When it ain't over 'til it's over

Last year, I remember a podcaster on YouTube explaining the motivations behind the evil deeds of the Jesuits (of which Pope Francis is their first pope), saying, “It’s their reclamation of the Reformation.”

Here’s a study from the 500^th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, which was in 2017:

If some of you were up at Brian Ross’ conference the other week in Grand Rapids (MI) and wanted information about the Protestant Reformation, I think there’s a 170-page syllabus from that thing you could read about, you know, like going to a college class and so forth, but it’s worth knowing about those things, said Richard Jordan.

In particular, God used the Reformation to break the political power of the Roman Catholic Church. He used it to disseminate and bring about the widespread availability of the Word of God. That’s THE most important thing that it did, and thus the preaching of the gospel in a wide-open kind of a way.

It led Europe out of the Dark Ages. By the way, the American brand of western civilization is the specific fruit of the Protestant Reformation. Our economic freedoms, our political liberties, the fact that you have a 1^st Amendment that separates church and state . . . Europe didn’t do that. Europe was bound; the Reformers didn’t do it, but the American application of it produced those things.

If you ever wonder where freedom of speech comes from . . . Where does freedom of religion come from? The separation of powers and so forth? They come as the direct fruit of the Protestant Reformation applied in a new world, on a new canvas. Without the history of the baggage it came out of.

Now, I have to say I’m not a big proponent of the Reformers because we were there before and I’m also aware of the doctrinal, ecclesiastical, eschatological shortcomings of the Reformers.

They didn’t believe in a Rapture; they had some real bad doctrine. I know that they were deeply flawed individuals where some of them persecuted our real spiritual ancestors, but the truth is that we’re all flawed, folks. The fact that God uses any of us is a testimony to His grace and because the Reformation literally changed the trajectory of western history . . .

When you look back at the three solas: the Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone), Sola Gratia (grace alone) and Sola Fide (faith alone)—those three things were what brought the light and information. Of those three things, the most important one is the Scripture.

Paul says in Romans 5, “It’s of faith that it might be of grace.” Grace requires but will accept only the response of faith, so faith is what establishes grace and grace requires faith. But both require the Scripture, not tradition; the Scripture is the source of things and that’s really where the spiritual power of the Reformation; the spiritual power of anything comes from.

The question we really face today is, “Is the Reformation over?” My answer to that is, “Yeah, probably.” Looking at our culture today, what you’re seeing is the demise, not simply of a way of life, but what supported that way of life.

What supported it is social-economic political religious application of the spiritual powers that produced the Reformation. The underlying things that pinned it are gone.

So, what does that mean for us Believers? We’re going to have to go back to “the days of yore”, and you all didn’t watch the Lone Rangers when you were young. We’re going to go back to the way it was before. There were people just like us there and we’re going to wind up going back to doing the things that they did; doing ministry the way they did it.

In Acts 19:10, Paul is in Ephesus, and the greatest outreach ministry Paul had, the place where his ministry took root and spread all across the whole territory, that’s recorded in Scripture, is there.

[10] And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

Paul spends two years there and what continued is what’s in verse 8 and 9 about him speaking, disputing, persuading and teaching daily the Word of God.

If you read verses 11-20, you’ll see that they had such an impact that it put witchcraft and occultism on the run. It caused the dissemination of the Word of God.

Verse 20: [20] So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. [21] After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome.
[22] So he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus; but he himself stayed in Asia for a season.

All through Asia, from Ephesus (we would say “all through the middle west from Chicago”) the Word of God prevailed. Everyone HEARD the Word. That’s why we spend so much time here trying to get the message out THERE. That’s why we do the radio, the television, the literature, all the media. It’s to get the message OUT. That’s what these people . . . that’s the natural thing you do when you’ve got truth. You want other people to hear it too.

There was a tremendous movement all across Asia and it spread over into Europe in Acts 18. In fact, there’s a great verse in Thessalonians. Paul said, “Everywhere I go they always talk about you guys. You guys don’t need me down there; you’re doing the job. I’m going to go somewhere else where nobody’s ever heard.”

I want you to contrast that with II Timothy, Paul’s last epistle. Paul is in his last moments. Here’s an old guy fixing to die, talking to a young guy who’s going to have to live on.

Timothy is at Ephesus where we just read about in Acts 19, but things are different now. II Timothy 1:15: [15] This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.

In Acts 19 the Word of God prevailed all through Asia. Now all they that are in Asia are turned away from me. See the difference? Now it’s fallen in the street.

That contrast, if you look at II Timothy 2:18, he says, [18] Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.

What did they do? They quit rightly dividing the Word and they said the resurrection’s past. We’re not in the dispensation of grace anymore. We’re off in a future dispensation. “That’s over with; we’re back in Israel’s program.” They had the Bible but they’re not rightly dividing it.

II Timothy 3:8: [8] Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.

You try to show them the truth, saying, “Hey, here’s what the Scripture says,” and what do they do? They resist. Jannes and Jambres were the two guys that when Moses came in and threw his rod down it became a snake, they threw down their rod to make two snakes. They outdid Moses two to one. Now, did it work out in the end? No, but you see how it says “as”?

Listen, your ministry is going to look like the opposition outdoes it two to one. I tell people all the time, “If you’ve got more than eight people you’ve got more than Noah had and he saved the world with eight people.” They had thousands down at the circus, but he saved the world with eight people because he had the truth and it’s the truth that saves the world; not how many people have it.

