All posts by Jerald Finney

Jerald Finney was the lead counsel for the Biblical Law Center ("BLC") from May, 2005 until 2011. The BLC helps churches who desire to organize according to New Testament principles. In 2016, he again worked with the BLC and still does, but he now heads up the Churches under Christ Ministry which is under the authority of Charity Baptist Tabernacle of Amarillo TX. Finney is a licensed attorney who can be reached at 512-785-8445 jerald.finney@sbcglobal.net. Over the last few years he has lectured and preached on the issues concerning government, church, and separation of church and state. God called Finney, a Christian and fundamental Baptist since his salvation, to enter the University of Texas School of Law in 1990 at the age of 43 to stand in the gap concerning legal issues facing Christians. Since being saved, he has been a faithful and active member of a local fundamental, Bible-believing Baptist church. He received his JD degree in 1993 and has followed the Lord in the practice of law since that time. Finney received his law license in November 1993 and began practicing law in January, 1994. All along he was seeking the Lord’s direction. The Lord initially led Finney to practice criminal law. He knew that not many, if any, of the Christian law firms dealt with or specialized in criminal law, and that some Christians were being charged with crimes for their Christian behavior and for taking a stand for God’s principles. The Lord confirmed Finney's choice. Very soon after he started practicing, he helped an Eastern Orthodox priest with a criminal charge. He was charged under a criminal statute for trying to expose the promotion of sodomy and other sins within a Catholic Church. God gave the victory in that case. Then Steve, a Christian who counseled outside abortion clinics, called Finney. He was charged with a crime under the Austin, Texas Sign Ordinance for his activities outside an abortion clinic. Being a new lawyer, Finney called the Rutherford Institute. They asked him to send them a summary of the facts and a copy of the Sign Ordinance. Then they told him that the case could not be won and that they would not help. Steve lost at trial, but God gave the victory on appeal. The Austin Police Department immediately cited Steve for violation of the state sign ordinance. The Lord gave the victory at trial. Finney's first felony trial came about a year and six months after he started practicing law. A single Christian mother was charged with third degree felony injury to a child for spanking her six year old son. She left some prominent stripes across his rear end and also a stripe across his face when he turned suddenly during the spanking. The Lord gave the victory at trial. At the same time, Finney was also representing another Christian married lady who was charged with the same crime for spanking her little girl with a switch. On the date the trial in that case was to begin, the prosecutor, with prompting by the judge, lowered the offer to deferred adjudication probation of short duration on a misdemeanor charge with very few conditions on the probation. In a deferred adjudication in Texas, there is never a judgment of guilt if the probationer successfully completes the term of the probation, (and, with successful completion of the probation, the probationer can now file a Motion for Nondisclosure which, if granted, requires the file to be sealed so that the general public has no access to it). The mother decided to take the offer. The Lord has also allowed Finney to help Christian parents in numerous situations involving Child Protective Services (“CPS”) infringement into parental rights. God has given the victory in all those situations. The Lord has also used Finney to intervene in numerous situations where government officials or private companies tried to deny certain Christians their rights to do door-to-door evangelization, preach on the street, hand out gospel literature in the public forum, and pass out gospel tracts and communicate the gospel at their place of employment. Finney has also fought other legal spiritual battles including a criminal case in San Antonio. A peaceful pro-life advocate was arrested and charged with criminal trespass for handing pro-life literature giving information about the development of the unborn baby, places to go for help, and other information to women entering an abortion clinic. All the above-mentioned cases as well as others not mentioned were handled free of charge (except the last spanking case for which Finney received $750). In 2005 Finney became lead counsel for the Biblical Law Center. Since his early Christian life, he has considered the issue of separation of church and state as taught in the Bible to be one of the primary issues facing New Testament churches today. He believes, based upon what the Bible teaches, that operating as a corporation (sole or aggregate), unincorporated association, or any other type of legal entity and/or getting a tax exempt status from the federal government at the very least puts the church under the headship of both the Lord and the state, and may even take the church from under the headship of Christ and put the church under the headship of the state. He believes that taking scriptures out of context and applying human reasoning contrary to biblical teaching (such as “Obey every ordinance of man,” or “We should be good stewards and incorporation is good stewardship”) in order to justify unbiblical marriage with the state causes our Lord much grief. Once he took on the position as counsel for the BLC, it was necessary to do an in-depth study of the issue of separation of church and state. He began with the Bible. He initially read through the Bible at least five times (and many more times since then) primarily seeking the answer to the question, “Does the Bible have anything to say about this issue?” He was amazed at what He learned. The Bible gives God’s principles concerning separation of church and state, the purpose of a church, the purpose of the civil government, the headship of church, the headship of civil government, the principles by which each is to be guided, and much more concerning these two God ordained institutions. He continued to read the Bible daily seeking insights into these and other issues. He also began to read other books. he had already read starting shortly after being saved, books and other information by Christian authors. For example, he had read, among other works, A Christian Manifesto[1], The Light and the Glory,[2] From Sea to Shining Sea,[3] The Myth of Separation and some other works by David Barton, [4]Rewriting America’s History,[5] and America’s God and Country.[6] These resources inspired, influenced and guided him and millions of other Christians, gave them philosophical and historical underpinning, and led them into battlefields such as politics, law, and education armed with what they learned from those resources. Sometime in 2006 he began to realize that some of the books by Christian authors which he had come to depend upon were misleading, at the very least. Other books revealed to him that some of the above mentioned books had misinformed and misled sincere Christians by revising and/or misrepresenting the true history of separation of church and state in America. In 2006, he read One Nation Under Law[7] which cites a wealth of resources for one seeking to understand the history of separation of church and state in the United States and of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.[8] Reading One Nation Under Law, some of the books it cited, and some other books was a launching pad into the universe of historical information which he never dreamed existed. He had expected to be misled in the secular law school he attended. He was amazed that he had been misled by Christian brothers. I asked myself, “How could Peter Marshall and others have missed this vital information?” At an Unregistered Baptist Fellowship conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, James R. Beller, a Baptist historian, gave a PowerPoint presentation which gave him the answer to this question. Finney bought two of Beller's books and read them. Those books filled in the details not mentioned in Pastor Beller’s concise PowerPoint presentation. Since that time, God has led Finney into an in depth study of the issues of government, church, and separation of church and state. God Betrayed/Separation of Church and State: The Biblical Principles and the American Application and the other books he has written and listed on this website were written as a result of those studies. God Betrayed is not a rehash of the same information that has been circulated in the Fundamental Baptist and Christian community through sermons, books, seminars, etc. since at least 1982, the year Finney was saved. God Betrayed and Finney's other books reveal facts and information that must be understood in order for a pastor and other Christians to begin to successfully (in God's eyes) fight the spiritual warfare we are engaged in according to knowledge. Finney believes that the lack of attention to the biblical doctrines concerning government, church (which is likened to the wife and bride of Christ), and separation of church and state, has had dire consequences for individuals, families, churches, and America. Unless pastors educate themselves on these doctrines and their application in America, the rapid downhill slide will continue at an accelerating pace. [1] Francis A. Schaeffer, A Christian Manifesto, (Westchester, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1981). [2] Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Light and the Glory, (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1977). [3] Peter Marshall and David Manuel, From Sea to Shining Sea (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1986). [4] David Barton, The Myth of Separation, What is the Correct relationship between Church and State? (Aledo, Texas: Wallbuilder Press, 1992). [5] Catherine Millard, Rewriting America’s History (Camp Hill, Pennsylvania: Horizon House Publishers, 1991). [6] William J. Federer, America’s God and Country, Encyclopedia of Quotations (Coppell, Texas: FAME Publishing, Inc., 1994). [7] Mark Douglas McGarvie, One Nation Under Law: America’s Early National Struggles to Separate Church and State (DeKalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press, 2005). [8] The First Amendment to the United States Constitution states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” The religion clause, properly interpreted, as is shown in God Betrayed, is a correct application of the biblical principle of separation of church and state.

Legal issues from a biblical perspective (e.g., church incorporation and 501(c)(3))

WAUSHARA COUNTY v. Sherri L. GRAF, 166 Wis.2d 442 (1992), 480 N.W.2d 16, Supreme Court of Wisconsin. Submitted on briefs October 4, 1991.Decided February 17, 1992.

October 30, 2017 Jerald Finney Leave a comment

Click here to go to online publication of he entire case.

BRIEF OF CASE:

The Procedural History and Opinions [Trial Court, Court of Appeals, Supreme Court of Minnesota]:

Trial Court: The issue considered was “whether the holding of religious services on a parcel of real estate, even though extending over a period of time, exempts that property from real estate taxation. In holding that it does not, the trial court concluded: “[Basic Bible has] not followed any of the traditional or authorized means of obtaining tax exempt status on this property. They have indicated that there is no need to do so. Under the position proposed by respondents, any person could contend, and could actually hold religious services upon a parcel of real estate and declare it exempt from taxation. This could be carried to an unworkable extreme. There would be no control and no means of follow-up. Since all lands are subject to tax unless exempted by law, the burden is upon respondents to show why they are They have failed in meeting this obligation. (Emphasis supplied).”The court found that since Basic Bible was not incorporated and had no 501(c)(3) status, there was no entity to claim exemption as a church or religious association [The alleged church held property through trustees.]. The court found that the County complied with the statutory foreclosure requirements, that Basis Bible was not a legal entity, and held that Basic Bible was not tax exempt. It placed emphasis on Basic Bible’s failure to incorporate.
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Basic Bible, acting, pro se, appealed through three of its members, raising only two issues: (1) Did the trial court err in proceeding without responding to challenges to its jurisdiction? (2) Did the trial court have the authority to hear a case concerning the property of a church (nonstate entity)?
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Court of Appeals: Reversed the judgment of the trial court, totally ignored the only issues raised by Bible Baptist, reviewed the entire trial court decision and concluded that the trial court’s holding that a church must incorporate before it can claim tax exempt status before it can claim tax exempt status under the statute was erroneous. The court held that, by not arguing on appeal the bona fides of Basic Bible waived that issue. The court further held that the title to the real estate was properly held in the name of the trustees for the benefit of Basic Bible, and that the trust was an “entity” which “could claim tax exemption. The court did not decide whether Basic Bible was tax exempt.
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The county appealed to the Supreme Court of Wisconsin:
The Court stated that the court of appeals had no obligation to look beyond the issues raised by Bible Baptist, but had the discretion to do so. The principle issue which it in its discretion addressed was the circuit court’s conclusion that for a “church” to claim a tax exemption, it must be incorporated under the laws of Wisconsin or another state. The Supreme Court of Wisconsin agreed with the conclusion of the appeals court that the church need not be incorporated to claim a tax exemption. The Court stated: “We need not reiterate the excellent discussion and analysis underpinning that conclusion that appears in the court of appeals opinion. 157 Wis. 2d at 539-49. (The analysis in that opinion will also be looked at and added as a post on this webpage). That conclusion was, however, substantially irrelevant. It was not outcome determinative of the fundamental question posed by this litigation: Did Basic Bible meet its burden to demonstrate that it was tax exempt?” The Court stated that Basic Bible did not even assert on appeal a basis for tax exemption. It only asserted that the circuit court was without jurisdiction. However, [the law] confers plenary subject matter jurisdiction upon the circuit court and [the law] grants circuit courts the jurisdiction to hear tax foreclosure cases.As to the assertion that the court was without jurisdiction “bordered on the frivolous,” and this, the only issue before the court of appeals, could have been dealt with fully in a very summary opinion affirming that court. The fact that the court of appeals correctly concluded that the circuit court erred as a matter of law when it held that incorporation was necessary for a tax exemption did not in itself warrant a reversal of the circuit court. The only question posed is whether the taxpayer has sustained its burden to prove tax exemption. It is clear from the record that it did not. The appeals court concluded that the entire record, which demonstrated taxpayer’s lack of proof of right to exemption, was non-existent because the county waived any objection to the bona fides of the church by not attacking the bona fides on appeal.
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The county had no reason at all to assert or argue a position on which it had prevailed—a position that was not assailed by the appellant in the court of appeals. It is obviously unfair to expect the “respondent” to “respond” to issues not raised by appellant. The record shows a total failure of proof of tax exempt status. The trial court’s error in that respect cannot be converted into an affirmative tax exempt status. It merely demonstrated that one of many reasons for not affording tax exempt status was incorrect. The controlling issue on this review is whether Basic Bible is a “church” or “religious association” entitled to property tax exemption under sec. 70.11(4), Stats. The burden of proving tax exempt status is upon the taxpayer. “Tax exemption statutes are matters of legislative grace, and they are to be strictly construed against the granting of the exemption.” Where the facts are established, the determination of whether a taxpayer is a “church” or “religious organization” under sec. 70.11(4), Stats., is subject to de novo review.
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The court then stated five tests necessary to prove that a church” or “religious association” entitled to tax exempt status under [the statute]: (1) the taxpayer must be a bona fide church or religious association; (2) the property must be owned and used exclusively for the purposes of the church or religious association; (3) the property involved must be less than 10 acres; (4) the property must be necessary for location and convenience of buildings; and (5) the property must not be used for profit.

The first test requires the circuit court to consider the sincerity of the organization’s asserted beliefs, considering all the evidence and determining whether the beliefs are held in good faith or whether the “forms of religious organization were erected for the sole purpose of cloaking a secular enterprise with the legal protections of religion. [two federal cases cited which accept this means of determination]. “Moreover, it avoids the inherent constitutional difficulty in attempting to define “church” or “religious association” in a theistic manner.”

Again, the court stated that incorporation is not a prerequisite to tax exempt status. 459. “It is clear that had the legislature intended to require churches and religious associations to incorporate to gain tax exempt status, it in all likelihood would have specifically so provided…. Most importantly, however, the trial court must consider whether the alleged religious beliefs are sincerely held or whether they are merely a subterfuge designed to evade taxation. 460. As the trial court noted, any person could contend, and could actually hold religious services upon a parcel of real estate and declare it exempt from taxation. In 1978, the acting IRS Commissioner described a modern ‘tax avoidance device’:

“Some individuals and organizations are marketing and promoting ‘plans’ to avoid income taxes. While the ‘plans’ vary in certain respects, a common theme calls for an individual taxpayer to obtain minister’s credentials and a charter for a church or religious order by mail for a fee from churches that may or may not be recognized as exempt from federal income tax under I.R.C. § 501(c)(3). No profession of adherence to a creed, dogma, or moral code is required and no duties or fiduciary responsibilities are undertaken in order to receive and administer these charters or credentials.

“The ‘plan’ then calls for the individual to take a ‘vow of poverty’ and to assign his assets (house, car, savings account, etc.) and the income earned from current employment to the purported church or order. A major portion of the income assigned to church or order from this unrelated occupation is set aside for housing, food, clothing, and other items

“. . . .

“Those interested in protecting the preferences for churches must agree that the Service has an obligation to be vigorous in stopping such schemes.”

The court then examined the facts in the record and concluded that the record as a whole supports the conclusion that Basis Bible is not a bona fide church or religious association under [the law—sec.70.11(14]. “The evidence indicates that Basic Bible was established to evade taxation. Basic Bible failed to meet its burden of proving that it is a “church” or “religious association” under [Wisconsin law]. The court held that Basic Bible is not tax Exempt.

Facts:

Basic Bible conveyed real estate to Sherri L. Graf and Barbara J. Pogue in trust for the church’s benefit. Basic Bible was not incorporated, nor did it obtain 501(c)(3) status. Basic Baptist filed a property tax exemption certificate with the local tax assessor and the exemption was not granted. The county began in rem tax foreclosure proceedings.

“Basic Bible responded that it was a religious organization, and pursuant to sec. 70.11(4), Stats., was not subject to taxation on the real estate because it was used for religious purposes. Basic Bible presented numerous witnesses, all of whom testified that they had attended “religious services” on the property at various times since 1977. Other activities on the property included bible studies, a memorial service, counselling, agricultural training, and legal research.

“Sherri Graf, an ordained minister in the Life Science Church, testified that she is a trustee of Basic Bible, that her husband, Wilbert Kelly, is the pastor of Basic Bible, and that they have resided on the property since 1977. Sherri Graf testified that the parent church in Minneapolis is an exempt organization under I.R.C. sec. 501(c)(3), but acknowledged that Basic Bible had not applied for and did not have such status. Sherri Graf acknowledged that Basic Bible had not taken any action under any state or federal law to incorporate or formally charter Basic Bible. Her testimony revealed that neither she nor Wilbert Kelly had any income and that they lived on donations from individuals visiting Basic Bible. Sherri Graf stated that Basic Bible was always open and was open to everyone.

“Assertedly, Basic Bible’s beliefs are based upon the King James version of the Bible, the United States Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Among the “fundamental beliefs” of Basic Bible, set forth in a cover letter its members are charged to distribute along with the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, is the following:

“The Laws of Nature and of Nature’s Creator are in part set out in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. These are the fundamental Laws and are recognized by the Basic Bible Church.

“The members of the Basic Bible Church are bound by oath or affirmation to support these Fundamentals as these represent the Will of the Creator and the Laws of Nature in part; a sacred belief is that each individual owns the right to his own life, that he owns no right over the life of any one else, and that no one else owns any right over his life.

“Other beliefs include a conviction that income taxes are illegal, and that federal reserve notes are “frauds” in violation of the law of God and of the Constitution.

Other facts brought out in the Supreme Court of Wisconsin opinion:

“Included in the record of this case is a solicitation letter issued by the parent church of Basic Bible, which states:

“The Basic Bible Church of America offors [sic] a religious program whereby you can set up an Auxiliary Church of the Basic Bible Church of America out of your own home, office or business and use the Auxiliary Church that you and your trustees have complete control of the assets of to distribute the church tenets and doctrine to the general public.
“This auxiliary church may compliment your own particular church and gives you the opportunity for religious fulfillment and practice of your own religion according to the dictates of your own conscience.
“As is shown in the brief attached hereto, as an incidental benefit you can become completely exempt from income taxes, in some states, property taxes, Social Security Taxes and sales taxes in most states, plus-discounts at most stores and airlines.
“The Basic Bible Church of America is incorporated under the laws of Minnesota and as shown by the tax exempt letter attached hereto, has a Federal Tax Exempt letter of recognition.

“Attached to the letter is a ‘brief’ discussing the attributes of a ‘religious organization’ under the IRS Code. Of nine pages included in the letter, one is the above invitation to join, one is a statement of the “fundamental beliefs and philosophy” of the Basic Bible Church, and fully seven pages are devoted to the tax exempt status of the church. The only inference that can be drawn from this letter is that the Basic Bible Church of America is a subterfuge designed to evade taxation. Sherri Graf’s testimony at trial strengthens this inference:

“Our Church Charter also informs us that we are created pursuant to 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. As far as state tax exemption, to the best of my knowledge, Chapter 11000 has not applied for such an exemption. We believe, under the laws, the first amendment, as well as the Constitution of the State of Wisconsin, and the tax laws in the State of Wisconsin, that Church property is exempt and that we are doing what is required and would fall into consideration under such law.”

Cases Incorp. 501c3

PARSHALL CHRISTIAN ORDER v. BOARD OF REVIEW, COUNTY OF MARION, 315 N.W.2d 798 (1982) (Supreme Court of Iowa)

October 27, 2017 Jerald Finney Leave a comment

Click here to assess complete case online.

Click here to go to Law on Church Organization (Trust Relationship with Property, Legal Status (Incorp., 501c3, Property Tax, etc.)

First, below is a brief statement of relevant matters, then, a more extensive summary below that.

PARSHALL CHRISTIAN ORDER v. BOARD OF REVIEW, COUNTY OF MARION, 315 N.W.2d 798 (1982)(Supreme Court of Iowa)
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Family bought land and asserted claimed property tax exemption as a “religious institution or society.” The court’s definition of “religious society” is very instructive.The court stated:”Plaintiff fails to satisfy the standard. Mr. Seyfried and his wife pray together in the physical solitude of their home. They do not constitute a “congregation” within the ordinary meaning of the word. AGF has made no real effort to convert others or to extend its membership beyond the immediate Seyfried family. Its telephonic religious message hardly qualifies as dissemination of a creed or doctrine. Its “religious instruction” consists of a father preaching to his son. Its “organized ministry” is a single self-supported clergyman. Its “conduct of religious worship” does not extend beyond the family dwelling, which is used primarily for non-religious purposes. Rather than ministering to a society of believers, plaintiff is engaged in a quintessentially private religious enterprise. …”It is not enough that a corporation believes and declares itself to be a church. Nor is it sufficient that the applicant prepares superficially responsive documentation for each of the established IRS criteria. To hold otherwise would encourage sham representations to the IRS and result in adverse tax consequences to the public at large. In this instance, AGF does not employ recognized, accessible channels of instruction and worship. There is little if any evidence that it seeks to reach or serve a congregation. Private religious church.

…

“A recent Minnesota case also is quite similar to the facts presently before us. Ideal Life Church of Lake Elmo v. County of Washington, Minn., 304 N.W.2d 308 (1981). One Rossow founded the Ideal Life Church (ILC) which consisted of himself and ten members of his family. Eventually the membership increased to include a neighbor and his wife and three other persons unrelated to the Rossow family. Shortly after ILC was established, Rossow and his wife conveyed their property and home to it. As in the present case, ILC was controlled solely by the family of which it was composed. ILC, like PCO, also spent significant sums for mortgage payments and maintenance costs of the Rossow home. ILC applied for but was denied a property tax exemption. On appeal the court was required to determine whether ILC was a “church” within the meaning of the Minnesota exemption statute. The court applied a “factual analysis” test and concluded that the ILC failed to qualify. Id. 304 N.W.2d at 317. Although both American Guidance Foundation and Ideal Life Church were concerned with the term “church”, courts have held that term to be interchangeable with ” religious society”. Trustees of Pencader Presbyterian Church v. Gibson, 26 Del.Ch. 375, 385, 22 A.2d 782, 787-88 (1941); Bates v. Schillinger, 128 Me. 14, 17, 145 A. 395, 397 (1929); In re Douglass’ Estate, 94 Neb. 280, 284, 143 N.W. 299, 300 (1913); Riffe v. Proctor, 99 Mo.App. 601, 607, 74 S.W. 409, 410 (1903); Josey v. Union Loan & Trust Co., 106 Ga. 608, 611, 32 S.E. 628, 629 (1849).

PARSHALL CHRISTIAN ORDER v. BOARD OF REVIEW, COUNTY OF MARION, 315 N.W.2d 798 (1982) (Supreme Court of Iowa)

[Family bought land and asserted claimed property tax exemption as a “religious institution or society. Notes and some applications: “Online “ministers” who gather a following and call themselves the “church” or a “church” since every believer, according to them, becomes a member of “the church.” they don’t understand God’s Word on the matter and do a great deal of harm to the cause of Christ. Many of these “Lone Rangers” criticize others, stir up trouble, teach falsely, and create confusion and chaos. Here are some excerpts from cases which addressed what a “church,” “a religious society,” etc. is. Of course, the reasoning is man’s but the reasoning, from a human standpoint is good and arrives at good conclusions, while making some good points along the way.”]

The question of what constitutes a religious institution or society under section 427.1(9) is one of first impression for this court. “Institution” is defined as “an established society or corporation: an establishment or foundation esp. of a public character.” Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 1171 (1976) (emphasis added). “Society” is defined as “a voluntary association of individuals for common ends; esp.: an organized group living or working together or periodically meeting or worshipping together because of a community of interests or beliefs or a common profession: a corporate or cooperative body.” Id. at 2162 (emphasis added).

The only Iowa case we have found construing a similar term is First Presbyterian Church v. Dennis, 178 Iowa 1352, 161 N.W. 183 (1917). There the court defined “church society” as:

[A] voluntary organization, whose members are associated together not only for religious exercises but also for the purpose of maintaining and supporting its ministry and providing the conveniences of a church home and promoting the growth and efficiency of the work of the general church of which it forms a co-ordinate part.

Id. at 1362, 161 N.W. at 187.

Courts in other jurisdictions, however, have defined the phrase ” religious society.” The New Jersey equity court stated, “The association of persons for religious as opposed to secular purposes, having no regard to the particular mode or manner of constituting or forming the body, answers the description of a religious society.” St. John the Baptist Greek Catholic Church v. Gengor, 121 N.J.Eq. 349, 356, 189 A. 113, 117 (1937)(emphasis added). A “religious society” has been defined to be “a voluntary association of individuals or families united for the purpose of having a common place of worship and to provide a proper teacher to instruct them in religious doctrines and duties, and to administer the various ordinances of religion.” In re Religious Society of Families v. Assessor and Board of Assessment Review of Town of Carroll, Chautauqua County, 73 Misc.2d 923, 926, 343 N.Y.S.2d 159, 162 (1973), aff’d, 75 A.D.2d 1004, 429 N.Y.S.2d 321 (1980) (emphasis added). See also Church v. Bullock, 104 Tex. 1, 5, 109 S.W. 115, 117 (1908).

Nothing in these definitions suggests that a religious society can consist solely of the members of a nuclear family. Inherent within those definitions is the notion that the various individuals composing a religious society have become associated only through their mutual desire for worship and religious education. Except for that desire the association of those particular individuals would not have occurred. Such is obviously not the case with PCO. The members of the Parshall family are not associated only because of their desire for mutual worship; they are associated as a family. They will continue as a group regardless of any religious beliefs they may possess. Because the predominant reason for the Parshalls’ association is not religious pursuit, we conclude that PCO is not a religious institution or society as contemplated by section 427.1(9).

