We have the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But in Romans 2:16, the Spirit, through Paul, says this: “In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by Jesus Christ.”
From anyone but Paul this would be almost blasphemy. But the spirit-ruled heart has a consciousness that Paul is telling the truth.
Romans 1:1: Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God
“Paul” means “the little one.” The Bond servant “doulos” means “a love slave”—the little love slave of Jesus the Messiah; and he is called by Jesus, Himself, to be an apostle and has been separated by Jesus Christ unto the good news of God.
If you will notice carefully, he was called; but there were fourteen years of sanctification before the sanctification was complete. Then he was commissioned and sent out as an evangelist of Christ.
SANCTIFICATION
Many of us are called, but we are never sanctified in our daily walk with God. Many are called but few are chosen. That separation is a threefold thing.
First, the new creation separates us from the old man.
Second, as the Word is built into us, we are separated unto Christ, sanctified, totally set apart for God’s exclusive use.
First, there is a separation from the world.
Second, there is a separation unto the master. Jesus become the Lord of our lives. His Word dominates us.
Third, in our walk, comes our own choice in which we separate ourselves from that which is not sinful but is unnecessary, and this separation continues year after year, until the world has lost its dominion over us.
We are giving up good things for the best. We are learning to walk in the fullness of Christ, the fullness of fellowship with the Father.
Paul was called to be an apostle.
The four Gospels give us a picture of the incarnation of the Son of God. Each one of the four gives us a different vision of the incarnate One.
Matthew gives us a picture of the kingdom; Mark, of service; Luke, of fellowship; and John, of Sonship. In John we catch a vivid picture of the Father. Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
THE FATHER’S WORDS
Jesus declares, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).
In the gospel of John, many times He says, in essence, “The Words that I speak of not mine, but the Father’s.” (John 7:16, 12:49, 14:10.)
John 12: 45 And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. 46 I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.
Jesus is introducing the Father (YHWH).
John 1: 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
Jesus comes with a revelation of the Father, but the Jews cannot understand it. When He calls God His Father, they try to stone Him.
John 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
John 19: 7 The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
The Jew could not accept the revelation of God as a Father because they were natural men.
John 1: 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
In the four Gospels, there is no substitutionary sacrifice taught. Had it been taught, no one would have understood it. Nowhere do any of the Gospels speak of Jesus’s being made sin on our behalf.
The great unfolding’s of the church are sometimes spoken in parable form, but no one could have understood them if Jesus had attempted to teach them because they were not born again.
When Jesus was arrested, the disciples hoped in some way He would perform a miracle and save Himself from their hatred. They have only physical sense knowledge faith in Jesus.
John 6: 30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?
And as they stood about the cross, the disciples could not see Jesus as a substitute.
None of them believed that He was dying for their sins. To them, He was dying as a martyr; and during the three dark days that His body was lying in the tomb, no one believed that He was to rise from the dead. No one understood; and when He arose from the dead, no one believed it.
Luke 24: 11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
After the resurrection he breathed into them the Holy Spirit and opened up all the scriptures to them, but it was not recorded in their gospels.
John 10: 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.
ABUNDANT LIFE
The agape or eternal life made the disciples new creations. Before they were born again the disciples had only physical sense knowledge faith in Jesus.
They believed that He was the Messiah, the Son of God; but they did not believe that He was to die for their sins and be raised for their justification. That was to come when they had been liberated from their darkness, disbelief, and doubt.
THE MIRACLE OF PENTECOST
Pentecost must always stand as one of the most outstanding miracles of grace ever manifested. Because the Holy Spirit takes the provision of Jesus and reveals to us how to appropriate it. So that our redemption is not just legal, but a vital reality in our daily walk with the Lord.
The Holy Spirit is the great teacher, if we cannot hear his voice we will live in deception.
Acts 1:4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; 5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
Acts 1: 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
We should not even witness to anyone unless we have been baptized with The Holy Spirit and fire.
We don’t need any more Baptists or denominations in the world. Religious people are the hardest to witness to in this world, because of the religious spirits that blind their minds.
They may be born again, but their doctrines are all messed up and are a cause of division in the Body of Christ.
We need to obey every word that proceeds out of the Father’s mouth. The Father spoke through Jesus and said wait for the promise of the Father. And then you shall be witnesses to me unto the ends of the earth.
But you say they are born again and when they die, they will go to heaven, instead of hell where they will be tormented forever.
The word hell is not in the original manuscripts, it is hades and it is the consuming fire of God, love. You experience sorrow there because you see everything through God’s eyes, how you wasted your life, living for yourself and not God, and how your life affected others.
But death is not the end of choice, and you can still receive Jesus as Lord.
Prisons on earth are patterned after Hades, except when you truly repent you can get you do not have to spend the rest of your life there. I will teach this in more depth later. But the purpose of fire is for purification like gold is purified in the fire.
When God judged people in the Old Testament by fire, it had to do with seed wars, the preservation of the seed of the woman-Jesus.
Most Spirit filled believers have not been baptized in fire. It is better to experience the fire now, than after you die, many do not even understand the purpose of fire, it will remove everything that is not of the divine nature, just like gold is purified in the fire.
