Spoken_Or_Secret
Spoken or Secret?
Peter speaks to the HOUSE OF ISRAEL
in Acts 2:36 while Paul speaks to YOU GENTILES in Romans 11:13.
Peter asks the Lord about ISRAEL'S
RESTORED KINGDOM in Acts 1:6 while Paul says set you affection on
THINGS ABOVE in Collosians 3:2
Peter tells a man that WORKING
RIGHTEOUSNESS makes you acceptable to God in Acts 10:35 while Paul says
NOT BY WORKS of righteousness in Titues 3:5.
According to Peter in Acts 3:21 ALL
THE PROPHETS SPOKE the message he was preaching, but Paul says in
Romans 16:25 that his message was KEPT SECRET since the world began.
Above are just four quotes from two
different men. One was Peter and
the other was Paul. They said different things! When the bible
plainly says what you have just read above, and in one case it says one
thing, while on the other hand, it says something entirely
different....what do we do?
The only answer religion seems to
have is COMPROMISE. Religion
compromises by spiritualizing, allegorizing, getting a new translation,
debating...or starting a new church! There is much confusion in
religion and God is NOT the author of confusion!
"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:"
(Romans 15:8)
The majority of the world's religious
system, makes the fatal mistake
of "anticipating revelation" and tries to put the truths that were only
known AFTER they were revealed to the Apostle Paul BACK INTO the four
Gospels and they are simply not there! Peter, for instance, preached
the Gospel of the Kingdom for three years and did NOT EVEN KNOW THAT
CHRIST WAS GOING TO DIE, MUCH LESS DIE FOR ANYONE'S SINS!
"Then Peter took him, and began to
rebuke him, saying, Be it far from
thee Lord: this shall not be unto thee" (In response to Jesus telling
them he was going up to Jerusalem and be killed, and be raised again
the third day) This is just after Peter had been given the keys to the
kingdom and the power to "bind and loose' Matthew 16:22
"And they understood none of these
things; and this saying was hid from
them neither knew they the things which were spoken." - Luke 18:34
Following the resurrection of Jesus
Christ and the women at the tomb
going and telling the Apostles that the Lord’s body is missing and
someone has taken it, John writes:
"For as yet they KNEW NOT THE
SCRIPTURE, that he must rise again from
the dead." (John 20:9)
The situation is this: For three
years Peter, James, John, and all, had
already gone about and preached the Gospel of the Kingdom, they healed
the sick, raised the dead and cast out devils. But they did not preach
the fact that CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS. They knew nothing at all about
it! Therefore, the doctrine to the church, the body of Christ, is not
in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John since the very essence of our faith is
in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (I Corinthians
15:1-4) What is the significance of this? That the Gospel preached by
the Twelve was pertaining to the restoration of the Kingdom again to
Israel, and is not about the gospel of “your” salvation.
The Gospel of YOUR salvation
(Ephesians 1:13) is in Paul's epistles,
Romans through Philemon. It is only there and there alone that you find
the words, or ANY INFORMATION about "The Gospel of Christ" and also
about "The Church, the Body of Christ."
Peter, in Acts Chapter Two, knows
nothing at all about the church, the
body of Christ. How can you tell? By the words that he speaks! By
reading the words written in the verses and by believing that words
mean what they say, as they say it, where they say it….you can see that
Peter, in all his sermons in Acts Chapter Two through Acts Chapter
Ten….never says “Christ died for our sins.”
Some people say, “well Peter just
wrote different than Paul.” Could be,
if Peter even wrote at all, but the fact is Luke wrote the Book of
Acts. It is like a continuation of the gospel of Luke. Both books are
addressed to Theopholus, which means “friend of God.” Check it out in
Luke One, verse three, and in Acts 1:1. Other people say, well the
words are not the same, but they mean the same thing, it’s all the
same. Now I suspect that the people who say THAT are people who really
don’t know what the bible does say, or else don’t believe that words
mean what they say. Do you mean to tell me that you believe that
WORKING RIGHTEOUSNESS and NOT WORKING RIGHTEOUSNESS is the same thing?
How can a man WORK RIGHTEOUSNESS and NOT WORK RIGHTEOUSNESS at the same
time?
People like to prove that Gentiles
were in the picture in the Jewish
church on the day of Pentecost and they point to Cornelius in Acts
Chapter Ten. And those same people believe that when Peter reluctantly
showed up at the home of Cornelius that he said, “well, Cornelios, you
know that the grace of God that bringeth salvation has appeared to all
men.”