Cases from other jurisdictions lend support to our conclusion. In one case a Reverend Ham and his wife established a nonprofit religious corporation. Mordecai F. Ham Evangelistic Ass’n v. Matthews, 300 Ky. 402, 189 S.W.2d 524 (1945). The corporation held title to residential property which the reverend and his wife occupied as a home. It also paid all living expenses for the couple and for the upkeep of the residential property. The purpose of the corporation was to promote Reverend Ham’s evangelistic work. Reverend Ham accomplished that task by conducting Christian evangelistic services throughout the country and by radio broadcasts, independent of any religious denomination.

A controversy arose when the corporation applied for a tax exemption of its residential property. The Kentucky Constitution exempted “all parsonages or residences owned by any religious society and occupied as a home, and for no other purpose, by the minister of any religion.” (Emphasis added.) In discussing the meaning of the term “religious society”, the court stated:

This leads to the consideration of whether he and his wife, employees and unattached and unorganized audiences and contributors collectively are to be regarded as a “religious society” in the contemplation of the Constitution. The words are to be taken in their ordinary acceptation, as understood by the framers of the Constitution and the people who adopted it. Any meaning of a term and all purposes apparently not within its contemplation must be excluded in the interpretation. The term “religious society” is an old one. In the English ecclesiastical law and in our own law, both statutes and judicial opinions, it has had a well-understood meaning, being used interchangeably with “church” or some group organized and maintained for the support of public worship. The framers of the Constitution were familiar with all this. While we do not find the term to have been expressly defined by this court, it was commonly used in the generally accepted sense, and in accordance with designations or definitions given in the dictionaries and elsewhere as being an association or body of communicants or a church usually meeting in some stated place for worship or for instruction, or organized for the accomplishment of religious purposes such as instruction or dissemination of some tenet of particular faith or otherwise furthering its teachings. The Oxford English Dictionary defines “Society” as “Association with one’s fellow man” and “A number of persons associated together by some common interest or purpose, united by a common vow, holding the same belief or opinion, following the same trend or profession, etc.; an association.”

Id. at 408, 189 S.W.2d at 527-28 (citations omitted). Reverend Ham contended that the corporation had a large congregation, composed of all those persons listening to his radio broadcasts and attending his services. The court, however, rejected that argument and concluded that the corporation was not a “religious society” as that term was commonly understood. The court conceded the religious orientation of the corporation, but went on to state:

In this case there is no question but what this appellant corporation and the Reverend Mr. Ham are engaged in religious activities . . . . But we are constrained to hold that the ownership is lacking the element of a “society.” As observed by the chancellor: “We could hardly conceive of a society, as we understand it from the broader term, existing without some time or another there is a getting together. The term society itself implies a getting together of its members, although it is true persons may worship God or even receive religious instructions without getting together.” The many contributors and the audiences may be regarded as a kind of fellowship but not as a “society” within the meaning of the Constitution. There is no communion, no unity, no society. This is a one man organization; at least, as said by the chancellor, “Its whole operation is centered around one personality.” He is not a pastor and the organization is not a church. He does not claim it to be. We are not quite sure that the appellant nor the individuals it represents, is the type of religious organization whose parsonage or residence of the minister is tax free. If the property should be held exempt under these circumstances, the decision would afford a facility or means for any individual engaged in religious service to escape payment of taxes on his residence.

Id. at 409-10, 189 S.W.2d at 528.

A federal district court confronted a situation remarkably similar to the present one. American Guidance Foundation, Inc. v. United States, 490 F.Supp. 304 (D.C.1980). American Guidance Foundation (AGF) was founded by one Seyfried and consisted of five members of his immediate family. He regularly conducted worship services in his apartment living room for the members of AGF congregation. Those services often included the playing of religious tapes. Apart from its private services, AGF also advertised in the yellow pages of the telephone book and provided telephone callers with a recorded religious message. The dispute arose when AGF applied for tax exempt status as a “church” under the Internal Revenue Code. Concluding that AGF was not a “church” within the general or traditional understanding of that term, the court stated:

At a minimum, a church includes a body of believers or communicants that assembles regularly in order to worship. Unless the organization is reasonably available to the public in its conduct of worship, its educational instruction, and its promulgation of doctrine, it cannot fulfill this associational role.

Plaintiff fails to satisfy the standard. Mr. Seyfried and his wife pray together in the physical solitude of their home. They do not constitute a “congregation” within the ordinary meaning of the word. AGF has made no real effort to convert others or to extend its membership beyond the immediate Seyfried family. Its telephonic religious message hardly qualifies as dissemination of a creed or doctrine. Its “religious instruction” consists of a father preaching to his son. Its “organized ministry” is a single self-supported clergyman. Its “conduct of religious worship” does not extend beyond the family dwelling, which is used primarily for non-religious purposes. Rather than ministering to a society of believers, plaintiff is engaged in a quintessentially private religious enterprise.

. . . .

It is not enough that a corporation believes and declares itself to be a church. Nor is it sufficient that the applicant prepares superficially responsive documentation for each of the established IRS criteria. To hold otherwise would encourage sham representations to the IRS and result in adverse tax consequences to the public at large. In this instance, AGF does not employ recognized, accessible channels of instruction and worship. There is little if any evidence that it seeks to reach or serve a congregation. Private religious church.

Id. at 306-07.

A recent Minnesota case also is quite similar to the facts presently before us. Ideal Life Church of Lake Elmo v. County of Washington, Minn., 304 N.W.2d 308 (1981). One Rossow founded the Ideal Life Church (ILC) which consisted of himself and ten members of his family. Eventually the membership increased to include a neighbor and his wife and three other persons unrelated to the Rossow family. Shortly after ILC was established, Rossow and his wife conveyed their property and home to it. As in the present case, ILC was controlled solely by the family of which it was composed. ILC, like PCO, also spent significant sums for mortgage payments and maintenance costs of the Rossow home. ILC applied for but was denied a property tax exemption. On appeal the court was required to determine whether ILC was a “church” within the meaning of the Minnesota exemption statute. The court applied a “factual analysis” test and concluded that the ILC failed to qualify. Id. 304 N.W.2d at 317. Although both American Guidance Foundation and Ideal Life Church were concerned with the term “church”, courts have held that term to be interchangeable with ” religious society”. Trustees of Pencader Presbyterian Church v. Gibson, 26 Del.Ch. 375, 385, 22 A.2d 782, 787-88 (1941); Bates v. Schillinger, 128 Me. 14, 17, 145 A. 395, 397 (1929); In re Douglass’ Estate, 94 Neb. 280, 284, 143 N.W. 299, 300 (1913); Riffe v. Proctor, 99 Mo.App. 601, 607, 74 S.W. 409, 410 (1903); Josey v. Union Loan & Trust Co., 106 Ga. 608, 611, 32 S.E. 628, 629 (1849).

We conclude that PCO has failed to sustain its burden of demonstrating that it is a religious institution or society within the meaning of our exemption statute. To hold otherwise would lead to a result which the legislature surely did not intend. The property in question is currently being used as a home and farm for the Parshall family, just as it was before PCO was established. People may not transform their families into religious organizations and thereby obtain exemption for property over which their dominion and use remain unaffected. Granting tax exempt status to PCO would exalt form over substance and violate the rule of construction that exemption statutes are strictly construed.

The assessor correctly denied exemption.

Miscellaneous, Miscellaneous Spiritual/Legal Matters

Murdering Unborn Babies; Abortion Counselor Tried for Crime: Court Briefs and Decision; Articles, Sermons, Etc. on Murdering Unborn Babies; Jury Nullification

October 26, 2017 Jerald Finney Leave a comment

Jerald Finney, October 26, 2017
Last edited on November 29, 2017

God’s Word makes clear what He thinks and how He feels about the murder of unborn babies and a nation which legalizes such slaughter. Legalizing such criminal activity has not only resulted in the brutal murder of tens of millions of innocent lives, but also the attendant destruction of the family in America. It is an outright Satanic attack on the fundamental institution ordained by God, on individuals, families, and the nation.

Here are some resources for those who are deeply grieved over this matter.

1. “Murdering Unborn Babies” webpage. Links to up-to-date articles, audio teachings, sermons and teachings on abortion (e.g., teaching on the role of Charles Darwin and his followers in promoting abortion), and more.

2. Links to up-to-date articles on the murdering of unborn babies (abortion)

3. Steve Lee Drake v. State of Texas (This was a case in which a sidewalk counselor at an abortion clinic was falsely charged with violation of the City of Austin, TX sign ordinance. In falsely charging Steve, the city violated his First Amendment freedom of speech. Jerald Finney handled the case from trial (Finney’s second trial) to final appeal (his first appeal) and reversal of Steve’s conviction and order to dismiss).

The appeals court reversed the liberal jury conviction and ordered that the case be dismissed. The whole jury panel was flaming liberal except for 3 Christians who were honest in their answers in jury selection and therefore eliminated by the prosecution for cause, while 6 liberals lied to critical questions posed by defense counsel in order to get on the jury and convict. Why cannot Christians Understand jury nullification? Liberals are more passionate to their cause than are Christians.

Simply left click to go to a particular document:

Brief for Appellant Steven Lee Drake (PDF)
State’s Reply Brief (PDF)
Appellant’s Reply To Brief For Appellee (PDF)
Decision Of Court Of Appeals (PDF)
Trial Court’s Finding Of Not Guilty In Compliance With Judgment of Appeal Court (PDF)
Trial Court’s Final Letter To Attorney Jerald Finney (PDF)

4. Click here to see post “Jury Nullification: Article, Brief, and Requested Jury Instruction.”

Church_LessonsOnDoctrineOf

Ephesians

October 5, 2017 Jerald Finney Leave a comment

Click here to go to “Bible Studies on the Doctrine of the Church” from other books of the Bible.

Click here to go to 14 Lessons on Ephesians (Questions and Answers)

Contents:

INTRODUCTION
THEME
PAUL AND EPHESUS
OUTLINE
NOTES

NOTE. For more details see, McGee, Ephesians. This study is taken from that book with some significant modifications.

DATE A.D. 62

INTRODUCTION

Four men left Rome in A.D. 62 bound for Turkey. These men had four of the most sublime compositions of the Christian faith. When these men bade farewell to the Apostle Paul, each was given an epistle to bear to his particular constituency. These four letters are in the Word of God, and they are designated the “Prison Epistles of Paul,” since he wrote them while he was imprisoned in Rome. He was awaiting a hearing before Caesar Nero. The four men and their respective places of abode were: (1) Epaphroditus from Philippi who had the Epistle to the Philippinans (Philippians 4.18). (2) Tychicus from Ephesus who had the Epistle to the Ephesians (Ephesians 6.21). (3) Epaphras from Colosse who had the Epistile to the Colossians (Colossians 4.12). (4) Onesimus, a runaway slave from Colosse, who had the Epistle to Philemon, his master (Philemon 10).

These epistles present a composite picture of Christ, the church, the Christian life, and the interrelationship and functioning of all. These different facets present the Chritian life on the highest plane.

Ephesians presents the institution of the church, made up until the return of Christ of local, autonomous assemblies. Christ desires to be the only Head of every local church body, but every church chooses whether or not they will honor this commandment.

THEME

Ephesians reveals the institution of the church as God’s masterpiece, a mystery not revealed in the Old Testament (Ephesians 2.10). It is more wonderful than any temple made with hands, constructed of living stones, indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Churches are to walk as He would walk and to wrestle against the wiles of the devil. Someday, the family of God (all true believers) will leave the world and be presented to Christ as a bride (19.7-10). At that point, they will be assembled and will form a visible, universal Church (Hebrews 12.22-24).

Dr. Arthur T. Pierson called Ephesians, “Paul’s third-heaven epistle.” Another has called it “the Alps of the New Testament.” This is the church epistle. Many expositors consider this the highest peak of spiritual truth, the very apex and acme of Bible revelation. Some have even suggested that Ephesians is so profound that none but the very elect (in other words, the chosen few) can understand it. Dr. McGee noticed that the folk who say this include themselves in that inner circle. To be candid with you, he says that he does not even pretend to be able to probe or plumb the depths of this epistle nor to ascend to its heights. This epistle is lofty and it is heady. It is difficult to breathe the rarefied air of this epistle—you will find this to be true when we get into it. With the Holy Spirit as guide, Dr. McGee (with my humble edits) will do the very best we can to understand and explain it.

PAUL AND EPHESUS

Ephesus is in Turkey. The Holy Spirit would not permit Paul on his second missionary journey to enter the province of Asia where Ephesus was the prominent center: Acts 16:6: “Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia.” The Holy Spirit put up a roadblock and said to Paul, “You can’t go down there now.” We are not told the reason, but we know God’s timing is perfect. He would send him there later. So Paul traveled west to Berea, down to Athens, over to Corinth, and then, on the way back, he came by Ephesus. Oh, what a tremendous opportuinity he saw there! Acts 18:19: “And he came to Ephesus, and left them there: but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.”

Paul was so favorably impressed by the opportunities for missionary work that he promised to return, which he did on his third missionary journey. He discovered that another missionary by the name of Apollos had been there in the interval between his second and third missionary journeys. Apollos had preached only the baptism of John and not the gospel of grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. At that time Apollos didn’t know about the Lord Jesus, but later on he himself became a great preacher of the gospel.

Paul began a far-reaching ministry in Ephesus. For two years he spoke in the school of Tyrannus, and the gospel penetrated into every center of the province of Asia. Evidently it was at this time that the churches addressed in the second and third chapters of Revelation were founded by this ministry of Paul.

Dr. McGee believers that the greatest ministry of the gospel ever was in what is in modern day Turkey. Millions lived there in that day. It was the very heart of the Roman Empire. The culture of Greece was no longer in Greece, but along the coast of Turkey, and Ephesus was the leading city.

Ephesus was the main city of Asia Minor and second only to Rome in the Roman Empire. Founded around 2000 B.C. by the Hittites, it was an Oriental, Asian city until around 1000 B.C. when the Greeks came in. For 2500 years, Ephesus was one of the great cities of the world. It was on a harbor that is no longer there. Today, Ephesus is about six miles from the ocean.

The Temple of Diana in Ephesus was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was the largest Greek temple ever constructed, 418 feet by 239 feet. The art and wealth of the Ephesian citizens contributed to its adornment. It had 127 graceful columns, some of them richly carved and colored. It contained works of art such as the picture painted by Apelles of Alexander the Great hurling the thunderbolt. It was four times larger than the Parthenon but very similar to it.

Inside the beautiful temple was the vulgar idol of Diana, of Greek mythology, the goddess of fertility, a many breasted idol of wood. All sorts of gross immortality took place in the shadow of this temple.

A flourishing trade was carried on in the manufacture of silver shrines or models of the temple. The artistic business brought no small gain to the craftsmen.

It was to such a city that Paul came. He first spoke in the synagogue for three months. Then he went to the school of Tyrannus and continued there two years. “so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks” (Acts 19.10). Paul stayed in Ephesus longer than any other place. The people of Ephesus heard more Bible teaching from Paul than did any other people, which is the reason he could write to them the deep truths contained in this epistle.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost. For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries” (1 Co. 16.8-9). There was great opposition to Paul’s preaching because it was putting the silversmiths out of business. A riot resulted. Paul was preaching the gospel of the living God and life through Jesus Christ. God marvelously preserved him, which encouraged him to continue (Acts 19.23-41). Paul loved this church in Ephesus. His last meeting with the Ephesian elders was a tender farewell (Acts 20.17-38).

A great company turned to Christ. Dr. McGee thinks the gospel was more effective in this area than in any place and at any time in the history of the world. He believes the Ephesian church was the highest church spiritually. It is amazing that the believers in Ephesus understood the Epistle. He would not have written it to them if they could not have understood it. Ephesus was a church at its best, a church at the highest spiritual level.

You and I today cannot even conceive the high spiritual level that the Spirit of God had produced in these Ephesian believers. They loved the person of the Lord Jesus and were drawn to Him. Dr. McGee says that he ministered for many years and loved to minister. However, he says that we are far from Christ today. We are so enamored by various things—programs; church work; our pet projects; the influence of others who are not led by the Holy Spirit, the principles of the Bible, and the love of God; an office in the church; etc.—that we get farther and farther from the person of Christ. The really big question is how much we love Him. Paul wrote to the Ephesians that Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it. Do we return that love? Do we respond to Him? Can we say, “I love Him because He first loved me?” The letter to the Ephesians ought to bring us very close to Christ.

Ephesians and Revelation can be arranged mathematically and logically. No books are more logical than those books. Dr. McGee says that he got tired of hearing folk say, “I believe the Bible from cover to cover,” when they don’t even know what was between the covers. They were just making a pious statement. If one really believes it is God’s Word, he will try to find out what it says. We need to get off this gimmick of methods and how to communicate to the younger generation and who to better organize a church and really learn what is in the Book. Dr. McGee says that Ephesians and Revelation were the two easiest books in the Bible to outline because they were logical. He does not pretend to understand everything that is in these books, but they are logical and easy to outline.

[Dr. McGee then commented on the logic of Revelation.] Of the six chapters in Ephesians, three are about the heavenly calling of a church and are doctrinal. The last three are about the earthly conduct of the church which is very practical. The church has a Head, Christ, and He is in heaven. We are identified with Him. But the feet of a church are down here on the earth. Paul won’t leave us sitting in the heavenlies; he says, “Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called” (Ep. 4.1). In other words, Christian, it’s nice to sit in heavenly places and boast of your position in Christ, but, for goodness’ sake, get down out of your high chair and start walking. We need to remember that in Paul’s day believers were walking in a pagan society in the Roman world. The first half is doctrinal and the last half is practical, which makes a very logical division in the book. We need both. We are not to live in the first three chapters only. They are wonderful, but the message must get down here where we live, down where the rubber meets the road. There is a battle going on and an enemy to be fought. The bugle has sounded. We need to stand for God today.

OUTLINE

I. DOCTRINAL, the Heavenly Calling of A Church (Vocalization), Chapters 1-3

A. A Church Is a BODY, Chapter 1
1. Introduction, verses 1, 2
2. God the Father Planned and Ordained the Institution of the Church, verses 3-6
3. God the Son Paid the Price for the Church, verses 7-12, “redemption through his blood”
4. God the Holy Spirit Protects a Church, verses 13, 14.
5.Prayer for Knowledge and Power, verses 15-23

B. A Church Is a TEMPLE, CHAPTER 2
1. The Material for Construction, verses 1-10 “The dead in trespasses” are made into a living temple
2. The Method of Construction, verses 11-18
3. The Meaning of the Construction (quo animo), verses 19-22, “growth into an holy temple in the Lord””

C. The Church Is a Mystery, Chapter 3
1. The Explanation of the Mystery, verses 1-4 Not revealed in the Old Testament
2. The Definition of the Mystery, verses 5-13 Jews and Gentiles are partakers of the same Body—manifested on earth in local assemblies
3. Prayer for Power and Knowledge, verses 14,21 “strengthened with might” and to “know the love of Christ”

II. PRACTICAL, the Earthly Conduct of A Church (Vocation), Chapters 4-6

A. A Church is a NEW MAN, CHAPTER 4
1. The Exhibition of the New Man, verses 1-6 “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit”
2. The Inhibition of the New Man, verses 7-16 “no more children” grow up into Him” “perfect man”
3. The Prohibition of the New Man, verses 17-32 “walk not as other Gentiles walk” “be ye kind one to another”

B. The Church will be a BRIDE (At the marriage of the Lamb, Christ will marry all members of the Family of God and form the first and only everlasting Universal Church), Chapter 5
1. The Engagement of a Church, verses 1-17 “for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ”
2. The Experience of a Church, verses 18-24 “be filled with the Spirit”
3. The Expectation of a Church, verses 25-33 “that he might present it to himself a glorious church”

C. A Church Is a Soldier, Chapter 6
1. The Soldier’s Relationships. verses 1-9 “no man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life”
2. The Soldier’s Enemy, verses 10-12 “the wiles of the devil”
3. The Soldier’s Protection, verses 13-18 “the whole armour of God”
4. The Soldier’s Example—Paul, a Good Soldier of Jesus Christ, verses 19-22
5. The Soldier’s Benediction, verses 23, 24

NOTES

I. DOCTRINAL, the Heavenly Calling of A Church (Vocalization), Chapters 1-3

Chapter 1
A Church Is a BODY

Ephesians begins with the doctrinal section concerning the heavenly calling of a church, the vocalization.

1. Introduction

vv1, 2. This letter is to a local church, the church at Ephesus. However, as with all Paul’s epistles which deal with the doctrine or the church, the principles are to be applied by all churches. One cannot infer that Paul was writing to a universal church, since such a church will not and cannot exist until the Marriage of the Lamb. See Re. 19.7-10, and Heb. 12.21-24. A church is a called-out assembly. Just as Jesus Christ was in the world with his assembly, church members are in the world but not of the world. Christ sends them into the world. Jn. 17.18. They sit in “places” in the world, “heavenly places” (places like heaven since they are now spiritual beings – Ephesians 1.3, 1.20, 2.6) but they are not of the world even as Christ, while on earth was not of the world (Jn. 17.11-16). His kingdom is not of the world (Jn. 18.36).

A church is a living spiritual body, an assembly of believers, as will be seen. One cannot have a foot in China, a toe in South Africa, and an arm in the United States: such an organism could not be a body and could not function as required by the Church Doctrine laid out in the Bible. The epistle speaks to the family of God (all believers) and to local churches. Those members of the church at Ephesus were fellowcitizens with the saints and of the household of God. They were built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone. A building is all one, not part here and part somewhere else. They were a living organism, made of living stones, founded upon a living stone who is the chief cornerstone (1 Pe. 2.4-8, Ep. 2.1-14, Ro. 8.1-13).

Paul states, “I am an apostle.” An apostle is the highest office the church has ever had. No one today is an apostle because no one can meet the requirements. The requirements of an apostle are:

(1) The apostles received their commission directly from the living lips of Jesus Christ. Paul made that claim for himself. He wrote, “Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead” (Ga. 1.1). This is the reason Paul took the place of Judas, according to Dr. McGee. The disciples had selected Matthias, but one can find no where in the Bible that Jesus Christ made him an apostle. Apparently all the apostles received their commission directly from the Lord Jesus.

(2) The apostles saw the Saviour after His resurrection. Paul could meet that requirement.

(3) The apostles exercised a special inspiration. They expounded and wrote Scripture (See John 14.26; 16.13; Ga. 1.11, 12). Paul measures up to that more than any apostle.

(4) They exercised supreme authority (Jn. 20.22, 23; 2 Co. 10.8);

(5) The badge of authority was the power to work miracles (Mk. 6.13; Lk. 9.1, 2; Ac. 2.43). Such power is not invested in men today. That was the badge of an apostle. John wrote at the end of the first centruy, “If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speec” (2 Jn. 10). The badge was no longer the ability to work miricles but having right doctrine.

(6) They were given a universal commission to found churches (2 Co. 11.28).

Paul expressly met these six requirements for apostleship. “By the will of God.” He rested his apostleship upon the will of God rather than any personal ambition or will of man or request of the church. He wrote to the Galatians: “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood” (Ga. 1:15-16). Paul said to Timothy, “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief” (1 Ti. 1:12-13 ). Paul made constant reference to the will of God as the foundation of his apostleship. He says it in 1 Co. 1.1, 2 Co. 1.1, Col. 1.1, and 2 Ti. 1.1.

“To the saints in Ephesus.” Saint means holy or separated. The primary intent of the word is “set aside for the sole use of God, that which belongs to God.” The pots and pans in the Tabernacle were called holy vessels because they were for the use of God. A saint, my friend, is one who has trusted Christ and is set aside for the sole use of God. There are only two types of people, the saints, and the ain’ts. If you are not a saint, then you are not an ain’t. If you ain’t an ain’t, then you are a saint. There are some saints who are not being used of God. That is their fault. They are set aside for the use of God and for His service. Saints are not saints because of the way they act, but because of their position in Christ. They belong to Him to be used of Him.

“At Ephesus.” Yes, this was written to a local body of believers, but the principles are for believers in every local body.

“And to the faithful in Christ Jesus.” These are believers. A saint should be saintly, and a believer should be faithful.

“In Christ Jesus.” This epistle is going to amplify this wonderful thing. To be saved means to be in Christ. A believer is irrevocably and organically joined to Christ by baptism of the Holy Spirit (See, e.g., Ac. 1.8, 2.1-4, 8.17, 10.46, 19.6). Once saved, a person belongs to the family of God. “He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit” (1 Co. 6.17). Believers belong to Him. The Lord Jesus said, “Ye in me and I in you.” Believers are in Christ and Christ is in a believers. We are joined to Him. Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and Ephesians, according to Dr. McGee, should be given top priority among the epistles. Ephesians is the book of Joshua of the New Testament, and it speaks directly to the believer in a personal way.

v2 “Grace to you, and peace.” These two words are Paul’s greeting. The grace of God is the means by which He saves us. You must know the grace of God before you can know the peace of God. Paul always put them in that order – grace and peace. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ro. 5.1).

You see the word peace everywhere today, generally referring to peace in some section of the world, or world peace. But the world can never know peace until it knows the grace of God. You don’t see the word grace very much. You see the word love and the word peace. They are very familiar words, and they are supposed to be taken from the Bible, but they don’t mean what they mean in the Word of God. Peace is peace with God because our sins are forgiven. Our sins can never be forgiven until we know the grace of God.

“From God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” The grace and peace are from God our Father. He becomes our Father when we experience the grace of God and are regenerated by the Spirit of God. Grace and peace also come from the Lord Jesus Christ. Why didn’t Paul say they also came from the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit was already indwelling believers. The Lord Jesus was seated at God’s right hand. When we get our geography right, it even helps our theology.

