The Jewish Final Solution to the World's Problem - Paul, the Apostle of the Gap

[0:00] Please turn at this time to Ephesians chapter 3, and we'll be looking at what Paul wrote to the Ephesians.

[0:16] We'll be looking at Ephesians 3, 1 through 9. For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles, if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you, that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief, by referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit.

[1:16] To be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me according to the working of his power.

[1:47] To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery, which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things.

[2:16] And to bring to light, clearly the idea of giving exposure to something that was previously unexposed.

[2:35] And as indicated in your bulletin this morning, we are calling this message, Paul the Apostle of the Gap. And this, by the way, is still continuing in that same theme of the Jewish solution to the world's problems.

[2:51] It is a Jewish solution, even though it is coming from the Apostle Paul. And I shouldn't say even though, because after all, Paul is Jewish.

[3:02] He's Jewish by birth, by ancestry, from the tribe of Benjamin. He is also a Roman citizen, which was an unusual combination in that day.

[3:15] Our previous sessions recounted the gaps in the plan and program of God. And because of the critical nature of the gap, we feel compelled to spend some time on it.

[3:29] After all, it is we who are currently living in the gap. It's a super special time, never thought of by anyone, until the risen Christ revealed it to Paul.

[3:43] Christ gave Paul the solemn obligation of revealing it to us. So, here it comes. I know many of you have already seen this and obtained a copy of it, but for those of you who have not, they are available on the bulletin board shelf, and they are also available on the table in the rear, with the brown cloth on it.

[4:08] And it is called, The Key to Understanding the Scriptures. This little pamphlet is priceless. I have never seen anything put together in such a small space that communicates and explains such an enormously great truth as this little booklet, The Key to Understanding the Scriptures, written by Paul Sadler, formerly the president of the Berean Bible Society, who just recently went to be with the Lord.

[4:46] And he left behind a wonderful legacy and a lot of books and pamphlets that he has written. And this is probably the briefest, and in some respects, one of the most comprehensive that you will ever see.

[5:01] You just open up the whole thing like so, and it is pretty obvious what you were looking at. It is the eternal purpose of God being twofold, prophecy and mystery.

[5:13] And as you look at the lines of demarcation, you can distinguish between the time of Christ, the time of prophecy, and the time of mystery.

[5:24] And then, as you fold the page over, the last segment, the last column, just fold it over like that and look at it, you get an entirely new perspective of the way it is laid out.

[5:36] And it is a beautiful arrangement of truth. Then, the person of God and God's timetable are explained in it as well. It is, as I said, absolutely priceless.

[5:48] It reveals, in a way like nothing else I have seen, the gap of which we are speaking. The gap in the 70 weeks of Daniel is that gap which occurs between the closing of the 69th week, which has already happened, and that is 483 years after the signing of the decree by Artaxerxes until the time Jesus Christ was crucified.

[6:23] That comprised a space of 483 years. But in order to make 490 years out of the whole program, there are seven years missing.

[6:38] Those seven years will constitute that 70th week of Daniel, which will be the tribulation period.

[6:50] Between the 69 week that's already happened and the 70th week, which has not yet begun, there is a gap.

[7:01] gap. This gap is now about 2,000 years long. That's a big gap. But it's a gap nonetheless.

[7:12] We are not going to revisit the passages that we considered two weeks ago when we explained to you and illustrated some of the other gaps that are in the Bible. If you want to obtain those, you'll find them according to the date that is placed on the face of the CD on the table in the rear please avail yourself of it and you will perhaps get a clearer picture of what we're trying to say and communicate regarding this gap.

[7:40] Now, this morning I have for you some preliminary material of a historical nature that I feel compelled to share with you.

[7:51] It's by way of some propositions that I'm setting forth that will prepare the way I trust for an understanding of what we've got to share regarding this gap and the ongoing material.

[8:05] So, we are continuing with the same theme of the Jewish solution to the world's problems. And we're going to delve back into history and try to bring us up to where we are now because the only adequate understanding of the present is the past.

[8:24] If you don't understand the past, you'll never know what's going on in our world today. And most people don't. I mean, they see events taking place day by day, but they are completely unable to connect any dots because they're not familiar with history.