II Timothy 4: [4] And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

This is how they went from the Word of God growing and prevailing to “all they have turned away from me.” I want you to understand, if that’s true, then you can’t go back to church tradition. You can’t go back to even the earliest church fathers.

You can’t go back to church scholarship for truth because where was the church scholarship, the church tradition and the church fathers when Paul died? They left him; they departed. They’re in error and apostasy.

The only place you can go back to the Book. That was the fundamental underlying concept of the Reformation. The truth be told, our ancestors have always been there. You got to understand that.

(to be continued)

Mansion in the sky

(running out of time to finish new article so will have to post tomorrow now. sorry for delay)

John 14 begins: [1] Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

[2] In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
[3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

When Christ says He goes to prepare a place for you, He’s not saying, "I’m going to heaven to build a bunch of houses for you," explains Richard Jordan.

We sing that old hillbilly song, "Just give me a cabin in the corner of glory land," and somebody will argue, "No, I want a mansion over the hilltop!" which is from another old hillbilly song.

One of my favorite old gospel songs was, "And I shall go to dwell on Zion’s hill": Some day beyond the reach of mortal ken,

Some day God only knows just where and when
The wheels of mortal life shall all stand still
And I shall go to dwell on Zion's hill.

But there’s a lot of stuff in the hymn book that isn’t good doctrine. When Christ says, "I go to prepare a place for you," He’s not talking about going to heaven and working for 2,000 years on building you a house to live in, like another old song goes. I know, that’s sentimentalism, but it’s unscriptural sentimentalism that turns into superstition.

Think about how foolish that. The second person of the godhead could step out on the platform of nothing, speak a word and a universe is created. Why would He need two thousand years to create a home for you?! The sentimentalism is just kind of foolish. People argue, "Yeah but, He’s designing an intricate . . . "

How could He design anything more intricate than the creation you live in? Study the atom; study the science of our creation. The deeper scientists are able to dig into creation, or biologists into biology creation, the more complicated it becomes. It doesn’t get simpler. And there’s that creative complexity that’s designed in creation.

When He says "in my Father’s house are many mansions," He’s talking to His apostles about the temple He’s going to build in the kingdom and the fact there’s a group of people who are going to dwell with Him in that temple—those who come out of the Great Tribulation and go to this temple and serve there.

*****

If you go back to John 11 you see the word "place" is not always used in a geographic sense. It can be used in a moral sense or, in this case, a spiritual sense.

John 11:47-48: [47] Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles.
[48] If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.

They’re not talking about how they’re going to come down and kick us out of "our house." They’re talking about their position of rulership in the nation Israel. So when Christ is talking in John 14, He’s using that word place in that kind of an idea: "I’m going to go create a position for you." The fact He’s not talking about a physical location is demonstrated in the verses that follow.

*****

The temple the apostles are seeing is called "my house" in Ezekiel 43-45. When it says "in my Father’s house," there are many mansions in that house. The reason he says that, if you look at Ezekiel 40, is because that’s exactly what’s in the house.

Ezekiel 40: 2-3: [2] In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain, by which was as the frame of a city on the south.

[3] And he brought me thither, and, behold, there was a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed; and he stood in the gate.

The frame of the city is that thing Psalm 104 talks about; the beams of His chamber being laid. But at this point, after the Second Advent, those beams are now exposed. The city hasn’t come down yet, but the foundation is laid out for them to get there.

Ezekiel begins to measure the environs there and lay out the measuring line and the measurements. Verse 9: "Then measured he the porch of the gate, eight cubits; and the posts thereof, two cubits; and the porch of the gate was inward. And the little chambers of the gate eastward were three on this side, and three on that side; they three were of one measure: and the posts had one measure on this side and on that side."

Notice that concept about the little chamber? You go down through this passage and you find there’s all kind of little chambers being built in this house and these chambers are little cubicles built into the wall.

You can see it in the tabernacle of Solomon in I Kings 6. The people who ministered in the temple had their living quarters there.

I Kings 6:5: [5] And against the wall of the house he built chambers round about, against the walls of the house round about, both of the temple and of the oracle: and he made chambers round about:

You remember how John the Baptist’s daddy lived off in another town and had to go up to Jerusalem (when his course came) to serve in the temple for that week? David divided the priesthood up so every tribe of the two sons of Levi went twice a year to Jerusalem to work for a week in the temple. They’d come in on a Sabbath and leave the next Sabbath in the order of their course.

Well, they didn’t have to go rent rooms at the downtown Hilton while they were there. They had rooms provided for them in the temple—those little chambers. But they weren't chambers like a Motel 6. These things were decorated with cherubim and gold. They were mansions, gorgeous places befitting the temple of the God of all the earth; the God of Israel.

When they rebuild that temple in the Millennium they’re going to have those chambers in there. They’re going to have all these dwelling places. . . A mansion is where a ruler lives.

Bragging rights

"The plague of man is boasting of his knowledge."--Michel de Montaigne

The work of the ministry is a work in process. We’re growing; we have to because the world around us changes. But you know, God told Israel, “Remember the pit from which thou art hewn,” and that’s an important thing.

I would tell anyone you need to remember some of the things that make you who you are. Remember the importance of the message of grace, says Richard Jordan.