2. God the Father Planned and Ordained the Institution of the Church, verses 3-6

v1 He blessed us and we praise Him with our lips because of that. Our blessing is a declaration, His blessings are deeds. We pronounce Him blessed. He makes us blessed. The word blessed is the thought of happiness and joy.

“In heavenly places in Christ. Here we are, blessed with all spiritual blessings, and it’s in places which are like heaven. Why? Because they places they assemble together in are like heaven. “Places” is a plural noun. “Heavenly” is an adjective which modifies “places.” If one gets His grammar correct, as did the translators of the King James Bible as led by the Holy Spirit, he gets his theology correct. The believer is in “heavenly places” in Christ even when he is down in the dumps. This is the position He has given us. No matter what “place” a believer is in, he is from heaven since he, as a new creature in Christ, is now indwelt by the Holy Spirit which is from heaven. The Holy Spirit from heaven now indwells Him.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We praise Him because He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings.The parallel is Joshua in the Old Testament. Canaan is a picture of where we live today. It could never be heaven because there are enemies to be fought and battles to be won. Believers, in a kingdom not of this world, are to fight a spiritual battle here on earth. When we get to heaven, there will be no more battles.

There are two ways to treat your spiritual possessions: either to lay hold of them or not to lay hold of them. Children of God today are not to live off the little wine of this world. They are not to engage in cheap entertainment. God wants the believer to know that he has been blessed with all spiritual blessings. He has not promised us physical blessings, but spiritual ones, and these are in “heavenly places” in Christ. The believer will not have any spiritual blessing that does not come through Jesus Christ.

Now we come to God’s blueprint. What did God do in planning the church? He did three things: (1) He chose us in Christ. (2) He predestinated us to the place of sonship. (He accepted us in the Beloved.

The Bible now talks about election and predestination. This passage of Scripture is very difficult. The meaning of these words is very important. For Dr. McGee’s complete teaching on these verses, see the teaching on the relevant verses at Ephesians. I include here some choice selections from those teachings.

Ephesians 1:4: “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:”

The whole thought is: Open your gift and see what God has done for you, and then move out in faith and lay hold of it and live today on the high plane to which God has brought you. He’s made you a son and blessed you with all spiritual blessings. This was all according to His plan. His church is like heaven, but it is located on earth.

God the Father planned the church, God the Son paid the price for the church, and God the Holy Spirit protects the church. The source of all our blessings is God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is altogether of God and not at all of ourselves. You and I are not the originators nor the promoters nor the consummators of our salvation. God did it all.

“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.” God planned our salvation way back yonder in eternity. God did the saving. Our part was the sinning. Dr. Ironside tells this story. A little boy was asked, “Have you found Jesus?” The little fellow answered, “Sir, I didn’t know He was lost. But I was lost and He found me.” You don’t find Jesus. He finds you. He is the One who went out after the lost sheep, and He is the One who found that sheep.

God chose believers before the foundation of the world. He did not choose us because we were good or because we had done some good. The entire choice is thrown back upon the sovereignty of the wisdom and goodness of God alone. If He did the choosing, then he’s responsible.

God choose Israel. (See Amos 3.1,2). God chose the institution of the church in eternity. He knew the end from the beginning. He knew the end from the beginning (see Ac. 15.18).

God did all this for a purpose: “… that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” God chose us in order to save and sanctify us. He saves and sanctifies us that we might be holy. A holy life is demanded by God’s election. Don’t tell me that you can say, “Well, I’m one of the elected. I have been saved by grace, and now I can do as I please” (see Romans 6.1, 2). You can’t use grace as a license to sin. If you go on living in sin, it is because you are a sinner who hasn’t been saved.

God also elected us so that we should be “without blame.” The believer is seen before God as without blame. We see an example of this in Israel. God would not permit Balaam to curse Israel or to find fault with His people (see Nu. 23.21).

The believer’s life has been changed. If there is no evidence of change, then you are not one of the elect. … He has made every provision to absolve them of all blame (see 1 Jn. 2.1, 2).

By the way, that answers once and for all the question of limited atonement, that is, that Christ died only for the elect. 1 Jn. 2.1, 2 makes clear that He died for the sins of the whole world: “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. A legitimate offer has been sent out to you today from God, and that offer is that Jesus Christ has died for you. You can’t hide and say, “I am not one of the elect.” You are of the elect if you hear His voice. You can choose not to hear His voice. “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God” (John 3.19-21). “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (Jn. 14.6). “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture” (Jn. 10.9). “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (Jn. 6.37). “… I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (Jn. 10.10).

“The whosoeverwills are the elect and the whosoeverwon’ts are the non-elect.” It is up to you. The Lord has made the invitation. The Lord has extended the invitation. Whosoever will may come. Don’t try to say you are left out. God so loved the world. Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish. Dr. McGee does not believe that you can have “mental reservations.” The problem is that you have sin in your life, and the Bible condemns it. If you come to Christ, to the light, you will have to turn from that sin, and some just don’t want to turn from their sin.

“Chosen us in him.” Again and again the Word of God emphasizes God’s sovereign choice (see 2 Thes. 2.13, 14; 1 Pe. 1.2). Election and sanctification seem to go together and they are both in the Lord Jesus Christ. If God has saved you, He hasn’t saved you because you are good but because you are not good (Ro. 9.14-16), you recognized it, had a Godly sorrow because of your sin, and you turned to God (repented) because you realized that only He could save you from your sin (Tit. 2.11-14; Jn. 3.16-22; 2 Co. 7.8-11). God will have mercy and compassion upon anyone who turns to Him and trusts the Lord Jesus Christ to save him.

A good illustration is in Acts 27. Paul told the men on the ship that no man’s life would be lost in the storm (Ac. 27.22-24). That is election. God had elected that no man should be lost. Later, Paul told a group of sailors who were about to let down a boat into the sea. Paul told the captain, “Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.” God’s side of it was that none should be lost. But the condition was, “Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.” That was man’s side of it—they had to stay in the ship.

God knows who the elect are. I don’t. Someone came to Spurgeon one time and said, “Mr. Spurgeon, if I believed as you do, I would not preach like you do. You say you believe that there are the elect, and yet you preach as if everybody can be saved.” Spurgeon’s answer was, “They can all be saved. If God had put a yellow streak up and down the backs of the elect, I’d go up and down the streets lifting up shirt tails to find out who had the yellow streak up and down his back. Then I’d give that person the gospel. But God didn’t do that. He told me to preach the gospel to every creature and that whosoever will may come.” That is our marching order.

Someone put it like this. On the door to heaven, from our side, it says, “Whosoever will may enter. I am the door: by Me if any man ….” Any man means you. You can come in, and find pasture and find life. When you get on the other side of the door someday in heaven, you’re going to look back, and on that door you will find written, “Chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.”

A blueprint for a beautiful building depicts the building, that when finished, shows the building in all its glory. So much more so, God has planned the institution of the church made up, at this time of local assemblies under Christ, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” The words “In love” are connected with verse 5:

Ephesians 1:5: “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,”

We are treading on the mountain tops in Ephesians. We’re in eternity past when God planned the church. God says, “Take it or leave it. This is the way I did it. You may not like it, but this is the way I did it, and I’m the one running this universe, you see.” God has not turned it over to any political party or to any individual yet. He certainly hasn’t turned it over to me, and all of us can shout a hearty “Amen” to that and thank Him He didn’t do it that way. God has done these three things in planning the institution of the church: First, He chose us. Second, he predestineated us to the place of sonship. Thirdly, He made us accepted of the beloved.

Men are not lost because they have not been elected. They are lost because they are sinners and that is the way they want it, the way they have chosen. The lost man makes his own choice. If there be not free will grace in God, how can He save the world? And if there be not free will in man, how can the world by God be judged?

God saves no one because he comes forward at an evangelistic campaign, because we were nice little boys or girls, because we have joined a church, or because we have an inclination to turn to Him. He saves us because He extends mercy. God said, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and compassion on whom I will have compassion.” God told Moses He was going to hear and answer his prayer because, “… it’s not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.”

All are in the same boat. All are lost sinners. A believer will not be in heaven because he has been baptized, because he is a pastor or a deacon, because he joined a church, or because he partakes of Sacraments. One will be in heaven because of the mercy of God. One is at best a sinner. Until one is willing to come to God as a nobody and then let Him make us somebody, you and I will never be saved.

In verse five we come to the next thing God did for us. “In love having predestined us.” Love and predestination, believe it or not, are in the same verse. Love required a choice. God’s love is involved in this word which has been frightful to a great many people. Predestination has to do with God’s purpose with those he chooses.

Predestination is never used in reference to unsaved people. God has never predestined anyone to be lost. If you are lost, it is because you have rejected God’s remedy. One has to determine for himself what his choice will be.

Predestination refers only to those who are saved. It means that when God starts out with 100 sheep, He is ging to come through with 100 sheep. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Ro. 8:28-29). Those who are called according to His purpose are predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son. Romans goes on to tell how people are saved. “Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified” (Ro. 8.30). When God starts out with 100 sheep, he will come through with 100 sheep.

A sheep can get lost (out of fellowship with Christ Jesus). But that little sheep is still a sheep even though he is way out yonder and lost. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Is. 53.6)—That’s our propensity, that’s our tendency; that’s the direction we go. So the Shepherd goes out and looks for that one lost sheep. Predestination means that He is going to bring me and every single sheep in. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (Jn. 10.27-28). Sheep are stupid little fellows. They are save only because they have a wonderful shepherd.

We are predestinated “unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself.” Adoption means that we are brought into the place of sons. It implies two things. Adoption means regeneration by the Holy Spirit. The child of God has been born again “not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (1 Pe. 1.23). He is born again into a new relationship. Adoption means a place of position and privilege. When we are saved, we are born into the family of God as a babe in Christ; but, in addition, we are given the position of an adult son. We are in a position where we can understand the Word of the Father because He has given us the Holy Spirit as our Teacher. God communicates with us now. Paul tells us how: “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God” (1 Co. 2.12).

v6 All is for the glory of God. “Wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” The Beloved is the Lord Jesus Christ who said “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world” (Jn. 17.24). God sees the believer in Christ and accepts the believer just as He receives His own Son. “I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me” (Jn. 17.23).

God gets all the praise. He did it all. He chose us in Christ. He predestinated us to the place of sonship. He made us accepted in the beloved.

3. God the Son Paid the Price for the Church, verses 7-12, “redemption through his blood”

v7 Back in eternity past God chose us, predestined us, and made us accepted in the Beloved. Now we move out of eternity into time, where the plans of God the Father are placed into the hands of Christ, who moves into space and time to construct the church. The only thing that is repulsive about the blood redemption is sin. It is impossible to emphasize the blood of Christ too much. It is through His blood that we have redemption. The entire context of the Old Testament sets forth the expiation of sins by the blood of an animal sacrifice. Yet this could not take away sins—only Christ could execute that. See Hebrews. 10.6-13.

“In whom we have redemption.” “In whom” refers to Christ. We are accepted in the Beloved. Mt. 20.28: He came “to give his life a ransom for many.” 1 Co. 6:20 “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Ga. 3:13 “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:” Christ redeemed us. We belong to Him.

Redemption also means to set free after paying the price. Lk. 21:28 “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” Man is sold under sin and is in bondage to sin. Man is rotten, corrupt sinner and he cannot do anything else but sin—he is a slave to sin. Christ came to pay the price of man’s freedom. Jn. 8:36 “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

This redemption is “through His blood”—that was the price which he paid. 1 Pe. 1:18-19 “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” The blood of Christ is more valuable than silver and gold. There is not much of it. A limited supply increases the value. One drop of Christ’s blood can save every sinner on earth, if the sinner will trust Christ. “Without shedding of blood is no remission” He. 9.22.

“The forgiveness of sins.” Forgiveness is not the act of an indulgent deity who is moved by sentiment to the exclusion of justice, righteousness, and holiness. Forgiveness depends on shedding of blood.

Human forgiveness and divine forgiveness are not the same. … Human forgiveness comes before the penalty is executed. Divine forgiveness depends upon the penalty being executed. The righteousness of the law demands that the penalty be paid. Judges on earth are to exact justice. Are they willing to pay the penalty if they forgive? God paid the penalty, and then he forgave. [See McGee, Ephesians, pp. 41-43.

“According to the riches of His Grace.” [Dr. McGee explains the difference between “according to the riches of His Grace” and “out of the riches of His Grace.”]

We are dealing with the work of God the Son on behalf of the church. That work is threefold: (1) Christ redeemed us through His blood, (2) He has revealed the mystery of His will, and (3) He rewards us with an inheritance.

We saw that Christ bought us to set us free. God never asks what we have done for Hm. When He saves you by grace, it does not put you in debt to Him. He bought you in order to set you free. But we certainly are to serve Him. But it is on another basis, a new relationship—the relationship now is love. Jn. 14:15 “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” He did not say, “because I am dying for you, keep my commandments.” If you don’t love Him, forget about this business of service.

For more of the Dr. McGee’s study on Ephesians 1.7, click here.

Now we are ready for the second work of God the Son on behalf to the church: Christ revealed the mystery of His will in vv 8-12.

vv8-10 A mystery in Scripture means that God is revealing something that, up to that time, He had not revealed. There are two elements to a New Testament mystery: (1) It cannot be discovered by human agencies, for it is always a revelation from God; (2) It is revealed at the proper time and not concealed, and enough is revealed to establish the fact without all the details being disclosed.

There are 11 mysteries in the NT. (See McGee, Ephesians, pp. 45-46). God hasn’t told us everything about these mysteries. There are a lot of questions one could ask about them, but only God knows the answers.

Click here to go to Dr. McGee’s audio teaching on Ep. 8-11. He explains “mystery (including the mysteries in the New Testament),” “dispensation (a word like “blood,” “cross” that is hated), “fullness of time toward which God is moving all things,” “believers’ inheritance,” which God had purposed and “predestined.” Christ paid for the church.

v11-12 God rewards us for something we have not done. Believers will inherit with Christ because they are in Christ. See Ro. 8.17, 1 Co.3.21-23. Everything is mine. Christ belongs to me, Paul belongs to me, death may belong to me. All is mine because He has given it to me. God is mine! This is to the saved. God never predestined anyone to be lost. He predestined the saved to receive an inheritance which I did not deserve. It is a reward out of His grace and not out of my merit.

These are three marvelous things Christ has done for us: (1) Redeemed us with His blood; (2) Revealed the mystery of His will; (3) Rewards us with an inheritance. He paid for the church, and I belong to Him because He paid a price. Men living today will all be gone in 100 years. But God’s plans will be carried out!

v12. Man exists for God’s glory. The believer exists for the glory of God. The third doxology concerns the work of the Holy Spirit.

God the Holy Spirit Protects a Church, verses 13, 14 “by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body”

Ep.1.13-14 v13 We’re passing from the God’s work for us to the work of the Holy Spirit in us. In this work of regeneration and renewing, the Holy Spirit causes a sinner to hear and believe in his heart, and that makes Him a child of God (Jn. 1.12).

“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth.” Hearing means to hear not just the sound of words but to hear with understanding (1 Co. 1.23, 24). The called are those who heard with understanding. God called them (See Ro. 10.17). Those who are called hear the Word of God and respond to it, then they are born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God…” (1 Pe. 1.23). The moment one trusts in Christ, he is regenerated.

“In whom after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.” One is baptized in the Holy Spirit the moment he trusts Christ. He is also sealed at that moment. The Spirit does the work. He regenerates the sinner at the same time that He seals the sinner.

The two-fold purpose in the sealing work of the Holy Spirit is (1) He implants the image of God upon the heart to give reality to the believer (See Jn. 3.33). (2) the sealing is to denote rightful ownership. (2 Ti. 2.19). If you name the name of Christ, you are going to depart from iniquity. If there is not this evidence, then you were not regenerated or sealed. The Holy Spirit is the seal, and that guarantees that Do is going to deliver us. We are sealed to the day of redemption.

v14 The third and final work of the Holy Spirit in protecting the church. The Holy Spirit is our earnest money (money put down to hold property with more to come). He has been given as a pledge and token that there is more to follow in the way of spiritual blessings. All this is to “the praise of his glory.” This is the third doxology in this chapter. Here it is to the praise of the glory of God that the Holy Spirit regenerates us, becomes our refuge and seal, and gives us reality. All these glorious truths move Paul to prayer.

5. Prayer of Paul on behalf of the Ephesians for Knowledge and Power, verses 15-23

The Ephesian church was noted for its faith and love, real love expressed by the saints. This was the church at its highest. Sadly, many negative things motivate us to pray. Paul was often motivated by good things. Do we pray, e.g., “Oh God, I thank you for this brother and the way You are using him”? “Thank you God for the way you are using [a church or its preacher]”? Or do we pray, “I want this, I want that, I want another thing”? Why don’t we thank Him sometimes. We need more thanksgiving services, maybe more than just once a year. We need to praise Him more.

Paul said, “I cease not to give thanks for you.” Paul wept with the believers at Ephesus when he took leave of them. He loved them, and they loved him. You can judge a church by their love for each other and their love for the Word of God.

Paul was a great man of prayer, which you will see if you go through and make a list of all those he prayed for. There are two of Paul’s prayers in this epistle. This is the first one. The other is at the end of the third chapter. Both indicate his concern as a child of God for other believers. Ananias in Damascus was afraid to go to Paul. The angel said to him, “Behold he prayeth.” (Acts 9.11). This was an indication to Ananias that something had happened to Saul of Tarsus.

“Cease not to give thanks for you.” “Making mention of you in all my prayers.” That means he called them all by name.

Now we will see that he does not pray for material things but for spiritual blessings.

Paul, having written that the church is the body of Christ, and that God the Father planned it, God the Son paid for it, and God the Holy Spirit protects it, recognized that the Ephesians wouldn’t be able to understand all this unless the Spirit of God was their teacher and opened the Word of God to them. That is the only way anyone will ever understand the Word of God.

SEE P. 57 FOR TREMENDOUS TESTIMONIAL TO LAST PARAGRAPH.

v18 As far as spiritual knowledge is concerned, no person can understand it apart from the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”

vv19-20 God’s mighty power was enough to raise Christ from the dead. Resurrection power and power to set Christ at God’s right hand (ascension power). This same power is available to believers today. Philippians 3:10 “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.”

Ephesians 1:21-23 “Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.”

Thus Paul concludes on a tremendously high note. The church at Ephesus church (and every local church under Christ – see also, e.g., 1 Co. 12.27) is the body of Christ, and Christ is the head of the church. Hebrews 2:8 “Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.”

At the present time, the only thing that is under Him are his true local New Testament churches—the real churches which make up the institution of the church—made up of real believers. There are many organized groups who call themselves churches who are not listening to the Lord Jesus. These “churches” are paralyzed. You see, the most tragic sight to see is a child of God lying on a bed, helpless, as if his brain is detached from his body. I’ve seen many churches that have been like that, and there are many individual Christians today who act as if they are detached from Christ, the head of the body. He says, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” In other words, I can wiggle my little finger because my head is in charge of it; and when He wants you to “wiggle” down here, yo do it because of love, or else you’re not attached to Him. How important this is! Paul pictures the church (which consists now of local autonomous New Testament spiritual assemblies or bodies) and our relationship to it in this way: “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit” (1 Co. 12.12-13). The thing we need to see is that Christ is the head of the body, the local church, His churches, who are under Him.

CHAPTER 2
A Church Is a TEMPLE

The chapter begins with “wherefore,” letting us know it is a continuation of the thought of the first chapter. The power that raised Jesus from the dead (chapter 1) is the same power that makes one a child of God because everyone is dead in trespasses and sins after he has been made alive in Christ. That takes power! It takes resurrection power. This power will be exhibited by a church which is the body of Christ in this world. The Lord Jesus expresses Himself in the world today through his church.

A church as a temple corresponds to the temple of the Old Testament which was, in turn, preceded by the tabernacle of the wilderness. The comparison is self-evident. The contrasts between the church and the tabernacle and the temple in the Old Testament are sharp and striking.

The tabernacle and the temple, for instance, were made of living trees of acacia wood that were hewn into dead boards. In order to form A church, God takes dead material and makes it into a living temple.
The temple and the tabernacle were dwelling places for the glory of God. A church is a dwelling place for the Person of the Holy Spirit.
Nor does a church have a ritual. It is a functional organism in which the Holy Spirit moves through the living stones. The tabernacle and the temple were for the performance of a ritual and the repetition of a sacrifice for sin. A church is built upon the one sacrifice of Christ in the historical past, a sacrifice which is not repeated: Hebrews 9:25-26: “Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”
Also, the church is not a “temple made with hands.”Acts 17:24-25: “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” “Ye” is plural. The Holy Spirit is writing to the local church, specifically the church at Corinth, but also to all local churches of Christ.
Another sharp contrast to the Old Testament temple is the position of the Gentiles. Gentiles had to come as proselytes and were confined to the Court of the Gentiles. The Court of the Gentiles was way off to the left as you look into the temple. The Gentiles did not get very close. That is why Paul says, “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ” (Ep. 2:13). Gentile believers are now seated in “heavenly places” in Christ!

Israel never did believe that God was confined to the temple. See 1 K. 8.27.

THE MATERIAL FOR CONSTRUCTION (vv1-10)

vv1-2 The devil takes this dead material and energizes us. That is the reason the cults are as busy as termites. False religionists put us to shame in their zeal. Satan is energizing them. Satan is able to duplicate a great many of the miracles that are scriptural miracles.

Verses 1-7 compose a single periodic sentence in the Greek. It is difficult to read. Koine Greek is generally easy to read, but here is a periodic sentence that reveals that Paul was capable of writing better Greek than the Koine of his day. Etc. See McGee, Ephesians, p. 67.

The death of Adam was imputed to us. Ro. 5:12: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Adam died spiritually the day he disbelieved and disobeyed God. He ran away from God and tried to hide. That is the position of natural man today. Adam had lost his capacity and longing for God. He was separated from God. Death is separation. Physical death is separation of the spirit and the soul from the body. Spiritual death is a separation from God. Only the convicting work of the Holy Spirit can prick the conscience of any man in the world today. John 16:8: “And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”

An old Irishman described a cemetery: “A cemetery is a place where the dead live.” That describes our world.

Adam trespassed. He stepped over God’s bounds. Sin means to miss the mark. Man’s condition before he is saved: dead in trespasses and sins and energized by Satan. Every unsaved man is walking around like a spiritual zombie. While lost, we walked according to the spirit of the age. We conformed to the society and the civilization and the life-style of the world. We were walking according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that energizes the sons of disobedience.

A lot of people come to church on Sunday, pious as a church mouse. On Monday, they start out in this rough workaday world just as mean and hard and after the almighty dollar as everyone else. See James 4.1-4.

See 1 Jn. 2.15-17.

In this section of the second chapter of Ephesians, Paul is giving a description of the past, present, and future of the church and of all believers.

vv4-6 starts with “but,” an important thing. We were dead in trespasses and sins, completely incapable of saving ourselves. God loves us, but He saves us by His grace, not by His love.

vv8, 9 Great verses which consummate this section on the believer’s past, present, and future.

v10 All believers from the day of Pentecost to the rapture, the real believers, most of whom are members of local churches, are His workmanship and His new creation in Christ Jesus.

THE METHOD OF CONSTRUCTION

vv11, 12 The church at Ephesus was made up largely of Gentiles, with just a small number of Jews. Gentiles are further identified as the “uncircumcision,” put on them by the so-called “circumcision,” the Jews. After God called out Abraham until the advent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Israel was a unique nation. A Gentile could only come as a proselyte. This distinction caused friction because Israel became proud of her position. Israelites came to look down on Gentiles, and hatred crept into the hearts of both groups.

These verses give a description of the sad lot and hopeless plight of the Gentiles. It is an accurate picture of any lost man: “Without Christ,” “Aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,” “Strangers from the covenants of promise,” “having no hope,” (the religions of the world have no hope) and “without God in the world” (man has removed himself from God, not the other way around.).

The covenants God made with Israel are still valid, and no Gentile has any right to appropriate them. God promised them that land, and will give it to them one day, on God’s terms, not theirs.

v13 For Gentiles in Christ, all that has changed. They have been made nigh by the blood of Christ.

vv14-17 Everyone in Christ stands on equal footing. We will be with Christ throughout eternity. When a Jew and Gentile are placed in Christ, there is peace. God has brought both Jew and Gentile to a higher plane. The true brotherhood is composed of those who are in Christ. Both Jew and Gentile come to the cross as sinners, where they are made a new creature.

The Old Testament temple succeeded by the tabernacle had partitions. There were three entrances into the three departments: the outer court, the holy place, and the holy of holies. There were three entrances into the three departments: the outer court, the holy place, and the holy of holies. Then there were sections partitioned off for priests, Israel, women, and Gentiles. Christ, by His death, took out the veil, and He became the way (the outer court), the truth (the holy place), and the life (the holy of holies). Now we come through Christ and come directly into the presence of God the Father. Those who come to Him are removed from their little departments and are placed in Christ, the new Temple where there are no departments. The cross dissolves the fences, and the gospel is preached to the Gentiles, those who were afar off, and to the Jews, those who were near.

v 18 Both Jew and Gentile “have access by one Spirit unto the Father.”

THE MEANING OF THE CONSTRUCTION (vv 19-23)

Ephesians 2:19-22 “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”

“Saints” is not referring to OT saints. Gentile and Jewish believers belong to a household, the household of God, as relatives, as members of the family of God. They are His dear children (1 Jn. 2.12). Even David, the man after God’s own heart, is called, “my servant David” in 2 S. 7.8; and God’s term for Moses was also “my servant” in Nu. 12.7.