[8:40] And history is the only teacher that explains what is taking place in the present. And by the way, it is the present, of course, that will eventually explain and see realized the future.

[8:55] So we cannot stress too greatly the importance of understanding the content of this present hour.

[9:06] What is the content of the gap? What's the message of the gap? What is it that is to be taking place that we are to pursue and explain and preach and understand in this gap period?

[9:21] It is the confusion and lack of comprehension of the truths we plan to convey that has resulted in the divisions that presently exist in the Christian faith more than any other single element.

[9:40] Now listen, that is quite a statement. That is quite a statement. I am fully prepared to stand behind it 100%. I am absolutely convinced of the truthfulness of this.

[9:55] The confusion and lack of comprehension of the truth we plan to convey has resulted in the divisions that presently exist in the Christian faith more than any other single element.

[10:13] I hope you let that sink in. It is all about authority. what we accept as authority provides the basis for our beliefs, our goals, and objectives, our methodology, our agenda, and priorities.

[10:34] What else remains? Nothing of any consequence. things like it all stems from this. Everything stems from this.

[10:48] By way of beliefs, goals, objectives, methodology, agenda, and priorities. It all stems from this. What is your authority? Many in Christendom cannot believe what we will present could possibly have escaped notice in the Christian church for so many centuries.

[11:15] That it is now being emphasized and insisted upon by what we call the doctrines of grace as revealed through the apostle Paul.

[11:25] This, they say, cannot be. Well, I'm saying it is. It is precisely what is taking place and what is responsible.

[11:37] Let me remind you that the cardinal doctrine of justification by faith slipped away from the early church as far back as the second, third centuries and did not surface again to any extent until it was resurrected by the reformers, particularly via Martin Luther in the 1500s.

[12:05] For all practical purposes, the early Christian church, under the lead of early popes and religious machinery, had corrupted itself in much the same way the Jewish faith had corrupted itself before it.

[12:25] It was this corruption, morally and doctrinally, that gave rise to the reform movement that sought to reform the Roman Catholic Church.

[12:38] The church, however, resisted the efforts of the reformers and punished those who sought to reform it. This gave rise to the protestant movement.

[12:53] They were protesters, you see. protestants back then, too, and they protested what was going on in the Roman Catholic Church.

[13:04] And those who were protesting what was going on were themselves Roman Catholic priests, such as Martin Luther, William Tyndale, John Wycliffe, all were men who were assigned to the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church.

[13:25] And it was against the excesses of the church, and the selling of indulgences, and the corruption that had crept into the church, that these men were seeking to reform the Catholic Church, and hence they became labeled as the reformers.

[13:40] But the Roman Catholic Church was not subject to reformation, because in the first place, when you have taught the faithful for centuries that your doctrines, and your beliefs, and your practices are infallible, on what basis can you entertain a reformation?

[14:05] If you're already right the way you are, what's to reform? And their claim to infallibility, of course, meant that they had to be right.

[14:15] So it was the reformers who were wrong, and they were all punished and excommunicated from the church, and as a result, what became known as the Protestant, only we pronounce it Protestant, the Protestant Reformation got underway.

[14:31] justification by faith resurfaced during the Protestant Reformation, but the corrupt practices of justification by sacraments via the church continued as it was, and still continues to this day.

[14:57] And I'm sure that any Roman Catholic priest who is worth his salt would be the first to tell you that the Roman Catholic Church has not been reformed and does not need to be reformed.

[15:11] And that's part of the party line that they are expected to set forth, and I suspect that most of them sincerely believe it, because they see the Pope. They see the Pope as the vicar of Christ.

[15:26] That literally means he is Jesus Christ's direct only representative on the face of the earth. And when he speaks ex cathedra from the chair of Peter, he is speaking with infallibility.

[15:41] It is just as if Jesus Christ were speaking himself. That's the way it's regarded. Now, what possible reforming could you offer to that? Nothing, of course, and that's where they are.

[15:56] And they hold these positions very sincerely, and we just believe that they are sincerely wrong. Now, we are saying the same doctrinal corruption exists today in what is commonly called the Protestant Church.

