SNT 0253 My Gospel
My Gospel February 26, 1967
Covers the accounts in which it is shown that all Asia heard the Word and later turned away.
SNT – 253
Publication Date: 02-26-1967
Victor Paul Wierwille was a Bible scholar and teacher for over four decades.
By means of Dr. Wierwille's dynamic teaching of the accuracy and integrity of God's Word, foundational class and advanced class graduates of Power for Abundant Living have learned that the one great requirement for every student of the Bible is to rightly divide the Word of Truth. Thus, his presentation of the Word of God was designed for students who desire the in-depth-accuracy of God’s Word.
In his many years of research, Dr. Wierwille studied with such men as Karl Barth, E. Stanley Jones, Glenn Clark, Bishop K.C. Pillai, and George M. Lamsa. His formal training included Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Theology degrees from Mission House (Lakeland) College and Seminary. He studied at the University of Chicago and at Princeton Theological Seminary from which he received a Master of Theology degree in Practical Theology. Later he completed his work for the Doctor of Theology degree.
Dr. Wierwille taught the first class on Power for Abundant Living in 1953.
Books by Dr. Wierwille include: Are the Dead Alive Now? published in 1971; Receiving the Holy Spirit Today published in 1972; five volumes of Studies in Abundant Living— The Bible Tells Me So (1971), The New, Dynamic Church (1971), The Word's Way (1971), God's Magnified Word (1977), Order My Steps in Thy Word (1985); Jesus Christ Is Not God (1975); Jesus Christ Our Passover (1980); and Jesus Christ Our Promised Seed (1982).
Dr. Wierwille researched God's Word, taught, wrote, and traveled worldwide, holding forth the accuracy of God's "wonderful, matchless" Word.
Act 19:10; 2Ti 1:15; Rom 16:25, 26
2Co 2:14; Heb 11:33-35
2Co 2:14-17; 3:1, 2
__________________
My Gospel
Dr. Victor Paul Wierwille
Sunday Night Service #253
The Way International Headquarters
February 26, 1967
Take your Bibles tonight and turn to II Corinthians, II Corinthians chapter 2.
While listening to some of the things that were presented in Columbus, Ohio, in the opening session of this fourth anniversary for the Columbus Bible Way Church fellowship, I was inspired within my heart to share with them this truth, which I would like to share with our people here tonight: that whenever men attune themselves to God, whenever men rise up to believe God, that it is God who calls men.
God has never called an institution or an organization. God calls men. And I’m using the word “men” collectively, including women. God calls men, not organizations or institutions. And the ministries, ministries live because men dare to live the ministry.
The apostle Paul, unto whom the greatest revelation that the world has ever seen was given, was a man of God, called of God, and he never did fit in any institution or organization because God called him and God gave him a ministry. God calls men. And the ministries whereunto men are called live because men like the apostle Paul live the ministry.
In the book of Acts, we are told very plainly in Acts chapter 19 that all Asia heard the Word of the Lord, both Jew and Gentile, under the ministry of this mighty man of God in two years and three months.[1] And someplace else in the epistles, and I couldn’t just find it a little while ago, it says that toward the end of the apostle Paul’s ministry—if some of you know exactly where it is, I’ll take it any second you’ve got it, where he said that toward the close of his ministry, before the apostle Paul died, he says, “all Asia has left me,” and with the exception of a few people whose names he then listed. Do any of you know exactly where that is? Well, it’s in the Word, I guarantee it. So you can look it up and find it. I couldn’t find it that quickly. Maybe I ought to read the Bible again sometime; wouldn’t hurt me any to. But these are the things that sometimes dwell in my heart and they jell in there. And I know this is what the Word says, this is what it teaches.
But there in Acts 19, that one I know ‘cause I teach it in every Foundational Class:[2] that all Asia heard the Word of God. And yet, before the death of this man of God in whom this great and wonderful ministry lived—whom God called—before that man died, the greatness of that Word of God that had dwelt within that man, and the people to whom he had taught it, had been so ravaged by the wolves and all the other things that entered in that this great revelation was lost.
And this is why God had him to write the book of Corinthians: because the revelation of the book of Romans-. And the greatness of that revelation is summed up in the last chapter of the book of Romans if you’d like to look at it, the last chapter of the book of Romans, verse 25:
Romans 16:25a[3]
Now to him … [who][4] is of power to [e]stablish you [according to everybody’s opinion; no, Paul said,] according to my gospel,
Why was it his gospel: because God had given it to him. God calls men. And when God calls men, God gives ministries to men and those ministries then become the property of the men. We are responsible for what we do with them. We, as men of God, are responsible for how we utilize, how we operate. This is why he said, “This is my gospel.”