Citizenship is not in Israel and the earthly Jerusalem, but in heaven. Philippians 3:20 “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

The apostles laid the foundation. Acts 2:42: “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.”

The prophets in verse 20 are New Testament prophets, as will be confirmed when we get to the third chapter.

Christ is the chief corner stone, the rock on which the church is built. 1 Co. 3:11: “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” See also 1 Pe. 2.6-8.

vv21-22 The church, now made up of local assemblies under Christ, is under construction today and it will be finished. It is growing into an holy temple in the Lord. The church is growing, it is made up of living, born again, stones who are growing into a living temple. The Holy Spirit silently regenerates dead sinners. At the moment of salvation, a sinner becomes a member of the family of God. God’s plan for him is that he should now become a part of a local church under Christ. All believers will one day be in the universal church established at the marriage of the Lamb(Heb. 12.22-24; Re. 19.7-10). God indwells believers, not buildings. God has never dwelt in any building made with hands, and it is a pagan philosophy which places God in a human-made structure.

A church is to reveal the presence and the glory of God on earth. When believers assemble together in a church, the impression should be made upon the world, even in this age, that God is in His holy temple.

Chapter 3
The Church Is a Mystery

Covenant theology ignores the clear-cut statement of Paul that the church is not a revelation of the OT. They treat the church as a continuation of Israel. It appropriates all the promises that God made to Israel and applies them to the church. One of their Bibles heads some of the chapters written by the prophets in the OT “Blessings for the Church.” Other chapters are headed: “Curses for Israel.” They give the blessings in the OT to the church and the curses to Israel.

Hyperdispensationalists places undue emphasis on Paul’s statements, “he made known to me the mystery,” and “my knowledge in the mystery of Christ,” and they treat the mystery as the peculiar revelation to Paul. As a result, there has been the pernicious practice of shifting the beginning of the church to some day after Pentecost, with several dates having been suggested. This claim to superior knowledge has ministered to spiritual pride. When the church was revealed, the revelation was not confined to the Apostle Paul.

THE EXPLANATION OF THE MYSTERY

vv1, 2 Paul became a prisoner because he took the gospel to the Gentiles. Now new privileges are accorded the Gentiles, which he enumerated in the preceding chapter. Paul now speaks of the mystery, then he prays for them. Both Paul and Peter had the same message; Peter to the Jews, Paul to the Gentiles. Compare Ac. 4.12 (Peter to the Jews) and Ac. 16.31 (Paul to the Gentiles).

They is now a brand new thing taking place, a different economy or dispensation (v 2). Paul as a Pharisee never went out to preach to the Gentiles. He is now under a new economy. He is missionary to the Gentiles. God’s method of salvation had not changed. No man was saved by keeping the law, but by a bloody sacrifice that pointed to Christ.

vv3, 4 The hyperdispensationalists hold that because Paul said the mystsery had been made known to him, he was the only one who knew it. However, in verse 5 Paul makes it clear that the Spirit made it known to all the apostles and prophets. The “revelation” began with Paul’s conversion when Christ informed him that when he was persecuting the church he was persecuting Christ.

vv5, 6 The mystery was not revealed to Paul alone. No one in the OT had a glimmer of light relative to the church. It is now revealed to God’s holy apostles. Holy means set aside for this office by God. The “prophets” are definitely NT prophets. The Holy Spirit is the teacher.The Father promised his disciples, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you” (Jn. 15:16).

The OT clearly taught that the Gentiles would be saved. See Is. 11.10, 42.6, 60.3; Zech. 2.11; Mal. 1.11. So that the Gentiles should be saved is not a mystery.

So what is the mystery? They mystery was that the Gentiles and Israel were placed on the same basis. By faith in Christ they were both brought into the family of Christ, to form His local New Testament churches.

Threefold division of the human race: (1) From Adam to Abraham all people were Gentiles (2000 years plus). (2) From Abraham to Christ, all people were either Jews or Gentiles (2000 years). (3) The threefold division is Jews and Gentiles in Christ from the day of Pentecost to the rapture. (2000 years plus). Paul referred to this threefold division when he said, “Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God” (1 Co. 10.32).

The church is not in the OT, although there are types of the church in the OT. The church was all Jewish when it began, but there was a period of transition when Gentiles were brought into it.

v7 Paul takes no position of superiority. He takes only the title of “minister” which means a worker or helper or deacon (in the original).

It was the gift of God’s grace which had transformed him from Saul, the proud Pharisee who persecuted the church, to Paul, the apostle who was now a prisoner for Jesus Christ. All that had been accomplished was through the working of the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul had both the gift and the power of an apostle.

vv8, 9 There are a lot of things God has not told us yet. We don’t know very much right now. We will never understand and apply, a fraction of what God has revealed to us in His Word, even though He has told us very little. Man can discover some things, but there are some things man can never find out except by revelation. The church was a mystery in that sense.

In v 8 Paul calls himself “less that the least of all saints.” Paul always took the place of humility as an apostle. “For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God” (1 Co. 15.9). “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief” (1 Ti. 1.12-13). How unlike many “pastors” was Paul the apostle.

Paul was chosen to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. “And to make all men see”—the mystery is not to be argued or debated but is to be preached. And Paul was to make all men see the economy (the dispensation) of the mystery.

vv10, 11 Another purpose of the mystery is revealed here. God’s created intelligencies are learning something of the wisdom of God through the church. They not only see the love of God displayed and lavished upon us, but the wisdom of God is revealed to His angels. All according to God’s eternal purpose.

v12 We, the Gentiles, and Paul, the persecutor, have freedom of speech before God and access or introduction to Him. This is all made possible in Christ aside from man’s earthly laws.

v13 “Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.” Because of the great goals of the mystery which Paul has enumerated, he is willing to suffer imprisonment as the apostle to the Gentiles. He did not want the Ephesians to be discouraged because of it because Paul was working for his good and their glory. See Col. 1.24.

PRAYER FOR POWER AND KNOWLEDGE

V14 This is the Paul’s 2^nd great prayer in this epistle. He got down on his knees. He prayed to “the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This prayer, like all other prayers in the Scriptures, is very brief. Moses’ prayer for Israel was 3 verses long. Elija, on top of Mt. Carmel – one verse. Nehemiah’s – 7 verses. The prayer of our Lord in Jn. 17 takes only 3 minutes to read. Briefest prayer , Simon Peter, 3 words (Mt. 4.30). Prayer should be brief and to the point.

v15 God has a wonderful family.

vv13-19 “according to the riches of his glory.” Paul makes 4 petitions on behalf of the Ephesians: (1) That they might “be strengthened with might [power] by his Spirit in the inner man.” (2) That “Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” (3) That the believers may know the dimensions of the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ. The breadth. The length. The depth. the height. (4) That believers “might be filled up to the fullness of God.”

vv20-21 This is both a doxology and a benediction which concludes the prayer. This is a mighty outburst of spiritual praise.

II. PRACTICAL, the Earthly Conduct of A Church (Vocation), Chapters 4-6

Chapter 4
Church is a new man; therefore the church must walk as a new man

Now we come to the believer’s manner of life, his earthly walk. This is an earthly walk, but not a worldly walk. In chapters 1-3, we considered the calling, construction, and constitution of the church. In this section, we consider the conduct, confession, and conflict of a church. The church is a new man; in the future the church will be a bride; and the church is also a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

In Chapters 1-3 we were on the mountain peak. In this last division we descent to the plane of living where we confront a demon-possessed world and a skeptical mob. It is down where the rubber meets the road. Are we able to translate the truths of the mountain top into shoe leather? Are we able to walk throught the world in a way that pleases the Lord?

Possession is the great word in the book of Joshua. Position was a key word in the first half of Ephesians—God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings. God has given them to us, but are we walking down here in possession of them? The unsearchable riches in Christ must be searched out with the spiritual Geiger counter, which is the Word of God.

Up to now there have been glorious declarations, but now there will be commands. The church is to make itself visible down here in a local assembly. This section is the practical side of Ephesians.

If you are not a child of God, God is not asking you to do the commands in this epistle. What follows is for those who have been redeemed and have heard the Word of truth. Dead men cannot walk no matter how insistently they are urged to walk. The dead man must first be made alive. The top sergeant doesn’t go out to the cemetery and yell, “Attention! Forward march!” Religions are saying to a dying world, “Do something and you will be somebody.” God says the opposite: “Be somebody and then you can do something.”

THE EXHIBITION OF THE NEW MAN (vv1-6)

v1 “Therefore.” A connective, a transition word. Paul is a “prisoner of the Lord,” because of his position in Christ.

He beseeches [begs] the Ephesians to “walk worthy” of our calling. Phill. 1.27, 1 Co. 1.10, 1 Thes. 2.10. Paul begs us to walk worthy of the gospel. It’s not so much as how you walk, it’s is where you walk. 1 John 1:7 “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Walking in the light is in the light of the Word of God.

vv2, 3 “Lowliness” means a mind brought low; lowliness means the opposite of pride. Lowliness is the flagship of all Christian virtues. Philippians 2:3 “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.” Many pastors, seeing themselves as clergy, the only spiritual ones in a church, become very proud and controlling over the so-called “laity.”

Meekness means mildness, but it does not mean weakness. 2 men in Scripture who are noted for being meek. In the OT it was Moses and in the NT it was the Lord Jesus. Moses came down from the mountain and broke the tablets. Jesus drove the money changers out of the temple. The Bible calls meekness a willingness to stand and to the will of God regardless of the cost. Meekness is bowing yourself to the will of God.

“Longsuffering” means a long temper. This is a fruit of the Spirit (Ga. 5.22).

“Forebearing one another in love” means to hold one’s self back in the spirit of love. See Col. 3.13. “Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit.” John 17:21 “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me”.

vv4-6 Lists 7 unities: one body, one Spirit, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism (ritual baptism is by water and spiritual baptism is baptism by Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit – baptism with the Holy Ghost by Jesus Christ), one God and Father of all (God’s fatherhood of all believer’s).

THE INHIBITION OF THE NEW MAN (v7-16)

v7 God has given every one of us grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. God gives gifts to believers as we see in Ro. 12, and 1 Co. 12, 13, and 14. The gift of a believer is for the purpose of building up the body of believers, for the profit of the whole body of believers. The gift is given a believer to benefit and bless the church. When each believer functions in his peculiar gift, it produces a harmony, and does each member of the human body. However, when one member of the body suffers, the whole body suffers.

v8 Quotes Ps. 68.18, but the Holy Spirit changes the words, for a purpose. In the OT, the Lord Jesus had received gifts from men, then He came to earth. Now He has been here and gone back to heaven. He is distributing the gifts among men. “When He ascended up on high” refers to His ascension. He led captivity captive,–He took the redeemed of the OT who were in Paradise with Him to heaven, to the very presence of God. Now, when a believer dies, he absent from the body and present with the Lord (cf. 2 Co. 5.8; Phill. 1.23). When Christ ascended He gave gifts to men—this means He conferred gifts upon living believers in the church so that they might witness to the world. On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit baptized believers into the body of Christ and then endowed them with certain gifts, enabling them to function as members of the local body.

vv9-10 He brought the OT saints out of Paradise to the throne of God. (There are other interpretations).

vv11-13 This does not refer to the gifts He has given men. This says Christ takes certain men who have been given certain gifts, and He gives them to the church. For what purpose: “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ.” These gifted men are given to the church so that it might be brought to full maturity.

The purpose of a church is to complete itself so that it might grow up. The pastor’s job is to build up the members of the church for the work of the ministry.

v14 “That we henceforth be no more children.” We are to have inhibitions. We are not to run around like a bunch of crying babies. We are not to be “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness whereby they lay in wait to deceive.”

vv15-16 The believer is to love truth, live it, and speak it. Christ is the head. The body of believers is compared to a physical body and is called the body of Christ. The body receives orders from the Head, but also spiritual nutriment. This produces a harmony where each member of the body is functioning in his place as he receives spiritual supplies from the head. The spiritual body has an inward dynamic, love, whereby it renews itself.

THE PROHIBITION OF THE NEW MAN (vv17-32)

vv 17-19 New morality is nothing more than old sin. There is liberty in Christ but it is not a license to sin. Here we find some prohibitions for the child of God. now Paul gives a picture of the lives of Gentiles and the lives of the Ephesians before their conversion.

Paul gives 4 aspects of the walk of the Gentiles which illustrate the absolute futility and insane purpose of the life of the lost man.

“In the vanity of their mind” means the empty illusion of the life that thinks there is satisfaction in sin.
“”having the understanding darkened” means that the lost man has lost his perception darkened.
Being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them” is a picture of all mankind without Christ.
Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness [which is uncleanness], to work all uncleanness with greediness [or covetousness]. Continuance in this brings them down to the level where they have no feeling of wrongdoing. They covet the absolute depths of immorality. They become abandoned to sin. This is what it means in Ro. that God gave them up to all uncleanness through their own lusts. You can reach the place where you are an abandoned sinner.

vv20-21 If anyone is not listening to Jesus, Jesus must not be his savior. If you do not hear the voice of the shepherd, you are one of his sheep.

vv22-24 The putting off the old and putting on the new cannot be done by self-effort, nor by striving to imitate Christ’s conduct. It has been done for the believing sinner by the death of Christ.

We have a new nature. This is the result of regeneration by the Holy Spirit.

“Which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” This is the imputed righteousness of Christ. Our walk should be commensurate with our position.

vv25-27 Paul returns to the prohibitions which he began in verse 17. These injunctions continue through the remainder of the epistle. Speaking the truth would resolve most of the problems in the average church. In a church, there ought to be honesty and truth among the members.

“Be angry and sin not.”

vv30: “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.”

vv31-32 are sins of an emotional nature

Chapter 5
The church will be a bride

The emphasis on this chapter is the future. The universal church is not a bride today. A church is a new man walking in the world, and is engaged TO Christ. The institution of the church today is made up of local, autonomous New Testament assemblies. The church will be a bride after the rapture (Re. 21.2, 9).

On this earth, we are to walk as a future bride. We are engaged now. 2 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.”

THE ENGAGEMENT OF THE CHURCH (vv1-17)

vv1, 2 “Therefore” connects this section with the preceding where the walk of the believer is under consideration and continues the injunctions for Christian conduct. These injunctions have a definite bearing upon the church which will be presented to Christ without spot or blemish.

Believers, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, can grieve the Holy Spirit. If we engage in the sins mentioned in Chapter 4, verse 31, it does not mean we are not children of God, it means that the world will not believe that we are the children of God.

The believer cannot walk with a grieved Holy Spirit, for only the Spirit can bring forth this fruit. Love is the first on the list of the fruit of the Spirit in Ga. 5.22.

vv3, 4 The sins described here are those which are prevalent among unbelievers. They are the common sins in the world. All of them have to do with low forms of immorality. Paul is saying that the child of God cannot habitually engage in these. Even a slight indulgence brings about a revulsion and agony of soul. If you can get into sin and not be troubled or bothered by it, you are not a child of God. Confessing sin restores fellowship. The great need of all believers is to go to God and tell Him what is really in our hearts.

If you are living in fornication today, you cannot be a child of God. A child of God cannot confess a sin and then persist in living in that sin.

v5 A person who practices these sins is not a child of God.

vv6, 7 God’s wrath is poured out on those who practice the sins in vv3-5. God’s wrath is never poured out on His children. He chastises His children. 1 Corinthians 11:31-32: “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.”

vv8-10 Paul reminds the believers of their former state. They were not just in darkness. They were darkness. “Now are ye light in the Lord,” means we are to reflect Him who is the light of the world. Paul marks out those characteristics which always accompany light” “In all goodness;” “righteousness,” meaning moral rectitude; and “truth,” referring primarily to sincerity and genuineness. Here we have a description of walking in the light as He is in the light.

vv11-13 We are to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.” Rather we are to “reprove” or convict them. Light reveals what darkness conceals. A believer cannot tell an unbeliever what to do and what not to do. The preachers business is to turn on the light of the Word of God. The lost person cannot change. He needs to be born again in order to change. Darkness is not dissipated by lecturing nor by preaching. Darkness is dissipated by light.

v14 How can a person awake out of spiritual death? Only God can awaken us. Dr. McGee thinks the meaning here is that believers who have fallen into a spiritual stupor are to wake up.

vv15-17 A believer is to walk wisely. His walk is to reveal the urgency of the hour and the importance of living for God. The entire objective in his walk is to stay in the will of God. He walks in the will of God as a train runs on the track. His walk in this world demonstrates that he belongs to Christ. There is a saying that you never ask a Texan if he is a Texan. If he is a Texan, he’ll let you know it without your asking. If he is not a Texan, you wouldn’t want to embarrass him. Christians need to walk in such a way that you know he is a child of God.

THE EXPERIENCE OF THE CHURCH (vv18-24)

vv18-19 Be not drunk with wine, but filled with the spirit…. Drinking will stimulate temporarily: it will energize the flesh, but then it will let you down and lead you in the direction of profligacy (reckless extravagance or wastefulness in the use of resources) and dissoluteness (indifferent to moral restraints; given to immoral or improper conduct; licentious; dissipated), and finally eventuate in desperation and despair and delirium tremens (An acute, sometimes fatal episode of delirium that is usually caused by withdrawal or abstinence from alcohol following habitual excessive drinking or an episode of heavy alcohol consumption. It is characterized by trembling, sweating, acute anxiety, confusion, and hallucinations.).

Rather than drinking, “be filled with the Spirit.” A man who is drinking is possessed by the wine. You can tell that a man is drunk. In contrast, it is the Holy Spirit who should be the one to possess the believer. It is a divine intoxication that is to fill that need. This is not an excessive emotionalism but that which furnishes the dynamic for living and for accomplishing something for God. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, it means we are controlled by the Holy Spirit.

A believer is never told to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, but we are told we are baptized the moment we trust Christ – that Christ baptizes us with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit regenerates and indwells us. The Holy Spirit seals us.

However, the believer needs that filling of the Spirit to serve Christ. We drive into a service station and say, “Fill it up.” Believers should start the day with the Lord and say, “Lord, I want to walk today in the Spirit. I cannot do it myself. I need Your power. I need your help.” Being filled yesterday or last week, but that will not suffice for today. When you are filled with the Spirit, you will do something for God; you will be walking in the Spirit. But you need a daily filling.

That is why some people can be mightily used of God one day and feel so empty the next.

One of the evidences of being filled with the Holy Spirit is “speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.”

Believers need an attitude adjustment, but they don’t need the spirits that come from a bottle; they need to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that they might radiate the joy of the Lord. The Apostle John says that one reason he wrote his epistle was so that “your joy may be full.” This fullness of joy is to be through our fellowship with the Father and with Jesus Christ (1 Jn. 1.3, 4). The joy of the Lord comes with the filling of the Holy Spirit.

v20 Another evidence of being filled with the Spirit is an attitude of thankfulness. In the book of Psalms we note a great amount of thanksgiving and praise to God, on a high level. “Praise the Lord, and thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift.”

The command to be filled with the Holy Spirit is the only command given to the believer relative to the Holy Spirit. Every believer is regenerated by the Holy Spirit; John 1:12 “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” The believer is indwelt by the Spirit; Romans 8:9: “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” The believer is sealed by the Holy Spirit; Ephesians 1:13: “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.” Christ baptizes the believer with the Holy Ghost; John 1:33: “And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.” Matthew 3:11 “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.”

v21 Believers are to submit to one another in the fear of God. We are to walk with one another in lowliness of mind. This means that you do not try to run the church. All church members are to submit ourselves one to another in the fear of Christ.

vv22-24 A very personal loving relationship is the ground for submission. Paul is speaking to believers about Christian marriage. The husband is the aggressor. He should be the breadwinner. The wife is to respond to him as the believer is to respond to Christ—in a love relationship. Woman is the responder. The man is to say, “I love you.” He proposes. She says, “Yes” or “No.”

In this section, we find that there are 4 areas of order: Wives are to be subject to the husband, husbands to Christ, children to parents, servants to masters. If there is not love in it, submission isn’t worth the snap of a finger. Cr. McGee says he has done a lot of marriage counseling and 75% of the fault is on the side of the man.

THE EXPECTATION OF THE CHURCH (vv25-33)

v25 God never asked a woman to submit to any man who does not love her and love her like his. “Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.” This is past.

v26 In the present He is sanctifying the church with the water of the Word of God.

v27 In the future, He will present it to Himself a glorious church, without a spot or wrinkle, but holy and without blemish.

vv28-32 Paul draws 2 themes and goes back and forth, husband and wife, Christ and church. Husbands are to love the wife because she is part of his body. The church is the body of Christ and Christ is Head of the body. It is unnatural for a man to hate his own flesh. Christ, knowing the weakness of the church, nourishes and cherishes her. Husbands are to do the same. Verse 31 is a quotation from Genesis 2.24. That first couple is a figure of the future union of Christ and the church as bridegroom and bride. She was taken from his side, not molded from the ground as animals. Adam was incomplete until they were together. She was an helpmeet for Adam. She compensated for what he lacked. She was made for him and they became one. She was taken out of man.

v33 Love your wife as yourself.

Chapter 6
The church is a good soldier of Jesus Christ

A humorous person said this as is to be expected. After a couple gets married, the war begins.

The church is going to be the bride of Christ. Today, is the period of the engagement and the exhibition of the church before the world. The church is to be a good soldier before the world. Our enemy is not the worship at the temple of Diana. Our enemy is infinitely worse. We are seeing immorality and heathenism not only in the name of religion but actually in the name of Christianity.

In this chapter we shall see:

The soldier’s relationships
The soldier’s enemy
The soldier’s protection
The soldier’s example—Paul was a good soldier of Jesus Christ
The soldier’s benediction

The chapter opens with instructions to children, parents, servants, and masters. A soldier’s training does not start in boot camp; it begins when he is a child in the home. In WWII they had a saying in the navy that in the early days of our nation we had wooden ships and iron men, but now we have iron ships and paper-doll men. the navy finds that they can easily put a uniform on the man. It is putting a man into the uniform that is causing such problems.

The preparation of a soldier must begin in the home when he is a child—not in the church nor in the Sunday school, but in the home. Every child who doesn’t get that first lesson is handicapped. Proper training means discipline.

v1 According to the will of God, it is right and just for children to obey their parents in the Lord. The first lesson a soldier must learn is obedience to those in authority. He must follow orders. This basic training is learned in the home. After a soldier has learned to obey, he is in a position to be promoted where he commands others. To know how to give orders depends largely on how the soldier learned to obey. This basic training is found in the home with the parent-child relationship, and then with the master-servant relationship.

2 factors must be taken into account:

It is assumed that Paul is talking about a Christian home. “In the Lord.” 1 Co. 7:14: “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.”
Here it says “obey,” not “submit” as in Ep. 5.22. Disobedience is the last and lowest form of lawlessness to occur on this earth. 2 Ti. 3:1-2: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy.” Disobedience to parents is one of the characteristics of the last days.

The struggle of the young boy’s life when he begins to rebel against being a mama’s boy, tied to his mama’s apron strings. God has given him a nature that rebels against being a mama’s boy. God wants him to stand on his own two feet. This kind of rebellion, this struggle for independence, is different from disobedience.

vv2, 3 A youngster in the home is to honor his father and mother, and continue to honor them throughout his life. This carries a promise of long life (Ex. 20.12). All ten commandments are repeated in the New Testament except the commandment to keep the Sabbath. The other commandments promised something if they were not kept, but they did not promise anything if they were kept. This commandment is the first commandment with promise.

Samson and Absalom did not keep this commandment and died young.

v4 “Nurture” means discipline and “admonition” means instruction. Bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. No such instruction was given to parents under the law. Under grace there is always mutual responsibilities and interactive duties. The parent is not to vent a bad disposition on a child or punish him in a fit of rage. It is the parent’s duty to teach the child the truths of Scripture and then to live them before the child. Don’t provoke your children to wrath. Father’s include the mother, but the emphasis is on the father because the disciplining and training of the child is actually his responsibility, but it includes the mother.

The board of education should be applied to the seat of learning when needed. Pr. 13:24: “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.” Pr. 19:18: “Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.” Pr. 22:15: “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.” Pr. 23:13-14: “Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.” Pr. 29:15: “The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul.”

These little ones who simply will not obey need to be spanked, but never when the parent is angry.

It is important that a pastor’s wife be what God calls her to be, a wife, a mom at home. She is a wife and is to take care of her husband, the home and the children. She is not to be an assistant pastor, an officer in the missionary society or hold any office in any women’s organization, etc. She is not to tend to everyone else’s business or try to raise everyone else’s children.

The discipline is to be “of the Lord.”

vv5-8 Servants are to be obedient to masters here on earth. They are not to serve with one eye on the clock. They are not to serve as “menpleasers,” i.e., to butter up the boss. Service is to be done as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the soul.

There is a responsibility on both the laborer and the capitalist (who are believers). The employer-employee relationship. This section begins with “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.”

It is estimated that half of the 120 million people living in the Roman Empire were slaves. Christianity never attacked the evil of slavery. Rather, it reached down to the slave in his degradation and lifted him up, assuring him of his liberty in Christ. Multitudes of slaves came to Christ, as we learn in Romans 16.

No matter the cause of the war, the South had to lose the Civil War because slavery was wrong. It does not mean that the North was right in the method used, but it does mean that the principle of slavery was wrong. “Servants be obedient to them that are your masters.”

