From the ministry archive
Israel and Salvation
The final yoke to be broken off of God's people is in fact the first yoke that was laid on the body of Christ after it's inception. Here is where the damage started: "And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved" (Acts 15:1). These were Jewish men who were in the body of Christ, that went out from the apostles, but were not sent by the apostles, as James stated in the same chapter: "Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment" (Acts 15:24). John also wrote about these and others like them at a later time: "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us" (I Jn. 2:19). Make no mistake, these men in question were in the body of Christ, meaning they had been baptized BY JESUS with the holy Ghost, according to the scriptures (I Cor. 12:13). They were just going backward from the leading of God's Spirit (Gal. 5:18; Rom. 8:14). But back to Acts 15 and the council at Jerusalem that was called together when Paul and Barnabas came from Antioch about these men who had come from Jerusalem to Antioch to subvert the Gentile believers: "And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they" (Acts 15:7-11). The 'yoke' that Peter spoke of here was the old covenant law that those errant Jews were trying to bring the Gentiles under subjection to. The circumstance that Peter referred to there, where he said that God "purified their hearts by faith," was at the house of Cornelius the Centurion, who were the first Gentiles to have the Gospel preached to them. Here is what happened that Peter was referring to: "While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God" (Acts 10:44-46).
Now that is what happens when someone believes on the death and resurrection of Jesus with all their heart, and that was the point Peter made at the council. I might momentarily note that Peter and the brethren who came with him to Cornelius's house only knew that these Gentiles had received the holy Ghost upon "hearing them speak with tongues and magnify God." Reason being that they knew that was and is the sign of the new birth experience that God had provided to mark evidence that anyone had truly believed on his Son and been "washed, and sanctified, and justified, by [his Spirit]" (I Cor. 6:11). Jesus had previously described the same thing in this manner when he was still on earth: "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. [But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive]" (Jn. 7:38,39). The apostle Paul later said the same thing like this: "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us... That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Gal. 3:13,14). "The blessing of Abraham" is in fact pure faith in Jesus Christ with the result of being baptized with the holy Ghost BY Jesus, thereby having the hope and promise of eternal life (Gen. 17:8; Rom. 8:2; Acts 2:38; I Jn. 2:25). The same apostle Paul said something else about these things just before the quoted verses above: "So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith" (Gal. 3:9-12). So it is clear that we cannot be "of faith," and "of the works of the law" at the same time. The only thing that is "of faith" is in fact FAITH, and that being in Jesus Christ. Any 'works' that a man can do or believe simply is not 'of faith,' but rather it is of man. That which is 'of faith' is the Spirit of God that we receive by faith in Jesus. The empowerment of the holy Ghost is not something a man can come up with or do on his own. That takes singular faith in the death and resurrection, and Lordship of Jesus Christ the Son of God. There is simply nothing else in this world that is here by faith in Jesus Christ other than the holy Ghost that he sent back from heaven after leaving here (Jn. 16:7; Acts 1:4,5; Acts 2:4). When we receive God's Spirit by faith we are a "new creature" in Christ, according to the scriptures (II Cor. 5:17). We are thereby "joined to the Lord," and have become "one spirit" with the Lord (I Cor. 6:17). The scripture says that when we are "baptized [with the Spirit] into Christ, we have put on Christ" (Gal. 3:27). The point here is the same point that the apostle Paul was making in most of his epistles, and that is that we simply cannot add anything to the true new birth experience that we come to by faith in Jesus.
New life and literal freedom from sin are the products of faith in Jesus unto being baptized BY Jesus with the holy Ghost (Rom. 6:3,4; Rom. 6:6; Rom. 8:2). We cannot improve on that experience and divine reality by observing any ceremonial ordinance, or by observing any day, or by adhering to any doctrine that is contrary to this simplistic truth. The apostle Paul warred against the spirits of these people who continued to impose the old covenant law onto the Gentiles, whom he was the apostle to; and he made it clear that we are simply not under any part of the old covenant if we are in Christ: "This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (Gal. 3:2,3). What he was referring to was that these Jewish false apostles were influencing the Gentile believers to think that there was some 'added benefit' for them to observe things that were under the law. Nothing could be further from the truth, and that is why the same apostle said the following: "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Philp. 3:2,3). "The flesh" that he mentioned here is the same 'flesh' that he mentioned in Galatians 3:3 which I quoted above; and that is the ceremonial commandments of the law that pertained to the flesh, but did nothing for the hearts and souls of men. If anything of the law could have done anything for the souls of men, then Jesus would not have had to come and died for our sins. It really is that simple, and again Paul said that it is that simple: "I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain" (Gal. 2:21). If we "have confidence in the flesh [works]," then we are in effect demonstrating that indeed "Christ died in vain," which he did not. So what God is going to do now in the end is take us back to the Gospel that Paul preached, and remove the yoke of works from his people, so that they can be united in Christ under his yoke alone (Mat. 11:29). Not united in Christ with this work and that thrown in along with Christ, but united in Christ alone by faith in Christ alone. God began this work with Martin Luther in the 1500's, but he did not get the whole job done. That is why we are still here and the Lord Jesus Christ has not yet come back from heaven. Everything that is not of God, but is of men, will have to be removed from the spirits and minds of God's people; and then we will see something that the world has never seen. Anyone who is not willing to suffer the loss of the observance of carnal ordinances, holy days, and the like; along with every erroneous doctrine of men that is not of God's Spirit, will not be able to complete the journey and be saved. Everyone who is willing to go forward with faith in Jesus Christ, and faith in Jesus Christ alone, will be empowered beyond what they have yet to imagine, and it will surely be needed in order to make the finish line. May God be with us, one and all. Amen.
