“It has been said that the ultimate ignorance is the rejection of something you know nothing about, yet refuse to investigate”.
Most ignorance is vincible and willing ignorance. We don’t know because we don’t want to know.
And when it comes to things pertaining to our salvation, it is this willing ignorance that will be our eternal downfall.
For ignorance of the Scripture is ignorance of Christ.
And ignorance of Christ Jesus is ignorance of the free gift of God’s Salvation for “all men”, unconditionally.
Satan’s greatest weapon is man’s ignorance of God’s Word.
Satan fears our discovery of God’s Word, because our ignorance of it is the most effective weapon he can use against us.
Knowledge begins where ignorance ends, especially when it comes to knowledge of God’s saving Grace.
The only place where ignorance has a place is in the inspiration of Word of God.
For the inspiration of the Bible depends on the ignorance of the one who reads it.
Ignorance is a “wide open door” for false knowledge.
And we need to beware of false knowledge, for it is more dangerous than ignorance.
Am I Truly Saved?
The most important question for every man is “Am I truly saved?”
Every person who has entered the human race will have to answer yes or no to this question.
It is mutually understood that they must be old enough to understand.
So then, the answer will have to come from Scripture and the individual.
Most people have got that fouled up idea that the Ten Commandments are somehow a means of gaining entrance into Heaven.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Ten Commandments are in fact, just the opposite.
They’re God’s reason for not letting a human being into His Heaven, because all men are guilty [Romans 3:19].
And this verse says it plain as day. That “all the world may become guilty.”
Not saved. Not made ready for Heaven, but made guilty.
And that’s all the Law could do, which was show men their guilt.
A Way Of Escape
Through out history, God has always had a way of escape for every man to be saved from eternal judgment and damnation.
There has always been “good news”, and that is what the word “Gospel” implies. It always came with a prescribed set of instructions over a period of time.
And a ‘prescribed set of instructions’ is what the word ‘dispensation’ implies.
“Dispensation” is Biblical word, which means ‘an administration’. It’s a pharmaceutical term.
It’s like when we take a prescription from a doctor to a chemist.
The chemist dispenses the medication along with the instructions as to how to take it and for how long to take it.
And in a dispensation the ‘time factor’ and the ‘instructions’ cannot be separated.
You cannot have one without the other in a dispensation.
And that is what a Biblical dispensation is all about.
Though God is totally immutable and unchangeable, however His ‘modus operandi’ changes from time to time.
And this is all in accordance with His Divine plan and purpose, His “determinate counsel and foreknowledge” [Acts 2:23].
God Always Had Good News
At different eras of time God has always had good news pertaining to salvation, for He is always doing a ‘”new thing”.
“Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert” [Isaiah 43:19].
The historical trend of man is one that of falling deeper and deeper into a state of sin and depravity. It is literally been one of ‘wilderness’ and ‘desert’.
But even in those deepest levels of chaos, confusion and depravity God has chalked a way out to freedom and liberty.
God has always had a set of instructions at hand for every man in every age and era to be free from the power of sin.
The BIG question is, “has man responded to it”? Apart from a handful, the answer is no.
The reason is a willing ignorance.
Hence God has never enjoyed more than a remnant!
In the Garden of Eden, there was just one single instruction, “don’t eat of that tree” [Genesis 2:15-17].
That period was the age or era of innocence.
But man disobeyed and he fell! He was innocent no longer.
The Blood Sacrifice Instruction
After the fall, God instituted the ‘blood sacrifice’, which He instructed when one was, by the way of their conscience, convicted of sin.
It is the reason why God could not accept Cain’s bloodless offering of the “fruit of the ground” [Genesis 4:3].
The ground had been cursed because of the fall of Adam and his wife Eve [Genesis 3:17].
And so Cain’s offering was not in accordance to “in process of time”, which in the Hebrew implies “a day of instruction”.
God had told them plainly what they must do.
The instruction was a “blood sacrifice” by FAITH! And God would impute his Righteousness.
That is why Abel’s sacrifice was valid and acceptable to God [Hebrews 11:4], and not Cain’s.
This instruction carried on past the flood, Noah’s days and the tower of Babel till the calling out of Abram.
Up unto this point, approximately two thousand years, apart from very few, the rest of humanity trampled it underfoot. They rejected God’s offer of salvation.
We all know how that out of millions before the flood, only eight people, who were Noah and his family, believed. They followed the instruction.
It was why in [Hebrews 11:7], Noah is declared as righteous before God.
Something Totally Different
After that debacle at the Tower of Babel, God does something totally different when He calls out Abraham.