Whether or not one is a genuine believer is revealed by his loyalty to his employer, to the family, to his home to his church, and to his pastor and other brothers in the church. “In singleness of your heart” (no two facedness or duplicity, licking someone’s boots when he is around and stabbing him in the back when he is away), “as unto “Christ” (this shows he is now a slave to Christ and Christ has made him free. He looks above his earthly master to his heavenly master.)

“With good will doing service.” Christian attitude.

John 8:36: “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” Only Christ offers freedom.

We should be slaves to Christ and to no one or nothing else. Saul of Tarsus was a slave to ideology. He was a Pharisee. When he came to Christ, he was made free. However, immediately he yielded to a new master and he said, “What wilt thou have me to do.” He had become a bondslave to Jesus Christ. No matter one’s earthly work, if he is a child of God, he can say, “I serve the Lord Jesus.”

Someone asked William Carey, a shoemaker who applied to go as a foreign missionary, “What is your business?” meaning to humiliate him. Carey answered, “ My business is serving the Lord, and I make shoes to pay expenses.”

v9 This is to masters and is applicable to employers. An employer is just another man before Christ. He is no respecter of persons. What He said to employees (slaves) also applies to employers who also have a Master who is Christ. This is a Christian relationship of capital and labor. The responsibilities are mutual. Masters are not to take advantage of their position as master. They are not to threaten or abuse their power. The book of Philemon gives a practical demonstration of this. Christianity works.

THE SOLDIER’S ENEMY (vv10-12)

Now we come to the theme of this chapter, “the church is a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” There is a battle to be fought, a battle along spiritual lines.

Although we are seated in “heavenly places,” we are walking on this earth and our theology has to walk in shoe leather. There are too many who are Bible believers in their head (supposedly), but earthly and not spiritual in their feet.

Most likely, the devil is not concentrating in the night clubs or skid row or the underworld or in the Mafia. He is concentrating on believers and churches. He is working on a spiritual front and most “Christians” seem to be totally unaware of that. Christians need to close their mouths from gossiping and criticizing. Churches need to reorganize under Christ, in all ways The spiritual battle is being fought wherever a man is giving out the Word of God ,where a church is standing for the Word of God.

Sometimes the most dangerous place you can be is in church. Where was the most dangerous place in Jerusalem the night Jesus was arrested? Was it with the Pharisees? Was it with the cutthroats of the underworld? No. the most dangerous place was in the upper room with Jesus. That is where the devil was that night. I believe that both Simon Peter and Judas Iscariot would testify to the fact that that was the most dangerous place to have been that night in Jerusalem. We need to recognize where the battle is being fought.

What Joshua is to the OT, Ephesians is to the NT. The Jordan River is not a picture of our death, and the promised land is not a picture of heaven. The Jordan River speaks of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and you and I cross over—through the resurrection of Christ—out of the wilderness of this world into Canaan. Canaan does not represent heaven—it could not because there were enemies in Canaan and battles to be fought. We are in the place of soldier service. Our enemy is identified, and the battle is before us.

Joshua confronted three enemies when he entered the promised land. First, Jerico which represents the world. What Jerico was to Joshua, the world is to the Christian today. Joshua was not march around Jerico, not fight it. It is a mistake to fight the world; we cannot overcome the world. “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 Jn. 5.4-5)? The central truth here is that spiritual victories are won by means and upon principles utterly foolish and inadequate in the view of human wisdom.

1 Corinthians 1:17-31: “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”

2 Corinthians 10:3-5: “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

The second enemy Joshua confronted was the little town of Ai. Ai represents the flesh. Joshua thought it would be easy to overcome Ai, so he sent up a small detachment, and they were easily whipped. When they got back, Joshua got down on his face and began to whimper and cry before God. God told Josuha, “Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.” (Joshua 5.10-11). And that sin had to be confessed and put away before God would give Israel the victory. This is what believers must do to overcome the flesh.

Many Christians are overcome by the flesh. By temper, gossiping, backbiting, and other sins of the flesh. Ai represents the flesh.

Thirdly, Joshua had to contend with the Gibeonites. They were clever and sly rascals. They lived just over the hill, but they tool old, moldy bread and wore worn-out shoes and made everything look as if they had come on a long journey. They came into the camp where Joshua was and said, “Brother, we have heard about you. We’ve heard about how God has given you victories in this land, and we want to make a treaty with y0ou. We want to be your friends.” That is the way the devil and his demons approach us. He is the deceiver, and he makes his ministers seem like angels of light.

Do you think the devil is going to knock on your door and say, “Look I’m the devil; I’m here to take you in; I’m here to fool you?” No. He will use every possible way to deceive you. He may have someone offer you literature at your door that will “explain” the Bible. Or, he may approach you this way if you are in a church that is going liberal: “Remember, grandpa had a pew in the church and that window over there is named for grandpa. You can’t afford to leave this church because you have so much invested here.” If you discover that God is grieved by church corporate 501(c)(3) status, the devil will say, “But look at the many good works being done by this church. Just continue to do good here.” The Word of God says, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you” (2 Co. 6.17). But the devil says, “We really need you here, so why don’t you just stick around?” He is subtle.

The Gibeonites represent the devil. They fooled Joshua, and he made a treaty with them. They were the ones who got him in trouble. Joshua made an alliance with the Gibeonites. If we line up with Satan, we will find ourselves defeated. What can we do? We cannot overcome him ourselves. You and I are no match for the devil. We are not even told to fight the devil. We are told that god will for us.

v10 “be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

v11 You cannot overcome the devil in your own strength and your own power.

v12 Our enemy is not flesh and blood, but spiritual and the warfare is spiritual. The believer is to reckon the flesh dead and to yield ot God. The way to victory over the flesh is outlined in Ro. 6. Fighting in the old nature will lead to defeat. Only God’s armor will withstand the strategy and onslaught of Satan. We are not fighting other men. The way to victory is to put on the whole armour of God and “to stand.” (Ep. 6.11, 13, 14). A demonic world around us is manifesting itself in this hour, this was true even 40 years ago, but it is much more apparent today. It is gaining momentum. Demonism is lifted up openly by many. There is a church of Satan. People are being snared and led into all kinds of demonism like never before in America. Evil forces are working against God’s churches and believers. Satan has taken over many “Churches.”

See Daniel 10. The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood the angel who was trying to get to Daniel for 21 days. He had to go back and get reinforcements.

Principalities are the demons who have the oversight of nations. Powers are the provates who are the demons who want to possess human beings. The rulers of the darkness of this world are those demons who have charge of Satan’s worldly business. Spiritual wickedness in high places are the demons in the heavenlies who have charge of religion.

Satan has a well-organized group and his organization is manipulating in this world right now. Satan is the cause of the great problems that are in the world today.

Satan heads up his demonic forces.

Now we need to recognize where the battle is. The church has largely lost sight of this spiritual battle. Questions like these should be in the church:

Are the members being built up in Christ?
Is the Word of God being taught?
Is there a spirit of love and cooperation among the members?
Is gossip reduced to a minimum?
There must not be an exercise in legalism, but an exercise in right relationships among those who are the brethren in Christ.
Where there is a spirit of bitterness and of hatred, the Spirit of God cannot work.

THE SOLDIER’S PROTECTION (vv13-18)

v13 Now Paul begins to identify the arsenal which is available for defense. No where is the believer told to attack and advance. The key to this entire section is to stand. The Bible speaks of believers as Pilgrims. As pilgrims, we are to walk through the world. As witnesses: we are to go to the ends of the earth. As athletes: we are to run. Hebrews 12:1-2 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” However, when the Bible speaks of us as fighters, it says we are to stand.

The Battle is carried on everywhere the Word of God is preached and the gospel is given out. That’s the battle line today. The devil has partially taken over some churches. He has completely taken over others.

The devil will make the attack. Our command is “Having done all, to stand.” “Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross.” Just to be able to stand in an evil day is victory for the believer.

Pastors are in need of church bodies who will stand with them. Some church bodies are in need of pastors who will lead and stand, as an example.

vv14, 15 “Stand therefore.” The fourth time he gives this exhortation to the believer. Paul here gives the command to stand (not “I beseech you”). We are also to have on certain armor to protect ourselves.

“Having your loins girt about with truth.” In those ancient days, the girdle about the loins held in place every other part of the uniform of the soldier. It was essential. If the girdle was lost, you lost everything. Truth holds everything together.

We need those who stand on and give out the Word of God just as it is written. Many people give out testimonies and know nothing about the Word of God. They do not know the Word of God. Many testimonies are given out by people who are about to lose all their spiritual garments.

Every piece of this armor speaks of Christ. He is the one who is the truth. We are in Christ in “heavenly places,” here in our earthly walk.

Any testimony that does not glorify Jesus Christ should not be given. Not, “I was a great athlete” or “a great performer” or “I am turning over my wonderful talent to Jesus.” These all imply “He is lucky to have me in His crowd!” No, you are lucky to have Him. He did not get very much when He got me or you. We are not great. We need our loins girt about with truth, with Jesus Christ, so that we can give a testimony that glorifies Christ, the truth, who alone can meet error.

“Having on the breastplate of righteousness.”Christ is the righteousness of he believer. Probably, this included practical righteousness. The filthy rags of self-righteousness are useless an a breastplate. We need a heart and a conscience that is right with God. Only the righteousness of Christ allows a man to stand before God and before man, but the heart that is to be protected should be a heart that is not condemning the believer. We will never win with sin in the life.

“Your feed shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” Shoes are necessary for standing. They speak of foundation. We need a good, solid foundation, and preparation is foundational. Are your feet anchored in Christ? 1 Corinthians 3:11 “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

vv16-18 We are to stand in a spiritual armor, and that armor is Christ. It is the living Christ which is put around His own. Job 1:10 “Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.”

The shield (of faith) covered all of the armor. It was a large shield the size of a door. Christ, the door, protects the believer from without. This is the picture in Jn. 10. John 10:9 “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” That is salvation. What about security? Faith places us securely in His hands: John 10:27-28 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” “Faith” enables us to lay hold of the Lord Jesus Christ and also to stand behind that shield which will quench all the fiery darts of he wicked one.

The wicked on is shooting the “fiery darts fast and furious. When a fiery dart comes my way, and I don’t have an answer, I am to put up the shield of faith.

The “helmet of salvation” protects the head, the mind. God appeals to the heart, but He also appeals to the intellect. Throughout the Scriptures, God uses reason with man. Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Acts 24:25 “And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.” Romans 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Faith is not a leap in the dark. Faith is a leap into the light. Christ saves sinners. Matthew 1:21 “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” All parts of the armor have been for defense. Everything is for the front of the individual. There is no protection for his back; nothing is provided for retreat. A retreating Christian is open season for the enemy; the enemy can get through to him.

Our second weapon of offense is prayer—“praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.” Praying in the Spirit is not turning in a grocery list to God. It means the believer recognizes our enemy and that we lay hold of God for that which is spiritual and that might be filled with all the fullness of God. Prayer is general, and supplication is specific. all effective prayer must be in the Spirit.

THE SOLDIER’S EXAMPLE—PAUL WAS A GOOD SOLDIER OF JESUS CHRIST (vv19-22)

vv19-20 Paul asks for prayer on behalf of himself. As he comes to the conclusion of the Epistle, he moves to the personal. He was a prisoner in Rome and suffered from a thorn in the flesh. Yet he does not ask for prayer that these physical handicaps be removed, but that he might proclaim courageously the mystery of the gospel. The gospel was a mystery in the OT, and the gospel is that Christ died for all sins, was buried, rose again on the third day.

He is an ambassador in bonds and therefore speaks boldly. We need boldness to declare the Word of God.

vv21-22 Tychicus not only carried the epistle to the Ephesians, but he also gave a personal account of the conditions of and the prospects for the apostle Paul. Tychicus was the pastor of the Ephesian church and is an example of the many faithful servants of Christ in the early church. “That he might comfort your hearts.” The brotherly love exhibited in the early church is the undertone of all Paul’s epistles. Paul had a real concern for the brethren.

THE SOLDIER’S BENEDICTION (vv23-24)

Paul closes with a twofold benediction. Most of the great words of the gospel are contained in it: peace, love, faith, grace. Hope is absent, for the believer is in heavenly places where all is realized.

“Peace,” was the form of greeting of the Jewish world. A sinner must know the grace of God before he can experience the peace of God. This is the peace of God which passes all understanding.

Love,” in verse 23 means love for the other believers. This is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.

In verse 24, the “love” is of the believer for the Lord Jesus Christ, and this love is in sincerity.

“Faith” means faith in Christ which produces active love. These flow from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Grace” is the key word of the epistle. It opened the epistle (1.2) and it is the subject of the epistle (2.7, 8). It now concludes the epistle. It is a fitting word because it is God’s grace which saved us and which sustains us today.

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Church_LessonsOnDoctrineOf

Philemon

September 28, 2017 Jerald Finney Leave a comment

Click here to go to “Bible Studies on the Doctrine of the Church” from other books of the Bible.

Contents:

NOTE
DATE
BACKGROUND
PURPOSE OF THE EPISTLE
OUTLINE (of the verse by verse study)
NOTES (verse by verse study)

NOTE. For more details see, McGee, Philemon. This study is taken from that book with modifications. The study is also available online in audio at: Philemon.

This is one of the most remarkable epistles in the Scripture. It is only one chapter; so you may have trouble finding it. If you can find Titus, just keep going; if you find Hebrews, you have gone too far.

DATE A.D. 61 or 62

The epistles or letters in the New Testament were a new form of revelation. Before them, God had used law, history, poetry, prophecy, and the gospel records. When God used the epistles, He adopted a more personal and direct method. There are different kinds of epistles. Some are directed to churches; some to individuals and are rather intimate.

Reading this epistle is like looking over the shoulder of Philemon and reading his personal mail. Paul wrote this letter to him personally. That does not detract from the inspiration and value of this epistle. The Holy Spirit has included it in the Scriptures for a very definite reason.

BACKGROUND

Philemon lived in Colossae, way up in the Phrygian country in the Anatolian section of what is Turkey today. It was a great city in Paul’s day. There is no record that Paul ever visited Colossae, but Dr. McGee suspects that Paul did visit that city.

The story of this epistle was enacted on the black background of slavery. There were approximately sixty million slaves in the Roman Empire where the total population did not exceed one hundred million. A slave was a chattel. He was treated worse than an enemy. He was subject to the whim of his master.

In Colossae was a very rich man, Philemon, who had been saved. He apparently had come down to Ephesus, as Paul was there speaking in the school of Tyrannus every day, and people were coming in from all over the area to hear him. Millions lived in Asia Minor, and Philemon was just one of the men who came to know the Lord Jesus.

Philemon owned slaves, one of whom was Onesimus. One day, Onesimus made a run for it. He moved into a great metropolis, Rome. In that great population, he could have been buried and never recognized.

One day, Onesimus found out that there was a slavery in freedom and a freedom in slavery. When he was a slave, he did not worry about where he was going to sleep or what he was going to eat. His master took care of that. In Rome now, he has a real problem. Maybe he is homesick and hungry. Somehow, he came into contact with Paul, who was a prisoner in chains. Onesimus had run away from chains, and he thought he was free, but when he listened to that man, Paul, he thought, “That man is free, and I am still a slave—a slave to appetite, a slave to economy. I’m still a slave, but that man, although he is chained, is free.”

Paul led him to Christ—presented the gospel to him, and told him how Jesus had died for him and how He had been buried but rose again on the third day. He asked Onesimus to put his trust in Christ, and he did.

Philemon_18 Onesimus did what any man does who has been converted; he thought back on his past life and the things which were wrong that he wanted to make right. He confessed to Paul that he was a runaway slave, that he was from Colossae, and that his master was Philemon. He wanted to know if he should go back to him master and Paul told him yes. Paul sent a letter with Onesimus, the letter which we have before us.

In the human heart, there has always been a great desire to be free. But right now, there are millions of Americans who are slaves to alcohol, or to drugs, or to the economy, to racism, to hatred planted in them by Satan’s own liberal troopers, or to the almighty dollar. We live in a day when people pride themselves on being free, but the Lord Jesus said, “If the Son makes you free, you are free indeed.” You will not get arguments for or against slavery in this epistle. What you do learn is that freedom that is above all the slavery of this world. It is the freedom that every one of us wants to have.

PURPOSE OF THE EPISTLE

The primary purpose of this epistle is to reveal Christ’s love for us in what He did for us in pleading our case before God. This is one of the finest illustrations of substitution. “If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account” (verse 18). We can hear Christ agreeing to take our place and to have all our sin imputed to Him. He took our place in death, but He gives us His place in life. “If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself” (verse 18). We have the standing of Christ before God, or we have no standing at all. Onesimus, the unprofitable runaway slave, was to be received as Paul the great apostle would have been received in the home of Philemon.

The practical purpose is to teach brotherly love. Paul spoke of the new relationship between master and servant in the other prison epistles. Here he demonstrates how it should work. These men, belonging to two different classes in the Roman Empire, hating each other and hurting each other, are now brothers in Christ, and they are to act like it. This is the only solution to the problems and hatreds between capital and labor, hatred between races, hatred of any type.

OUTLINE (of the verse by verse study)

Genial Greeting to Philemon and His Family (vv1-3)
Good Reputation of Philemon (vv4-7)
Gracious Plea for Onesimus (vv8-16)
Guiltless Substitutes for Guilty (v17)
Glorious Illustration of Imputation (v18)
General and Personal Items and Requests (vv19-25)

NOTES (verse by verse study)

GENIAL GREETING TO PHILEMON AND HIS FAMILY (vv1-3)

v1 Notice that Paul does not mention the fact that he is an apostle. When he was writing to the churches, he gave his official title: an apostle of Jesus Christ. But this is a personal letter to a personal friend. He does not need to defend his apostleship. He intended for this to be very personal, and I (Dr. McGee) think he would really be surprised to know it can be read by the whole world.

“Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ.” Dr. McGee notices that several of the commentaries try to change this and explain it away by teaching that Paul really meant that he was a prisoner because he was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. But that is not what Paul said, and Paul had the ability of saying exactly what he had in mend. He was using the Greek language which is very flexible, versatile language. He said he was a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Also, the Holy Spirit is guiding this writing, and certainly the Holy Spirit, God, says what He means.

Paul would tell you Jesus Christ would put him in jail, not the religious leaders who brought the charges or the Romans. You might ask Paul, “You mean that you would serve Someone who would put you in prison?” “Yes, when it’s His will for me to be in prison, I’m in prison. When it’s His will for me to be out of prison, I’ll be out of prison. When it’s His will for me to be sick, I’m going to be sick. I belong to Him. Since I belong to Him, I have learned to be content in whatsoever state I am in. Everything is all right. Don’t worry about me.”

Obviously, the letter to Philemon is one of the prison epistles. It goes along with Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians.

“And Timothy our brother.” That means he is not only Philemon’s brother and Paul’s brother, but he is your brother if you are a Christian. All believers are brothers in Christ.

“Unto Philemon our dearly beloved.” Does that sound as if Paul is really buttering him up. Dr. McGee thinks so. He did love this man and he is going to make a request of him.

Apphia was apparently the wife of Philemon. Philemon is a Greek name and Apphia is a Phrygian name. Phylemon met a Phrygian girl named Apphia and married her. They have both become Christians.

v2 Dr. McGee assumes that Archippus was their son. He is called a “fellowsoldier” – he also is a soldier in the army of Jesus Christ. He is a fellowsoldier. All believers should be soldiers and every believer has gifts that God wishes him to freely exercise as a member of a local church body in pursuance of the spiritual warfare believers and churches are called to fight. Sometimes believers do not exercise their God given gifts as a member of a church body and sometimes churches constrain some members from freely exercising those gifts God has given them. When that happens, neither the body nor the affected member(s) are functioning as God would desire.

“And to the church in thy house.” The local church was not down on the corner in a separate building – they had no building. There were great temples to the pagan gods, but the early churches did not have buildings which they erected and owned in the name of the church. It is estimated that for two hundred years, churches met in homes.

The great cathedrals of the past were actually never meant for public meetings. Westminster Abbey in England, for example, was never intended for public services. It was built in the shape of a cross as a monument to Jesus Christ. In my (Jerald Finney) opinion, this grieved our Lord, who set the example and gave the instructions (throught the Apostle Paul) for His churches.

v3 This is Paul’s usual greeting to every person and church to whom he wrote.

GOOD REPUTATION OF PHILEMON (vv4-7)

v4 Philemon is a man for whom Paul prayed.

v5 The life of Philemon was a testimony. Paul describes it in a lovely way. He showed love toward our Lord Jesus and toward other believers. His faith was toward the Lord Jesus and he showed it to other believers.

v6 His faith was shared. The life of Philemon was a testimony.

v7 Paul had great joy and consolation in the love of Philemon for other believers and for him. “Bowels” implies the entire psychological nature. It is the inner life of the believers that had great satisfaction through him.

GRACIOUS PLEA FOR ONESIMUS (vv8-16)

Paul is coming to the purpose of the letter. He approaches the subject diplomatically and cautiously and lovingly. He makes his request on a threefold basis:

“For love’s sake.”
“Being such an one as Paul the aged.” Paul, in his sixties, had suffered and been persecuted as a missionary for Christ. This had aged him. He is saying, “You know that I am an old man now.”
“A prisoner of Jesus Christ.” It is evident he cannot come to Philemon in person.

v10 Paul is pleading on behalf of his son-one of his many spiritual sons whom he had led to the Lord.

v11 The name Onesimus means profitable. Paul is saying, “When you had Profitable, you didn’t have Profitable. Now that you don’t have Profitable, you do have Profitable.” As a slave, Onesimus wasn’t very useful. He did not work because he wanted to. His heart wasn’t in it. Now that Onesimus is a believer, Paul says, “He is going to be profitabe as a slave.”

vv12, 13 Paul is asking Philemon to receive Onesimus just as if he were receiving Paul. Paul admits he would like to have kept Onesimus who would have been of great help to him as an old, sick, cold man in prison. But Paul would not do that.

v14 Paul is saying, “I wouldn’t keep Onesimus because that would not be right-although I thought of it. If you willingly want to send him back, that will be all right.” We don’t know if Philemon sent Onesimus back, but Dr. McGee thinks he did.

vv15-16 “For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him for ever; Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord?” Onesimus is still a slave, but more than a slave, a dearly beloved brother.

GUILTLESS SUBSTITUTES FOR GUILTY (v17)

Verse 17 with verse 18 gives us one of the grandest illustrations of substitution and imputation. Behind Paul’s plea is Christ’s plea to the Father on behalf of hte sinner who trusts Christ as the Saviour. The sinner is received on the same standing that Christ is received. The saved sinner has as much right to heaven as Christ has, for he has His right to be there. We are accepted in teh beloved (Ep. 1.6). “Don’t put him out in the cold, put him in that guest room where you put me when I was there.”

GLORIOUS ILLUSTRATION OF IMPUTATION (v18)

Paul had a credit card because he was a believer in Christ. Paul says, “Look, if Onesimus stole something from you or did something wrong, just put it on my account.” All this is a glorious picture. When one comes to God the Father for salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ says, “If [] has wronged Thee or oweth Thee anything,m put that on My account.” Christ on the cross paid the penalty for my sins. But that isn’t all. I am sure that God the Father would say, “That fellow is not fit for heaven.” The the Lord Jesus would say, “If Thou count Me therefore a partner, receive Jerald Finney as Myself.” That is what it means to be in Christ-accepted in the Beloved. This is a very precious epistle.

GENERAL AND PERSONAL ITEMS AND REQUESTS (vv19-25)

v19 The Lord Jesus Christ gave His life and shed His blood to pay our entire debt of sin.

“Albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides.” Paul had led Philemon to the Lord. How could he ever repay Paul for that?

v20 Paul is pleading for Onesimus.

v21 Paul expresses his confidence that Philemon will do more than he requests. It is characteristic that believers will do more than is requested. Jesus asks us to go the second mile.

v22 Paul expects to be released from prison. He requests prayers for that purpose. Since this letter was written during Paul’s first confinement in Rome, he was released and probably visited Philemon personally.

vv23-25 This beautiful little letter concludes with personal greetings to mutual friends.

–

Miscellaneous

The Grace of God Which Bringeth Salvation

September 26, 2017 Jerald Finney Leave a comment

A Study of Titus 2.11-15
Jerald Finney

For the whole study of Titus, click here.

Note. This article is a combination of my thoughts, the thoughts of my pastor, and the teaching of Dr. J. Vernon McGee

Paul interrupts the admonitions in Titus 2.1-10 to put a doctrinal foundation under the lives of these people to whom Titus, the young preacher, is to speak. Paul puts it in past, present, and future. I believe that the grace of God speaks to all men (v 11) about these matters. The grace of God teaches every person that he/she should deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world (v 12). God’s grace puts the believer on a solid foundation. The gospel is good news, it is the “power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth” (Ro. 1.16).

Paul is enjoining Titus, the preacher, to demand of the Cretans that they live lives that adorn the gospel, for it is the power of God. “The grace of God “hath appeared” (v 11) – it has shined forth. God does not save one by His love and He does not save one by his mercy. One is saved by God’s grace (Ep. 2.8, Ti. 2.11). Mercy is the compassion of God that prompted Him to send a Saviour to mankind. If one man could be saved by the mercy of God, all mankind would be saved. It would not have been necessary for Christ to die; the cross would have been circumvented. Love is the divine motive, but God is not only love. He is righteous, holy, and just. The holy demands of God, His just claims, and His righteous standard had to be met. The immutable law of justice makes love powerless to save. Therefore, Christ, by dying for our sins, met the holy demands of God’s justice, and He can now save by grace. When we were guilty, Christ paid the penalty. Grace is not complicated or implicated with human effort. God does not ask your cooperation. He does not ask for your conduct or your character in order to save you. God only asks men to believe Him, to trust Him, and to accept Christ as their Savior. God’s way is the best way, and it is the only way.

