Understanding The Bible – Episode 12

To grasp this, let’s turn to 1 Corinthians 2:7-8, where we read,

But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

God kept the mystery secret so Satan would help accomplish the very thing that destroys his entire plan—both on earth and in the heavens.

We need to understand why God brought in the dispensation of grace. It wasn’t because He was frustrated with Israel. Romans 11 makes that clear. God set Israel aside temporarily because He had a secret purpose, “the mystery of His will” as Ephesians 1:9 labels it, planned before the world began. The mystery is about forming a new creation, the one new man, the Body of Christ, made of Jew and Gentile with no difference between them.

Why?

Because God’s reclaiming not only the earth, through Israel’s program, but also the heavenly places, through our program.

Genesis 1:1 says God created the heaven and the earth. Prophecy deals with the earth. But Satan also seized the heavenly governmental realm when he fell. Prophecy said nothing about how God would reclaim the heavens. That’s what the mystery’s for.

Ephesians 1:9-10 says this,

Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:

That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:

God will place all things—heaven and earth—under the headship of Christ.

Israel will reign on earth. The Body of Christ will reign in the heavenly places. That’s why we’re given spiritual bodies, as 1 Corinthians 15 talks about, especially 1 Corinthians 15:44.

That’s why we are “seated with Christ in heavenly places” in Ephesians 2:6. That’s why the rapture, the great catching up of the Body of Christ, takes us into the air—the very realm where Satan is “prince of the power of the air.”

Satan didn’t know or even foresee this, but he knows it all now. He knows the Body of Christ is God’s instrument to replace his fallen principalities. That’s why he fights the mystery harder than anything else. If he can keep us confused—mixing Israel’s program with ours, living in Matthew to Acts 2, then in Hebrews to Revelation, instead of Romans through Philemon—then he keeps us spiritually useless.

So the adversary’s policy today is not demon possession, not signs and wonders, not attacking Israel’s kingdom program. His policy today is the confusing of doctrine—to keep Christians “biblical but not dispensational,” to keep them mishandling Scripture, to keep them blind to the mystery.

That’s why rightly dividing the Word of Truth is not optional. It’s our protection. It’s our stability, and it’s our clarity. It’s the only way to stand against Satan’s policy of evil in this dispensation of grace.

God took the wise in their own craftiness by doing one simple thing: keeping a secret. That’s why Paul calls the mystery “the hidden wisdom” in 1 Corinthians 2:7. God ordained this mystery before the world, long before Israel ever existed, long before Satan ever rebelled. So we mustn’t think God brought in the dispensation of grace because Israel failed or because He had to fix something. The mystery was already planned. He simply kept it hidden.

Ephesians 1:4 says we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. That’s the mystery of God’s will—His secret purpose in Christ, laid out before creation. Keeping it secret was a masterstroke of God’s wisdom.

Satan’s fall in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 shows he challenged God on the issue of wisdom. He was created “full of wisdom” and “perfect in beauty,” but pride corrupted him. He built his plan of evil on the belief that his wisdom could outsmart God.

But God kept the mystery hidden, and by doing so, He let Satan perform the very act that destroyed his entire plan, crucifying the Lord of glory.

Satan thought the cross was his victory. Instead, it exposed him as a fool. God took the crown that Satan had claimed for himself and replaced it with a dunce cap. That’s what the mystery’s all about.

Because of that, Satan’s infuriated at the revelation and the proclaiming of the mystery. His policy of evil today is aimed at keeping the mystery unknown, as if God never revealed it. He wants the Body of Christ ignorant of who we are, what God’s doing, and why this dispensation exists. Satan’s policy is motivated by pure, blind hatred, both of God and those who are his.

Look at Colossians 2, where Paul shows the embarrassment the mystery brings to Satan and his principalities. Colossians 2:15 says, And having spoiled principalities and powers, he (Christ) made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

Those three words—spoiled, shew, triumph—tell us exactly how the mystery affected the heavenly rulers.

They were spoiled: Their entire plan of evil collapsed. They’d pledged themselves to Satan’s “superior wisdom,” believing he could avoid the lake of fire and take God’s place. The cross proved their confidence was foolish.

They were made a shew of: God publicly exposed them as fools. The heavenly realm saw that Satan’s wisdom was nothing compared to God’s hidden wisdom.

He triumphed over them: Christ won. Satan lost, and the cross sealed the doom of every principality aligned with him.

This is why Satan hates the mystery. This is why he hates us understanding Paul’s epistles. And this is why Paul warned the Corinthians not to be ignorant of Satan’s devices in 2 Corinthians 2.