God calls men. God never moves, generally speaking, in this world unless there are men, women dedicated to believe God [strikes podium[5]].
God is more anxious to hear our prayers than we are even to pray them, right? Boy, we ought to be getting oodles of prayers answered then, right? He’s anxious. Then why are prayers not answered? Because we, as people, haven’t risen up to the believing reality of, “Thus saith the Lord.” We dillydally around. As someone says, “We’ve always got an ace up our sleeve,” you know [strikes podium]. After all, we can always go to Mayo’s[6] or we can go some other place and get the best. You see, as long as we have these things, we have not come to the place where we again can say, “Thus saith the Lord.”
And every man or every woman in the Word of God whom God called and to whom God gave ministries were men and women who dared to stand and who dared to believe. The apostle Paul was one, but there are many: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses. How about Noah?
But, you see, they always were individuals. Never institutions, never organizations because the moment it’s institutionalized or organized it’s already dead, for the life of God is not in organizations. It’s in the power of His holy spirit and the greatness of His wonderful, matchless Word [strikes podium]—that’s where the life is, in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Yes, dear. {II Timothy 1:15.}[7] What does it say?
II Timothy 1:15
This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.
Right, all in Asia turned. II Timothy 1:15, it’s funny I didn’t see it ‘cause I read I and II Timothy myself a little while ago, just before I came in here, and I didn’t see it. I thought it was in Timothy. Well, I, I, I tell you what I did: I didn’t read the first chapters too, too well. I read the last chapters ‘cause I figured he ought to tell them goodbye in the last chapter. {Laughter.} But it’s in the first part, wonderful. Well, that’s good to locate.
Romans 16:25a
Now [un]to him [I’m back in Romans] … [who] is of power to [e]stablish you according to my [what?] gospel,
I want you to see this thing because, people—you born again of God’s spirit, filled with the power of the holy spirit—it is your Word. It is your gospel. Because God gives you His Word, you speak it, whether you’re a man or woman. You speak it. It belongs to you because you belong to God and God has given it to you. You speak it.
God calls men. Without dedicated men, without the dedication in the hearts and lives of men and women, there would be no light. That’s right.
Now, as much as you might like to say it, might light to think it, might say, “Well, wouldn’t make any difference what happened to V. P. This place is here.” That’s what you think. That’s right, the place is here. But unless there would be another man to step in my shoes to teach the greatness of God’s Word, you could have this place built all over this 150 acres and it wouldn’t be worth a hill of beans in a hailstorm or anything else because it has to be men in whom the Word lives. They have to have ministries in the Body.
This does not mean that I am the only one that’s important. No, no, but men whom God calls, in whom God puts His Word. He:
Romans 16:25, 26
… is of power to [e]stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation [the revealing] of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.
But now [now] is made manifest [now it’s revealed, manifest, you can see it] … by the scriptures of the prophets [not the Old Testament prophets but the New Testament ones], according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:
It was this mystery, this revelation of the mystery that the people forsook, that they put away. They said, “It’s too good to be true. It’s too good to be true that you can be saved by grace, ‘Not of works, lest any man should boast.’[8] We like the old method, ‘cause then we could boast a little: ‘Lord, I’m not like that other fellow; I pay tithes even to the end that I tithe the mint, the cummin.[9] I’m not like that other fellow.’ It’s so much easier to get saved by works.” They said, “We don’t like this revelation of the mystery where you’re saved by grace, ‘Not of works, lest any man should boast.’ And we don’t like the revelation of the mystery, that it’s ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory;’[10] that God has ‘broken down the middle wall of partition’[11] between Jew and Gentile; that whosoever of Jew or Gentile will come to Him and confess with his mouth the Lord Jesus, believe God raised him from the dead is going to be saved;[12] and that the Gentiles are ‘fellowheirs, and of the same body.’[13] We don’t like that; we like the Bride.” Ha ha.
This is what had happened within the lifetime of the vitalest ministry the world had ever seen [strikes podium] under the apostle Paul. And so God said, “I want you to address an epistle to the Church in Corinth, for this Church in Corinth is off the ball. They’re born of God’s spirit but they’re not walking in the light as I’ve given the light. They’re not walking in the freedom wherewith I, Christ Jesus, have set them free. They’re being entangled again in the yokes of bondage. Therefore, I want you,” God said to the apostle Paul, “to address a letter to the Church at Corinthia-, in Corinth, because they are in practical error.”
