Since March 24, 2009
Expectation Not Yet Being Observed Speaking to the ecclesia at Rome Paul said; "...For to expectation we were saved. Now expectation, being observed, is not expectation, for what anybody is observing, why is he expecting it also? Now, if we are expecting what we are not observing, we are awaiting it with endurance..." [Rom.8:24-25] Paul tells them clearly, there is an expectation not yet being observed, what is it? Can we know what it is? Where can we find out? Who has the information we require? Well, we have to go back to the words of Jesus who said; "...Still much have I to say to you, but you are not able to bear it at present. Yet whenever that may be coming the spirit of truth it will be guiding you into all the truth, for it will not be speaking from itself, but whatsoever it should be hearing will it be speaking, and of what is coming will it be informing you. That will be glorifying Me, seeing that of Mine will it be getting, and informing you. All, whatever the Father has, is mine. Therefore I said to you that of Mine is it getting, and will be informing you..." Many today in the church [Gr.ecclesia, out called] among the nations stress themselves with worry by applying scripture to themselves that was spoken to others in the previous administration of Law, during the Dispensation of the of the ministry of the Son and the ministry during the Acts of the apostles. "...Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; For He visits, and makes a redemption for His people, And rouses a horn of SALVATION for us in the house of David, His boy..." [Luke 1:68,69] God spoke these words by the prophets of old, by John the Baptist, and by His Son. We must keep in mind that it was spoken to His people Israel. The question then asked by the writer of Hebrews is, "How shall we [Hebrews] escape, if we neglect so great salvation," spoken to us by God? [Heb.2:3] Again the writer to the "Hebrews" repeats the question; Anyone repudiating Moses Law is dying without pity on testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, are you [Hebrews] supposing, will be counted worthy who tramples on the Son of God, and deems the blood of the covenant by which he [the Hebrew] is hallowed contaminating, and, outrages the spirit of grace?..." [Heb.10:28-29] This is exactly what Peter said to all the house of Israel on the day of Pentecost "... Be saved from this crooked generation..." [Acts.2:36] The Dispensation of the Acts of the apostles is not the Dispensation of the secret, in which "IT" the spirit of truth is leading us into all the truth. When the Dispensation of the Acts of the apostles came to its close at [Acts.28:28] in [62.A.D.] the time arrived for the spirit of truth promised by our Lord in [John.16:12-15] to be fulfilled We today are living in the new Dispensation and God is speaking of the things He kept a secret in His own mind. Paul spoke of them to the Philippians when he said to the them, "forgetting those things, [belonging to the Hebrews] indeed which are behind." The writer to the Hebrews said; "...Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let ut go on to perfection; [the maturity] not laying [disrupting] again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God; Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal [eonian] judgement.." [Heb.6:1-3] These Hebrews were exhorted to leave the beginning [Gr.arche] of Christ's word and go on to perfection [maturity] not overthrowing the foundation which had been laid rightly and truly for that [Dispensation] but leaving it behind in the Dispensation to which it belongs, and stretching out to those in front towards the goal for the prize of God's calling above in Christ Jesus. "yet stretching out to those in front toward the goal am I pursuing for the prize of God's calling "above" in Christ Jesus." Paul was the instrument through whom "IT" the spirit of truth spoke the prophetic scriptures that brought the maturity and replaced the immaturity of those in the previous Dispensatiom of the ministry of the Son and those ministering during the Acts of the apostles. In this new Dispensation where Paul has the stewardship of the nations during the administration of the grace of God, "signs and wonders, and miracles and spiritual gifts" have no place. The gift of prophecy has been discarded as foretold in [1.Cor.13:8] The gift of languages has ceased. [1.Cor.13:8] The word of knowledge has been discarded. [1.Cor.13:8] That which was in part and incomplete has been done away. [1.Cor.13:10] "...Yet now are remaining faith, expectation, love, these three. Yet the greatest of these is love...." Faith, expectation remain in this administration of the grace of God. Neither faith nor expectation will remain in the glory that will be revealed. Love alone will continue at that time. Paul encouraged them that during the remainder of that Dispensation they should be zealous for spiritual endowments, yet rather that they may be prophesying and edifying the ecclesia. but he knew the era of maturity for all was coming and the sign gifts would cease. [1.Cor.13:8-12] I have found that saying these things does not win friends among the saints, especially the modern Charismatic saints, but like Paul speaking to the Galatian saints, I have to say; "...So that I have become your enemy by being true to you!..." [telling the truth] see [Gal.4:16] God wants us to tell the truth, not tickle their ears! "...For the era will be [its here now, 2009] when they [the saints] will not tolerate sound teaching, but, their ears being tickled, will heap up for themselves