My pastor tells the story of talking to a man who was a sodomite about the Lord. The man knew that to turn to God meant turning from his sinful behaviors with the other man. He told pastor that without pastor explaining it to him. Likewise it was with me. I was not a sodomite, but I was a sinner on my way to hell. You might like to know what my sins were, but let us consider your sins. Christ has closed the book on my sins and pardoned me. I did not turn to the Lord for a long time because I did not want to turn from my sins. With time, I began to understand that my sin was a one-way road to destruction. I turned to God and put my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to save me from my sin. He made a new creature of me at that moment.

I have also talked with lesbians and other sinners who knew that to turn to God they had to turn from their sin. One cannot turn to God without turning his back on his sin. Once one turns to God and puts his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to save him from his sin, the grace of God saves him.

For the believer, eternal salvation is in the past. After salvation, the grace of God begins to teach us and to empower us, as new creatures, to deny “ungodliness and worldly lusts” and to live “soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.” That is the present state of all believers who are still on this earth. They are being saved from the power of sin over them. God saved the believer for eternity (past) and is sanctifying the believer (saving him from his sins which is present).

God is not trying to reform this world; He is redeeming men who turn to God and trust Christ to save them from their sin. The gospel does not appeal to Christ rejecting men to do better. When a person says, “I am going to try to do better,” I agree with Dr. J. Vernon McGee that he is a liar. If you have not turned to God and put your faith in Jesus Christ, you might as well try to get all you can out of this life, because this life is all that you are going to get. You might as well eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you will die. God does not want to reform you, he wants to regenerate you.

Then, there is the future salvation which determines a believer’s present motivation and course of action. “Looking for that blessed hope” – this is the next happening in the program of God. In the future believers will be like the Lord Jesus, that is totally without sin (1 Jn 3.2). Titus 2:13-14: “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” As we learn in 1 Thessalonians, that hope is an inspiring hope (1 Thes. 1), a working hope (1 Thes. 2), a purifying hope (1 Thes. 3.1-4.12), a comforting hope (1 Thes. 4.13-18), and a rousing hope (1 Thes. 5). That hope is assured for all believers.

Paul clearly says in verse 13, as in other places in his epistles, that Jesus Christ is God. He gave Himself for us that He might redeem us “from all iniquity” and “purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works.”

To the young pastor, Titus, and all young pastors and preachers called of God, Paul concludes this segment of this epistle: “These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee” (Tit. 2.15).

For more on the new life of the believer see: Scripture study on “Repentance, the new creature, the new life, and changed behavior after salvation”

Church_LessonsOnDoctrineOf

Titus

September 14, 2017 Jerald Finney Leave a comment

Click here to go to “Bible Studies on the Doctrine of the Church” from other books of the Bible.

Contents:

INTRODUCTION
PAUL AND THE RETURN OF CHRIST
CONTRAST WITH TIMOTHY
THEME
OUTLINE
NOTES

NOTE. For more details see, McGee, Titus. This study is taken from that book with modifications. The study is also available online in audio at: Titus.

DATE A.D. 64-67

INTRODUCTION

Apparently, Paul and Titus had been together in a ministry on the island of Crete (See Titus 1.5). We don’t know how long they had been there. Paul did not think much of the people who lived on Crete, as this epistle makes clear. Paul, after he left the island, wrote Titus giving him instructions about what he was to do as a young preacher in Crete.

Acts does not mention the ministry on Crete. Acts contains a very small record of the early churches, and only the ministries of Peter and Paul are emphasized. We do not have a complete record of these men’s ministries, but we have all the record that the Holy Spirit felt necessary to give us.

PAUL AND THE RETURN OF CHRIST

In 1 and 2 Thessalonians written earlier in Paul’s ministy, Paul’s great emphasis is on the coming of Christ—it is a bright and beautiful hope for him. Titus was written at the end of the ministry of the Apostle Paul, and he wrote: “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). Paul had not lost the blessed hope that he had earlier in his ministry.

CONTRAST WITH TIMOTHY

Paul led Timothy and Titus, two young preachers, to the Lord. He calls both sons, his genuine sons.

Paul wrote them both. We have two epistles to Timothy and one to Titus. These epistles are called pastoral epistles because in them Paul gives instruction to these young preachers concerning the local church. These epistles are very brief, yet they do give the essential modus operandi for a church. They impress upon us that if there is a need in a church, it is a spiritual need.

Titus appears to have been a stronger man, both physically and spiritually. Paul expresses less concern for Titus’ welfare than he did for Timothy’s. Titus was probably more mature, and he possessed a virile personality.

Timothy was a Jew who was circumcised by Paul (Acts 16.1-3), but Titus was a Gentile, and Paul refused to circumcise him (Galatians 2.1-3). What rule can one draw from this: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature” (Galatians 6:15).

Paul said that he wanted to be all things to all men that he might win some to Christ—to the Jew he wanted to be a Jew, and to the Gentile he wanted to be as a Gentile. He had Timothy circumcised because they were going into the synagogues. But in that great council of the church in Jerusalem, the gospel was at stake, and Paul would not permit one bit of legalism to slip in (See Acts 15); therefore, he refused to let Titus be circumcised.

It is a dangerous thing to put down a series of little rules that are nothing in the world but a ritual whereby you attempt to live the Christian life. Unless you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, all else comes absolutely to nought.

THEME

Ti.1.5 In the epistle to Titus we have a fine picture of the New Testament church in its full-orbed realization in the community as an organization. Does your church call itself a New Testament church? If so, have you ever had anyone drop dead? In the early church, Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead because they had lied to the Holy Spirit (See Acts 5). Dr. McGee thinks that if this principle were operating today, the average church would need to be turned into a hospital or even a mortuary!

Ti.2.1 The ideal church, according to this epistle, (1) has an orderly (spiritual) organization, (2) is sound in doctrine, and (3) is pure in life, ready to every good work. In Timothy, the emphasis was upon the need for sound teaching in the church. In Titus, the emphasis is upon the importance of God’s Order for the conduct of the churches. Titus 1.5 is the key to the epistle: “For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:”

In chapter 1, Paul says that a church is to be an orderly organization (Titus 1.5). In chapter 2, he emphasizes that a church is to teach and preach the Word of God. “But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1). He says that a church must be doctrinally sound in the faith. In chapter 3 we see that a church is to perform good works. ”Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work” (Titus 3:1). In other words, a church is saved by grace, is to live by grace, and is to demonstrate her faith to the world by her good works.

Dr. McGee says that it would be very difficult today to find a church that is using all three of these prongs, that is stressing all three of these tremendous emphases. Sometimes you don’t find much order in a church because a few officers (or one officer) are or is trying to do everything or micromanage everything. Such a church is in real trouble. New Testament Scriptures teach that a church is a spiritual organism, and that each member is a part of the spiritual body which is the local, autonomous, church (See, e.g., Epheisans 4, and 1 Corinthians 12). Each member has gifts which are to contribute to the functioning of the body. For example:

“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:11-16 ).

The goal of a church is not the glory of a man or certain men. The goal is the glory of God. Of course, churches are to honor the members:

“But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.” (1 Corinthians 12.18-27).

Second, in many churches you will find that there is no emphasis at all upon sound doctrine. Thus, Dr. McGee always stressed to young pastors that they should not focus on building a church or building an empire of any kind. He told them just to teach and give out the Word of God. Rather than build an earthly organization—that is a lot of buildings—they should build the spiritual knowledge and lives of the members. Whatever organization they have built in a church may be wrecked by others later on after thy have left. That will be a real heartbreak to a pastor unless he had before him the goal of building into the spiritual lives of men and women. That should be the emphasis of a church.

I would add that it is very important for a church to remain a spiritual entity only, not a worldly organization. Attorney Al Cunningham and Dr. Greg Dixon led the way in showing churches how to do this. Many churches have followed their guidelines, but many more have rejected them:

“For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God” (John 3:20-21).

Finally, a church should be ready for every good work. A church should be engaged in good works. Many churches are so concerned with getting the money to carry on their programs (or an agenda or agendas which may or may not be consistent with all New Testament Church Docrtrine) that they become more interested in getting people to give than in helping those people grow spiritually for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edification of the body. A lot of folk outside the churches need help—not just spiritual, but also physical. Many churches are carrying on a work of helping people, many are not. We can go and sit down and talk with lonely people like this, which is a much needed ministry today.

Liberalism has attempted to emphasize the third chapter of Titus, forgetting the two chapters on order and doctrine. Until a church has all aspects that Paul has outlined, it has no claim to be called “a New Testament church.”

OUTLINE

I. A Church is an Organization, Chapter 1
A. Introduction, vv1-4
B. An Orderly Church Must Have Ordained Elders Who Meet Prescribed Requirements, vv5-9
C. The Bad Reputation of the Cretans vv10-16

II. A Church is to Teach and Preach the Word of God, Chapter 2
A. A Church Must Teach Sound Doctrine, vv1-10
B. A Church Must Preach the Grace of God, vv11-15

III. A Church is to Perform Good Works, Chapter 3
A. Good Works are an Evidence of Salvation, vv1-7
B. Good Works are Profitable for the Present and Future, vv8-15

NOTES:

Chapter 1
(A church is an organization)

INTRODUCTION (vv1-4)

v1 Paul was a servant, a “bond slave” of God. We know from the Old Testament that a bond slave was one who chose to remain a slave of his master for life. “An apostle of Jesus Christ.” Paul was defending his apostleship because he is going to give instructions to the churches. These instructions come from an apostle, the appointed writer of the Lord Jesus who was now communicating with His church through His apostles. Paul’s epistles are communication from the Lord Jesus through the apostle Paul.

“According to the faith of God’s elect.” Paul does not say “for the faith”–in other words, according to the norm or standard of faith which is set for God’s elect today. Whether you are saved or not does rest on what you believe. Tell me what you think of Jesus Christ; tell me what you believe about His death on the cross and what it means to you; tell me what you believe about His resurrection and what it means to you; tell me whether you believe the Bible to be the Word of God. With this information I think I can deduce whether you are a child of God or not.

“God’s elect”–This is the way Paul speaks of saved people. He is not discussing the doctrine of election at all.

“According to the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness.” My friend, if the truth that you have does not lead to a godly life, there is something radically wrong with your faith. Truth will lead to godliness, and if it doesn’t lead to godliness, it is not truth, my friend. Paul will dwell on this theme because the people on the island of Crete were abusing the grace of God. They said that if they had been saved by grace, they were free to live in sin if they wanted to. Paul answers that right here in this first verse by saying that when the truth of God is believed it will lead to godliness. Grace saves us, but it also lays down certain disciplines for our lives and calls us to live on a high plane. If you think that you can be saved by grace and live in sin – may I (i.e., Dr. McGee) say this kindly but I must say it – you are not saved by grace; you are not saved at all. Salvation by grace leads to a godly life.

v2 “In hope of eternal life.” In Titus, Paul speaks of grace in 3 time zones. In Titus 2.11-13, we see all three. “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation” – that is past; “teaching us” – that is present; and “looking for that blessed hope” – that is future.

“Which God that cannot lie.” This hope was promised by a God who cannot lie. Romans 3:4: “God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar….” Sometimes believers almost make God out a liar. We say we believe, but we act like we don’t believe.

Dr. McGee has wanted to preach a sermon on what God cannot do. He cannot lie. He cannot, like you and me, see His equal. Why cannot God lie? Because He must be true to Himself. His nature is one of holiness and righteousness and He cannot do certain things because of His nature. He is righteous, just, and He never deceives. He is the one you can depend upon.

“Promised before the world began”- this promise was made back in eternity.

v3 “In due times” means in His own seasons. God moves in a very orderly manner. God made the peach tree to bud in the spring, and it won’t bud when the first snow falls.

“Hath in due times manifested His word through preaching.” Through heralding or trumpeting. A trumpet was used to make a proclamation. The trumpet was blown and the proclamation was made. “According to the commandment of God our Savior.” Jesus Christ was God.

v4 Here, Paul makes clear that Titus was his spiritual son. Paul had led Titus to the Lord. “After the common faith.” This is the faith that is shared by all believers, a living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The grace of God has appeared, and therefore, God extends mercy to us today. I am grateful that He doesn’t deal with me according to my orneriness and disobedience. He has simply been good to me. Grace, mercy, and peace are all “from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.”

AN ORDERLY CHURCH MUST HAVE ORDAINED ELDERS WHO MEET THE PRESCRIBED REQUIREMENTS (vv5-9)

I will summarize Dr. McGee’s teaching on this portion of Scripture, with comments from some others.

v5 Paul had left Titus in Crete to organize local churches with elders as spiritual leaders. There was a great deal of mythology and tradition connected with this island, and with all Greek islands. According to their tradition, Minos was the first to give laws to the Cretans. He conquered the Aegean pirates who were there, and he established a navy. After the Trojan War, the principle cities of the island formed themselves into several mostly independent republics. Crete was annexed to the Roman Empire in 67 B.C. There were now churches in the three chief cities of Crete. We have no record of Paul going there. From the information given in this little epistle, we are led to believe that he was there and left Titus to organize the churches which were founded by him and Titus.

Crete was evidently a pretty bad place, and the people were not very good. Paul says that they were liars, and they were noted for being liars in that day. Even one of their own poets wrote, “Crete, which a hundred cities doth maintain, cannot deny this, though to lying given.”

Paul will also have other uncomplimentary things to say about them, but man of them turned to the Lord, and Paul tells Titus to organize their churches.

“Set in order the things that are wanting and ordain elders in every city.” The gift of an elder is a gift of men to the church. Putting your hand on the head of some men and going through a little ritual will not make them elders. But Dr. McGee believes that it is important to do that with men who do have the gift of elders. There were men so qualified in the churches in Crete, but they had never been ordained. or set aside. They were men who had a gift of supervision of he churches and were exercising that gift without an authority. Titus is to “ordain elders” – appoint them, set them aside – “in every city.”

“As I had appointed thee.” A man who holds the office of elder should have the gift of an elder. Certain men are made officers in the church who have no gift for it at all. That is half of our problem in many churches today, and the other half is that there are good men who have the gift and are not made officers in the church. As a result, some of our churches get in the hands of the wrong folk and all sorts of problems arise.

C.I. Schofield, in footnotes to v5 stated:

“It is not at all a question of the presence in the assembly of persons having the qualifications of elders, made overseers by the Holy Spirit (Acts 20:28); that such persons were in the churches of Crete is assumed; the question is altogether one of the appointment of such persons. These assemblies were not destitute of elders; but were “wanting,” in that they were not duly appointed. There is a progress of doctrine in respect of the appointing of elders. Cf. v. 5, note.”
Elder (presbuteros) and bishop (episcopos = “overseer”) designate the same office (cf Titus 1:7; Ac 20:17,28), the former referring to the man, the latter to a function of the office. The eldership in the apostolic local churches was always plural. There is no instance of one elder in a local church. The functions of the elders are: to rule (1 Tim. 3:4-5; 5:17), to guard the body of revealed truth from perversion and error (Tit. 1:9), to “oversee” the church as a shepherd his flock (Acts 20:28; John 21:16; Heb. 13:17; 1 Pet. 5:2). Elders are made or “set” in the churches by the Holy Spirit (Acts 20:28), but great stress is laid upon their due appointment (Acts 14:23; Tit. 1:5). At first they were ordained (Gr. “cheirotoneo,” “to elect,” “to designate with the hand,”) by an apostle; e.g. Acts 14:23, but in Titus and 1 Timothy the qualifications of an elder become part of the Scriptures for the guidance of the churches in such appointment. (1 Tim. 3:1-7).

Albert Barnes:

Elders. Gr., Presbyters. See the word explained Cmt. on Acts 14:23. These elders, or presbyters, were also called bishops (comp. Cmt. on 1Ti 3:1), for Paul immediately, in describing their qualifications, calls them bishops– “ordain elders in every city–if any be blameless –FOR a bishop must be blameless,” etc. If the elders and bishops in the times of the apostles were of different ranks, this direction would be wholly unmeaning. It would be the same as if the following directions were given to one who was authorized to appoint officers over an army: “Appoint captains over each company, who shall be of good character, and acquainted with military tactics, for a brigadier-General must be of good character, and acquainted with the rules of war.” –That the same rank is denoted also by the terms presbyter and bishop here, is further apparent because the qualifications which Paul states as requisite for the “bishop” are not those which pertain to a prelate or a diocesan bishop, but to one who was a pastor of a church, or an evangelist. It is clear, from Tit 1:7, that those whom Titus was to appoint were “bishops;” and yet it is absurd to suppose that the apostle meant prelatical bishops, for no one can believe that such bishops were to be appointed in “every city” of the island. According to all modern notions of Episcopacy, one such bishop would have been enough for such an island as Crete, and indeed it has been not unfrequently maintained that Titus himself was in fact the bishop of that diocese. But if these were not prelates who were to be ordained by Titus, then it is clear that the term “bishop” in the New Testament is given to the Presbyters or elders; that is, to all ministers of the gospel. That usage should never have been departed from.
In every city. Crete was anciently celebrated for the number of its cities. In one passage, Homer ascribes to the island an hundred cities, (Il ii. 649 ;) in another, ninety (Od. xix. 174.) It may be presumed that many of these cities were towns of no very considerable size, and yet it would seem probable that each one was large enough to have a church, and to maintain the gospel. Paul, doubtless, expected that Titus would travel over the whole island, and endeavour to introduce the gospel in every important place.

William Burkitt:

2. To ordain elders in every city, such as might govern and teach, and administer to God in holy things; wherever a church is planted, there is an absolute necessity of a settled ministry, and a succession of ministers, without which it is impossible that religion should either prosper or long continue: and care must be taken that such ministers be duly qualified, and regularly ordained. I left thee in Crete to ordain elders.
Observe, 3. The limitation of these acts, according to the apostle’s prescription, As I had appointed thee. Titus must do nothing but according to commission, and by special direction.
Where note, That the ordering and governing of the church was not left arbitrary, no, not to Titus himself; but whatever he did, was done by apostolical direction: For this cause I left thee in Crete, that thou shouldest ordain elders in every city, as I appointed thee.

Adam Clark:

Ordain elders in every city – That thou mightest appoint, καταστησης , elders – persons well instructed in Divine things, who should be able to instruct others, and observe and enforce the discipline of the Church. It appears that those who are called elders in this place are the same as those termed bishops in Tit 1:7. We have many proofs that bishops and elders were of the same order in the apostolic Church, though afterwards they became distinct. Lord Peter King, in his view of the primitive Church, has written well on this subject.

[Back to Dr. McGee’s teaching] Now Paul gives some requirements of the men who are to hold this office:

v6 “If any be blameless” does not mean that he must be perfect, without sin. It does mean that any accusation that is brought against him must not be found to be true. His life must be above reproach.

If an officer of a church can accurately be accused of dishonesty, or if someone can say that his speech does not reflect a dedication to Christ, the cause of Christ is hurt and that man should not be an officer of a church.

“The husband of one wife, having faithful children.” “Faithful children” means believing children. If a man cannot lead his children to the Lord, he ought not to be an officer in the church. A man may be a wonderful, godly man who has a wonderful Christian home, but his son or daughter gives no evidence of salvation, but he should not be an officer in the church. As an officer in the church, he might be called upon to make a judgment about someone else. They in turn could point their finger and say, “What about you? What about your son, your daughter? What right do you have to talk to me?” An officer in a church, for the cause of Christ, for the sake of the office, must have believing children.

“Not accused of riot or unruly.” “Of riot” could be translated of profligacy. They are not to be out in a protest movement. They should be concerned with living a life glorifying to the Lord Jesus and with getting out His Word. The apostles and early Christians preached in public, but were not riotous or unruly.

v7 A bishop (or elder) must not be “selfwilled” for he is a steward of God as well as a representative of the people. He is in the church to find and do God’s work. “Not soon angry,” touchy. “Not given to filthy lucre,” not covetous.

Elder and bishop were synonymous terms. “Elder” refers to the individual, and he was to be mature physically and spiritually. A “bishop” was an overseer, he ruled the church. Therefore, the word has reference to the office. But never was a church to have only one man made bishop or presbyter. There were always several.

There has been some disagreements on whether there were elders already in the churches in Crete and Titus was to ordain them, or whether there were none and Titus was to now appoint some. If the latter was the case (which Dr. McGee does not think it was), the Dr. MeGee feels that the churches would have had to agree upon the men Titus appointed. However, that is not the main issue, and it should not be the issue in churches today. Paul’s emphasis is upon a man’s personal requirements to hold such a position in the church.

v8 More requirements given.

v9 An officer should do 2 things: (1) He should be able to exhort, that is, to teach the Word of God. (2) He must be able to confute or refute the heretics. Dr. McGee feels that men who hold office in a church should be Bible-trained men. Paul told Timothy to “lay hands suddenly on no man” (1 Ti. 5.22). You are not to have a man converted one night, ask him to give his testimony the next night, make him an officer of the church on the third night, and evangelist on the fourth, and the pastor on the fifth! We sometimes do things like that today, and it is very unfortunate for the church who does it.

THE BAD REPUTATION OF THE CRETANS (vv10-16)

We are all sinners, but these Cretans had a particularly bad reputation. I will include only a few remarks about these verses which are self-explanatory.

v10 Paul is condemning constant chattering with nothing but empty words, and those who are seeking to contradict his teaching.

v11 They were subverting whole houses (whole families), a various serious infraction. Wherever the Word of God is sown, the devil gets in.

v12 “Evil beasts” means rude and cruel. Paul is quoting a Cretan poet, Epimenides, who was born on Crete in 659 B.C.

v13 Titus is goint to have to be a little more strict with the Cretans than he would with others because of their background and their very nature.

v14 “Nor giving heed to Jewish fables.” This refers not just to legalism, but also to a great deal of writing that grew up around the Mosaic law, including the Talmud and much more. There are some pretty wild tales in them.

“Commandments of men that turn from the truth.” The Lord Jesus rebuked the religious leaders for adding traditions to God’s law, and that is what Paul is talking about here. The teaching of legalism is in two phases – one is that you are saved by the law. Both of these teachings are very dangerous. We are saved by the grace of God, and are actually called to live on a higher plane that that of the Ten Commandments. Those who are saved by the grace of God are given instructions for living that is on an even higher plane than that.

v15 This verse is used by folk who say that if we are saved by grace, it does not matter how we live; that is, if we are saved, we are pure and can live in any way we like. Certain cults have developed this teaching, saying they can live in sin (they don’t call it sin – it’s not sin for them) because “unto the pure all things are pure.”

What Paul is talking about has nothing to do with moral issues at all. He is speaking to this issue of legalism and the eating of meats. The teaching of many legalistic cults often includes a very unusual diet. Put Paul says, “Unto the pure all things are pure.” In other words, whether you eat meat or don’t eat meat makes no difference at all. All food is clean. If you want to eat rattlesnake meat, that is your business; it’s my business to keep away from it if I can!

Ti.1.16 If you are an unbeliever, any special diet you might concoct will make no difference in your relationship to God – it will not save you. You can eat all the vegetables you want, but if you are not right with God, they will not make you pure. The Lord Jesus said that it is not the thing that goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out of him (Matthew 15.18-20).

v16 “They profess to know God, but in works they deny him.” Like the man who carried the biggest Bible in the church and everyone believed to be very pious. But outside the church he had the reputation of being dishonest. He really did not believe his Bible, as his life showed! One can deny the Bible and God by the life you live.

“Being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.” Ceremonies and rituals cannot change the evil heart of a man. Only the Word of God can change the human heart. When the heart is changed, the life will reveal the change. Paul and James were never in disagreement. They both said that faith without works is dead. Saving faith produces a godly life.

Chapter 2
(A church is to preach and teach the Word of God)

A CHURCH MUST TEACH SOUND DOCTRINE

A church must teach sound doctrine or it is not a church. Dr. McGee has written a little book entitled The Spiritual Fingerprints of the Visible Church in which he goes back to the Day of Pentecost where we are told that those who were added to the church on that day “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2.42). These were the identification marks of the early church: the apostles’ doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer. It really doesn’t matter how high the steeple may be or how beautifully the chimes may play, it is the message that is going out from the pulpit which will tell you whether a church is really a church, organized as Paul understood it and as the Word of God declares it.

In the first chapter, we found that the elders whom Titus was to ordain were to be able to do two things: to exhort, and to refute or confute the heretics. Dr. McGee says that it is important not to spend your entire ministry refuting everybody. There are some men who have what Dr. McGee calls a negative ministry – all they do is attack the enemies of the gospel. That is important, but he believes we all need a balanced ministry. An elder should be able to exhort from the Word of God as well as be able to answer a heretic. In this second chapter, Paul’s emphasis will be upon the teaching of the Word of God.

v1 Paul tells Timothy what to teach the aged men and women and slaves in the next few verses. “Sound doctrine” means the apostles’ doctrine. This doctrine is the number 1 thing of importance to a church. What we read in these epistles is part of the apostles’ doctrine.

Paul first has a message for the senior citizen who is male and the senior citizen who is female.

Titus 2:2 “That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.” “Sober” means very vigilant, very serious. They should be men who are respected and who have self-control. I, as a senior citizen, need to work on these things.

v3 deals with the aged women. “In behaviour as becometh holiness.” They are to be reverant. “No false accusers.” Not gossips, and “not given to much wine.” The older women are to teach the younger women. See verses 3-5. “Keepers at home.” The home is not a playpen; it is a serious responsibility to be a wife and to care for children in the home. Paul would obviously not have approved of the women’s lib movement – it is wrong. Women like to be treated like women. The ladies want to get on the elevator first. Gentlement want to let them on first. Women really do not want to be ditch diggers. The most important business in the world is making a home. “Good” means kindly.