They had heard the declaration set forth in Romans. They had confessed with their mouth the Lord Jesus. They had believed God raised him from the dead. They were saved. They had spoken in tongues, interpreted, prophesied. They had been with him when all Asia heard the Word of God in two years and three months. But certain people got to them. And rather than to continue to believe God’s revelation, they turned to the arm of man, leaned unto their own understanding rather, rather than the revelation. And the moment they moved away from the greatness of the revelation of the mystery, they got into practical error.
After you’ve been practicing error for a while, then you make it into a doctrine. And anybody who disagrees with you then is the heretic. This is why Galatians is written: because Galatians was written and addressed to the Church specifically at Galatia, and—I mean generally to the Church at Galatia but specifically to all the Church Body who has fossilized, crystalized its error to the end that it’s making false doctrine.
Class, it’s as simple as this: the book of Acts is the story of the rise and the expansion of the Christian Church. The revelation of the mystery is given, the foundation for it laid, in the great book of Romans. Then, because they failed to adhere to the book of Romans and its revelation, they got into error in their practice. They practiced the wrong things, so Corinthians was written to correct the practical error that had crept into the church due to the failure of adhering to the revelation of the book of Romans. Then Galatians was written to correct the doctrinal error, which had crept into the Church because of wrong practice, and the wrong practice because of the failure of adhering to the revelation given in the book of Romans.
Thus, if you want to understand Corinthians, you must understand the book of Acts, you must understand the book of Romans, and read the book of Acts, Romans, then Corinthians, then Galatians. And if you watch it in the way in which I’ve given it to you, these books will become new and vital and alive, real to you, because this is why God set them in His Word like they are set here.
In the second chapter of II Corinthians, in verse 14 of that second chapter, the Word of God says:
II Corinthians 2:14a
… thanks be unto God [thanks be unto God],
Will you please see that: “thanks be … [to] God.” Not thanks to my neighbor; not thanks to my earthly brother or sister, to my dad or mother; not thanks to the House of Representatives or the senator. No, a thousand times no. And yet we may be grateful and thankful for our brothers and sisters, our dads and mothers. We may be grateful for a Christian senator or a Christian representative. Surely we are. But our thanks is not to them. We do not lean to our own understanding[14] or to, on the arm of man.[15] Our thanks is to whom? God! Isn’t that wonderful?
II Corinthians 2:14a
… thanks be unto God [thanks be to God who once in a while; no, who what?] … always [who always, and the word “always” means “always;” who always] causeth us [to be defeated] to triumph …
He always, “thanks be … [to] God who always causeth us to triumph,” “thanks be … [to] God who always causes us to triumph,” in every situation. Wherever we are, we are more than what: conquerors, because he loved us and gave himself for us.[16]
And in every situation the early Church was more than a conqueror. Even when they took the believers and threw them into the arena, those men and those women in that situation were more than conquerors. Shall I read it to you from Hebrews 11? Hebrews chapter 11, verse 33:
Hebrews 11:33
Who through faith [believing] subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of [what?] lions,
Remember in the story of Daniel? Oh, they say it didn’t happen. I don’t care what they say. The Word says it did. I stand on the Word. If the Word’s wrong, I go down with the ship. But, you see, this is the early—not, not the early Church here, but these are the believers of the Old Testament that we’re talking about here. Have we any less in Christ Jesus than they had under the law? God forbid! Then Christ Jesus lived and died in vain, right? But look what they did:
Hebrews 11:33b, 34
… stopped the mouths of lions,
Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
How did they do it? Through believing. Believing what? The Word of God, that’s right. Believing that it was God who had called them, that it was God who was on their side, that it was God who protected them, that it was God who was walking with them, that it was God who was inspiring them. That’s why they accomplished this. They didn’t have to trust Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar[17] or whoever they were in power at that time. They trusted the Lord.
II Corinthians 2:14a
… thanks be unto God … [who] always causeth us to [what?] triumph …
Look at the rest:
Hebrews 11:35
Women received their dead raised to life again … others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:
All the way through, of the greatness-. And we’re surrounded with so great a body of believers giving us a testimony of their believing. And they had not even received Christ. They looked forward to his day. But the Word of God in Hebrews says we have more precious promises in Christ [strikes podium] than they ever had.[18] They just looked forward. You and I’ve got it, the reality of it, in Christ Jesus.
