Beware of those who have you thinking you're Israel. Those who have taught you to go to your Bible, open it, and read it as if the things that are written to Israel, their promises. Read those as if they're your promises. Beware of those who fail to rightly divide God's word of truth. They'll have you praying for things that's not even for you today. They call it having faith, but it's actually misplaced faith. faith in something that was never promised to you to begin with. All those physical healings, the physical blessings that you find in your Bible, but in your Bible, in God's word, all of those promises were for the nation Israel, Israelites, Israelites and proselytes. They were national promises. And here you come along a as a member of the church, the body of Christ, expecting to be able to access what belonged to the nation Israel, putting a false claim to their physical blessings, their physical healings, the miracles, signs, and wonders.
And what happens? You're left disappointed.
You know how in life, I mean, you're most likely never going to find anyone, any human, that will meet all your expectations. You might find someone that'll meet 70% of your expectations. Hey, you might do well and find 80 or 85, maybe even 90 plus, but you're never going to get all your expectations in this life met. It's just not going to happen.
But many of us were taught to go to God's word and expect to get all Israel's promises.
When our expectations are out of whack, next thing you know, you you've got your faith misplaced. And when that happens, it's easy to get lost in the mud. M U D, mixed up doctrine. Then you're left there thinking that Israel's earthly promises are meant for you, leading to disappointment. Now, those in your life that that never met all your expectations, you know what you do? You place God right there alongside them in that same category.
Well, he didn't do what I asked. He didn't give me what I wanted. He must not really care about me. He just doesn't meet all my expectations. This God isn't what I thought he'd be.
No, saints, listen. God meets all. He's the only one that meets all 100%. He meets 100% of your expectations if and when you get your expectations correct in order in line with what the Apostle Paul tells you to expect. Is God meeting your expectations?
Well, he is. If you've rightly divided and are expecting the right things with what Christ told Paul to tell you, the information, the the instructions that he wrote down for you during this quote, but now time period for the one new man church, which is his body. Once you get that, you'll understand that God has always met your expectations.
He's always kept it real. He's never failed you in any way. No, it's you that has failed. It's me that has failed, not God. We come up short. We miss the mark. We We fail. But God doesn't He doesn't fail us.
What happens? And I've seen it many times throughout the years. Many come, many go, leave the faith. Nope. I no longer want anything to do with Christianity because God let this happen or or God allowed this. He didn't protect me from this. He didn't bless me like he blessed so and so. I was just as faithful. I prayed just as hard. I went to church. I tithed. I did this. I did that.
It never was meant for you. That's misplaced faith. Misplaced faith. Faith in the wrong things.
We need to be men and women of faith. But our faith must be appropriated in the right place. That, my friend, is what will happen once you understand that Paul's apostleship was given to you a gift from God.
someone to to come along and focus dial into the many nations, the Gentiles, all other nations that had been excluded, the nations that were outside of Israel's covenants and promises. And Paul was given the revelation of the mystery to write down and give to us our marching orders, our expectations. Hey, they're not the same as Israel's. Our instructions have nothing in them about national salvation, national blessings.
It's about individual salvation and individual spiritual blessings.
Individuals who get saved one individual at a time. They Ephesians 1:12-13 they hear the gospel and place their trust in Christ by believing the gospel. And at that time, the Holy Spirit seals them unto that future day of redemption.
That's our individual salvation that was put forth and given to us by the Apostle Paul. We get saved one individual at a time and grow up and come along in our own individual manner, our own individual time.
Christ was king of the nation Israel, but he's head of us, his body.
That's different. In time past, for Gentiles to be saved, they had to turn from their idols and bless Israel. That was their path to salvation. As in John 4:22, salvation was of the Jews. Well, we know that's not true today.
Israel is currently loammi. Hosea 1:9. Not God's people. They were given the spirit of slumber, blinded, and have fallen. They've been cast away, cast out among the gentile nations, and left with no special standing before the Lord. See how that works? They have no special status, nor do we. Israel was given eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear, even until this day. Now, we're on equal playing field, and the diminishing of them is our riches. They did not obtain that which they sought after. Where John wrote, "Salvation is of the Jews," that changed to salvation is of the church, which is his body.
All one must do is read the book of Acts. You can't miss this. You'll see this diminishing Paul refers to in Romans 11. You'll see Peter as he starts out adding thousands to that Jewish church. But keep watching, stay tuned, come back after the break and you'll begin to see that the ministry, the ministry to Israel started to diminish.