[16:17] church. And the Protestant Church, by and large, is no better off than the corrupt Roman Catholic Church.

[16:28] There isn't a whip stitch of difference between a corrupt Protestant Church and a corrupt Catholic Church. They're both far off the mark. the reason for it remains the same.

[16:42] The reason for the corruption remains the same. It is the same for the Protestant Church as it was for the Catholic Church as it was for the Jewish religion that preceded it.

[16:54] All three blanketed with doctrinal, moral corruption. You need to understand that. This is not opinion. opinion. This is historic fact.

[17:06] It can be verified with any encyclopedia. Just dig them out. There they are. This is not a Wiseman opinion. This is just the way it is. It is the rejection of duly constituted authority that God has vested in his chosen vehicle to convey that authority.

[17:30] For the Jewish faith, what was it? Who was it? Let's put a personality on it. Who was it for the Jewish faith? It was Moses.

[17:42] Unquestionably, it was Moses. He was the singular man God raised up to represent himself. Moses. And the law.

[17:55] Frequently even referred to as the law of Moses. Why is it called the law of Moses? Moses didn't think it up. He didn't write it. Well, he wrote it, but he didn't originate it.

[18:08] Moses wrote the law he wrote, including the Ten Commandments, which is just a distillation of all of the law. Moses wrote what he wrote because that's what God wanted written.

[18:19] It was the word of God communicated, given, through Moses and nobody else. Moses and Moses alone.

[18:34] For the Christian church, it is Paul the Apostle and the dispensation of grace. Never lose sight of the fact.

[18:47] Simple way to keep it in mind is what Moses was to the nation of Israel, Paul the Apostle is to the body of Christ. They are distinctly different.

[19:01] There is to be no amalgamation of the two in so far as the doctrine is concerned. The amalgamation is going to take place when the grace of God arrives on the scene and Jew and Gentile will be blended into one new body that is called the body of Christ.

[19:19] In that they are together. But there is no togetherness between the law of Moses and the dispensation of the grace of God. We are not under law. We are under grace.

[19:31] And these are antithetically opposed one to the other. You cannot have a little bit of grace in the law or a little bit of law in the grace. They are diametrically opposed and they are supposed to be.

[19:44] They are not contradictory except from the standpoint that what was in place at one time has since been canceled and there has been an update provided.

[19:57] And the tragedy of it is the tragedy of it is most of what is construed today as Protestantism has not embraced the update.

[20:11] They are still with the old program. And it results in an abundance of confusion and division that just won't quit.

[20:22] and this dynamic thing called the body of Christ that should have a oneness about it is fractured.

[20:34] And along with the fracturing comes a predictable ineffectiveness and impotence that we see in the Christian church today and what it has passed off as.

[20:48] In essence, doctrinally speaking, the Protestant church today with all its denominations is just as corrupt in its teaching as were the Jewish faith and the Catholic faith that followed it.

[21:04] And the reason for that is we have explained how corruption is natural to any entity. in the same way that the Jews set divine authority aside.

[21:18] What did I tell you? It's always about authority. Always. Always has been. Always will be. In the same way that the Jews set divine authority aside for their traditions which was soundly criticized by our Lord during his earthly ministry.

[21:36] What did Jesus say to the scribes and Pharisees? You have made the word of God of none effect by imposing your traditions and your laws upon it.

[21:51] You have effectively neutralized the word of God. You've obscured it. You've obfuscated it. You've confused it and confounded it. And you've done that with your thinking and your volition and your ideas rather than the pure word of God as it came through Moses.

[22:13] They added to it. They corrupted it. They defiled it. That's what Jesus so roundly criticized so consistently during his three-year earthly ministry.

[22:25] It was the corruption that had crept in to Judaism as it was being practiced then. And in the same way, the Roman Catholic Church set divine authority aside for their traditions and sacraments, so also has the Protestant Church done likewise.

[22:47] Just a different set of traditions and practices. But in both cases, it is neutralizing God's word by adding man's word to it and corrupting it and then imposing the requirements given by man upon the people.