Paul says in Ephesians 2: [8] For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
[9] Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Everything, whether it’s your salvation or your Christian life, is all balled up in that verse. The next verse says, [10] For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

It’s not what you do, think, feel, let go of, hang onto—it’s a gift. I love that, “lest any man should boast.”

I’m persuaded that the favorite sport of people is bragging. You know, you think it’s baseball, football, etc. No, it’s bragging. People just want to brag.

I was reading a thing the other day about a national spitting contest in Georgia. The contest was to see who could spit their own spit the farthest. People came from all over America to compete. A woman won. In the accompanying video of her you would have thought she just won the lottery Power Ball. I’m thinking, “You know, people just like to brag.”

*****

Paul was a very educated man with the advanced degrees of his day, but he understood that it was more important to speak where people understood him.

So people criticized him, saying he was crude in speech and Paul said, “Yeah, you might say that, but ‘not in knowledge.’ ” Paul's saying, “C’mon and check me out.”

In fact, where did his knowledge come from. It came directly from the Lord Jesus Christ. If you’re looking for someone with knowledge, here’s a guy who had an audience with Christ, taught directly by Him.

So, he starts out II Corinthians 11: [1] Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me. Paul’s saying, “Put up with my foolishness for a minute, will you, because I’m going to brag about my ministry. I’m going to boast about what I’m doing. And just allow me to vigorously defend my apostleship, my apostolic authority, my message, because these guys who are attacking me are forcing me to do it.”

Paul understood that only a fool would be a braggart. Look what he says in II Corinthians 10:

[12] For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.
[13] But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you.

Bragging about yourself compared to other people isn’t wise. Going around bragging, talking about yourself and glorifying yourself and lifting yourself up and making yourself an issue, well, that’s nuts. That’s not what you want to do.

Paul says, “I’m willing to look foolish because I’m concerned about you guys. Let me have the opportunity for just a minute, as uncomfortable as it makes me, to defend my right to look out for you.”

II Corinthians 11: [2] For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
[3] But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Paul says, “I’m looking out for you and I see those people trying to detract you away from what I’ve taught you and I’m suspicious of those rivals out there and I’m jealous over you with a good, godlike jealousy.”

The word jealousy means a “demand for complete devotion.” It can be good; it can be bad. In this case it’s godlike. If it’s self-centered it’s bad.

[16] I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little.

In other words, Paul’s fixing to talk about his own ministry compared to these other people and he just doesn’t like to brag about things.

[17] That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.
[18] Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also.
[19] For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise.

Now, Paul’s using real sarcasm. I don’t guess there was any other crowd Paul was more sarcastic about that he was with the Corinthians. I always love that passage in I Corinthians 4 where he said, [8] Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.

Yeah, sure they were. That’s real sarcasm. That’s what they thought but it was just the opposite.

Verse 23: [23] Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.

Again, it’s real clear Paul’s uncomfortable bragging about what he’s doing.

II Corinthians 12:6: [6] For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me.

Verse 11: [11] I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.

In other words, Paul has been forced to defend his apostolic authority and his message. They’ve compelled him to do it by giving heed to people who would draw them away from his ministry and they’re really the cause of it.

Out of his deep distress over the false doctrine that’s been taught to these people, Paul is going to defend his ministry and the message committed to him.

The problem is there are some false teachers who are attacking the message of grace Paul’s preached and what they’re attacking is the all-sufficiency of Christ alone and they’re adding works to grace, teaching that Christ alone is not enough.

Our mission: Paul, Paul, Paul

Paul is almost a type of Solomon; there’s a fascinating parallel to when "God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much," said Alex Kurz in today's study. What did the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ progressively entrust the Apostle Paul with?

Ephesians 1:8: [8] Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;

Solomon was given wisdom exceedingly, but to the Apostle Paul was given the highest realm of divine wisdom.

I Kings 4:29: [29] And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore.

The capacity to use that realm of information, that realm of knowledge, that body of wisdom—that capacity to appropriate it, to properly apply it. That’s what the Apostle Paul’s ministry is all about. It’s taking that ALL wisdom, that divine package of information and Paul exercises his apostolic ministry wisely.

Paul says to the Corinthians, “Our heart is enlarged.” There’s more going on in I Kings than Solomon having the emotional fuzzies for the nation of Israel. There’s more going on than, “Oh, I want to possess a level of sensitivity, care, concern and love.”

Now, Solomon did have a sensitivity towards the nation of Israel. But in what way did Solomon have a sensitivity? Paul has a sensitivity toward the Corinthians, not just devotionally: “I love you.”

God gives Solomon this largeness of heart “even as the sand that is on the seashore.” That’s just a beautiful expression. King Solomon is going to possess this boundless, vast knowledge and wisdom and understanding, both divine and human. Why did God give Solomon a large heart?

I Kings 3:9: [9] Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?

*****

When you think about home, remember the minister of grace. You and I have a special person in the Bible. God used him to write 13 books especially for you and me today, says Richard Jordan.

Out of the 27 books in the New Testament, almost half of them—nobody ever wrote that many books in the Bible of all the individuals, and they are ours.

Romans 11: [13] For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
[14] If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.

Remember the mission of grace. When I think about Paul being the apostle of the Gentiles and he’s our minister today, we get our doctrine from him, who did Paul preach to?

Romans 15: [20] Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation:
[21] But as it is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand.

What Paul in essence is saying is, “I worked my way out of a job. There’s no place where you are that I need to preach, so I’m going to go to the regions beyond.”