teachers in accord with their desires, and indeed, they [the saints] will be turned aside to myths..." [like the Toronto blessing, the "laughing syndrome."] [2.Tim.4:3-4] All the genuine sign gifts had there place in the Dispensation of the Acts of the apostles to which they belonged. The were to "occur respectably and in order" [1.Cor.14:40] "And the spiritual endowments of prophets are subject to the prophets." [1.Cor.14:32] When the Dispensation of the Acts of the apostles closed the service of the apostles and prophets was superseeded by the prophetic scriptures. "The gift of teaching, the exposition of the Scriptures, now takes the place of prophecy, for God has fully revealed His will the scriptures are now complete!" E.N. Paul emphatically states this for us; "...I became a dispenser in accord with the administration of God, which was granted to me for you, to complete the word of God the secret which has been concealed from the eons and from generations, yet now was made manifest to His saints, to whom God wills to make known what are the glorious riches of this secret among the nations..." [Col.1:25-27] In the Dispensation of the Acts of the apostles Paul described those recipients of the spiritual gifts as minors [immature] not yet in possession of all the truth which was revealed at the close of that dispensation. "...When I was a minor, I spoke as a minor, I was disposed as a minor, I took account of things as a minor. Yet when I have become a man, [mature] I have discarded that which is a minor's..." [1.Cor.13:1-13] Paul may have been in possession of this wisdom, and probably received it when he was snatched away to the third heaven and hears ineffable declarations, [2.Cor.12:1-4] which is not allowed a man to speak publicly until the Dispensation of the Acts of the apostles has closed. He may have revealed it to those close associates privately that followed his ministry because he mentions such a wisdom among the mature! "...Yet wisdom we are speaking among the mature, yet a wisdom not of this eon...but we [the mature] are speaking God's wisdom in a secret, a wisdom which has been concealed, which God designates before, before the eons for our glory, which not one of the chief men [elders in Israel] of this eon knows..." [1.Cor.2:6-10] This brings us to the question of where and when the dispensation of "maturity" came for all, and how was the promise of Christ in [John.16:12-15] fulfilled and when did we arrive into the new Dispensation where the old things [the Dispensation of the Acts of the apostles] passed away; and all things became new? The writer of the Hebrews said; "...By many portions and many modes, of old, God, speaking to the fathers in the prophets, in the last of these days speaks to us in a Son, Whom He appoints enjoyer of the allotment of all..." [Heb.1:1-2] And again; "...through the speaking of our Lord and those that hear Him, God corroborating, both by signs and miracles and by various powerful deeds and partings of holy spirit, according to His will..." [Heb.2:1-4] So we see that God spoke; "by the prophets," "by His Son," "by them that heard Him." Let us now see how and when He spoke through the spirit of truth and where we should look for His words. It was when the Dispensation of the Acts of the apostle came to its close we reached the time for the Dispensation of maturity and God commanded Paul to write the prophetic scriptures under the inspiration of the spirit of truth and make them known to all. [Rom.16:25-27] Paul's [Gr.graphon propheetikon] "prophetic scriptures" prison epistles followed immediately after Paul spoke the final proclamation of Israel's judicial blindness and hardening. [Acts.28:25-26] They have for their one great subject the enlightenment of all as to what is the administration of the secret, which has been concealed from the eons in God. The very first of these prophetic scriptures was the epistle called , "PAUL, TO THE EPHESIANS" not to the Hebrews, but to the Nations. "...On this behalf I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you, the nations since you surely hear of the administration of the grace of God that is given to me for you, for by revelation the secret is made known to me...To me, less than the least of all saints, was granted this grace: to bring the evangel of the untraceable riches of Christ to the nations, and to enlighten all as to what is the administration of the secret, which has been concealed from the eons in God, Who creates all, that now may be made known to the sovereignties and the authorities among the celestials, through the ecclesia the multifarious wisdom of God, in accord with the purpose of the eons..." [Eph.3:1-11] These things of the spirit of truth were unknown by the prophets of the Old Testament, they were not revealed by His Son, nor were they known to those that heard Him. They were revealed to Paul, God's special instrument who called himself the least of all saints, and a prisoner Christ Jesus for the nations. These things of the spirit of truth brought Paul into much trouble and suffering at the hands of those who had the covering over their hearts whenever the reading of Moses was reached [2.Cor.3:12-18] Luke recorded in the Acts of the apostles that nearly thirty years after Pentecost the incident where the tens of thousands of Pentecostal believers among the Jews who were all inherently zealous for the Law. [Acts.21:20-22] Who together with the whole city of Jerusalem came running seeking to kill Paul. [Acts.21:30-32] In Paul's final epistle, [2.Tim.1:15] he tells Timothy how his ministry