“Obedient to their own husbands.” The wife is to respond to her husband. He is the aggressor and she is to respond to him. He is also the leader. The wife will more readily respond to and follow a husband who will tell her and show her that he loves her.

v6 The preacher, Titus here, is to teach the young men.

v7 Titus, the preacher, is told to be a pattern for the other young men. “In doctrine shewing uncorruptness”that is, in his teaching, he is to show the complete faith in the Word of God and appreciate the seriousness of the matters he is dealing with.

v8 Your conversation should reveal the fact that you are a child of God. Titus 2:8 “Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.”

v9-10 In the early church, there were many slaves. In fact, 90% of the names on the walls of the catacombs are those of slaves or ex-slaves. The gospel met a great need for this class of people in that day. Titus 2:9-10 “9 Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again; 10 Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.”

THE CHURCH MUST PREACH THE GRACE OF GOD (vv 11-15)

Titus2.11-15 Paul interrupts these admonitions to put a doctrinal foundation under the lives of these people. He puts it in past, present and future. I believe that the grace of God speaks to all men (v11) about these matters. The grace of God teaches every person that he/she should deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world (v12). God’s grace puts the believer on a solid foundation. The gospel is good news, it is the power of God unto salvation.

Paul is enjoining Titus, the preacher, to demand of the Cretans that they live lives that adorn the gospel, for it is the power of God. The grace of God “hath appeared” – it has shined forth. God does not save one by His love and He does not save one by his mercy. One is saved by God’s grace (Ep. 2.8). Mercy is the compassion of God that prompted Him to send a Saviour to mankind. If one man could be saved by the mercy of God, all mankind would be saved. It would not have been necessary for Christ to die; the cross would have been circumvented. Love is the divine motive, but God is not only love. He is righteous, holy, and just. The holy demands of God, His just claims, and His righteous standard had to be met. The immutable law of justice makes love powerless to save. Therefore, Christ, by dying for our sins, met the holy demands of God’s justice, and He can now save by grace. When we were guilty, Christ paid the penalty. Grace is not complicated or implicated with human effort. God does not ask your cooperation. He does not ask for your conduct or your character in order to save you. God only asks men to believe Him, to trust Him, and to accept Christ as their Savior. Tod’s way is the best way, and it is the only way.

My pastor tells the story of talking to a man who was a sodomite about the Lord. The man knew that, to turn to God meant turning from his sinful behaviors with the other man. He told pastor that without pastor explaining it to him. Likewise it was with me. I did not turn to the Lord for a long time because I did not want to turn from my sin. With time, I began to understand that my sin was a one-way road to destruction. I turned to God and put my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to save me from my sin. He made a new creature of me at that moment.

For the believer, eternal salvation is in the past. After salvation, the grace of God begins to teach us and to empower us, as new creatures, to deny “ungodliness and worldly lusts” and to live “soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.” That is the present state of all believers who are still on this earth. They are being saved from the power of sin over them. God saves the believer for eternity (past) and presently (this is the sanctification which occurs in his earthly life after salvation).

God is not trying to reform this world; He is redeeming men who turn to God and trust Christ to save them from their sin. The gospel does not appeal to Christ rejecting men to do better. When a person says, “I am going to try to do better,” I (Dr. McGee) think he is a liar. If you have not turned to God and put your faith in Jesus Christ, you might as well try to get all you can out of this life, because this life is all that you are going to get. You might as well eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you will die. God does not want to reform you, he wants to regenerate you.

Then, there is the future salvation which determines a believer’s present motivation and course of action.

“Looking for that blessed hope” – this is the next happening in the program of God. In the future believers will be like the Lord Jesus, that is totally without sin (1 Jn 3.2). Titus 2:13-14: “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” As we learn in 1 Thessalonians, that hope is an inspiring hope (1 Thes. 1), a working hope (1 Thes. 2), a purifying hope (1 Thes. 3.1-4.12), a comforting hope (1 Thes. 4.13-18), and a rousing hope (1 Thes. 5). That hope is assured for all believers.

v15 To the young preacher, Titus, and all young preachers called of God, Paul concludes this segment of this epistle: “These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee” (Tit. 2.15).

Chapter 3
(A church is to perform good works)

We learn in this chapter that to be all that God wants for a church, a church is to perform good works.

GOOD WORKS ARE AN EVIDENCE OF SALVATION

v1 The first thing he mentions here is the fact that a church must have members who are law abiding. A believer should obey the law of the land unless those laws conflict or contradict his duty and relationship to God.

A believer should, for example, respect the office a police officer represents. He represents the segment of our society that protects our persons and our property. Without them, we would be in a bad way today.

This verse also raises the question of whether a Christian should go into politics. Dr. McGee believes as I do, that the individual Christian is free to go into politics, but does not believe that a church should go into politics.

A good example is the Wesleyan movement in England. Wesley never tried to straighten out the king of England, or the church of England. He just went out and preached the Word of God. Men were converted, and some became great philanthropists and abolitionists. They were men who had been gamblers and drunkards, with no concern for the poor, until they cam to know Christ. These men started the great labor movement associated with the Weslyan revival in England, which was the beginning of the movement against child labor and the protection of workmen on the job. We need individuals who will enter the government and take social action, but a church is not called upon to go into politics.

“To be ready to every good work.” A church is to instruct individuals to be eager, to be anxious, and to learn to perform good works.

v2 Gives a negative side to the exhortation. “To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.” Not to gossip, not to malign anyone. However, if a church has solid evidence that a member is doing something evil, that member should be named. Paul named certain men who were evil men: Phygellus and Hermogenes, Hymenaeus and Philetus, and Alexander the coppersmith. Then he also said that Demas ahd forsaken him, having loved this present world.

v3 is a picture of the unsaved today, a picture of you and me before we knew Christ. We were foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. This was a picture of the lost world. In some churches, one will see a pretense of loving, but under it there is envying and hating and gossiping. You can find churches divided into little cliques and groups, they they boast about how sound they are in the faith. This is a disgrace to the cause of Christ.

Ti.3.5 vv4, 5 “Not by works of righteousness which we have done.” Becoming a Christian does not mean just turning over a new leaf – you will find yourself writing on the new leaf the same things you wrote on the old leaf. Nor are you saved on the basis of works or righteousness, good deeds, which you have done. “But according to his mercy he saved us.” Because Christ died for us and paid the penalty for our sins, God is prepared to extend mercy to us; it is according to His mercy that He saved us. And He is rich in mercy, which means he has plenty of it.

Titus 3:5: “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.”

Regenerate means “to generate or produce anew; to reproduce;” or “to change the heart and affections from natural enmity to the love of God; to implant holy affections.”

“By the washing or regeneration.” “Washing” means laver – it is the laver of regeneration. In the Old Tetament the laver, which stood in the court of the tabernacle and later the temple, represented this. The washing of regeneration is what the Lord was speaking about in the third chapter of John: “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (Jn.3.5). The water represents the Word of God – the Bible will wash you. It has a sanctifying power, a cleansing power. We are cleansed by the Word of God. the Holy Spirit uses the Word of God – “born of water and the Spirit.” That is the way we are born again. “And the renewing of the Holy Ghost.” The Holy Ghost (God) regenerates us. He makes of us a new creature. 2 Corinthians 5:17-18: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.”

v6 In everything God does, there is a surplus.

v7 “The hope of eternal life” is again pointing to the great hope of the believer, the coming of Christ for His church.

GOOD WORKS ARE NOT PROFITABLE FOR THE PRESENT AND FUTURE

v8 Salvation does not excuse a person from performing good works. Paul says that Titus should constantly affirm that church members are to “be careful to maintain good works.” Before salvation, God is not interested in your “good works” because what you call a good work, God calls dirty laundry. Man’s righteousness is filthy rags in God’s sight (Is. 64.6). God wants to save you. Come to Him just as you are, He will save you, because He has done something for you. What could you do for God? Nothing is the answer.

After one is saved, God talks to him about good works. He wants you to get involved in getting the Word of God out to others. God talks to his children about good works. “Be careful to maintain good works.”

v9. We are to defend the faith, but we are not to do it by argument and debate. That does no good; that never led anyone to the Lord. You may whip a man down intellectually by your arguments, but that does not touch his heart and win him for Christ. Stay away from foolish questions and geneologies and contentions.

That is why Dr. McGee does not develop certain subjects that are sensational. For example, he has been urged to do a series on demonism, to write a book about it. Dr. McGee says, “Let’s not get involved in that type of thing.” He says he would much rather tell you about the Holy Spirit which can indwell you. If He is in you, no demon could ever possess you! 1 John 4:4: “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” It is so easy to get sidetracked.

v10 We (Dr. McGee) have been asked to join in certain prejects in which there are some heretics. He is not interested in being joined with anyone who has views that are in opposition to the Word of God. God tells us here to be separated from heretics. Just let them alone; reject them. v11 An heretic has turned aside from the truth (“is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself).

vv12-14 Paul gives a final admonition about good works. It is something that must be worked at. It is not easy. We need to know what God considers good works and we need to learn how to do them.

v15 Paul concludes this practical letter to Titus with a benediction.

Miscellaneous

The Sovereignty of God and the Salvation of Man

September 13, 2017 Jerald Finney Leave a comment

There are many variations of Calvinism. The problem with historic “Calvinists” is that they take verses out of context thus instituting a pretext. The Bible teaches that God is sovereign and that He gave man freedom to choose the world or God. Man chooses, God judges. “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them” (Romans 1.32; see the Endnote for Romans 1.18-32 with comments).

The best way to understand a Bible issue is by starting in Genesis and going through Revelation. Let us consider Calvinism in that light. Adam and Eve had free will – they chose whether to obey God’s one rule. They failed. After the fall, everyone was born with a sin nature:

Romans 5:12 “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”
Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”

But man still had freedom of choice:

Genesis 4:7-15 “And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand; When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.” [Notice that God is forbidding man to rule over other men. Men are to be controlled only by their conscience, their knowledge of good and evil. God changed this at the flood. See The Biblical Doctrine of Government.]
Joshua 24:15 “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

A study of the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation, looking at all the verses in the immediate and overall context, makes clear the Sovereignty of God and the freedom of man to choose or to reject God.

Let me skip forward to the NT for just a couple of examples:

Luke 16:10-13 “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
Luke 18:10-14 “Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”
1 Thessalonians 1:8-10 “For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing. For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.”

The idea that the sovereignty of God means God controls everything that a man does is a philosophy with a few Bible verses thrown in, here and there, as a pretext to support the philosophy. Calvinists state that God is Sovereign; that is true. Many Calvinists then assert that only those chosen by God are His elect and will be saved while all other are destined to hell. The Bible truth is that the Sovereign God gave man freedom to choose God or the world. Yes, as Calvinists assert, man has a sin nature. However, every man has a choice to make. He can choose to turn to God or not to turn to God. As will be shown below, the choice he makes is not a work.

Calvinism teaches that since man is totally depraved, He can do nothing to save himself. The latter is true, but what about the former? Is man totally depraved? Sometimes concepts are found in the Bible and labels are attributed to them. Is the total depravity of man a concept found in the Bible? True, man can do nothing to earn his salvation. God does it all when a man chooses to turn to God and put his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to save him from his sin. All men are sinners. “Sin” and “sinners” are words found in the Bible. However, I don’t find the word depraved (which means “morally corrupt, wicked” or, according to the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary “Corrupt; wicked; destitute of holiness or good principles.”) in the Bible. I do not find the concept of total depravity in the Bible. I do find the word “wicked” in the Bible, but it is not referring to all men. Some lost people are virtuous to one extent or another, more so than some “Christians” and even some “Calvinists” that I have met. So how can one say that every man is “totally” depraved? One can say that there is none good, in God’s eyes and according to God’s standards, but can one say that some men do not have a degree of virtue – I think not.

I have known men who had some virtue, so much virtue that they felt they were good. Yes, they would admit to me that they had sinned, but only in a minor sense. Their greatest sin, which they did not realize, was their self-esteem, their self-righteousness, their pride. I can’t say that they were wicked or totally depraved. Yet, they were sinners in need of a Savior, as are all men.

The word “pride” is in the Bible; God hates pride – do a word study in the Bible, the King James Bible. The man who refuses to turn to God is proud. According to the Bible, turning to God, true repentance, is accompanied by contrition, humility, and a broken heart brought by the realization that one is a hopeless sinner, bound for hell, and that only God – not his good works, not his idols, not his religion – can save him.

Psalms 34:18 “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”
Psalms 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”
2 Corinthians 7:9-11 “Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.”
See also, Isaiah 57.15, 66.2: Jeremiah 44.10, 2 Chronicles 7.14;
for many other relevant Scriptures do word searches of “humble,” “contrite,” “pride,” “proud,” etc.

Calvinists in New England, like their forefathers in Geneva, expected virtue from every man, but they acknowledged that only the elect were saved (and therefore “pious”); Calvinist pastors taught that God would make known, at some time in one’s life, whether he was one of the elect; they further taught that every man was to live a “virtuous” life. Obviously, to them total depravity did not mean total inability to live a virtuous life. By legislating all the commandments and much of the Levitical law, they believed the civil government could enforce virtue. Their covenant theology which arbitrarily applied selected rules for the theocracy of Israel to a Gentile nation was much flawed.

A caveat must be added here. Some “Calvinists” are not Classic Calvinists. For example, Isaac Backus, in Massachusetts colony, came out of Calvinism after being saved during the famous Whitefield revival. Thereafter, he began intense Biblical examination of his Calvinist beliefs, instilled in him by many years of faithful church attendance. He ended up rejecting infant Baptism, Covenant Theology, and Separation of Church and State, three bedrocks of Classic Calvinism. He became a Separatist and finally a Baptist, even though he still claimed to be a Calvinist. To understand what a “Calvinist” really believes, one must know what he believes. There are many variations of belief of those who claim to be “Calvinist.” Classic Calvinism is dead wrong about most Bible issues.

What about the elect? The Bible does not teach that the elect were chosen by God from they beginning. Rather, the Bible teaches that the elect were foreknown by God, something entirely different. The elect are those who choose to repent toward God and put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to save them.

The Bible never uses “predestinate” or “predestinated” in reference to the lost; in context, both terms are referring to the saved. For example, God predenstined those who are saved “to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29).

Most of our founding fathers thought that virtue, not piety, was enough to preserve the country. How wrong they were. They saw a lot of “virtuous” men in their society. Even lost people respected the Word of God, generally speaking. One can be so good or “virtuous,” in his eyes and even in the eyes of others, that he thinks he does not need a Savior. Or, if he is a Calvinist, he waits on evidence of His salvation, rather than choosing to repent and put his faith in Jesus Christ. I believe that some Calvinists actually turn to God and put their faith in Jesus Christ even though it is not a well thought out matter. If they do that, they are saved. Some Calvinists trusted Christ as Savior and later, not being well-grounded in the Word of God and proper Bible interpretation, are deceived:

“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (Colossians 2:6-8)

God has given every person a God consciousness, a knowledge of who God is (Romans 1.18-32). That consciousness includes the understanding that God is a God of wrath and judgment (Id. 1.18, 32). In progressive stages, God continues to deal with a man. At any point before God gives him up to a reprobate mine (verse 28 et. seq.), a man may choose to seek God. Once given up to a reprobate mind, the man can no longer turn to God. Should a man turn to God, God will then deal with him through his conscience, his knowledge of who he is–a hopeless lost sinner who cannot do enough good works to be saved (Romans 2).

At the fall, the Sovereign God gave to every person a conscience (the knowledge of good and evil). Later, He gave the Law to the theocracy of Israel, but the law is written in everyone’s heart. Both Jew and Gentile are responsible to God:

Romans 2:12-16 “For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.”

The conscience and the law condemn a man. If a man accepts the fact that he is a hopeless lost sinner, God reveals to him, through God’s Word, the way to be found not guilty even though he is guilty, how to be justified before God (Romans 3). If a man acts on that light, God saves him.

God saves the man who chooses to turn to Him and to put his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Such a man realizes that he is condemned by his sin and that he can do absolutely nothing worthy of salvation, that only repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ can save him from his trespasses and sins. Repentance means turning and is not a work. When one turns toward God, he has to turn away from the world – his sin, his idolatry, his religion. He turns to God as a helpless lost sinner and trusts the One who can save him.

Repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ are not works; they are the opposite of works:

Romans 4:1-8 “What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.”
John 3:16-21 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”

Again, a multitude of other verses prove these matters.

Romans 10:9-13 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.“

Endnote

The first step toward salvation is acknowledging God. God put a God-consciousness in everyone. The next step is acknowledging oneself – who he is (Romans 2-3). The third and final step is realized when one turns to God as a hopeless, lost sinner who can do nothing to earn his salvation, and and trusts Jesus Christ to save him from his sin.

As to the first step, Romans 1.18-32 is very clear:

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”

See also, God’s Plan of Salvation.

Legal issues from a biblical perspective (e.g., Legal issues from a biblical perspective (e.g., church incorporation and 501(c)(3)), Miscellaneous Spiritual/Legal Matters

An Informed Christian Response to the Article, “IRS Again Pressured To Hammer U.S. Churches”

August 25, 2017 Jerald Finney Leave a comment

Jerald Finney
August 25, 2017

This brief article is an informed Christian reply to an articles, IRS Again Pressured To Hammer U.S. Churches, and Trump Relaxes 501(c)(3) Political Activity Rules. Churches who violate the rules that come with Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) status should – subject to challenge presented to their chosen authority, the government court – have their tax exemption revoked. They agreed to the rules when they voluntarily and contrary to First Amendment and Bible principles sought and obtained 501(c) status. President Trump has no power to cancel the rules that come with 501(c)(3). Only the legislature can do so, subject to Presidential agreement and signing of legislation. The issue is one of authority. Christ wants to be the only Head of His churches (See, e.g., Ephesians and Colossians).

This article is written and being disseminated to both sides for the glory of God. I have contacted Freedom From Religion Foundation and encouraged them to go to this article for Biblical, historical, and legal arguments which support their position. It is time that Christians face the consequences for their hypocritical betrayal of our Lord by seeking and gaining legal entity status of any kind (incorporation, 501c3 or 508 status, unincorporated association status, etc.). This is being done in accordance with Bible principles.

I have covered the reasons – Biblical, historical, and legal – for this position in my writings which are available online. The following articles deal with the issue and link to materials which give more in depth analysis of Bible principles, history, and law:

A complete listing of articles is on the Articles tab of Separation of Church and State Law website.

For a short book on this, see Separation of Church and State/God’s Churches: Spiritual or Legal Entities, or, for more complete analysis, see God Betrayed/The Biblical Principles and the American Application. Both are available online free in both online form (which has the all additions and minor revisions), and PDF, or may be ordered. The second edition of Separation of Church and State is available in PDF only.

Here are some specific writings that explain church 501c3 status:

The church incorporation-501(c)(3) control scheme (Section VI, Chapter 5 of God Betrayed; Chapter 5 of Separation of Church and State)
Federal government control of churches through 501(c)(3) tax exemption (Section VI, Chapter 4 of God Betrayed; Chapter 4 of Separation of Church and State)

A good law review article on the tax exemption for churches is:

“Prohibition in Search of a Rationale: What the Tax Code Prohibits; Why; to What End?” (Deirdre Dessingue, Prohibition in Search of a Rationale: What the Tax Code Prohibits; Why; To What End?, 42 B.C.L. Rev. 903 (2001), http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/bclr/vol42/iss4/6)(PDF at http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2186&context=bclr)(Abstract: Each Presidential election renews the thorny debate over the appropriate role of churches and other religious organizations in American political life. Although churches are subject to other restraints on political activity, the prohibition on church political activity under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code is the harshest in terms of penalties. Faced with the extraordinary scope of the prohibition as interpreted by the IRS, and perceived non-enforcement of egregious violations, churches tend toward one or two extremes: they either ignore the prohibition and endorse candidates or they avoid legitimate involvement with important policy issues.)”

For links to more Law Review Articles, click here.

Church_LessonsOnDoctrineOf

2 Timothy

August 22, 2017 Jerald Finney Leave a comment

Click here to go to “Bible Studies on the Doctrine of the Church” from other books of the Bible.

Contents:

INTRODUCTION
THEME
SPECIAL FEATURE: “Swan Song” of the Apostle
OUTLINE
NOTES

NOTE. For more details see, McGee, 2 Timothy. This study is taken from that book with significant modifications mainly dealing with organization and method aligned to Bible principle and teaching. The study is also available online in audio at: 2 Timothy

DATE A.D. 67

INTRODUCTION

The following is an approximate calendar of events which will orient us to the position that this second epistle to Timothy occupied in the ministry of the Apostle Paul.

A.D. 58 Paul was apparently arrested in Jerusalem
A.D. 61 This is the approximate time that Paul arrived in Rome. He had spent three years in prison, going from one trial to another before different Roman rulers.
A.D. 61-63 Paul underwent his first Roman imprisonment. We do not have this recorded in the book of Act, which breaks off at the very beginning of Paul’s first Roman imprisonment
A.D. 64-67 Paul was released from prison, and during this period Paul covered a great deal of territory. It was during this time that he wrote 1 Timothy and Titus from Macedonia.
A.D. 67 Paul was arrested again.
A.D 68 Paul was beheaded in Rome. Before his death he wrote 2 Timothy.

The 2 verses that state the theme and sound the tone of the 2^nd epistle are these:

2 Timothy 2:15: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
2 Timothy 4:2: “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”

2Ti.4.1-2

2 Timothy, (in common with 2 Peter, Jude, and 2 and 3 John) has to do with the personal walk and true testimony of a servant of Christ in a day of apostasy and declension.

THEME

You can, Dr. McGee asserts, emphasize one word here above other words: loyalty.

Loyalty in suffering (chapter 1)
Loyalty in service (chapter 2)
Loyalty in apostasy (chapters 3-4.5)
Lord loyal to His servants in desertion (chapters 4.6-4.22).

SPECIAL FEATURE: “Swan Song” of the Apostle

[These comments of Dr. McGee were made sometime before his death in 1988.]

This is the final communication of Paul. It has a note of sadness which is not detected in his other epistles. Nevertheless, there is a note of triumph: 2 Timothy 4:6-8 “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” Because this was his last letter, Paul was very personal. He refers to 25 individuals in these four short chapters.

In this book, an ominous dark cloud is seen on the horizon. It is the coming apostasy. Today, apostasy has broken like a storm, like a Texas tornado, on the world and in the churches. Webster defines apostasy as “total desertion of the principles of faith.” So apostasy is not due to ignorance; as is a heresy. Apostasy is deliberate error. It is intentional departure from the faith. An apostate is one who knows the truth of the gospel and the doctrines of the faith, but he has repudiated them.

Paul here in 2 Timothy speaks of the ultimate outcome of gospel preaching. The final fruition will not be the total conversion of mankind, nor will it usher in the millennium. On the contrary, there will come about an apostasy which will well-nigh blot out the faith from the earth. In fact, there are two departures that will occur at the end of the age: One is the departure from the faith. Luke 18:8 “… Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” This, in context demands a negative answer. The other is the departure of believers, those who are members of the family of God, which is what we call the “rapture. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

This view is not in keeping with the social gospel today which expects to transform the world by tinkering with the social system. Such vain optimists have no patience with the doleful words of 2 Timothy. The cold and hard facts of history and the events of the present hour demonstrate the accuracy of Paul. We are now in the midst of an apostasy which is cut to the pattern of Paul’s words in remarkable detail.

Most churches have entered the orbit of an awful apostasy. A remnant of New Testament churches is not affected. All members of the family of God are on their way to glory. I believe that many true believers attend apostate churches, not knowing enough about Bible principles to know of the apostasies of the churches they attend. For example, many believers attend corporate 501c3 churches without understanding that such status grieves our Lord who “loved the church and gave himself for it.” Those pastors, leaders, “Christian” lawyers, etc. are either apostates (know the truth but depart from it) or do not know the truth.

Because of the threat of apostasy, Paul emphasizes the Word of God here more than he does in any other epistle. In fact, both Paul and Peter agree. Each of them in his “swan song” (2 Timothy and 2 Peter) emphasizes the Word of God and the Gospel.

My friend, the gospel rests upon a tremendous fact, and that fact is the total depravity of man. In other words, man is a lost sinner. Someone has put it like this:

“Where education assumes that the moral nature of man is capable of improvement, traditional Christianity assumes that the moral nature of man is corrupt and absolutely bad. Where it is assumed in education that an outside human agent may be instrumental in the moral improvement of men, in traditional Christianity it is assumed that the agent is God, and even so, the moral nature of man is not improved but exchanged for a new one.”

Man is in such a state that he cannot be saved by perfect obedience—because he cannot render it. Neither can he be saved by imperfect obedience—because God will not accept it.

Therefore, the only solution is the gospel of the grace of God which reaches down and saves the sinner on the basis of the death and resurrection of Christ. Faith in Christ transforms human life. We have a showcase today all over this land of a relatively small number of men and women who have been transformed by the gospel of the grace of God.

Liberal preaching, instead of presenting the grace of God to sinful man, goes out in three different directions. From some liberal pulpits we hear what is really popular psychology. It majors in topics such as this: “How to Overcome” or “How to Think Creatively” or “How to Think Affirmatively or Positively,” or “How to Drive Your Life Purposely.” It says we are on the way upward and onward forever! That is popular psychology, and it is not getting anyone anywhere.

