“You can take that verse and run
preachers who’ve been preaching 40 years right up a stump in about two minutes,
looking for a place to get off,” says Jordan. “With that verse you kind of get the idea that God’s going to hold you
accountable.
“You know the one question that
Christendom just never seems to come around to asking is, 'Why Paul?' They’ll go
through Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and even the Book of Acts, but when it
comes to Romans, all of a sudden it just kind of goes away.
“I had a man tell me one time, ‘You
know I just never did like that Paul.’ That’s because his writings are just so
different in the Bible.
“The fundamental foundation acid
test of a person’s theology is whether he/she is Pauline, meaning do they
follow Paul. Paul says, ‘If any man thinketh himself to be a prophet, let him
acknowledge that the things I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.’
“People like to say, ‘Oh, that
brother is such a spiritual giant,’ but Paul says, ‘You got somebody you think
speaks for God, or is spiritual—well, here’s the test: Let him acknowledge
that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.’ That’s
hard when you don’t do that.
*****
“In Galatians 1, Paul talks about
the delusion of perverting his gospel and having it draw a Believer away from
Paul. In verses 8 and 9, he addresses the danger posed by leaving his ministry
and his apostleship, then goes on to document his authority through chapter
two.
“There are at least 14 different
things Paul points to that demonstrate his independent, distinctive, apostolic
ministry. He was not part of the 12 apostles and their program and that’s a
critically important thing to recognize.
“If there are two whole chapters in
your Bible about that one subject—that bring evidences to bear about that
subject—somebody needs somewhere to ask
the question, ‘Why in the world is Paul in the Bible?!’
*****
*****
“Paul starts in Galatians 1:1, ‘But
I certify you, brethren,’ meaning, ‘Here’s my ordination certificate. I’m
giving you a notarized official document that the gospel preached of me is not
after man. It didn’t have origin in human viewpoint.’
“The problem at Galatia was the
people putting newly saved Gentiles back under a program God didn’t have in operation
anymore. God has equipped us in the grace program defined by Paul to live as
adults.
“Paul says we’re ‘not under tutors and governors,’ and so going back to
Israel’s program is going back to grade school. In fact, it’s going back to
kindergarten and pre-school. God has the Grace University for us and we don’t
need to go back there.”
“Paul was not going to mimic this
religious system anymore and that’s why he says, ‘I’d rather die if you think
I’m going back to that system again! I’d rather die than place a system of
bondage there at Corinth!’
“He wasn’t going to promote a
denominational system; he did everything he could to stay away from the
institutionalization of a church ministry. The Corinthians had a problem with
that and Paul says, ‘You don’t understand why I do what I do; I stand apart
from religion.’ Paul writes to the Corinthians, ‘Touch not the unclean thing,’
and the unclean thing was the religious system. The Corinthians misunderstood
all that.
*****
“Paul says in Romans 10:3 says,
‘For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God.’
“Paul says, ‘My heart’s desire is
that these people—my kinsmen according to the flesh—
get saved, but I bear record they
have a zeal for God that is not according to knowledge.’
“You see, they got all kinds of
religion. They got church memberships. They’re part of the right religion; they
got all the ordinances and the statutes and the ceremonies. They got it all.
“Israel had their religion, though,
not because they had faith in God’s Word to them. God tells them in Isaiah 58,
‘You have all your satisfaction in approaching me. All these ceremonies. You
love your religious activities because it makes you feel good. Your heart’s far
from me but, boy, you’re caught up in religion!’
“As Paul puts it, they went about
to establish their own righteousness. Paul says their minds were blinded by
their own works. When he writes, ‘Satan hath blinded the minds of them that
believe not,’ Satan does that with religion. He does it with their seeking to
establish their own righteousness because they’re ignorant of the righteousness
of God.
“Satan wants to keep their minds
blinded with religion—with trying to please God with their activities—lest the
light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine into them, because when the
light of the gospel of Christ shines in, hey, the darkness flees.
*****
"Paul testifies in Galatians 1:
11-12: [11] But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was
preached of me is not after man.