For by the time we come to Abraham, there is not a single person on the planet who believed God. That included Abraham himself.
Abraham along with his family was serving “other gods” [Joshua 24:2].
God had seen in two thousand years of human history, that man would not be obedient and believe what HE said.
He had seen over this period of time that man would not accept to His offer of salvation.
And so now HE is going to do something totally different, when He calls out this man Abram (Abraham).
Out of this river of humanity that’s headed for a lost eternity, God is going to bring out this one man Abraham.
He’s going to give him a covenant in [Genesis 12:1-3].
And He’s going to tell this man, that out of him will come a nation of people.
This was to be the nation of Israel or as we better know them as “the Jews.”
And these Jews would be then commissioned to take the message of salvation to the rest of the entire world.
The Holy Land
God put that nation of people in one geographical area of land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.
It is what we call the Holy Land.
The ancients even before Abraham, for one reason or another referred to that land as the Divine land, and they didn’t really know why.
It was evident that God had His Finger on that little piece of real estate.
After this, the promise was of the coming of a government, in the person of a King.
So this was the beginning of God dealing with the nation of Israel, under covenant promises.
And then God gave them the Law through Moses, followed by the Psalms and the prophets.
All this was the highway and the setting of the stage for the coming of their King.
God would provide their government in the person of the King, the Messiah, who would be the Son of God!
So the whole Old Testament is preparing the nation of Israel for the coming of their King, their Messiah, and Redeemer.
There had to be salvation first before any of the rest of their promises could come to pass.
The Time of Visitation
When Christ Jesus came to the nation of Israel in fulfillment of the promises, it was God’s time of their visitation.
The nation of Israel was waiting for this day for two thousand years.
And when it came they did not see it.
For three years Jesus and disciples kept proclaiming the “Gospel of the Kingdom” and that it was at hand.
“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God” [Matthew 16:16], was their confession of faith unto salvation.
Apart from a handful of Jews, Israel as a nation by willful ignorance chose to reject their Messiah and King. And having rejected, they demanded his crucifixion.
But according to God’s perfect design, Christ was ordained to go to the cross [1 Peter 1:19-20].
But death could not hold him for God resurrected Him from the dead.
And it was through this cross that God was going to unveil the mystery of our Gospel through the apostle Paul.
For seven more years after Christ resurrection God still kept giving every opportunity to Israel to accept the risen Christ as their Messiah.
And they could yet have that promised Kingdom and evangelize the whole world.
But sadly, Israel kept rejecting it.
“We will not have this man to reign over us” [Luke 19:14].
Israel’s total and ultimate rejection of Jesus Christ as their Messiah was expressed through the stoning to death of Stephen [Acts 7:57-60].
A Brand New Thing
After this incident of Stephen’s stoning, God does a brand new thing.
Setting aside the Kingdom programme for Israel along with all of its promises, God is now going to go to the Gentiles.
And HE is going to do this without Israel and without the Law.
The young man, Saul of Tarsus, who was present at Stephen’s stoning, was the very man God was going to use.
This renegade of Judaism was going to be God’s instrument to take the Gospel to the Gentiles as Paul the apostle.
So God, according to Divine plan and purpose, first saves him on the road to Damascus and revealed to him the mystery gospel of our salvation today.
“Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” [1 Corinthians 15:1-4].
Whosever will place their faith in this Gospel of Grace alone will be saved.
Paul tells us by revelation that it is this Gospel that is the Power of God unto salvation to everyone that just believes [Romans 1:16].
It is through this Gospel that God is calling out a people for His Name [Acts 15:14].
Known as the “Body Of Christ”, it consists of both Jews and Gentiles “for there is no difference” [Romans 3:22].
This is the free gift of Salvation that God is offering to whosoever will just ‘Believe’ and embrace it by faith alone.
There are no strings of water baptism, repentance, aisle walking, Church membership, money offerings, or prayer attached to this ‘Great Salvation’.
It by Faith + NOTHING!
What Are We Going To Do With This Gospel?
After the cross, every person who has entered the human race has to answer to this question.
What have you done with Paul’s Gospel of [1 Corinthians 15:1-4]?
Remember Peter said to repent and be baptized, through progressive revelation [Acts 2:38].
Paul does not!
For Paul now has the full and complete revelation.
So, today the only pure gospel for salvation is [1 Corinthians 15:1-4].
And quite honestly, we don’t want any kind of ignorance to play a part here, for our eternal destiny hinges on it.
That is why Satan keeps the multitudes out of Paul’s epistles!