Paul wasn’t a navel-gazer. There’s a danger in ministry to forget your mission, because the mission isn’t just to preach to one another. There’s a lost world out there.

You know, much of the world’s never heard of Him. One of the great dangers you and I face is thinking all the world is like us. You can find people in your acquaintance today that couldn’t tell you the gospel if you offered them a million dollars and threatened them with a pistol.

Where I lived Down South, people knew the gospel. Down there they get gospel-hardened they hear it so much and they think they got to live it and it’s, “I know I need to get saved but I just can’t live it, preacher.”

They heard the gospel, but they didn’t hear that part, “Just believe, not work.” Because your Old Man doesn’t hear that.

I remember the first time I met somebody who didn’t even know who Jesus Christ was. He was sitting on the Wilson Avenue steps going up into the old North Shore Church building in Chicago.

I’m talking to him, saying, “You got any idea what we do in this building?” He said, “No. You feed people now and then.” He had no consciousness who Jesus Christ was and I’m thinking, “Wow, right here on the steps of our church is a guy who doesn’t even know . . . “ Then I got to looking around and I said to myself, “You know, there’s more people than that.”

Our mission, folks, is to take what we get and learn it and get it out to the world around us. Otherwise He’d just take us home. So, when you remember Shorewood, remember that, would you? Listen, you don’t just have it for yourself; you have it for a mission.

*****

I Timothy, the first of the pastoral epistles, begins, [1] Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;

I Timothy is going to give you the ideal picture of what the ministry, a local church, ought to be like. In II Timothy, the last book Paul writes, you see the catastrophe the local church, the Body of Christ, has become by the time Paul dies.

Somebody once said, "I Timothy is the church in rule and II Timothy is the church in ruin," and that's really an apt description. In each one of the epistles, the first couple of verses kind of set the tone for what the book's going to be about.

This first verse and the shift in thinking in it--when Paul says, "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour and the Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope," that's not the way he usually introduces himself.

In Ephesians 1, it says "Paul apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God." That's the way he usually says it: "I'm an apostle; it was God's will that I be one."

Romans 1, his first doctrinal book, starts, "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God."

When he comes to Timothy, he ratchets it up a little bit and says, "I'm an apostle by the commandment of God." When you think of commandments, who do you think about? Moses.

In other words, Paul's saying, "This isn't just God's will, this isn't just something God's chosen me to do--this is God's commandment," and immediately you realize Paul's pulling the authority card, if you will.

He's pulling out the fact that, "I'm going to talk to you about some things and when I'm going to give them to you, I'm going to put you under orders. I'm going to be like a commanding officer giving you the commands that you as the troop are to keep."

I Timothy 1:18: [18] This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;

When he says "a charge," that's not like, "Get your credit card out and let's go shop." A charge is like, "I'm going to give you orders. I'm going to command you to do this," and Paul's going to do that all through these epistles.

I Timothy 2:7: [7] Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.

You see that little parenthesis? When I read that I say, "Why would he put that in there?" Well, obviously somebody's saying Paul's not an apostle. Somebody's saying, "No, no, no. He's not who he says he is." Somebody is contradicting; somebody's trying to deny Paul's authority and that's why he starts out so stoutly asserting it: "I'm ordained. God set this up, a preacher, a teacher and an apostle."

Paul starts I Timothy 4:11, "These things command and teach." You see, he's telling Timothy what to do and he's not leaving any kind of ambiguity. You can go all through and see Paul saying things like, "Charge them that are rich in this world," meaning, "Put them under orders, Tim."

"Well, how come, Paul, you can boss him around like that?" You need to be the boss, so when he says, "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God," He's asserting his apostolic authority because it's being contradicted.

Now, if a local church is going to function properly, the first thing it has to do is know where it gets it's authority from; where it gets its information from.

Come to Titus 1:1-2: [1] Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness;

[2] In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

That's the issue of how there was a message God had kept secret; He didn't reveal it until He came to the Apostle Paul, and the reason He made Paul an apostle was to make that known, but notice the rest in verse 3: [3] But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour;

See, Paul's apostleship didn't come about because he thought about it, or somebody else thought it would be a good idea, or, "We got an ordination committee up and said we thought we ought to call you to the ministry."

This is literally the commandment of Almighty God. Just as much as when God gave a commandment to Moses to give the nation Israel, He gave that kind of authority and commandment to the Apostle Paul.

Romans 11:13: [13] For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:

Paul said, "I've got this office and the thing that's important to me is the commission that Christ's given me to do these things." Paul's the apostle of the Gentiles and that's an important thing to understand.

In Galatians, his apostleship is again being challenged. In fact, Paul spends the first two chapters in Galatians defending his apostleship.

Galatians 1: [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.

He's saying, "I didn't become an apostle by man's appointment or by man's authority. I got it directly from Jesus Christ based upon the will of God the Father."

Notice, it doesn't say the revelation FROM Jesus Christ. It isn't just information Christ gave him, but it's the revelation OF Christ.

You go back and look at the ministry of Moses in Exodus and Numbers and God stood face to face with Moses. He said, "I'm going to deal with Moses like nobody else; I'm going to stand face to face with him and give him directly the information that I want the people to know."

Paul had a face to face. He came to visions and revelations OF the Lord. Christ appeared to him personally.