[12] For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
[12] For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
“Well, if he wasn’t taught it, then
it wasn’t there prior to him ‘but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.’ He was
taught it by the Lord Jesus Christ! And notice it’s not a revelation from the
Lord Jesus Christ. It’s the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Those prepositions are important. It isn’t just that God revealed something to
him; it’s that the Lord Jesus Christ himself appeared to Paul and communicated
the information to him.
“In Acts 26, when Jesus Christ
said, ‘I will appear to thee,’ He’s standing right there appearing to Paul. So
the future appearances—the future revelations of the Lord Jesus Christ—are the
fact that He’s going to appear to Paul again and again. We know from II Cor.
12:1, Paul saw the Lord repeatedly. This is something the whole religious
system is out there trying to get you to forget.”
*****
At the time of Jesus Christ’s
earthly ministry, the man-devised Talmud, not the Torah, had become the focal
point of the Jewish religious leaders.
As R. Dawson Barlow explains in his
2005 book, The Apostasy of the Christian Church, “It was the liberal element
of Judaism which added to the Torah rules, doctrines and
traditions which had nothing to do with the Word of God.
“In fact, Josephus wrote a highly
insightful comment concerning the Talmud which would serve as
a powerful tool, if we should keep it in handy reach as useful arsenal: ‘The
Pharisees had made many ordinances among the people, according to the tradition
of their fathers . . . (of which) there is nothing written in the Law of
Moses.’
“Even though the Talmud contained
much which had nothing to do with the Old Testament, it eventually came to be
perceived just as authoritative as the Scriptures. The Talmud
ultimately became the proverbial tail that wagged the dog. Again note the words
of The Book of Jewish Knowledge: ‘It was . . . due to the biblical
tradition that the oral law (eventually) got to be considered equally as valid
as the written law.’
*****
In Luke 5, when the Pharisees
murmured against Christ’s disciples, saying, “Why do ye eat and drink with publicans
and sinners?” Jesus answered, “They that are whole need not a physician; but
they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance.”
Jordan explains, “The Pharisees
begin to throw off on Christ’s ministry among publicans and sinners and He
tells them, ‘Those that are whole need not a physician.’ Now, that’s always the
problem with the Pharisee. He never believes he’s wrong. He always believes
he’s right and he’s void of offence, never making a mistake.
“It’s, ‘I thank thee father that
I’m not like this guy over yonder. I fast two times a week . . . I, I, I.’’
Jesus told them one time, ‘You tithe of the mint and the anise and yet you omit
the weightier matters of the law.’ In other words, ‘You are bugs on ceremonial
correctness; on looking right and performing.’
“In Israel, one of the required
tithes was on the fruit and the increase of the land. Mint and anise were herbs
used to season food. Obviously they couldn’t go to Jewel or Dominick’s or
Piggly Wiggly and buy it, so they grew it. You’ll find that referred to in the
Old Testament where they made anointing oil and incense and all that stuff.
It’s just spices they used to eat with and they would grow it in their house.
“Now, the Pharisees were such
sticklers for the ceremonies of the law, that if it was required to tithe of
the increase of the land, they weren’t just going to do it on their business
operations. These guys were such
law keepers that even when their spices were growing in the kitchen they would
tithe that! I mean, these guys were sticklers for keeping
the letter of the law right down to the minutest little detail of the
ceremonies of the law.
“And so Jesus says to them, ‘You do
that and yet you omit the weightier matters—the moral things; the justice,
compassion and mercy of the law and walking humbly with thy God.’
*****
*****
“You remember in Micah 6:8 where
they’re told the three things God required? None of them were ceremonies. To do
justly, and to love mercy and walk humbly with thy God, is the essence of the
Great Commandment (‘Thou shalt love the lord thy God with all thy heart’) and
the Second Commandment of, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
“Those two great commandments are
in essence the restatement of the moral character of the law. Now, the law’s in
two parts. Actually, it’s in three parts. There’s the statutes and the
judgments. One part of the law focuses on your responsibility to God: Love the
Lord thy God. The next part of the law focuses on your responsibilities to
other people. That’s why Paul says in Gal. 5:14, ‘By love serve one another for
love is the fulfillment of the law.’