Sadly, most Christians today are ignorant of those devices. They only know Satan’s tactics from Israel’s program—signs, wonders, demon possession—but they don’t know what he’s doing now. The mockery and foolishness of today’s “demon hunters” in the church is overwhelming. I’ve had first-hand exposure to this throughout my years of attending church, with many people professing to have been given a ministry directly by God to cast out demonic activity and, as a result, causing immense damage to both individuals directly and the Body of Christ in general, scarring them emotionally and destroying their truthful understanding of scripture.

Today Satan’s attack is doctrinal, and its primary tool is confusion, mixing Israel’s program with ours and keeping believers out of Romans through to Philemon. Keeping the mystery hidden in plain sight.

Those principalities and powers hate the revelation of the mystery because it spoiled them, exposed them, and triumphed over them. But there’s another reason why they hate it so fiercely. Look at Ephesians 3:9–11 which says.

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:

To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:

Paul says God wants the mystery preached, taught, rejoiced in, and fellowshipped around, because every time the Body of Christ talks about it, it echoes through the heavenly realm and reminds those fallen rulers that God is infinitely wiser than they are. It reminds them their doom is sealed. It reminds them they were fooled by a secret, and it lays the boot in with the fact that it’s the church, the new man, the Body of Christ, mere humans that keep them reminded of it.

That’s why Satan hates this message with a hatred you can’t measure. If he could undo the cross, he would. But he can’t. So he wages war against the mystery. That’s why Paul’s epistles constantly use warfare terms like fight the good fight, war a good warfare, wrestle not against flesh and blood, taken captive. The battle’s real, my friends, and it takes place in the mind where either understanding and peace reign or ignorance and confusion.

Satan’s will is ignorance and confusion; it’s all he has left!

He uses it to block Ephesians 3:9-11, by keeping believers from seeing “the fellowship of the mystery.” If he can corrupt our understanding of what God’s doing today, we won’t fellowship around the mystery, we won’t talk about it, and the impact in the heavenly places will be either weak or won’t be made at all.

So Satan’s front line, primary attack is the corruption of the doctrine God has given to us. He wants us to handle the Bible, but not handle it accurately. He wants us to mix Israel’s program with ours. He wants us to be confused about Paul’s apostleship. He wants us to think there’s no difference between Paul and the twelve, or that Paul should have been Judas’s replacement. All of that fits perfectly into his policy of evil. If we accept and believe those things, we’ve swallowed his plan. If we communicate them to others, we’re helping it along.

Satan well knows that if he can corrupt our understanding of Ephesians 3:1–8, Paul’s unique apostleship and the difference between time past, but now, and ages to come, then we won’t see the fellowship of the mystery. And if we don’t see it, we won’t talk about it. And if we don’t talk about it, the heavenly rulers don’t have to listen to the message that humiliates them. Their wounded pride gets comforted.

Not only that—Satan can then turn the tables and act as the devil, the diabolos, the slanderer. He can use misguided Christians as examples of confusion, speaking accusingly on their behalf. He can carry out “spiritual wickedness in high places” at their expense. And he gloats on it. It’s all he has!

We need at least a basic grasp of what’s at stake if we don’t rightly divide the Word. Satan understands the importance of it far more than most Christians. He’s devoted the entire machinery of his heavenly kingdom to stopping its impact.

So let’s look at some passages that show his first-line attack—corrupting doctrine so the mystery is not understood, not fellowshipped around, and not proclaimed.

That attack always begins with undermining the uniqueness of Paul’s apostleship, because if Paul’s distinct message is blurred, the mystery’s blurred, and Ephesians 3:10 is never fulfilled.

Let’s go to Ephesians 4, where Paul shows how the Lord provided everything needed for the sound edification of the Body of Christ in this dispensation of grace.

Ephesians 4:11 says that after His ascension,

…he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

These are not the twelve. The twelve were made apostles back in Matthew 10, long before the cross. The apostles and prophets in Ephesians 4 are gifts for the Body of Christ after Christ’s ascension, not Israel’s program. That’s why Paul can call Timothy, Titus, and Epaphroditus apostles—they belong to this category.

Why did Christ give these gifts?

Next verse, Ephesians 4:12,

For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

They’re educational terms. These are communication gifts. God designed the local assembly to be “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). A classroom for sound doctrine. If a church doesn’t teach sound doctrine, it isn’t functioning as a church—no matter what the sign says.

