Transcript

Craig Larson writes this, “We live in a fast-paced culture, but some things just ought to happen slowly. “The book Final Salute tells the story of Major Steve Beck, a U.S. Marine whose heart-wrenching task is to inform the nearest of kin when a Marine is killed in Iraq.

“Beck doesn’t just break the sad news and then leave; for several days he may help the family through the process of the funeral. That includes supervising the Marine honor guard that stands near the fallen soldier’s body.

“The honor guard learns from Beck how to salute their fallen fellow-Marine as they leave or resume guard with a slow salute that isn’t taught in basic training.

“The slow salute requires a three second raising of the hand to the head, a three second hold, and then a three second lowering of the hand—a gesture of respect that takes about nine times longer than normal.

“Beck explains it this way: ‘A salute to your fallen comrade should take time.’

“Those who die serving their country are worthy of great honor, worthy of a slow salute, worthy of extra time, worthy of taking the time to ponder their sacrifice.

“To do some things fast, just to get them done so we can move on to the next thing in our lives, sends a subtle message of disrespect. So it is with our worship of God and living for Him. The Savior who gave His life for us is worthy of our time.”

The Savior is worthy of our time and is worthy of all we can give, of all that we could ever do for Him. He is worthy not to just do things fast for the Lord in our lives, but to devote time and take time out of our lives to use for Him and His glory.

God has called us to action. Knowing the message of grace and what God is doing today is not enough. We, the Body of Christ, are called and commissioned to take God’s message of grace for today to the world. He is worthy of our time in doing so.

2 Corinthians 5:19-20: “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”

The commission given to the eleven apostles at the end of Christ’s earthly ministry is a powerful and important commission. It is a “great,” commission because Christ gave it. And everything Christ does is great. And it will have great ramifications when it will be carried out again in the future after the Rapture of the Church.

There is a new commission that is in force and is to be carried out today by the Body of Christ in the dispensation of grace. We learn about it in the epistles of the Apostle of the Gentiles, the Apostle Paul.

There are similarities with our commission under grace and the Lord’s commission to the apostles, but there are also BIG differences.

Similarly, we too are called to “go,” we too have Christ with us always, we too are to go to the world, we too have good news concerning Jesus Christ to proclaim, we too have the Holy Spirit to strengthen and enable us as we carry out our commission.

But there are important differences:

(1) Proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom with its earthly kingdom hope,
(2) Repentance, confession of sins, and water baptism REQUIRED to be saved,
(3) Belief in Jesus as Israel’s Messiah to be saved, not His finished work,
(4) Miraculous signs as evidences of salvation: such as speaking in tongues and healing,
(5) Teaching the observance of the law,
(6) Teaching the conditional forgiveness of sins based on forgiving others,
(7) Teaching forsaking all and selling all to have eternal life,
(8) Having the authority to forgive sins,
(9) Reaching Jerusalem and Israel first.

These things are incompatible with the truths found in the Pauline epistles and the gospel of the grace of God. Although the words at the end of the Gospel records are the Lord’s parting words to His apostles here on earth before He ascended to heaven, these are not the last words Christ spoke concerning the mission and commission of His saints.

After Israel fell in their unbelief and their program was temporarily set aside after the stoning of Stephen, Christ spoke again. He appeared and saved Paul on the road to Damascus, and He raised up a new Apostle for this dispensation of grace, to whom He revealed a new commission for the Church today, which we find in Paul’s epistles.

The Lord gave a commission to the apostles while here on EARTH for the nation Israel based on God’s EARTHLY program. And the Lord gave a commission to Paul from HEAVEN for the Body of Christ based on God’s HEAVENLY program.

Many are operating under the wrong commission today, for the simple reason that they have failed to recognize God’s message to the Church today through the Apostle Paul, which is separate and distinct from the message of the Twelve Apostles.

But we must reach out to the world with the right message, with the right gospel, following the right commission in doing so. We must serve and carry out the Lord’s instructions and commission according to what He is doing now under grace.

To place ourselves under the commission given to the Twelve is to go backwards and not forward. It is place ourselves back under the law, back under Israel’s program, both of which are not in operation today.

Paul says we are “not under the law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:14). Paul says that Israel has fallen, is cast away, and is temporarily set aside today (Rom. 11:11-15).

The Great Commission is not our commission. Just as Israel is temporarily set aside, that commission it is a temporarily-set-aside commission.

The fact that miraculous signs do not follow those who believe today is one proof of many that the commission for Israel is not what God is requiring today. Also, the gospel of grace says salvation is by grace through faith alone, not of works.

Water baptism is a work that was required for salvation under the Great Commission. Forsaking all, selling all, keeping the law, confessing sins, forgiving others to be forgiven, those are all works. The fact that salvation is “not of works” as Ephesians 2:9 says, demonstrates that the Great Commission is not for today.