Can't beat King James with a stick

You ever notice how in your New Testament the books are laid out exactly like the dispensational dealings of God go through history? In Matthew through John, the earthly ministry of Christ, He’s presented as a king, as a servant, as a man and as God.

The Book of Acts, the fall of Israel begins with Peter and ends with Paul. Paul is Israel’s salvation going to the Gentiles. Romans through Philemon, there's the dispensation of grace and the body of Christ and the doctrine for today, explains Richard Jordan.

Hebrews to Revelation, the ages to come. Romans through Philemon explains what happened at the Cross for the body of Christ. Hebrews to Revelation explains what happened at the Cross for the Hebrew people in the ages to come.

There are nine church epistles in here and there are nine Hebrew epistles that do the same job and then there are some church epistles in here about the local congregation. Timothy, Titus and Philemon tell you how to live, work and function in a local assembly in this age.

These (Hebrew epistles) people don’t need it because they got that instruction in time past in the Jewish program already.

You know what that is, folks? A whole system of dispensational truth that would bring the professing church out of its confusion, and out of its darkness, and bring real revival and spiritual life to the church, and it’s laid out in the index of the Bible.

Every time one of those dudes has to turn back there to the index to find a book, one day they’re going to face God and He’s going to say, “Every idle word, brother.” Not just what you spoke, but what you read is going to get you.

People are going to say, “I couldn’t get it,” and He’ll say, “Well, your INDEX fixed it for you. What’s the matter?!”

You know what’s the matter? Somebody told them not to believe that index. You never met anybody that trusted Jesus Christ by believing that Book, that began to study that Book, that came along and then didn’t believe that Book, unless somebody told them it wasn’t right.

I never met anybody in my life that didn’t believe the King James Bible was the Word of God except somebody that was taught it wasn’t.

That thing right there, folks—that’s not the order of the books in the Greek manuscripts. That’s not Baptist doctrine, that’s not Methodist doctrine, that’s not Roman Catholic tradition. That’s your English Bible in your lap.

Let me show you the heart of this Book. There are 31,175 verses in this Bible. Psalm 118:8 is the middle verse of a King James Bible. Now, there’s not another bible on the market, outside of the Authorized Version, where this is the middle verse.

Why is that? They all leave verses out. They leave out Acts 8:37, the last 10 verses of Mark 16, the first 11 verses of John 8, I John 5:7, John 5:4 . . . Just go on and on and on with it. Two hundred verses they just kick out of the New Testament.

Psalm 118:8: [8] It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.

How many words in that verse? What’s half of fourteen? It would have to be the seventh and eighth verses to be the middle words. Look at what they are. “The Lord.” The two middle words in your Bible. You leave one verse out of that Bible and that isn’t true. The middle words of the middle verse is the Lord.

You look at the title page of your Bible and it has a dedication page that says, “To the most high and mighty prince, King James.” You know what James is in English? You know what James is in Hebrew? Jacob.

Why do you reckon God waited until Jacob, the prince with Israel, is on the throne before He took that Jewish Book and translated it into English?

It’s called a King James, Holy Bible. Have you ever counted the letters in King James? Nine letters. If you count 1611, the year it was published, it adds up to nine. Nine in the Bible in numerology is the number of fruit-bearing.

How old was Abraham when he had that boy? He was ninety-nine. You know that the ninth book in the New Testament is? In chapter 5 of Galatians there are nine fruits of the Spirit. You can’t beat that with a stick, folks.

If you want to bear fruit, folks, that’s the Book. The history of that Book is revival, soul-winning, light, blessing. You know what the history of the NASV and the Amplified and the RSV are? Death.

You know what follows that stuff? Religion, education, culture and death. Monument-building is what follows it.

Reality of being 'seen of angels'

The greatness of this secret is that God is manifesting Himself, His life, His truth, through this new agency of people called the “church the body of Christ.” People are justified in the Spirit, seen of angels.

I Timothy 3: [15] But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
[16] And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

Angels watch what we’re doing. Understand that a ministry like this isn’t just observed by the people around you.

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:
[10] To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

They’re looking down here and seeing things about the wisdom of God they could have never otherwise known. They watched creation and still we instruct them. They watch you carefully. That’s an awesome thought.

You go singing in the shower in the morning, sing to the angels. Think about the reality of it--“seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”

That’s the totality of what He’s doing as He forms the body of Christ. You know what we do? We’re putting on display in visible terms that demonstrate the reality of what God’s doing today. That’s some calling.

*****

After writing about one of the greatest hymn writers of all time, Isaac Watts (Dec. 29, entitled “Songs change history”), I’ve found myself singing his hymns to myself as I go through lonely days, fostering a deeper kinship with Watts.  

Here’s another article I put together on him years ago:

One of the great hymns of faith, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross", written by Isaac Watts and published in 1707, "is significant for being an innovative departure from the early English hymn style of only using paraphrased biblical texts," according to Wikipedia, "although the first couplet of the second verse paraphrases Galatians 6:14a and the second couplet of the fourth verse paraphrases Gal.6:14b.

"The poetry of 'When I survey . . . ' may be seen as English literary baroque.^[1]"

According to Barry's Hymns blog, "It is said that as a teenager Watts complained to his father about the monotonous way Christians in England sang the Old Testament Psalms. His father, a leading deacon, snapped back, 'All right young man, you give us something better.' "

Wikipedia: "The second line of the first stanza originally read, 'Where the young Prince of Glory dy'd'. Watts himself altered that line in the 1709 edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, to prevent it from being mistaken as an allusion to Prince William, Duke of Gloucester, the heir to the throne who died at age 11.^[2]

"The hymn's fourth stanza ('His dying crimson . . .') is commonly omitted in printed versions, a practice that began with George Whitefield in 1757.