[23:07] They have set aside, the Protestant Church has set aside divine authority as vested in and through the Apostle Paul, refusing to recognize the entirely new order that God began through Paul, named the dispensation of the grace of God, a holy new thing never before revealed.

[23:35] Corruption, as we have often mentioned in the past, is the predictable and natural course for any established entity to experience.

[23:47] Religions, educational institutions, and all other institutions tend automatically toward corruption. And, as I've told you in the past, so say I now again, we here at Grace Bible Church are not exempt from the dangers of doctrinal corruption.

[24:11] And, if this church ever becomes corrupt, it will be for the same reason. We will have abandoned, abandoned, the duly constituted authority that is present and applicable for this day of grace.

[24:32] The revelations given to the Apostle Paul, which constitute an update. Does this make a lot of Paul?

[24:44] Well, yes, in a way it does. In a way it does. But, if you understand this, it does not depreciate the person and work of Jesus Christ at all, it exalts it, because Paul exalted it.

[24:58] And, when we talk about the revelation through Paul, it isn't Paul that made it what it was. It was the information. It isn't the personality of Paul.

[25:09] It is the content. It is the truth that God gave to Paul. Paul was relatively incidental as far as that goes. God could have used any human vehicle.

[25:20] He could have used Peter to do this. He could have used Nathaniel to do this. He could have used one of the original twelve. But, he chose one outside of the original twelve, I think, because God intended to emphasize that this new person did not belong to the old order.

[25:40] I'm doing an entirely new thing, something completely different. And, it hit like a bombshell. And, it's made very clear that this was never before revealed.

[25:51] Nobody even dreamt about this. Just, it was in the mind and heart of God from eternity past, but he never let anybody in on it.

[26:02] Until, one day in Acts chapter 9, when he confronted a Jew by the name of Saul of Tarsus, converted him to himself, and gave him this message, this designation of being the apostle to the Gentiles.

[26:26] Well, who in the world ever heard of such a thing as that? Nobody. Nobody. This was brand spanking new. And, you know something? Still isn't understood by the majority of those who comprise the body of Christ.

[26:46] And I say this to her shame. Well, I'm going to do what I can to make it known. And I want to instill this truth in this congregation, not just so you will be able to remember it, but so you won't be able to forget it.

[27:10] Authority, authority, authority. That's what it's all about. Always has been, always will be. What is our authority? Well, listen, it isn't Moses.

[27:25] And do you know what? If Moses could, he would be the first one to agree with it. He served his purpose for his time, and he did admirably well.

[27:38] But that time has passed. We are not under law. We are under grace. While it is true, the person and work of Jesus Christ is the central focus of all dispensations.

[27:51] Yet, it is the Apostle Paul, through the revelations Christ gave him and the epistles that he writes, that takes the person of Jesus Christ and explains him and defines him and exalts him and honors him more than anyone else in all of scripture.

[28:10] It is just, just amazing, just amazing. For most Protestants today, this truth I just shared with you remains as if it has never been revealed.

[28:27] Corruption, as we have often mentioned in the past, is the predictable and natural course for any established entity to experience. religions, educational institutions, and all other institutions tend automatically toward corruption, and we at Grace Bible Church are not exempt from it.

[28:50] Only a determined and ongoing commitment to the authority of scripture as revealed by progressive revelation.

[29:01] you see, the Bible, what we call the Old and New Testament, the whole of the books are a study in progress. They are all dealing with doctrine that is moving and developing, and more and more is being disclosed as you move on through the Bible.

[29:22] In the Old Testament, God is pictured in certain ways, but with the incarnation and the coming of Jesus Christ, there is a huge expanse to what God is all about, and particularly his fatherliness is really shown in a way that is not evident in the Old Testament simply by the sending of his Son in the Gospels.

[29:44] And we find Christ revealed in the Gospels. He's in the Old Testament too. Of course he is. He's as far back as Genesis 3.15 is the seed of the woman, but he's relatively obscured there until you come into the incarnation and Bethlehem.

[30:01] And there, the Son of God is revealed as a human being. And his 30 years of ministry on earth reveal more and more and more about God because he chose to disclose himself.

[30:17] But here is where the rub comes in. Apparently, so many in Christendom talk about marching orders that Jesus left.