The fact is, Peter said no such
thing. First of all Peter was reluctant
to go there, and when he gets there what are the FIRST WORDS out of his
mouth? Acts 10:28: “And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an
unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto
one of another nation….” HOW can you get Gentiles in the picture in
Acts Chapter Two, when here, in Acts Chapter Ten, Peter thinks it’s AN
UNLAWFUL THING for him to be there?
Peter, in Acts Two, does not know the
“why” of the cross of Christ and
Peter, in Acts two, three, four, five and up to and including Cornelius
in Acts Chapter Ten NEVER SAYS “Christ died for our sins.” Instead,
Peter preaches a murder indictment against the Nation of Israel. Peter,
in Acts 2:14 says, “Ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell at
Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words. In Acts
2:22 he says, “Ye men of Israel, hear these words….” And then Acts
2:36, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly.”
Who WAS dwelling in Jerusalem on the
Day of Pentecost? Acts 2:5, “And
there were dwelling at Jerusalem JEWS, devout men, out of every nation
under heaven.” and verses 9,10 and 11 mentions about 15 NATIONS those
devout JEWS were from. There were no Gentiles there in the Acts Two
church and besides that….guess what? NOT A SINGLE WOMAN spoke in
tongues! Twelve MEN spoke in tongues on the day of Pentecost and they
were Jews, Jews, Jews according to Acts 2:13 and there was not a
Gentile in sight.
Now when Peter got to the home of
Cornelius he doesn’t say one single
word DIFFERENT that what he has already said in Acts Two, Three, Four
and Five. When Peter begins to preach to Cornelius he says, “I perceive
that God is no respecter of persons.” Now how did Peter perceive that?
By THE VISION he just had before he got there. In a vision of a sheet
let down from heaven, Peter is shown that Gentiles WILL BE INCLUDED in
the earthly kingdom WHEN it’s time for the “restitution of all things
spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began” as
in Acts Chapter Three, verse 21. Take the word of God for it! Read it
for yourself and see what the bible says. Read Acts two, three, four
and five and FIND OUT what the BIBLE SAYS, not what some man says it
says.
Peter told Cornelius, in Acts Chapter
Ten, verse 34 and 35, “I perceive
that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that
FEARETH HIM AND WORKETH RIGHTEOUSNESS is accepted with him.” So the
message to Cornelious was, “keep on doing what you have been doing and
you will be allowed to enter the kingdom when the kingdom comes.”
Now there is quite a contrast between
what Peter said to Cornelius and
what Paul wrote to Titus in Titus Chapter Three, verses 4 and 5:
“But after that the kindness and love
of God our Saviour toward man
appeared, NOT BY WORKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS which we have done, but
according to his mercy he saved us…….”
Now anyone who says that what Peter
said and what Paul said are the
same thing HAS A READING PROBLEM! There is a difference here and
religion might as well face it. Paul had a different ministry and a
different message than Peter did!
Jesus Christ, In Matthew Chapter Ten,
tells the apostles,
Matthew 10: 5 These twelve Jesus sent
forth, and commanded them,
saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the
Samaritans enter ye not:
Matthew 10: 6 But go rather to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel.
And in Matthew, Chapter Fifteen, the
Lord says,
Matthew 15: 24 But he answered and
said, I am not sent but unto the
lost sheep of the house of Israel.
And in Romans, Chapter Fifteen, Verse
8, Paul writes,
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:
So we see, then, that the Lord's
earthly ministry had nothing at all to
do with the Gentiles. Genesis 1:1 Begins the bible with these words:
Genesis 1: 1 In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth.
That's two different places! And
through the "revelation of the
mystery" given to the Apostle Paul for us Gentiles, we begin to
understand THE TWOFOLD PURPOSE OF GOD. The ministry of reconciliation
that was HID IN GOD before the foundation of the world.
The ministry of the Lord Jesus
Christ, in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,
and the ministry of Peter, James and John, and the other Jewish
apostles, can be summed up with what Peter said, in Acts Chapter Three:
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:
Acts 3: 21 Whom the heaven must
receive until the times of restitution
of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy
prophets since the world began.
On the other hand, the ministry of
Paul, could be summed up here:
Romans 16: 25 Now to him that is of
power to stablish you according to
my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the
revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,
Ephesians 3:8 Unto me, who am less
than the least of all saints, is
this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the
unsearchable riches of Christ;
Ephesians 3:9 And to make all men see
what is the fellowship of the
mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God,
who created all things by Jesus Christ:
There is a difference between things
SPOKEN and things KEPT SECRET.
Hence Paul writes:
"Study to show thyself approved unto
God, a workman that needeth not to
be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." II Timothy 2:15