A second type of liberal preaching involves ethics. It preaches a nice little sweet gospel—a sermonette preached by a preacherette to Christianettes. The message goes something like this: “Good is better than evil because it’s nicer and gets you into less trouble.” The picture of the average liberal church is that of a mild-mannered man standing before a group of mild-mannered people, and urging them to be more mild-mannered! There’s nothing quite as insipid as that. No wonder the Lord Jesus said to the church of Laodicea: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor how, I will spue thee out of my mouth” (Revelation 3.15, 16). That would make anybody sick to his tummy. That’s another reason I call these people Alka-Seltzer Christians. They’re not only fizz, foam, and groth, but they cause you to need an Alka-Seltzer.

Then there is the third type of liberal preaching which is called the social gospel. They preach better race relations, pacifism, social justice, the Christian social order, and union of church and state (church and state working with, over or under the other; church incorporation and 501c3 are two of many manifestations of this relationship). It is Christian socialism pure and simple.

In contrast, when the true gospel is preached and men come to Christ, they all become brothers. We don’t need all this talk about better race relations. You cannot create better relationships by forcing people together. Only the gospel of the grace of God will make a man into a brother of mine. When that happens, the color of a man’s skin makes no difference at all.

The solution of man’s problems can come only through the grace of God. We need to recognize that God creates out of nothing. Until a man is nothing, God can make nothing of him. The grace fo God through Jesus Christ is the way to transform and save mankind. That is what 2 Timothy teaches, and that is why it is important to study 2 Timothy.

OUTLINE

I. AFFLICTIONS of the Gospel, Chapter 1
A. Introduction vv. 1-7
B. Not Ashamed, but a Partaker of Affliction, 1.8-11
C. Not Ashamed, but Assured, 1.12-18

II. ACTIVE in Service, Chapter 2
A. A Son, 2.1, 2
B. A Good Soldier, 2.3, 4
C. An Athlete, 2.5
D. A Farmer, 2.6-14
E. A Workman, 2.15-19
F. A Vessel, 2.20-23
G A Servant, 2.24-26

III. APOSTASY Coming, Authority of the Scriptures, Chapter 3.1-4.5
A. Conditions in the Last Days, 3.1-9
B. Authority of Scriptures in the Last Days, 3.10-17
C. Instructions for the Last Days, 4.1-5

IV. ALLEGIANCE to the Lord and of the Lord, Chapter 4.6-22
A. Deathbed Testimony of Paul, 4.6-8
B. Last Words, 4.9-22

NOTES:

Chapter 1
(AFFLICATIONS of the Gospel, Chapter 1)

INTRODUCTION (vv1-7)

v1 Paul an apostle by the will of God. In 1 Ti., Paul said “by the commandment of God,” and we saw that the commandments of God revealed the will of God, but that they were not the total will of God. “According to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus.” You accept a promise by faith. That is the only way you can obtain eternal life. He offers it to you as a gift. You accept a gift because you believe the Giver. The Lord Jesus gives you eternal life when you trust His as Saviour because He paid the penalty of your sin. He today can offer you heaven on the basis of your faith and trust in Him. Therefore, “the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus” makes it clear that through Christ is the only way you can get eternal life, my friend.

2Ti.1.7_1 v2 Call greets Timothy as his “dearly beloved son” because Timothy was a great joy to him. v3 Timothy was on Paul’s prayer list. v4 Paul loved Timothy, and this verse makes clear that Timothy loved Paul because he was greatly affected since Paul has been arrested, is back in prison, and faces death. v5 Apparently, Timothy was brought up in a Christian home–both his grandmother and his mother were Christians. It is not known whether Timothy’s father, a Greek, was in the faith. v6 When Paul put his hands on Timothy, that meant that Timothy was a partner with Paul. He shared with him the gift of teaching the Word of God. He admonishes Timothy to “stir up the gift of God that is in thee.” v7 “Fear” here speaks of cowardice. God has given us a spirit of power and love and a sound mind. “Sound mind” means discipline; we should not be slaves to our emotions. Overcoming emotions means not letting your emotions stop you from doing something you should be doing. I am not to be a defeated Christian; I should not let my emotions control my life.

NOT ASHAMED BUT A PARTAKER OF AFFLICTION (vv8-11)

v8 The Lord Jesus made clear that we would have trouble. “In the world ye shall have tribulation” (Jn. 16.33). He warned us that the world would not like Christian. “If the world hate you, ye now that it hated me before it hated you” (Jn. 15.18). There is something wrong if you become too popular as a a Christian.

v9 “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling”–not because of who we are or what we have done–“not according to our works.” But–“according to his own purpose and grace.” God’s wonderful purpose in the gospel was hidden in ages past but is now revealed through Paul. “Which was given in Christ Jesus before the world began”–all along god had this plan for us.

v10 “Who hath abolished death.” Death means something altogether different to the child of God–Christ made if of no effect. Paul is not talking about physical death. He means spiritual death, eternal death, which is separation from God.

v11 Paul was a “preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher.” An apostle had several gifts. Dr. McGee doesn’t believe God will give us 2 or more gifts, as preaching and singing.

NOT ASHAMED, BUT ASSURED (vv12-18)

v12 Paul suffered because he was “a preacher, apostle, and teacher” as he stated in v11. Nonetheless, he was not ashamed of the gospel (see Ro. 1.16 and in 2 Ti. 1.8 he urges Timothy not to be ashamed either) although he was in prison, with sentence of death upon him. “He is able to keep that which I have committed unto him.”

v12 “Hold fast the form of sound words” (the words of Scripture are inspired).

v13 The Christian life can only be lived by the power of the Holy Spirit. In v7 Paul talked about power, love, and a sound mind in v7 and all are fruit of the Holy Spirit. See Ga. 5.22, 23.

v15 Paul names Phygellus and Hermogenes who turned from him. All he says that “all they which are in Asia have turned from me. In 1 Ti. 1, Paul said some had fallen away. Here it is all – that is, all who are now in Asia who had formerly been with him in Rome. Apostasy has occurred during the entire history of the church.

vv16-18 Paul talks about Onesiphorus, a wonderful man of god.

Chapter 2
(ACTIVE in Service, Chapter 2)

A SON

v1 “Timothy was a spiritual son of Paul – it was under Paul’s ministry that Timothy turned to Christ. Timothy is in the family of God; he is a child of God. Therefore, Paul tells him, “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” You cannot live the Christian life on your own. If you feel you can grit your teeth and go out and live the Christian life on your own, you’re in for a great disappointment. If you feel you can follow a few little rules or some clever gimmicks to make you a mature Christian, then you have fallen into a subtle trap of legalism. Paul gives no rules, and the Word of God has no rules to tell the child of God how to live the Christian life. We are saved by grace, and now we are to live by the grace of God and be strong in that grace. When things go wrong, a believe should appeal to God’s grace. When I fail, I have found that when I am away from Him, the whipping He gives me hurts lots worse. I don’t want to get on the end of that switch where it really stings. I come in close to Him, and the closer I am the less it hurts. I am a son of my Heavenly Father.“

v2 Paul tells Timothy to commit the things Paul taught him “to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” It is a real concern to older men that there be young men who will be faithful in teaching God’s Word. [It is a concern to me that there will be those who will teach “separation of church and state law to others.” I am especially grieved by all those who pervert the truth as to the Bible and earthy truths concerning the relationship of Christ and His churches.]

As sons of God we ought to be concerned about our Father’s business. Perhaps you are thinking that you are disappointed in yourself. If you are, that means that you must have believed in yourself. You should not have. You are to walk by the grace of God, “by faith and not by sight.” Or perhaps you are discouraged. If so, that means you do not believe God’s Word and way of blessing. Or maybe you have said, “I hope I can do better in the future.” Then you do expect to get some good out of that old nature. Oh, my friend, be strong in the grace of God.

A GOOD SOLDIER

vv3-4 The Christian is a soldier. Ep. 6 tells us that the believer is fighting a spiritual battle, and that he needs to put on the armor of God.

“No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life.” “That he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” He is to establish his priorities. He is to to endure hardness, or suffer hardness, as Paul was suffering. The Christian life is not a playground; it is a spiritual battlefield.

AN ATHLETE

v6 Here Paul compares the Christian to an athlete. He is to strive to win. Philippians 3:14: “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Paul also said he wanted to keep his body under control (1 Co. 9.24-27). He is to “strive lawfully.” That is, he is to play by the rules. Thus, he should study the whole rule book, all 66 books. An athlete can’t cut the corner of the racetrack. A baseball player does not run by second base without touching it.

A FARMER – the fourth description of a believer (vv6-14)

There will be a harvest, but there has to be the sowing and laboring in the field. The Word of God is to be sown. You may (probably will) get into trouble when you sow the Word of God. Paul got in trouble. He was in prison for teaching the Word of God. Even so, he said, “But the word of God is not bound (v9); it was still going out into the Roman world and still is. “If we be dead with him, we shall also live with him” (v11). When we are saved, his death becomes our death. We are identified with Him and are raised with Him in newness of life.

“If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him” (v12). Dr. McGee (and I) personally believe that not all believers will reign with Him. I have not suffered for the Lord as did the Apostle Paul. Fox says there were 5 million Christians who were martyred for Christ under Rome. Then, tens of millions, at least 50 million, died for Christ as martyrs under the rule of the Catholic Church during the middle ages.

“If we deny him, he also will deny us.” Faith without works is dead (no faith at all-one never had saving faith. See James 2.17). Paul and James never contradicted one another. James was talking about the works of faith, and Paul is saying that genuine faith produces works.

v13 God “cannot deny himself.” God cannot accept as true one who is false. He called the religious rulers hypocrits because they were pretending to be something they were not.

v14 “Strive not about words.” God’s people need to stick to essentials. Don’t argue about empty words or philosophies or our little differences.

A WORKMAN, A TEACHER (vv15-19)

2Ti.2.15_2 2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” Believers are to be diligent students of the Word of God. To rightly divide the Word, the Christian is to be a skilled workman like an artisan. The student of the Word of God must understand that the Word of God is one great bundle of truth and that it has certain right divisions. The Bible is built according to a certain law ans structure, which must be observed and obeyed as you go through the Word of God. You can’t just lift out a verse here and a verse there and choose to ignore a passage here and a passage there. It must be studied (and taught) in its entirety. Only a lost person or even a saved person ignorant of the Word of God does not believe the truth that the Bible is the most orderly book ever written, by far, since its author was God.

“Rightly dividing the word of truth.” There are certain dispensations in the Word of God, different methods whereby God dealt with man. The basis of salvation always remains the same. Man is saved only by believing in the atoning death of Christ. But man expresses his faith in God in different ways. For example, Able and Abraham brought little lambs to sacrifice to the Lord. But I hope you don’t take a lamb tochurch next Sunday morning, because you would be entirely out of order. It’s all right for Mary to have a little lamb that follows her to school, but your little lamb should not follow you to church. The reason is that the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world has already come. That Lamb is Jesus (Jn. 1.29). You see, Abel and Abraham looked forward to the Lamb of God, and we look back to His death. This is an illustration of rightly dividing the Word of truth.

2Ti.2.19 Dispensations exhibit the progressive order of God’s dealings with humanity. For instance, to recognize the distinction between law and grace is basic to the understanding of the Scriptures. One has to be careful about listening or studying dispensationalists. Some are very solid on all Bible matters. C.I. Schofield was right about some things, but wrong about others, but studying his works is tremendously enlightening as to God’s dispensations as laid out in the Bible (See, Scofield’s headnote to “Ephesians” and margin notes on his false “true church” doctrine). Some dispensationalists are so far off on so many Bible matters that one should avoid referring to them. Hyperdispensationalists are in the never-never land of interpretation. No matter whose work one studies, the standard should always be a literal study of the Word of God.

v16 Avoid empty chatter that has no value whatsoever. v17 “And their word will eat as doth a cankner: of whom is Hymenaeus and Pliletus.” These men apparently were apostates. v19 “Having this seal.” In the OT, De. 6.8, 9, God told His people to take His commandment on their hand, and write them on the posts of their houses, and on their gates. This identified him as a worshiper of God. How about the believer today-how does he advertise for God? “Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” Separated from evil and separation unto Christ. The Lord knows his because he can look at the heart. However, the world can only look at his outward life.

A VESSEL (vv20-23)

vv20-21 A believer is pictured as a vessel. To be usable, a vessel must be clean. God does not use dirty vessels – not beautiful, but clean. v22. Again, God places together faith, love, and peace. v23 Avoid foolish and unlearned questions, because they gender strifes. We live in a world which is on fire. Lets get the Word of God to it before it is too late.

A SERVANT (vv24-26)

A believer is to be a servant, gentle to all men. The soldier was to fight, but the servant is not to fight. Is this a contradiction? No, it is a paradox. When you are standing for truth, you are to be definite and let men know where you stand. Don’t be a coward! It is said that silence is golden, but sometimes it is just yellow! “In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves.” If you are trying to win a person to Christ, don’t argue with him. Just keep giving him the word of God.

v26 “And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.”

Chapter 3
(APOSTASY Coming; Authority of the Scriptures, 3.1-4.5)

APOSTASY IN THE LAST DAYS (vv1-9)

v1 The apostasy that began in the church in Paul’s day will continue.Paul warned the church at Ephesus that false leaders would enter the church after his decrease. Acts 20:29-30 “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” They won’t get out the Word of God, but will fleece the church. False teachers sheer the sheep pretty close!

“Perilous time shall come.” This does not look like the conversion of the world, does it? The church, according to this, is not going to convert the world. The Bible does not teach that it will. Instead, look what is coming in the last days. We have nineteen different descriptions given in the next few verses. It is an ugly brood. It is the best scriptural picture of what is happening today. Again, there are 19 words or phrases used to describe the last days: (1) “Lovers of their own selves.” Examples: politicians, Hollywood, public schools (teach self-esteem or self-love), churches. Churches will follow teachers having itching ears (2 Ti. 4.3); these teachers want to be complimented, they want their ears scratched. To be complimented, you have to compliment. So they complement their church members and their boards of officers. They tell people how wonderful they are.

(2) “Covetous” (lovers of money and things. Lovers of self become lovers of money. The old nature likes a lot of money spent on it. (3) Boasters. A proud man walks like a peacock. (4) “Proud.” Haughty. (5) “Blasphemers.” (6) “Disobedient to parents.” (7) “Unthankful.” Some never thank others of God for kindnesses to them. (8) “Unholy.” This means profane. They are against God. (9) “Without natural affection.” This means abnormal relationships. Sodomy is accepted as natural by many today, even in so-called churches. See Romans 1.24. (10 “Trucebreakers” are people who are impossible to get along with. They will break their word to you. They won’t let you get along with them. (11) “False accusers.” (12) “Incontinent” means without self-control. (13) “Fierce” means savage. In our day, city streets have become asphalt jungles. (14) “Despisers of those who are good.” (15) “Traitors are betrayers.” You can’t trust them. (16) “Heady” means reckless. (17) Highminded” means blinded by pride or drunk with pride. (Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” Never has there been a time when so much money has been spent in order to provide pleasure. This is the same road Rome took when it went down. Athletes are money hungry. I would rather watch, in general, a ditchdigger who loves the Lord. Billions are spent on entertainment. (19) “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” They go through religious rituals but lack life and realinty. Avoid them. A believer in a dead liberal church get out of it – “from such turn away.”

v6 “Silly women.” v7 “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” v8 “Jannes and Jambres” were apparently names of the 2 magicians called in by Pharoah when Moses began the miracles and the plagues came upon Egypt. The names were revealed to Paul by the Spirit of God. We read of them in Exodus 7. The Exodus account reveals that Satan has power, super-natural power. Jannes and Jambres were able to perform miracles by the power of Satan. Satan can still imitate the power of God. 1 John 4:1: “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” “Men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.” Those men have corrupt minds and have discarded the truth totally. For example, I know a man whom professed authority of God, but delved into the spiritualistic. He ended up rejecting the great truths of Scripture and setting himself against one of God’s churches with the intent of taking it over. Needless to say, God did not allow it. “But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as their’s also was.”

AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURES IN THE LAST DAYS (3.10-4.5)

vv10-11 Paul’s life was an open book, as should be that of every believer. Timothy knew well of Paul’s suffering at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra.

vv12 “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. It will cost you something to be a Christian. Real Christians are becoming very unpopular in America. The media, secular and “Christian,” are their enemy. If a real Bible believer gets any press, it will be distorted and misrepresented.

v. 13 “But evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” “Seducers” are imposters.

vv14-15 The only antidote against a world of apostasy is the Word of God. Salvation comes in 3 tenses. Timothy was already saved. I have been saved from sin. I am being saved from sin. I shall be saved from sin. Christ saves a believer. Then, he works out a salvation in us, but we won’t ever be perfected in this life. But there is coming a day shen “… it doth not yet appear what se shall be, but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him …” (1 Jn. 3.2). The Scriptures give us not only the modus operandi of being saved, but it saves us in this present evil world – enables us to grow and gives us deliverance down here. Dr. McGee contends that the constant study of the Word of God is the only help that any of us has.

v16. When Paul says, “All scripture,” he means all of it. The word “inspiration” means God-breathed. God used men with different personalities and thought patterns, yet got through exactly what He wanted to say. Through these men, God has given us His Word.

It “is profitable for doctrine,” for teaching. It is good “for reproof,” which means conviction. It is “form instruction,” which means discipline, thinking and acting in accordance with God’s will.

v17 “Perfect” doesn’t mean that you and I will reach the kind of perfection where absolutely everything we do is right. Rather, it means we will attain full maturation. We’ll be complete, full-grown people.

“Throughly furnished”–the Word of God can fit you out for life for every good work.

Chapter 4
(ALLEGIANCE to the Lord and of the Lord, 4.6-22)

In this chapter, Paul gives Timothy instructions for the last days. Then we will have Paul’s deathbed testimony, which are probably his last written words. We will detect his feeling of loneliness. He is in Rome, alone and incarcerated in that horrible Mamertine prison. He is cold and asks Timothy to bring his cloak. He is lonely and the hours are long. He asks Timothy to bring his books, especially the parchments.

But with the sadness and loneliness we will also hear a note of victory as Paul gives his final charge to his son in the faith. This is his final Word from God to you and me. If you are not prepared to accept this, I (Dr. McGee) doesn’t thing that He has anything more to say to you.

v1 A very solemn charge. Jesus Christ will judge the quick (the living) and the dead at his returning. Christ’s appearing and His kingdom will not happen at the same time. Christ will judge all believers at one time or another. Our lives are going to be tested to see if we are to receive a reward or not. Paul is saying to Timothy that, in view of the fact that you are going to stand before God to be judged, this is what you are to do.” This is what God is saying to believers right now.

v2 “Preach the word,” means to proclaim it, give it out, herald it. “Be instant [diligent] in season, out of season,” means at any time you can. Preach the Word, don’t just talk about it. Paul does not say to preach from the Word. He does not say to lift a verse from the Bible and then weave a sermon around it. Someone has well said that a text is a pretext that’s taken out of it’s context. We are not to preach about the Word of God or from the Word of God, but preach the Word of God itself.

“Be instant in season, out of season.” “Instant” mean diligent or, even better, urgent. There is a compulsion upon us. We should be chafing at the bit, ready to give out the Word of God. “In season, out of season” means any time of the day or night, any time of the year, under any and all circumstances.

“Reprove” it should be given with conviction. “Rebuke” actually means to threaten. “Exhort” means to comfort. Sometimes believers really need comfort. “With all longsuffering’ means that all of us who give out the Word of God need to exercise a great deal of patience. “Doctrine” means teaching.

v3 “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.” Few churches teach much doctrine. Most “churches” teach no Bible doctrine. Rather, most believers and churches “”After their own lusts heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.” To quote Dr. Marvin R. Vincent: “The hearers invite and shape their own preachers. If the people desire a calf to worship, a ministerial calf-maker is readily found.” “Having itching ears.” They don’t go to church to hear sound doctrine, but to delight their ears with the speaking or the voice or the plays. As Dr. Warren Wiersbe has said, “They want religious entertainment from Christian performers who will tickle their ears. … The man who simply opens the Bible is rejected while the shallow religious entertainer becomes a celebrity.”

v4. They want lies, not the truth. They want to be entertained. When one preaches the Word of God, he steps on toes.

v5 In Paul’s day, an evangelist was a traveling teacher, a missionary. Paul was an evangelist in that sense, and he tells Timothy to also do the work of an evangelist.

ALLEGIANCE TO THE LORD AND OF THE LORD (vv 6-22)

PAUL’S DEATHBED TESTIMONY (vv6-8)

“I am now ready to be offered.” Paul would be beheaded in an execution room, a bloody spectacle. Paul’s life is being poured out as a libation, a drink offering. Paul used that figure of speech before in this letter to the Philippians, when he was arrested for the first time and thought death was before him. Philippians 2:17: “Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.” He wanted his life to be poured out.

What was the drink offering? There were not specific instructions given by God to the Israelites concerning the drink offering. However, it is mentioned again and again in Exodus and Leviticus. The wine was poured over the sacrifice which, of course, was really hot because it was on a brazen altar with fire underneath it. The drink offering would go up in steam. It would just evaporate and disappear. That is exactly what Paul is saying here: “I have just poured out my life as a drink offering on the sacrifice of Christ. It has been nothing for me, but everything for Him.” Paul’s life would soon disappear, and all that could be seen was Christ. So many Christians try to be remembered by having their names chiseled in stone or by having a building named in their memory. Paul was not interested in that type of thing. Christ, not Paul, is the One who is to be exalted.

Paul’s epitaph is divided into two sections. The first is retrospect, in which Paul looks back on his earthly life–this is right before he was executed. Then the second part of the epitaph is the prospect. He looks forward to eternal life. The earthly life and the eternal life are separated by what we call death down here.

RETROSPECT

Paul sums up his life in three different ways: “I have fought the good fight.” He has been a soldier, a good soldier. Every Christian should be a defender of the Word of God and stand for the great truths of the Bible.

“I have finished my course.” Life is not only a battle, life is a race. Paul was a disciplined athlete who was striving to win the prize. During the race, Paul kept his body under subjection. 1 Corinthians 9:27 “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” Hebrews 12:1-2 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Paul, at the end of his life, had touched all the bases; he had completed all that God had planned for Him.

“I have kept the faith.” Life has been a trust from God, and he had been a good steward. He had kept the faith. He had never veered from the great truths and doctrines in the Word of God.

“My departure is at hand.” Believers at the rapture will not depart through the doorway of death.Paul will be “untied” or “unloosed.” Paul is saying that he has been “tied down to the harbor.” That is what life is – we haven’t been anywhere yet: we’ve just been tied to this little earth. Death is a release for the child of God. Going off to be with Christ will be a great release for the believer.

“Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day.” Here, Paul is looking forward to the future. He is expecting a crown of righteousness. A crown is a reward. Dr. McGee does not think it has been given to him yet.

Several crowns are mentioned in the New Testament.

The athlete’s crown for being a winner on the racetrack of life. 1 Corinthians 9:24-25 ‘Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.”

The soul-winner’s crown mentioned in Philippians 4:1 “Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.”

“A crown of righteousness,” the reward for a righteous life.

“Unto them also that love his appearing” does not refer to the doctrine you hold regarding His appearing (premillennialist, postmillennialist, or amillennialist). The question is: Do you love His appearing? This means you have to love Him. Do you have a close relationship with Him. Have you ever told Him you love Him?

PAUL’S LAST WORDS

v9 These words reflect that Paul is lonesome.

v10. Demas took off because he couldn’t stand the heat.

“Titus unto Dalmatia. I don’t know if these other brethren had a legitimate excuse for leaving Paul, but I think Titus did.

v11 Only Luke stood by Paul clear to the end.Paul had been wrong about Mark, and now he was able to say that Mark was profitable to him in his ministry.

v12 Paul sent Tychicus back to Ephesus because he was the pastor of the church there.

v13 Paul asks for his cloak or coat he had left at Troas. This reveals a little of Paul’s suffering. In May and June, it is cold in that prison.

“And the books, but especially the parchments.” He needed something for his mind.

v14-15 Alexander’s “reward” won’t be what Alexander would consider a reward! v15 Paul warns Timothy to be on guard against him. He is one of those laymen who will soft-soap you, then put a knife in you when you turn your back. Watch out for him.

v16 “At my first answer” was either the preliminary hearing which opened Paul’s final trial, or it was his first trial in Rome three years earlier. Paul was alone at that time.

v17 Now Paul is asking something for his spirit (as he had already asked for something for his body, for his mind (books and parchments). All of us have needs in these three areas. He was alone, but the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me…” as he said.

“I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.” Sparred execution at that time.

v18 Paul knew he was going to be translated to heaven.

vv19-21 Paul concludes this personal letter with references to mutual friends. He urges Timothy to come, and to come before winter. This continues the tremendous swan song of the Apostle Paul.

The local church sanctified and cleansed by the washing of water by the word——————–A ministry of Charity Baptist Tabernacle of Amarillo, Texas led by Pastor Ben Hickam. "Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me. 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. 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" (2 Corinthians 11:1-3). ————————————Jerald Finney, a Christian Lawyer and member of Charity Baptist Tabernacle, having received this ministry in the Lord, explains how a church in America can remain under the Lord Jesus Christ and Him only. "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen" (1 Peter 4:10-11; See also, Ephesians 4::1-16 and 1 Corinthians 12:1-25). "Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it" (Colossians 4:17). "And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church" (Ephesians 1.22; See also, e.g. Colossians 1:18).