[30:32] Where are they? They're in the Gospels as far as they're concerned and the Great Commission is the essence of it. And they say, these are our Lord's marching orders. These are the last words of Jesus before he ascended to heaven.

[30:47] You shall be witnesses unto me, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth. And then he left. And that's the end of the revelation. And for most, tragically, and I do say tragically, that's the end of the revelation of Jesus Christ.

[31:07] But it isn't even close. There is so much more to be known. Well, who's going to make it known? The risen Christ, the ascended Christ, the glorified Christ, after the ascension, the heavenly Christ, is going to call, summon, Saul of Tarsus, and he's going to reveal to him, exclusively to him, the update.

[31:42] Before that, they didn't even know there was an update, or that there would be an update. And the risen, ascended, glorified Christ is going to bring Paul the apostle up to speed with brand new information nobody had ever even dreamt of before.

[32:05] One item, the rapture. You don't find that in the Old Testament. That's not a subject of prophecy. That's a subject of mystery.

[32:16] Christ in you, the hope of glory. That wasn't true before, it's true now. A whole host of things are going to be revealed that will update the information that Jesus left when he was on earth.

[32:30] But it's all coming from the same source. It's just Christ who is ascended as opposed to Christ being here on earth. But it's ongoing information. Will we get with the update?

[32:43] Will we get with the latest information? That's the issue. That's the authority we are to be accepting and so many are rejecting and they are rejecting it with, well, you can have Paul or you can have Jesus.

[32:55] I'll take Jesus. You can have the apostle Paul. What a travesty. What ignorance. I'm not sure that people can recover from that kind of ignorance.

[33:05] At least most of them do not seem to. They take this attitude with them to the grave. And it is pathetic. Because what Jesus Christ reveals through Paul is so startlingly different.

[33:21] That perhaps that's what makes some of them rejected. They just can't see God coming with this new kind of information that so supersedes the old information.

[33:35] They just can't believe that he would do that. But he does it all through the Old Testament. God is constantly updating himself all the way through the Old Testament. You realize this thing we call the Bible took 1600 years for it to come together.

[33:52] And every century there was more and more and more revealed. It is doctrine in progress. It is God revealing himself all the way through the Old Testament and you come up into the New Testament.

[34:03] Then it's a quantum leap from the Old Testament into the Gospels. It's a quantum leap because God incarnate is on the scene in the person of Jesus Christ.

[34:14] That's a huge leap in revelation. And then when Christ ascends and goes back to heaven and he calls Saul of Tarsus with special information that had never before been divulged.

[34:29] That's another quantum leap. Many in Christendom refuse to take it. That is sad. It is like trying to fight.

[34:42] It is like trying to fight World War I. Or trying to fight World War II with World War I weapons. Can you imagine that?

[34:55] And it produces an impotence and an ignorance in the church. Only a determined and ongoing commitment to the authority of scripture, as revealed by progressive revelation, will allow us to escape the otherwise inevitable corruption of the truths we hold so dear here at Grace Bible Church.

[35:22] Well, I can see there won't be any Q&A today. There's an unmistakable gap between week 69 and week 70, or between 483 years and the 490 years, a gap of seven years, we have concluded that the prophetic clock for Israel began ticking when the decree to rebuild Jerusalem was given by the Persian king, Artaxerxes, and it stopped ticking when Jesus the Messiah was cut off, but not for himself.

[35:59] It has not ticked since. The clock is on hold. The hands are not moving. And they stopped moving when Jesus died on that cross.

[36:13] When the Messiah was cut off, but not for himself. This is Daniel 9, I think it's verse 27. The Jewish people in general, listen to this because it's a sad commentary, the Jewish people in general reject Moses and his authority in what he teaches.

[36:38] And that's not only today. That was back when Moses was around. He had a problem then with the rejection of authority. The apostle Paul, the office and authority of the apostle Paul is rejected by most Christians today in general, relegating his writings to a lesser authority than those twelve apostles who preceded him.

[37:07] And that is just sad beyond words. For these, we can only conclude that they do not comprehend nor appreciate the progression of revelation.

