain
man, that faith without works is
dead?
To make sure they know how dead their
faith is unless they do works of
faith he calls attention to the fact that in the tribulation there will
be dead bodies. Christ said where the body is the eagles, the vultures,
will gather:
James 2:26 For as the body without
the spirit is dead, so faith without
works is dead also.
In Peter’s doctrine works is the only
way to go. It is the only way to
be acceptable to God. Remember that Peter is preaching according to the
message committed to him. Peter does not yet know the message Paul
preached. So Peter tells a man, who is a Gentile, by the way:
Acts 10:35 But in every nation he
that feareth him, and worketh
righteousness, is accepted with him.
That was then. This is now. BEFORE
works were required for salvation.
NOW all the work of salvation has been done. It is the message revealed
to Paul:
Titus 3:4 But after that the kindness
and love of God our Saviour
toward man appeared,
Titus 3:5 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 Ghost;
The Hebrew, BACK THEN, and the Hebrew
OUT THERE, is looking for mercy:
Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come
boldly unto the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
But Paul the renegade, Paul the
rebel, Paul the blasphemer, Paul the
enemy of Christ, found mercy, and the Lord showed mercy to Paul for a
reason:
1 Timothy 1:16 Howbeit for this cause
I obtained mercy, that in me
first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to
them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
What people lack in religion today is
understanding. They fail to
understand MOSTLY because they are not taught to understand the bible.
They are fed a mixed up and blended message. A message where a preacher
goes thru and picks out a few verses to make his point. Three points
and maybe a poem, a song or two, a few passes of the collection plate
and sayonara. But you don’t have to remain in that confusion. Consider
what Paul says:
2 Timothy 2:7 Consider what I say;
and the Lord give thee understanding
in all things.
Paul was given the revelation of the
mystery. Paul has the big picture.
Peter, James and John had a ministry and a message. They were ministers
of the circumcision as Jesus Christ was. They agreed, by a handshake,
to continue with that ministry and that message, in Galatians 2:9.
Their message was a Kingdom gospel. It concerned the throne of David
and the restoring of the kingdom to Israel. That was Peter’s reason for
the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
Acts 2:29 Men and brethren, let me
freely speak unto you of the
patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is
with us unto this day.
Acts 2:30 Therefore being a prophet,
and knowing that God had sworn
with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the
flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;
You know of course, that David’s
throne has never been anywhere but in
Israel. David was King of Israel, and Christ will come, the heir to the
throne of David, the King of Israel. David’s throne is not in Heaven,
and Jesus Christ is not now ruling and reigning on David’s throne. But
in the tribulation he promises something for overcomers:
Revelation 3:21 To him that
overcometh will I grant to sit with me in
my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in
his throne.
So according to Peter’s gospel, Jesus
Christ, of the seed of David, was
raised from the dead to sit on David’s throne. But you know what? Paul
never mentions the throne of David. Not once, in Romans thru Philemon.
Instead look what he does say:
2 Timothy 2:7 Consider what I say;
and the Lord give thee understanding
in all things.
2 Timothy 2:8 Remember that Jesus
Christ of the seed of David was
raised from the dead according to my gospel:
And according to Paul’s gospel Christ
died for our sins, all of our
sins:
1 Corinthians 15:1 Moreover,
brethren, I declare unto you the gospel
which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye
stand;
1 Corinthians 15:2 By which also ye
are saved, if ye keep in memory
what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:3 For I delivered
unto you first of all that which I
also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the
scriptures;
1 Corinthians 15:4 And that he was
buried, and that he rose again the
third day according to the scriptures:
Now according to Paul, instead of
being raised to sit on the throne of
David, which is out there in the future, that Jesus Christ was raised
for a different reason:
Romans 4:25 Who was delivered for our
offences, and was raised again
for our justification.
Paul’s message is a message of
salvation without works:
Romans 3:28 Therefore we conclude
that a man is justified by faith
without the deeds of the law.
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye
saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Ephesians 2:9 Not of works, lest any
man should boast.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are his
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Now one more time, remember that
Hebrews are Hebrews. The book of
Hebrews is written to Hebrews. It is written to Israelites. Christ came
to confirm those promises made to the fathers to them. But look at
Paul’s description of people like you and me:
Ephesians 2:11 Wherefore remember,
that ye being in time past Gentiles
in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the
Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
Ephesians 2:12 That at that time ye
were without Christ, being aliens
from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of
promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
So because we were aliens and
strangers and because we had no hope,
then the only hope we can possibly have is in Paul’s gospel, the
revelation of the mystery:
Ephesians 3:1 For this cause I Paul,
the prisoner of Jesus Christ for
you Gentiles,
Ephesians 3:2 If ye have heard of the
dispensation of the grace of God
which is given me to you-ward:
Ephesians 3:3 How that by revelation
he made known unto me the mystery;
(as I wrote afore in few words,
Ephesians 3:4 Whereby, when ye read,
ye may understand my knowledge in
the mystery of Christ)
Ephesians 3:5 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;
Now as far as the atonement: We are
not looking for it, we already have
it. Paul says that Christ died for sinners. He says that Christ died
for the ungodly. He says that Christ died for the enemies of God. Only
Paul was given the ministry of reconciliation:
Romans 5:11 And not only so, but we
also joy in God through our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.