God wants His saints edified, or built up and educated in the truth of this dispensation. Colossians 1:27 says God wants His saints to know “the riches of the glory of this mystery… Christ in you, the hope of glory.” That requires education. Everything we covered in the earlier episodes—Paul’s apostleship, time past / but now / to come, Israel’s program vs. the Body of Christ—is basic milk doctrine. But God wants us to go on to maturity.

Ephesians 4:13 gives this doctrinal goal of doctrine:

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:

Full knowledge of the Son of God is not just knowing His earthly ministry. We don’t even know half of what’s to know about Christ if all we know is Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Full knowledge demands understanding the mystery of Christ, God’s secret purpose in His Son.

A “perfect man” is a fully educated member of the Body of Christ, much like the idea of a student who’s finished all the stages of their schooling. God wants fully trained saints who can function properly in their vocation to make the impact of Ephesians 3:10, declaring God’s manifold wisdom to the heavenly powers.

That’s why Ephesians chapter 4 begins with Paul saying :

I…beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,

A vocation is a true “calling” or lifework rather than just a way to make money.

Our vocation has two parts:

1. What we do now, on earth, before the rapture.
2. What we’ll do then, in the heavenly places with our glorified body.

Now, our vocation includes making that heavenly impact by understanding and fellowshipping around the mystery. Talking about it. Standing for it. Not clamming up when opposition comes.

And this is exactly where Satan attacks.

Ephesians 4:13-14 has this,

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;

This shows Satan’s goal. He wants children, children in understanding, saints who never learn what they should’ve learned. Saints who can’t fellowship around the mystery because they don’t understand it.

This is Phase One of Satan’s policy of evil:  Doctrinal corruption.

Get believers confused. Get them mixing Israel’s program with ours. Get them thinking Paul isn’t unique. Get them tossed around by every wind of doctrine. Because if he can stop us from understanding the mystery, he can stop us from making the impact of Ephesians 3:10.

That’s what’s at stake. And that’s why right division matters so much.

The sad truth is that when a believer doesn’t grow up in sound doctrine, he stays a child in understanding. And worse than that, the little he does know is usually a pile of corrupted doctrine, misapplied verses, and teachings that don’t belong to this dispensation of grace. That’s exactly what Ephesians 4:14 warns about—being “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine,” blown around by teachings that look and sound biblical but are not rightly dividing the Word of Truth.

Those winds of doctrine don’t come out of nowhere. Paul says they come by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, men who “lie in wait to deceive.”

Behind that lies the adversary himself. His goal is simple: keep us confused so we never understand the fellowship of the mystery, and therefore never make the impact of Ephesians 3:10, declaring God’s manifold wisdom to the heavenly powers.

If you ever wonder why you’ve never heard the mystery taught before, that’s the reason. Satan works hard to keep it hidden.

Now look at Colossians 2:1-4. Paul’s carrying on talking about his prayer for the Colossians from the previous chapter. He explains part of that prayer in verses 2 & 3, which reads,

That their (that’s the saints in Laodicea, as many as have not seen him in the flesh – you and me). That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Then, in the next part of that prayer, in verse 4, he gives a reason for that prayer request,

And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.

These beguiling and enticing words are messages that come from pulpits, and through the media and are spoken by people who look and sound like Christian ministers. But 2 Corinthians 11:14-15 says Satan himself is “transformed into an angel of light”, and his ministers transform themselves into “ministers of righteousness.”

They don’t show up wearing horns and red suits. They quote Scripture. They talk about Jesus. But they preach another Jesus, another spirit, and another gospel, and it’s all from the Bible, but not according to Paul’s message given by Christ himself directly for us in this present “But Now” age, today.

Jesus can be preached from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and still be preached in error if the person preaching doesn’t understand the difference between Israel’s program and the dispensation of grace. “Receiving the Spirit” from Acts 2 can be preached, but if it’s not preached with an understanding of Israel’s Pentecostal program, that preaching will be of “another spirit”. If “The gospel of the Kingdom” from the prophets and the four gospels is preached without the full understanding of our gospel today, as defined in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, it’s another gospel, because there’s clearly more than one gospel in the Bible. Satan uses all of that to corrupt the minds of believers from “the simplicity that is in Christ,” as 2 Corinthians 11:3-4 says.

In Corinth, false apostles were operating right in their assembly. They didn’t say, “We’re false apostles.” They said they were Christ’s ministers. They even had signs and wonders, real miracles. That’s why Paul never argued, “I did miracles, and they didn’t.” They did miracles. But they were “deceitful workers,” using signs to seduce the saints so the doctrines of devils could be accepted, as Paul teaches Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:1.