brought him into much suffering by those who would not receive the revelations he was commissioned to make known to all the nations for faith obedience and he tells Timothy not to be ashamed or frightened of man because of this teaching. "...Who save us and calls us with a holy calling, not in accord with our acts, but in accord with His own purpose and the grace which is given to us in Christ Jesus before times eonian, yet now is being manifested through the advent of our Savior, Christ Jesus, Who indeed abolishes death, yet illuminates life and incorruption through THE EVANGEL OF WHICH I WAS APPOINTED a herald and an apostle and a teacher of the nations. For which cause I am suffering these things also, but I am not ashamed, for I am aware Whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to guard what is committed to me, [by the spirit of truth] for that day. Have a pattern of sound words, which you here from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. The ideal thing committed to you, [from the spirit of truth] guard through the holy spirit which is making its home in us. Of this you are aware, that all those in the province of Asia [where the first Christian ecclesia's were established] were turned from me [Paul's evangel and the secret of the evangel] of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes..." [2.Tim.1:9-15] They never turned from God, it was Paul's prophetic scriptures, the prison epistles inspired by the spirit of truth that they turned from. They turned back to Peters evangel that belonged to the Dispensation of the Acts of the apostles which was the fulfillment of Moses and the Law and the prophets and history tells us that this departure from Paul's revelation from the spirit of truth was soon followed by the catastrophic destruction of Jerusalem and the temple of God. IT was not until the sixteenth century at the time of the reformation that Paul's evangel of justification by faith alone was recovered and those who associated themselves with it suffered terribly at the hands of the apostasy of those who had departed from Paul's "my evangel" [Rom.16:25] During the Acts of the apostle Dispensation the holy spirit was not yet speaking the things of [John.16:13], God was corroborating those that confirmed what the Son had spoken, both by signs and miracles and by various powerful deeds and partings of [Gr. pneuma hagion, power from on high] according to His will...." [Heb.2:4] This [Gr. pneuma hagion], power from on high was given to the Apostle during the Dispensation of the Acts of the apostles to confirm by mighty signs and wonders, the words spoken by the Son of God to Judah Israel, and they were "THE ACTS" of the apostle that give the book its distinctive name. Not once are these signs and miracles and various powerful deeds ever seen or mentioned again in the new Dispensation and the "stewardship" of the secret of the evangel given to Paul for all the nations. In fact it is the obvious lack of these signs and miracles and powerful deeds that prove that the Dispensation of the Acts of the apostles has ceased. "These signs belonged to Israel and were prophesied by the prophet Joel and they were the birthright of Israel [the Hebrews] and never belonged to the ecclesia which is His body the complement of the One completing the all in all. When Jesus was ministering they [the Hebrews] were always asking for a "sign" to which He said; "...If you should not be perceiving signs and miracles, you should under no circumstances be believing..." E.W.B. In his prophetic scriptures written to the Philippians Paul said; "...to know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, conforming to His death, if somehow I should be attaining to the [Gr. exanastasis] resurrection that is OUT FROM AMONG THE DEAD. Not that I already obtained, or am already perfected. Yet I am pursuing , if I may be grasping also that for which I was grasped also by Christ Jesus. Brethren, not as yet am I reckoning myself to have grasped, yet one thing forgetting those things which are behind, [BELONGING TO THE DISPENSATION OF THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES] yet stretching out to those in front toward the goal am I pursuing for the prize of God's calling above in Christ Jesus. Whoever then are MATURE, may be disposed to this, and IF in anything you are differently disposed, this God also shall reveal to you. Moreover, in what we outstrip others, there is to be a mutual disposition to be observing the same rule..." [Phil.3:10-16] May I quote the late E.N. Knoch: "We have here the ideal experience of a believer in Christ Jesus. The shortcomings and sins, the aims and ambitions of the past are all forgotten lest they hinder us in our race to the goal, which is conformity to Christ Jesus in His glory. Though we cannot fully attain this until the resurrection, we should aim to come as near it as posible in our present experience. He who comes nearest this ideal will obtain the prize." E.N. "Have you ever noticed that Paul never engages our attention with the life of Christ while on earth. Then he tells us, He was a servant of the Circumcism. All of His practices and precepts were directly connected with the proclamation of the Kingdom that is now in abeyance". E.N. "The imitation of Christ, when He was concerned with an economy which was, in some ways, the opposite of the present, has led to endless failure and confusion" E.N. God bless you real good. David and Carol Buckman. Down-under in the land of OZ [Australia]
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Since March 24, 2009