The Charismatic movement have been baptized in the Spirit, but not fire. There are more splits in their movement than any other movement. They are still full of personal ambition and are trying to build ministries around themselves.
It is the baptism of fire of God that drives and demon’s out of us (soul and body) and heals us from any trauma in our past.
Before the disciples were born again, they were hoping that Jesus would restore the kingdom of Israel and break the rule of Rome over them. The spiritual kingdom was utterly out of the range of their thinking.
The Spirit came to that upper room where they had gathered waiting. Suddenly the room was filled with a sound from heaven as the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled the whole house wherein they were sitting. They were immersed in the Holy Spirit. Jesus told them that they were to be immersed.
Then, a second thing happened. Tongues of fire appeared on the head of each one, indicating that the gospel was going to be preached which such anointed words by the Spirit, which would be irresistible.
Men could not resist them. This is what caused the persecutions to come.
SPIRIT-FILLED MAN AND WOMEN
The disciples were born again before they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
Then they spoke in tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. No one understood the phenomena of that day, but the Spirit had filled them.
About Fifteen years or more go by, and yet there is no revelation of what happened from the time that Christ was made sin on the cross until He sat down on the right of the Father on high.
They preached what God gave them. There was nothing taught about substitution. So far as we know as recorded in the book of Acts, there was nothing taught about the body of Christ until God gave it to the man, Paul, by revelation.
One of the most beautiful things about the early church was the way that John and Peter and the other apostles received Paul’s revelation.
The Apostles received the revelation from Paul.
2 Peter 3: 15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, 16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
In Galatians 1: 18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and remained with him fifteen days. 19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother.
Galatians 2:1 Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and also took Titus with me. 2 And I went up by revelation and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means I might run, or had run, in vain.
Those must have been wonderful days, when Peter told Paul all about his fellowship and walk with the Master, and Paul told Peter about the revelations that he had received of Jesus and of His finished work.
Galatians 1: 6 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, 7 which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. 10 For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. 11 But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. 12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Notice that he says, “Though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed “Doomed to destruction or misery.”
REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST
Galatians 1: 12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Paul knew that the message he had was not of man.
Ephesians 3:1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles—2 if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, 3 how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, 4 by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), 5 which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets.
Notice that he is a prisoner of Jesus, yet he is locked in a Roman jail. Is there any incompatibility in this? No.
Paul is being shut away, a guest of the Roman authorities, that he might have an opportunity to write these marvelous epistles, that gives to us this revelation.
Ephesians 3: For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles—2 if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, 3 how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, 4 by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), 5 which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets.
Paul believed the revelation the Lord gave him, he understood the mystery of Christ in him, and it was also revealed to the rest of the Apostolic company and prophetic community.
Romans 16: 25 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began 26 but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith—27 to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.
Paul believed in the gospel that he preached. Let me give you Scriptures from Conybeare’s translation of 1 Thessalonians 1:3: “Remembering in the presence of our God and Father, the working of your faith, and the labors of your love, and the steadfastness of your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
IN THE FATHER’S PRESENCE
“Remembering in the presence of our God and Father.” Paul recognized that he was in the Father’s very presence.
1 Thessalonians 2: 3 For our exhortation did not come from error or uncleanness, nor was it in deceit. 4 But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts.
He dared to say that God had approved him and entrusted to him the gospel.
So Paul unveiled what YHWH did in Christ from the time that He was made sin on the cross until He sat down on God’s right hand.
1 Thessalonians 2: 13 For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.
Paul knew that the Word that he spoke to them in his public ministry was the very Word of God. He called it the “spoken Word of God,” and the people of Thessalonica received it.
It worked in them effectually and produced in them a faith and a life that glorified the Father.
Why is it that the Word spoken today does not have the same effect upon the hearts of men that the Word did when Paul preached it?
1Thessalonians 3: 9 For what thanks can we render to God for you, for all the joy with which we rejoice for your sake before our God, 10 night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face and perfect what is lacking in your faith?
Hebrews 4:16, in which he invites us to come boldly into the throne room. Paul lived in the throne room. “Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace.”
He lived in the presence of God and of Christ upon that throne of grace.
“THE THRONE OF GRACE”
1 Thessalonians 3: 12 And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you.
Paul dared to say he loved as Jesus loved.
And in the thirteenth verse we read, “To the end he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.”
If we could remember that we are living in the actual presence of God, our Father, and of Jesus all the time, we would see things differently.
Jesus says, in John 15:5, “I am the vine and ye are the branches.” Well, the branch is a part of the vine and is in the presence of the vine all the time.
1 Thessalonians 4: 8 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.
Paul believed that his words were God’s words.
HOW MUCH DO YOU REMEMBER?
- Why did Paul have to wait fourteen years after he was called before he was commissioned as an evangelist of Christ?
- Give the different visions of the Gospels of the incarnate One.
- Why did the Jews try to kill Jesus when He called God His Father?
- Why did the disciples ask for a sign that they might see and believe?
- Explain why Pentecost is the most outstanding miracle of grace ever manifested.
- How did Paul know that the message he had was not of man?
- Explain the mystery that was made known to Paul in this revelation.
- Explain 1 Thessalonians 1:3.
- Show how the Word works effectually in those who believe.
- What is shown in 1 Thessalonians 4:8?