4. His dying Crimson, like a Robe,
    Spreads o'er his Body on the Tree;
    Then I am dead to all the Globe,
    And all the Globe is dead to me.

"In the final stanza, some modern variations substitute the word 'offering' for 'present'."  

5. Were the whole Realm of Nature mine,
    That were a Present far too small;
    Love so amazing, so divine,
    Demands my Soul, my Life, my All.

Of the hymn's critical acclaim, Barry's blog notes, "Tedd Smith is quoted as saying, 'It seems to me that Isaac Watts wrote this text as if he were standing at the foot of Christ's cross.' Charles Wesley reportedly said he would give up all his other hymns to have written this one. Concerning the hymn's creation, there is no special story that makes it stand out from others that he wrote.  But what makes this hymn unique is the particular beauty of its language and imagery, and the power with which it highlights the most significant event in human and personal history - the Cross of Jesus Christ."

A biographical passage on him: “A very unusual man, Watts served as minister of the English Congregational Church, preaching his first sermon at 24. History says that though he was a charming man, his stature was small and his physical appearance hard to believe. Only five feet in height, his face was sallow with a hooked nose, small beady eyes and a deathlike pallor. One lady, a Miss Elizabeth Singer, who had fallen in love with his poetry and thought she had met her soulmate at last, refused his hand in marriage when she finally saw him, with the remark, ‘I admired the jewel but not the casket!’ However, his hymns have been jewels admired by all generations of Christians.”

Connections at O'Hair

(another unexpected day for me--new article tomorrow for certain)

A good trivia question: Who was born only four years before General Douglas MacArthur in their same hometown of Little Rock, Ark.? The answer is J. C. O’Hair, born Dec. 31, 1876. O'Hair is Richard Jordan's predecessor in the pulpit.

O’Hair, a one-time accountant, was in his late 20s when he became the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico! After returning to the U.S., he made a name for himself in the construction and lumber business and married a woman from Kansas named Ethel, whom he had six kids with. In 1917 he entered into full-time evangelism and went around the country preaching and teaching. On Sept. 1, 1923, he was installed as a pastor of North Shore Church on the northside of Chicago.

*****

For O’Hair, it was a labor of love. Jordan says, “Let your watching, let your standing fast in the faith, let your’ quit ye like men, be strong,’ be done with charity; with that mental attitude of grace.  Do it out of charity, out of a heart of evaluating the thing the way God evaluates it . . .  

“You know what the long and short of it is, folks? When you read a verse of Scripture, that verse says that this action and attitude ought to be the action and attitude you take as a Believer because you’re a Believer. You want the verses to work in your life; believe them! The only response grace will accept is faith. When you believe them they’ll transform your life into what they say.  The reality of what they say will work in your life . . .

“You don’t live on your emotions; you live on choices of your will. You emotions think anything your mind is thinking is true. It’s only a movie; it’s not real!

“God has built you so that there is a part of your inner man that is designed to put into motion the things that your heart and mind have chosen to do. Facts first, then faith in the facts because until your faith rests in the reality of the facts, those facts can never go to work in your life. They’ll just be rolling around in your head.

“When you faith rests in the facts, your faith in the facts release the power of that truth to begin to produce its fruit in your life and works effectually in you that believe . . .

“When it says that Philemon had refreshed the bowels of the saints, that’s that innermost feelings down in the seat of their inner being. He had refreshed them right down to their very core. This wasn’t a superficial refreshing: ‘Hey, how ya doin? Ya feeling alright? Yeah, good to see ya!’ and you go off and there’s still the hurt down inside, there’s still the loneliness.

“Philemon’s ministry of truth to these people worked right down into the core of their being and refreshed them in their inner man to the place it extended all the way over to their emotions.

“He believed the truth. It worked and lived in him and that truth, as it lived in him, bore fruit among the saints that was able to refresh them even in their most inner recesses of their being! Right down into their very bosom.

“The ‘bowels ‘ are the innermost feelings, the innermost recesses. It’s the farthest, hardest to reach place. This wasn’t superficial living at Colossi. Philemon didn’t minister to people in a way that was just covering over. The reason it worked that way for Philemon is the issue of faith. He really believed the doctrine and he taught people to believe the doctrine because they saw it living and producing the fruit in him. It wasn’t just facts with him; it was his faith resting on the facts that produced that life in him.”

*****

The Bible’s written in such a way that to really understand it you’ve got to keep poring over it and poring over it.

Jude 9 informs, “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.”

Now, that passage can be found back in the last chapter of Deuteronomy. When Moses died, Satan and Michael contend over his body.

Jordan explains, “Some people say, ‘Well, maybe it wasn’t his physical body; maybe it was the nation Israel.’ I Corinthians 10 talks about when they came across the Red Sea they were baptized under Moses in the cloud and in the sea and so that nation when it came across, it’s called in Acts 7 the Church of the Wilderness.

“Some people say the body of Moses was really the nation of Israel once it had become that separated nation—that set apart people of God. Either way you take it, Satan and Michael are contending over the body of Moses.

“And when that happened it says Michael ‘durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.’