The Great Commission was based on prophecy and Israel was primary in that commission. Israel needed to be reached first, Israel was to be the light to the world, and the hope for all was Israel’s earthly kingdom.

However, the commission for today isn’t based upon prophecy or Israel’s program, but upon, “the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,” as Romans 16:25 says.

Today God is building the Church, the Body of Christ which has a completely different calling, walk, and destiny from the nation Israel.

The revelation of the Mystery as made known by Christ to Paul reveals God’s plans and purposes for a people reigning in the heavens for eternity: the Body of Christ. Prophecy reveals God’s plans and purposes for a people reigning eternally over the earth: Israel.

Just like the earthly kingdom commission, the Lord Jesus Christ is the focus and foundation of our commission. He is the One with all authority and is over all, not in His office as Messiah and King over Israel, but as the Head of the Body of Christ.

Our Savior and Head has commissioned and has given the charge to the Church today.

The commission for today was given by the Lord from heaven to one man, the Apostle Paul (Gal. 1:11,12), who in turn has revealed it to the Church.. And it’s within Paul’s writings that we find the commission for the Body of Christ under grace.

In Paul’s letters we learn that the gospel of the commission for the Body of Christ is not the gospel of the kingdom, but the gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:24).

The gospel of the kingdom was a message of salvation that when believed gave people an earthly kingdom hope. Like the great commission, the gospel of the kingdom is a temporarily-set-aside gospel today. After the Rapture of the Church, it will again be what God requires for salvation. But not today.

The gospel that is in force today, the only gospel that saves, is the gospel of the grace of God. It is the “power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16).

It is God offering eternal life and salvation as a free gift, by grace through faith alone, not by any works, just believing that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again.

And unlike the gospel of the kingdom, this message of salvation, when believed, gives people a heavenly home for all eternity.

God has sent us, the Body of Christ, out as His ambassadors to the world with this gospel of grace. The founder of Berean Bible Society, Pastor C. R. Stam, called this gospel: the wonderful gospel of the wonderful grace of God. It really is wonderful and amazing, that God saves us and gives us a heavenly home, by His grace through faith in Christ alone.

When we trust the gospel, we become members of Christ’s Body. And being in the Body of Christ, we are all ambassadors for Christ.

We each represent Christ before this world. We are all the official representatives of God the Son! This is a great privilege and carries a great weight of responsibility.

As Christ’s ambassadors, Paul says “as though God did beseech you by us, we pray [or implore] you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”

We stand here in Christ’s stead, as His ambassadors, offering the good news for anyone to be reconciled to God through the Cross as a free gift. God the Father and God the Son implore sinners through us to accept His forgiveness and to be reconciled to God.

Christ has done the work of reconciliation, now God has committed to us the word of reconciliation, and His will is for each of us to take part in the worldwide outreach and testimony to His grace to reach the unbelieving.

There is no order of places that we take God’s message of grace out. It is not, as it was in the past, through Israel to the world; it’s not the world coming through Israel to be saved. It’s just to the world.

We are sent to all people, without distinction, sharing God’s grace far and wide, in as many means, methods, and ways as possible, doing whatever it takes.

We do so by faith, using our God-given gifts, by prayer, in God’s strength, for His glory, with Christ’s love and grace constraining and driving us to do so (2 Cor. 5:14).

“Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4).

I have always liked the quote, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” The main thing for the Church is 1 Timothy 2:4. God’s will should be our will.

The things that break God’s heart should break our hearts. The things that bring joy to Him should bring joy to us. The things that matter to God, should matter to us.

What matters to God is the salvation of souls and people coming to the full knowledge of His truth of what He is doing today under grace.

The U.S. Coast Guard Search and Rescue Team motto is “This we do so others may live.” This is a good motto for the Body of Christ as well. All that we do for Christ should be “so others may live,” and find life eternal, forgiveness, and hope in Christ.

Today God turns to all people individually and offers reconciliation to all just by believing in His Son and His finished work. The door of salvation and heaven is now thrown open to “all,” to Jew and Gentile alike without distinction today (Rom. 10:12).

Christ died for all (2 Cor. 5:15), He gave Himself a ransom for all (1 Tim. 2:6), and today grace is offered to all individually and indiscriminately.

Romans 10:12,13 says, “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.”

Today God works through the Church, the Body of Christ, made up of all who have trusted Christ as their personal Savior. Israel was God’s light to the world in the past (Matt. 5:14). The Body of Christ is God’s light to the world now (Eph. 5:8).

Philippians 2:15 says the Church is “in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation [generation], among whom ye shine as lights in the world.” The Body of Christ is to be a shining light for our Savior in this spiritually dark world.

As His lights, we’re to reveal and radiate God’s truth and show the way to Him through the gospel of grace. We’re to be “holding forth the Word of life” (Phil. 2:16) and its message of salvation that is available to the world.