[37:21] They do not comprehend revelation by Christ after his earthly ministry. They do not comprehend the distinction between the two different gospels that are found in the New Testament.

[37:39] There is the gospel of the kingdom and the gospel of the grace of God. Sometimes people really get their fur stroked the wrong way when you say there is more than one gospel in the Bible.

[37:54] Because that certainly sounds like treason, like blasphemy, like everything else. There are multiple gospels in the Bible. There is just one gospel that is valid for today.

[38:11] And in that sense, there's only one gospel. Now, that's the gospel of the grace of God. Paul said, I delivered unto you that which I first of all received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and that he was buried and raised again the third day, according to the scriptures.

[38:31] That's the gospel of the grace of God. That's what we preach today. We're not preaching the gospel of the kingdom. We're not supposed to be. The gospel of the grace of God is the update to the gospel of the kingdom.

[38:46] The gospel of the kingdom was for the kingdom of Israel, was for that nation. But that nation is now defunct. It is set aside. It is immobile. It isn't going anywhere.

[38:57] And a huge amount of unbelief has besieged the Jewish community worldwide. And most of them, most Jews today worldwide, do not even accept the law of Moses.

[39:15] The Orthodox do, of course. But they are a tiny, tiny minority. Most Jews do not accept the authority of the Bible at all. Well, what's new about that?

[39:27] Many of them did not accept the authority of Moses when he was here in the flesh. In fact, he got opposition from his own family. His own sister Miriam rejected his authority.

[39:39] Hath God spoken only through Moses? Is he the only one that you have anything to say? Well, what about us? And God severely judged them. Well, we'll look at that in a moment.

[39:49] many do not understand the potential for the church to lose sight of its doctrines and replace them with tradition and human opinion. They do not understand the distinction between Israel and the church, and this is where you get replacement theology, where the church has become the new Israel.

[40:10] This is rampant today. It is out there. Big-name preachers and theologians adopt this stuff, that the church has become the new Israel, and there is no future for the nation of Israel.

[40:23] By the way, why should we support them? That's the upshot of it. And they do not make a distinction between Israel and the church or the twelve apostles and the singular apostle Paul.

[40:40] Let me share with you just a couple of things. This is a remarkable little booklet that Mr. Stamm, printed, had printed. It is remarkable.

[40:53] It's called Moses and Paul, the dispensers of law and grace. And let me just share with you a couple of paragraphs. Moses did not personally decide to impose laws upon Israel.

[41:06] He was appointed by God himself to be Israel's great lawgiver. And by the way, do you remember the history of Moses? He didn't want to do this. He opted out of the job. He said, I can't speak.

[41:17] I'm not. You don't want me. Get another guy. And someone said, I think somebody wrote a book that that I think the title was of it was Moses said, here am I.

[41:29] Send Aaron. Moses did not volunteer for the job. And you know something else? Paul didn't volunteer for it either.

[41:41] Paul said, I was drafted. I didn't volunteer for this. Deuteronomy 4, verse 5, says, behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me.

[42:04] And verse 14, and the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments. Nor did God appoint Moses by some indirect method as by a subjective vision or dream, but by personally appearing and speaking with him as we learn from Exodus and Numbers.

[42:22] Exodus 33, 11, and the Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend. And I think that was a Christophany, but that's beside the point.

[42:33] And the Lord said, hear now my words. If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house.

[42:49] With him will I speak mouth to mouth. Even apparently and not in dark speeches and the similitude of the Lord shall behold, shall he behold wherefore then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?

[43:04] And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them and he departed. Numbers 12, verses 6 through 9. God was in no wise ever obligated to use a human instrument to communicate anything.

[43:17] He could have done it all directly had he chosen to do so. But God in his graciousness, condescends to involve human beings. And that's why he chose Noah.

[43:28] That's why he chose Abraham. That's why he chose Moses. That's why he chose different individuals. Because he is willing to work through human instrumentality.

[43:38] Doesn't have to. He doesn't need us. Don't ever get the idea that God needs us. God doesn't need anything. That's part of his job description is being the completely self-sufficient God.

[43:50] God has no needs that he cannot meet within his own person. He doesn't need anything or anybody outside of himself. In his grace, he condescends to use human beings.