And by the time you arrive in Acts 9, you'll see the calling out of Saul, Paul, the Lord saves him, and you'll start to recognize a change in the program. The book of Acts is transitional and it transitions from Peter to Paul, from Israel to the Gentiles, from law to grace, from water baptism to spiritual baptism. The doctrines begin to change and what was once a Jewish ministry starts to diminish. Peter's ministry decreases and and Paul's ministry increases.
And by Acts chapter 15, Peter pulls a David Copperfield and disappears.
They open up without understanding. Why isn't your church talking about this? You ever wondered that the doctrines taught by the 12 began to fade until they totally disappeared.
Yet little is taught about this in most mainstream denominational churches.
Don't be ignorant of this mystery, folks. Israel's diminishing. Their fall is our riches. Praise the Lord. We're not living according to what the Bible calls quote time past. We're living in what the Bible calls quote but now.
There's some I've heard uh even recently that get lost in the weeds when they're in the book of Romans, the early chapters like Romans chapter 1, Romans chapter 2. And what they fail to realize is Romans chapter 3 where Paul says, "But now," and on this side of the cross, as we learned from the revelation of the mystery of Paul's mystery, it was on the cross that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.
Oh, and let me pause for a moment and clear something up. A listener sent me something someone said about that. They said that the word reconciling meant that it was still happening, still going on because of the "ing" - reconcil-ing. They were saying it's not finished because it's reconcil-ing and not reconcil-ed.
Well, it was talking about the cross. The cross work. And while the crosswork was happen-ing, yes, it was reconcil-ing. But now that the crosswork is finished, guess what? It is reconcil-ed.
Not reconciling, but reconciled.
At the time of the reconciling, it was not complete. But after the reconciling which took place on the cross, after the finished crosswork, it changed to reconcil-ed.
And by the way, do note that it says was, not is. God was in Christ reconciling past tense meaning he's not anymore. Sorry, but this is another failed vain attempt to confuse people. And we don't allow that. Not here. But I know where it comes from. It comes from one of those anti-reconciliators, one of the jokers out there that are trying to convince others that you're not forgiven until you believe you are.
As if Christ work doesn't work until you approve it. Beware of those who are teaching this-trust in your belief for forgiveness instead of teaching trusting in his blood for having forgiven you. His bloodshed came first. His bloodshed and your belief don't even occur at the same time. Two totally different calendar dates.
But I digress. We're not living according to time past. We're living according to but now. And during this but now time frame. Now listen, we who are are saved members of the church, which is his body, the body of Christ, we're supposed to all speak the same thing. 1 Corinthians 1:10. Now, explain to me just how we can all claim to be in one body and all obey Paul by speaking the same thing if this Sunday morning your church is teaching doctrines from the book of Matthew as if they were written to be followed today.
Same goes for the book of Hebrews, James, Peter, Jude, all the John's and so forth, the book of Revelation. My friend, the doctrine in these books aren't saying what the doctrines in Paul's book say, the books of Romans through Philemon. Check it out for yourself. Compare the verses and stop believing those who try to make excuses for God by saying, "Well, they all really they're just saying the same thing." Paul and the book of Hebrews and James, he says the same thing Paul does. And of course, Peter and Paul, they they're saying the same thing just in a different way.
Oh, come on. Get real. Anyone with even an average IQ knows better than that. In Acts chapter 3, Peter tells his Jewish audience they'll get their day of atonement when Christ returns. Acts chapter 3 verse 19. Their sins will be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Now that's plain. But we're told that we already have our atonement.
Romans 5:11. We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now, listen, we have now received the atonement.
Now, how can that be? How can we see both of these things in the same Bible? It's because we must rightly divide the word of truth. It's because God says different things about the same thing.
That's why we're we're commanded, remember Paul said, "The things I write are the commandments of the Lord." Well, that's why we're commanded to rightly divide the word of truth because God says different things about the same thing. And if we don't if we don't divide these things, we'll be left unstable and in a state of confusion.
Christ said when speaking to Israel, he said to be like the birds of the air. They don't work for nothing.
God feeds them. Hm. Now, that's interesting because when we flip the coin, Christ said through Paul, speaking to us, not Israel, if a man who is capable of working refuses to work, he does not deserve to eat.
Now, wait a minute. I thought we were to pattern ourselves after the birds of the air. No toiling, no working. They don't work for their food. God feeds them. So, which is it? Oh, it's just the same thing, Trey. They're saying the same thing.
Don't you know words don't mean anything? Oh, yeah. Well, God said he puts his words above his very own name.