God loves the world. He wants the whole world to know about His full provision of salvation through His Son. He takes “no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Ezek. 33:11). He is “not willing that any should perish” (2 Pet. 3:9).

God desires that the lost be saved from eternal death and separation from Him and from the horrors of hell that await those who do not trust Christ and die in their sins.

He desires everyone to come to the Cross, trust Christ as their Savior, be saved from their sins, and enter into an eternal relationship with Him. Out of His love for all, He has provided salvation for all (Titus 2:11). But each person must make that personal decision to trust God’s provision, and only those who trust it are saved from their sins (Eph. 1:13).

We are confronted daily with the horrible state of the world, and with the horrific, brutal, evil things and injustices that happen constantly.

You hear many often ask: “Why God doesn’t do something about it all?” “When is the Lord going to come to take the Church home and judge this wicked world?”

In 2 Peter 3:15, Peter gives us the answer why the Lord waits: “the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you.”

The reason this current dispensation of grace has continued for 2000 years, the reason why it still continues, and the reason why the Lord is being so longsuffering with all the terrible things that happen in the world is simply this: the salvation of souls.

God wants people to be saved. Today, He is giving all people an opportunity to be saved through Christ alone. His grace is being magnified today (1 Cor. 1:3). God’s heart is huge, and His grace is infinitely great.

In His longsuffering He’s waiting and wanting people to respond to His salvation that He’s provided by His grace. The next thing on God’s timeline is judgment, the judgment of the Tribulation period. But God continues to, like the Prodigal Son’s father, to patiently watch, wait, look for, and want lost sinners to come home.

That’s where the Body of Christ comes in with our commission. We are God’s ambassadors. We are His rescue workers. We are God’s representatives to this world.

We are His mouthpiece, and God wants to communicate His message of salvation by grace with the world through us.

In knowing and imitating God’s heart, the Apostle Paul had a burden for all men to be saved. I Cor. 9:16,22 says, “For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain [win] the more [to Christ]…I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” Paul had a passion for lost souls.

He was willing to do whatever it took to win the lost. He was flexible, adaptable, dealing with different people in different ways, and he labored hard to reach the unbelieving.

Paul tells the Church in 1 Corinthians 11:1 to “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” We should most definitely follow Paul in doctrine, and we should also most definitely follow Paul in practice, and in his example of a deep burden for lost souls.

“And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ” (Eph. 3:9).

A true story was shared with me many years ago that has stuck with me. It was about a father who refused to attend his daughter’s wedding because the man she was marrying couldn’t speak in tongues.

The father believed that this young man wasn’t saved and didn’t have the Holy Spirit if he couldn’t speak in tongues. But the young man had a clear profession of faith in Christ as his personal Savior. The father refused this as the basis to believe that he was saved.

Because of his failure to understand the “truth,” this father missed the most important day in his daughter’s life. He did not have that special moment of walking his daughter down the aisle because of a misapplication and misunderstanding of God’s Word and the commission for today, and how God is operating under grace.

God wants all to come to the knowledge of the truth. The Apostle Paul tells the Church, the Body of Christ in his letters that we have a twofold commission: to beg, beseech all people everywhere to be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:20), and “to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery” (Eph. 3:9).

The “truth” God desires all men to know and see is the truth of “the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery” (Rom. 16:25).

The “truth” of the mystery tells us that Jesus Christ is carrying out a heavenly ministry in His exaltation at God’s right hand today.

Under grace, He is building a Church, the Body of Christ, and He is its living Head (Eph. 1:20-23). In following the mind and heart of God (Eph. 5:1), the work of the Body of Christ is to be about sharing His gospel of salvation and establishing people in His truth.

Grounding believers in the “knowledge of the truth” keeps them from being tossed around by false teaching and traditions of men. It keeps people stable in their Christian lives, and able to rightly apply the Word and to grow deeper in Christ.

The knowledge of the truth of the mystery, and understanding that it is in Paul’s epistles that we find the direct instruction for the Church, allows us to boldly hold out God’s pure gospel of grace, without mixing it with the law, or Israel’s covenants, water baptism, or the gospel of the kingdom and its earthly hope.

The knowledge of the truth of the mystery, allows to know for certain what God’s desire is for our daily walk and life, that it is to be a walk of liberty, faith, and grace, lived in God’s enablement and power by the Holy Spirit and by the Word, rightly divided.

In fulfilling our commission under grace, it’s been rightly said, “Without God we can’t; without us He won’t.” God wants to use our lives to reach people that they might be saved from eternal death and have eternal life.

And God wants to use our lives to reach people that they might be saved from tradition, incorrect teaching, and have a clear understanding of what God is doing today.

We are commissioned to rescue the perishing by sharing the gospel of grace. And we are also commissioned to rescue the saved from wrong doctrine and shed the light on the truth of God’s revelation of the mystery.

This is the commission for the Church, the Body of Christ.