“Now you can go back in the book of Exodus, Deuteronomy and Numbers and read all day long ‘til your eyes bug out on the table and you’ll never find that statement back there! You wouldn’t know this event took place except that it’s written subsequently in the Book of Jude. Without Jude 9 you’d never know there was a contention between Michael and Satan over the body of Moses.

“If you drop down to verse 14, it says ‘Enoch also the seventh from Adam’ (Genesis 5). When It says seventh from Adam, that’s because there’s another Enoch. You remember Cain’s son? This isn’t Cain’s son, Enoch, this is the other one, the seventh from Adam, the one who prophesied.

“Enoch from Genesis 5 didn’t die; God took him and translated him (verse 11). The text talks about Enoch walked with God after the birth of Methuselah.

“You begin to understand when you read Hebrews 11 that something happened at the birth of Methuselah that changed Enoch’s life and ‘he began to walk with God.’ The verse says Enoch prophesied, meaning he had a message from God. So there was some communication between God and Enoch and then Enoch and the people around him.

“Methuselah, his name means ‘when he dies it shall come.’ When he died, the Flood, the Judgment came. Enoch is prophesying about these saying ‘behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment upon all ungodly.’

“Every time I read that verse I think, ‘There were some ungodly dudes back there!’ Just over and over again. But there’s the prophecy about the judgment of God. One’s gonna be at the Flood; here it’s gonna be at the Second Advent, which the Flood was a type of, the tribulation.

“And Enoch prophesied of that and that’s the verse where people get, ‘Well, there’s a lost book of the Bible called the Book of Enoch which should be in there.’ No, this is the rule of subsequent narrative. You wouldn’t know Enoch did this stuff except the Book of Jude wrote it down for you.”

Witness to God's working

I Timothy 3: [15] But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

Our task is to be the pillar and ground of the truth. I want you to understand that’s what we’re about. That’s what this pulpit’s been about since actually 1890. Do you realize this pulpit was put in our church building in Chicago in 1900, reminded Richard Jordan in his Sunday morning sermon.

The issue involved here is the truth of God’s Word being stood for and proclaimed. Shorewood rests on a foundation laid by the Apostle Paul.

The foundation and the structure of this building is not the church. The church is the saints; the people in the building. This building was originally built as a restaurant. The name of it was Chez Paul, meaning the house of Paul.

It got converted into a communications outfit, Lighthouse, where they were involved in media and spreading advertising around. Then we bought it and turned it back into a house of Paul, designed to be a lighthouse and spread the media, the Word around. So the building’s kind of gone full circle.

I had some friends who bought a dance hall and a saloon and turned it into a grace church. They told me that two years after they started the church they were still having people show up thinking it was the saloon. They actually started having Saturday night Bible study so people would come on Saturday night and wonder what was going on.

The building isn’t the issue; the issue is the people and the work of the ministry is to be the pillar and the ground of the truth.

A pillar holds something up; makes it solid. The ground gives stability under your feet so that’s it not tossed to and fro. The purpose of the local church in a community is to say that here's the living God, not the dead God . . .

The first thing you learn when you study Ephesians is that there was a great church at Ephesus; a universal religious system. “Great is Diana of Ephesus.” The queen of heaven, worshipped worldwide with all kind of religious artifacts, religious systems.

Timothy is at Ephesus when Paul writes him and says, “There’s that dead church out there. The church of a dead god, but you’re the church of the living God, the reality of life in Christ Jesus.” And you’re to uphold and put on display, and undergird, the truth as opposed to the lie program propagated by the world and the false religious system.

So, the No. 1 purpose of a local church is to be a local manifestation in a particular geographic area of the body of Christ; of the life of the church, the body of Christ, and it works together toward that end.

There’s God’s working and then there’s our witness to it.

*****

You can’t learn about what happened at Ephesus by looking at the Book of the Ephesians. Because things happened at Ephesus before Paul wrote the book.

I Timothy 1:3, for example, says, “As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine.”

Notice Timothy is in Ephesus ministering when he writes I Timothy. So, I Timothy is really written to Timothy about how to organize and make a local church function, but what local church is he specifically talking about? The church at Ephesus.

The purpose of the local church is to hold up the truth and to say, "It’s still here! It’s available! Here it is! Here’s the message of life and peace and forgiveness and joy and fulfillment and heaven and here’s the life of stability in Christ and here’s how that life functions and lives in you."

You notice how Paul says it? "The church of the living God." At Ephesus there was another church that was the opposite. Ephesus has been described as one of the three great cities of the Roman world. Rome was the great political, military center of the ancient world in Paul’s day.

Alexandria, Egypt, over in North Africa, was the cultural, educational center of the world. The great library of Alexandria—it was one of the seven wonders of the world.

On the road across Asia Minor into Europe set Ephesus. It was a capital of Ionia. It was on the western coast and it was sort of like Chicago.

It was a commercial crossroads. Not of the Midwest, but of that era, and it was an extremely important commercial center. It wasn’t but just a little ways from Corinth, which was south down in Greece.

Ephesus was also a religious center. In fact, you could say it was THE religious center of that era, for in Ephesus there was this Great Temple of Diana. It’s listed as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was sort of the Taj Mahal of the day.

It was a mega-church before there were mega-churches and it was a religious icon of the ancient world. It was into that city that Paul first ventured on his second apostolic ministry in Acts 18. He took Priscilla and Aquila with him. He left them and that’s when Apollos came along and they bring him into the way of grace more up to date.