[44:04] From the latter passage, it is evident that the directness of Moses' appointment by God himself put him in a very different category from others to whom God had revealed himself indirectly by visions, dreams.

[44:15] For here, Moses' own brother and sister are sternly rebuked for questioning Moses' unique authority. They were rebelling against God when they rebelled against the one whom he had personally and directly appointed.

[44:28] Hence, the Lord asked them, Wherefore then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And so saying, he departed from them in anger. And you know, we've got the same situation with the Apostle Paul.

[44:43] There are those who reject his authority just the same way. Well, that's just Paul. That's just Paul's opinion. That's just Paul's idea. Paul made it quite clear that the words I speak unto you, they are the words of Christ.

[44:57] And if you think Paul wrote what he wrote willingly, that he volunteered for it, you don't understand the situation. He didn't want anything to do with this. And neither did Moses. Concerning the Lord's Supper, Paul wrote, 1 Corinthians 11, 23, For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you.

[45:22] Well, did he or didn't he? You've got to answer that. You see what I mean when I say this all comes down to authority? Did he or didn't he?

[45:35] If he did receive it from the Lord, then it is just as though the Lord is speaking. And we are obligated to come in line with it. And if we take the position that so many think, that's just Paul's opinion.

[45:50] You just blow the whole issue of authority right out the window and with it, all of the potential blessing and accomplishment that could be realized in the name of Christ.

[46:04] 1 Thessalonians 4.15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord. Galatians 1.11 and 12 Paul said, But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.

[46:24] For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Christ, what are we going to do with this?

[46:39] What are we going to do with this? You either have to go with it or reject it. And you know something? A lot of the Christian world has rejected it, and a lot of those who have accepted it, accept it kind of.

[47:01] kind of. But they're not going to put it on the same level of authority as the twelve, as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

[47:15] Because after all, they were with Jesus for three years. They know more what they're talking about than Paul did. Listen, having been personally involved with Christ is immaterial.

[47:33] What matters is this is the risen Christ speaking through this vessel, Paul. It isn't Paul's idea, Paul's opinion, or Paul's anything.

[47:46] Paul is just a vehicle. That's all he is. A human being puts on his pants one leg at a time. I guess they didn't wear pants in those days, did they? Put on his whatever, the same as anybody else would.

[47:58] You know, the thing that makes Paul's writing so authoritative is who originated it. Paul didn't originate it. He didn't think up the rapture.

[48:10] He didn't think up the body of Christ. None of those are his ideas. He's just a vehicle. It could have been anyone else, but it just so happened to be Saul of Tarsus.

[48:21] Paul. Wow. Will we get in line with this? If anyone isn't already in line, will you get in line with this? And if we are in line with it, will we stay in line with it?

[48:35] Everything is hinging on the issue of authority. That is as bottom line bedrock as you can get. And if you have a questionable authority, you don't have anything.

[48:51] You don't have anything. If we haven't done anything else, I just hope I have been able to convey to you the importance of this issue.

[49:11] It is incredibly important. Father, we recognize that ability to express everything that really needs to be expressed just is not here.

[49:28] We simply pray that you will be able to take these faltering words that are less than adequate in so many ways and impress upon the hearts and minds of people who have teachable and open heart and willingness to receive it.

[49:47] how bedrock this is, how truly critical this is, and how the future of Christendom, as we understand it, as we see it revealed here in Scripture, is really dependent on our response to authority.

[50:10] And what is true for Christendom in general is true for Grace Bible Church as well? We are possessing the same tendency for corruption as every other institution that has ever gone before us.

[50:24] There isn't anything special or different about us in our humanity. We are all flawed, fallen creatures here at Grace, and we are all capable, sadly so, but we are capable of abandoning this issue of authority and going the way of men and public opinion what is popular among the masses.

[50:44] God deliver us from that. Thank you for what you have been pleased to reveal, and thank you for the clarity with which it is revealed. Leaves us utterly puzzled at how we didn't see it before and how so many do not see it now.

[51:02] Help us to be faithful and rigorous in proclaiming these truths simply because that's what they are. They deserve nothing less.

[51:13] In Christ's name, amen.