So, don't try pulling that one on me.
God says different things about the same thing. If you believe if you really believe the Bible as you say you do, you can't possibly believe what the Lord gave Paul to write down in the books of Romans through Philemon. You can't possibly believe they say the same things found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John or in the back of your Bible there, Hebrews through Revelation. They cannot possibly be written to the same people.
That's nonsense. Total chaos. And we know God is not the author of confusion.
In Acts 21, the elders there, they they told Paul, they said, "Thou seeest, brother, how many thousands of Jews which believe, and they are all zealous of the law." You see there in Acts 21, Paul had them all upset and beside themselves because in verse 21, we read, "They were informed of thee that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs." So just how do you suppose that we are to be zealous of the law and zealous of God's grace both at the same time.
Paul says stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I Paul say unto you that if any man be circumcised, remember that's what they were talking about in Acts 21, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
How does that square with Acts 21 according to James and the elders there?
This message here from Paul about circumcision is heresy. Verse three, Paul continues there in Galatians. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Verse four, Christ has become of no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace.
According to Paul, if you're zealous of the law, you have fallen from grace.
Are you zealous of the law? Then you've fallen from grace. That's if you were ever saved in the first place.
Neither James or any of the elders in Acts chapter 21 were saved by grace through faith as you and I are today. Not a one of them believed that the finished work of Christ was sufficient all by itself to save them. It was faith plus works for salvation. That was their gospel, not yours. You got to rightly divide because there's places in your Bible where God says different things about the same thing.
Paul's writings are contrary to some of this we're reading here. And there isn't any two ways about it. Those of Acts 21 knew nothing of what had been revealed to Paul concerning not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he has saved us.
They didn't know about that.
That would have been a foreign concept to those individuals. Those of believing Israel were in Christ, but none were members of the body of Christ. In Christ and in the body of Christ are not the same thing. Every believer in scriptures in Christ.
If these saved by faith plus works are in the same body as those of us saved apart from works, then this is one deformed body.
In 1 Peter 1:4, he tells the scattered little flock of Jewish believers, the remnant, about their incorruptible inheritance. He says, "It is undefiled and fadeth not away. It is reserved in heaven for them." And in verse 7, he says, "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 honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." This is the Acts 3:19 when they're back in the presence of the Lord, the time in which they will get their atonement.
That's why it says at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, ye love, in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Now pay attention. Verse nine. receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
The writing is clear right there on the wall. You that are listening to me today, you that are familiar with the writings of your apostle, the apostle Paul, please tell me where he ever told us anything like this. We're not waiting for what Israel is waiting for. Where are we told that by receiving the end of our faith, which could only come to those who endured unto the end, which is works, law, well, just where are we told that it's at the end of our faith that we're going to find the salvation of our souls?
Where might I find that? You see, the answer to the supposed conundrum is rather easy. Old Pete here, he was talking to a "chosen generation, a royal priesthood," Jews who were scattered throughout the gentile nations. He could not have been talking to you when in 1 Peter 2:12, we see that he was talking about you.
He told them to have their "conversation honest among the Gentiles."
Peter was never talking to you. No, he was talking about you. He was talking to a chosen generation, a royal priesthood.
So where is it? I'll wait. Where is it where Paul calls any one of us a priest? Where are we called a chosen generation, a holy nation? Ask your preacher about that one this Sunday. See if he knows.
How can we be a "holy nation" when Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:15, "We're the one new man church in Christ. There's no such thing as nationality." No distinction between Jew and Greek. Your preacher missed 2 Corinthians 5:16 where Paul said, "Henceforth, know we no man after the flesh." Did you catch that? We don't know any man after the flesh. So, you can't have it both ways. Either in Christ we know no man after the flesh.
Either that's true or we're this holy nation of Jews that Peter was speaking of. Which is it?
Either we now know no man after the flesh or salvation is still of the Jews as John wrote.
Some decisions must be made on your part. Do you choose to rightly divide to to separate some things from one another or do you wish to continue with the confusion and mix them all together?
2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, no longer known after his flesh.
Is God meeting your expectations?"
Well, he is. If you're rightly dividing and expecting the right things, Truth Time Radio for Christians and non-Christians, for Christians who well, they they feel like they're Christians, but they're discouraged and confused about how they fit in God's word, and for non-Christians who because of that same confusion, they really just don't want anything to do with it. So, what we do here is to try and break it down and unpack it, placing the cookies on the bottom shelf where they're accessible to everyone.
It's our hope that you get a grip on God's word and his word gets a grip on you.
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