Then Paul returned to Ephesus after he’d been in the churches of Galatia ministering, and in Acts 19:8 it says, "And he went into the synagogue and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God."

That’s a fascinating passage. For three months, he goes into the synagogue and he disputes. Now, that’s Paul’s pattern in the Book of Acts. Notice here there’s a lot of things Paul’s doing that aren’t recorded in the Book of Acts.

The purpose of the Book of Acts it to tell you about the fall of Israel and God’s rightness in turning to the Gentiles through Paul’s ministry. He goes away from them, leaves them, and you see the public condemnation, as it were, of Israel’s rejection of Christ.

Over that two-year period where Paul separates himself and is preaching, "All they that are in Asia heard the word." Now, if all those in Asia heard, did they all come to Ephesus? They didn’t have TV, telephone, internet or radio. How in the world did he get it all over to Asia Minor?! That’s Turkey! How did you get it over there from Ephesus?!

He taught them. He’s in the school of Tyrannus, having public meetings. Acts 20:34 says, "Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me."

You know what Paul’s saying? He says, "When I was there, I worked and made
my own living!" He’s a tent maker. Run back up to verse 20. So, he had public meetings in the school of Tyrannus (Acts 19). But also, he ran around and had house meetings. There’s this daily house ministry where he’s out teaching and preaching God’s word.

Verse 19 says, "And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house."

There was a continuous opposition, by the way. If you want to read a strange passage, go to I Cor. 15:31-32: "I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die."

A beast could be a beast; the Romans did that. You know, put them in the den with the lions. But also, "beast" in the Bible can refer to men; people who are driven by their animal passions. There were people who didn’t like what Paul was preaching and went after them, and he had to contend with them and they were like ravenous beasts trying to consume him and destroy him.

That’s why when you go back to chapter 19, you read a verse like 23 ("And the same time there arose no small stir about that way") and you say, "Well, I can kind of understand that." He got the whole community fired up!

In fact, if you start in verse 11, it says, [11] And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: [12] So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.

Man, you talk about a guy who’s got some power! I mean he just pulls a hanky out and goes ‘Whirr,’ and the diseases go! You got whackos on TV trying to do that right now, you know. You know what this was? This worked!

It gets more pointed in Acts 19:13: "Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth."

What’s the condition of Israel? Paul left them in the synagogue, went out to the Gentiles. What’s the condition of the people he’s abandoned? Here’s a picture of what Israel had become because of their rejection of Christ.

“Jesus we know, Paul we know, but who you, boy?!" They’re vagabond Jews. That’s who Israel becomes. Apostate Israel was just wandering homelessly with no land of their own. Vagabonds. They HAD a Promised Land, but they don’t have it now.

“Exorcists, dabbling with evil spirits, calling on the name of the Lord Jesus." I mean, they’re FALSE prophets! They got nothing to do with the Lord Jesus Christ! They’re a bunch of liars willing to do ANYTHING to make a profit.

And he says there’s false prophets and false priesthoods. And what happens? [15] And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?
[16] And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.’

I’d like to have seen that! But that’s the spiritual condition that Israel was in. And this is known; fear magnified.

You know what happened? Verse 10 says, "And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.
[11] And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul:’

You know what happens when the Jews are sent away and the judgment falls on them? There’s a blessing that goes to the Gentiles. What’s happening in Acts now? That’s what Luke’s recording? Was it just in doing it? Sure, they’re a bunch of vagabond extortionists claiming to be somebody they aren’t and God’s judgment fell on them.

The result was "many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.
[19] Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
[20] So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.’

Somebody said in modern terms that’s about 5-6 million dollars. That dude that burned those rock records down there in Comiskey Park those years ago, he wasn’t doing anything new! He claimed to be setting the pace. He’s just copying this. They had a book-burning.

The French burned the Bibles. These guys were burning the devil’s books. You see the revival that’s coming? You see what’s happening? The whole pagan world is SHAKEN. Verse 20 says, "So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed."

That first word "so" in the verse is the important one to me. Because of the victories that were won for the preaching of the gospel of the grace of God, the Word of God grew and prevailed.

Now when that happened verse 23 says, "And the same time there arose no small stir about that way.
[24] For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen;’

Now, that was the first mega-church with worldwide impact. A false god, a dead god. By the way, you notice the silversmith is making shrines or aids to worship. Little idols. The craftsmanship that went into that; the beauty, the love the effort, the intelligence, the art. These were artisans.

The temple Diana. If you look at verses 34-35: [34] But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

[35] And when the townclerk had appeased the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter?

Jupiter’s in the heavens. Diana is just another name for the Queen of Heaven. if you go back to Jeremiah 44, you’ll find that the nation Israel was worshipping the Queen of Heaven when Israel was caught off into apostasy.

You go back to Judges 2 and you see Baal and Astarte; he’s the male god and she’s the female deity. All through there’s been that worship of the Queen of Heaven. Rome called her Venus, the Greeks called her Diana, Minerva, Juno. The Phoenicians called her Ashtoreth, the Syrians called her Astarte, the Egyptians called her Isis. Christians call her Mary.

Acts 19:37 says, "For ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess."

Notice that a bunch of heathens had their churches too. Pagans have churches just like we have churches. The pagans have temples just like Israel had temples. It’s a counterfeit of the real thing.