This is Phase One of Satan’s policy of evil:  Corruption of our doctrine through enticing words, false apostles, and misused Scripture.

Its goal is to keep you and me from understanding the mystery, so we never fellowship around it, never speak it, never stand for it, and never make the heavenly impact God purposed us to make.

If Satan can keep us doctrinally confused by wrong doctrine—mixing Israel’s program with ours, ignoring Paul’s apostleship, chasing signs, following emotional preaching—then he’s succeeded. We become children tossed by every wind of doctrine, unable to stand firm, unable to walk worthy of our vocation, unable to make the impact of Ephesians 3:10.

This’s why rightly dividing the Word of truth really matters. This is why Paul fought so hard. And this is why you and I must stand firm in the truth of the mystery, no matter who opposes it.

We should always keep in mind that the corrupt doctrines that toss believers “to and fro” don’t come from atheists or people throwing the Bible away. They come from Bible‑using teachers who mishandle Scripture. That’s the sleight of men and cunning craftiness Paul warns about in Ephesians 4:14. These doctrines look biblical, they sound spiritual, and they often come with “power”—but it’s not God’s power. It’s backed by seducing spirits, producing spiritual experiences that deceive Christians who don’t rightly divide the Word.

God gave us an unquestionable standard against which all other things are measured:  “The glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my (Paul’s) trust.” (1 Timothy 1:11)

If a minister does not teach the distinctiveness, the easy-to-recognise difference of the dispensation of grace, the uniqueness of Paul’s apostleship, and the truth of the mystery, then no matter how sincere he is, his doctrine is corrupted.

In Colossians 2:8, Paul warns us to,

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.

These are human ideas imposed on Scripture. The traditions of men he talks of are religious practices carried over from Israel’s program into today. The rudiments of the world are earthly ordinances and laws taken from time past and forced into the Body of Christ. All these can be “found in the Bible,” but they don’t belong to this dispensation today.

Satan’s not trying to make Christians unbiblical. He wants them misbiblical, you could say, using the Bible wrongly, mixing programs, misapplying and using out-of-context verses, but never understanding the mystery. That is his first and most successful tactic.

Paul also warns in Colossians 2:18–19 about people claiming extra‑biblical revelations such as “God told me,” or “the Spirit spoke to me,” or “I saw an angel.” Paul says such people are “vainly puffed up” and not holding the Head. “Not holding the Head” means disregarding the fact that Christ is the Head of the Body of Christ.

This describes the spiritual arrogance of these false teachers and those who believed what they teach. There’re few things more dangerous among Christians than spiritual pride and arrogance.

Anyone claiming a new revelation today is lying. God has completed His Word, especially concerning this dispensation of grace.

All of this is part of Satan’s policy of evil.

Now come to 2 Timothy 2:15, where we began. I pray that this series, if nothing else, has shown the absolute necessity of rightly dividing the word of truth and to recognise the difference between time past, but now, and ages to come.

I also pray you recognise that Romans through Philemon is God’s Word to you today and that Genesis through to Acts 9 is Israel’s program, and Hebrews through to Revelation is Israel’s future program, and that you know not to claim Israel’s promises or instructions for yourself.

I hope you see why God wants us to put special focus on Paul’s epistles, from the milk of Romans to the solid meat of Philemon, over and over for the rest of our lives until the rapture. That’s how we learn our instructions, our promises, our doctrines, and our walk for today.

That’s what 2 Timothy 2:15-16 commands:

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.

If we rightly divide the Word of truth, we won’t be ashamed now or at the Judgment Seat of Christ. If we don’t, especially after looking at all these scriptures, and we try to justify our life by quoting Matthew or Acts 2, or trying to fit into Israel’s Old Testament, we should be prepared for the Lord to simply say, “Didn’t you know that wasn’t written to you?” And we’ll be ashamed—not because He didn’t tell us, but because we didn’t listen.

This concludes our Understanding the Bible series. We’ve only scratched the surface, but hopefully we’ve shown why rightly dividing the Word is not optional and how it protects us from the adversary’s policy of evil that lies in every corner, waiting to corrupt our knowledge of God in this dispensation of grace today.

Thank you for letting me share this series with you. From here, stand fast in the mystery. Stay grounded in Paul’s gospel and keep rightly dividing the Word of truth, and don’t let the adversary keep God’s revealed secret from you.