“That is, when you by love serve
one another there is absolutely nothing the justice of God would ever be mad at
you about. So there’s this moral, relational thing with people. It’s expressed,
for example, in, ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou
shalt not covet, thou shalt not bear false witness.’
“All those things are moral things
that had to do with your relationship with other people. Then the law had a
third area and that’s the ceremonial things: ‘Thou shalt keep the Sabbath day.’
Why? Because it’s a sign between God and Israel. It’s not a moral commandment,
it’s a ceremonial one.
“He told them they were to keep the
Passover, for example. Why? It’s a sign between them and God. He told them they
were to wear a certain kind of clothing. Why? It was a sign of their unique
status with God—it made them different from all the nations. Those were
ceremonial things.
“A
ceremonial thing isn’t a moral thing and that’s why you can change the
ceremonial things. God would say to Abraham, ‘You and all your descendants must
be circumcised,’ and Moses would say, ‘If you’re not circumcised you have to be
cast out,’ and then Paul would say, ‘Circumcision avails nothing.’
“Now, Paul would never come along
and say, ‘You know, Moses said you couldn’t commit adultery, but I say it’s
okay.’ He didn’t say that. Why? Because that’s a different kind of rule. That’s
a moral statement, and the moral statement—the expression of the righteous
character of God—is true in any age.
“You can’t eat shrimp according to
Deuteronomy 14, but Paul says you can eat anything. That’s ceremonial. In Acts
10, the Lord puts a sheet down with all this food and says to eat, but Peter
responds, ‘That stuff’s common and unclean, Lord. The Word of God says I can’t
eat that.’
“And Jesus says to him, ‘If I tell
you to eat it, don’t call anything that I’ve said is clean ‘common.’ ” The Lord
Jesus Christ, in Acts 10, changed the regulation that He gave Israel through
Moses that Peter had been following all his life, and said, ‘These things are
no longer common or unclean.’
“Now, you couldn’t do that about a
moral thing. You couldn’t say, ‘I said thou shalt not bear false witness but it’s
now okay to bear false witness.’ Those are different kinds of
regulations. One is moral and has
to do with the expression of the righteousness of God, and the other is
ceremonial and has to do with expressing figurative things, or typology. It’s a
figure that’s designed to represent a spiritual truth.
“And what these Pharisees did is
they got caught up on these figurative things—these ceremonies—and forgot to do
justice, and walk humbly with God, and keep ‘the weightier matters.’ That’s why
they would say, ‘We’re right! How in the world could anyone say we’re a
sinner?!’
“How could anyone ever say they
weren’t a sinner?! You’re not thinking—you’re certainly not thinking what the
Bible teaches, are you? ‘All have sinned, come short of the glory of God.
There’s none righteous, no not one.’ If you say you have no sin, what are you?
You’ve made God a liar and the truth isn’t in you.
*****
*****
“The
Pharisees had focused so much on the religious side of things that they’d
forgotten the truth. And so that’s what Christ is saying. That’s why they ask Him
in Luke 5: 33-35, ‘Why did John’s disciples fast, and we fast, but your
disciples don’t fast?’
“They’re focusing on their
religious ritualism and performance, missing the fact that the reason Christ’s
disciples weren’t fasting is because He was the bridegroom—He’s there with
them! You don’t fast when the bridegroom’s with you; you fast when He goes
away! He says, ‘And I’m the bridegroom. The issue is who I am!
I’m the king; I’m your looked-for and longed-for Redeemer! I’m the one you
ought to be in love with and you’re not getting it!’
“That’s why He told them in John 5,
‘Search the scripture, they are they that testify of me. If you really believed
what the Bible said you’d have believed in me because the Bible had Moses
writing about me. And because you don’t believe in me demonstrates you don’t
believe the Word of God to start with because I am the Word of God!’
“So, they get all caught up in the
religious side of it and they’re focused on that and they’re missing Him.”
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