Back to II Corinthians:
II Corinthians 2:14
… [who] always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and … [makes manifest, makes] manifest the savour [the sweetness] of … [God’s] knowledge …
The greatness of His Word, He makes known the sweetness of it, “the savour,” you know. Chanel No. 5[19] or what is it? [Laughs.] My Sin,[20] my temptation, I don’t know what you’re all wearing. But that’s the word “savour,” the “sweet smell,” of His knowledge He makes known by His angels. No, He makes known by the institutions and the organiza-, nope. He makes known “by us,” by us. Not by Life, Look or Time, Saturday Evening Post, Readers Digest,[21] but He makes it known by us, the individual believers, the men and women of God who are called of God who, to whom God has committed the greatness of His wonderful, matchless Word. Isn’t that something? Ha ha.
II Corinthians 2:14b
… [He makes] manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.
Well then, we ought to smell like it, sure. Wherever we go, we have “the savour of His knowledge,” the sweet smell. You walk into the shop or the factory tomorrow morning. They ought to “smell you.” They ought to know you’re there, that’s right. Why: because you have the Word in you, you’re a different man, you’re a different woman. The rest of the boys and girls may walk in and be all negative, but when you walk in the sun shines [strikes podium]. Ha ha, that’s right. That place may be dripping with clouds, but when you walk in the clouds move because a man or a woman of God dared to walk in and you having the greatness of God in your life, you effervesce, you glow, you shine, you radiate, you carry forth “the sweet savour of … [God’s] knowledge.”
And, people, you and I well know we, we, we don’t have to write it on the cuffs of our shirts. We do not need to wear God (word not decipherable).[22] We’ve got Him on the inside, and so renewed our minds on His Word, that wherever we walk, we glow. Wherever we go, people are blessed because God in Christ is in you. And when you go forth, that God in Christ is there where you are. And where you are, there is [strikes podium] a sweet “savour of His knowledge.” There is the greatness of His power and of His presence because you are there.
II Corinthians 2:14a
… thanks be unto God … [who] always causeth us to triumph …
Look at verse 15:
II Corinthians 2:15a
For we are …
You don’t have to try; you “are.” It’s like in Acts, remember? “Ye … [are] witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem … Judaea, and … the uttermost part of the earth.”[23]
People are all the time trying to gear themselves up so they can be a witness. You know, work on yourself: brush your teeth with Ipana[24] or do something; take Micrin[25] or something; anything outside of our-. And it doesn’t work, doesn’t work, for it is God who causes us to triumph and we, we “are.” When you’re born again of God’s spirit, you belong to the Body of Christ, the Church. You no longer have to work to be a witness, you are a witness.
Don’t you understand? Man, it’s just as simple as a tail following a dog. Can you get that tail turned around; get him going the other way? You turn him the other way, the tail’s still following the dog. {Laughter.} It’s just as natural as all that. That’s right.
You’re born again of God’s spirit, you are His witness. You don’t have to work on being it, you are His witness. Then the question simply is: well, what kind of a witness am I? I’m going to be a witness. I belong to the Body. I’m born again of God’s spirit and I’m going to be a witness, but what kind of a witness? Well,
II Corinthians 2:14
… thanks be unto God … [who] always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and [we are] the [sweet] savour of his knowledge …
This is what we’re witnessing to, ha ha.
II Corinthians 2:15b, 16a
… in them that are saved, and in them that [are what?] perish [that’s right]:
To the one we are the [sweet] savour [the sweet smell] of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life.
By the way, this translation of 14, I did this literally last summer and it’s going to be in some publication coming out. I forget which one, but they borrowed it from me this week someplace, and tonight I can’t even think of the translation. But it’s good. And, but this is good here. I understand it from King James, but I think when the new translation of this is given, the literal one, in one of the publications that’s coming up sometime, what? Do you kn-? {Paul’s Thorn in the Flesh.} When Paul gets his thorn out of his flesh and it appears again, uh, in published form. Now, in the short abbreviated form, we’ve added this as the closing paragraph on it, this verse 14.
But you know something? It bothered me for years that we should be a, the, the, the sweet savour of Christ to them that are saved and to them that are perished. That’s what I couldn’t understand. But, you know, it’s very simple ‘cause representing the knowledge of God and with that positive attitude that you are what the Word of God says you are and you have what the Word of God says you have, walking in the light of that mystery of God’s Word, you’re the only good thing that ever happens to the guy that’s gonna go to hell. Ha, that’s right. You’re the only joy that boy’s got on the road to hell. You’re the only positive thing he has ever run in-. He’s, you’re the only one that’d really love him, even while he’s headed for hell. The rest of ‘em would just kick him and send him along a little faster. But you are wonderful even to those who are dying, in death, without the new birth. To those you are a sweet savour.
Boy, this is tremendous. It is so wonderful. Do you know why? This gives us a walk which is glory and nothing but glory all the way. “It is glory just to-.” Did, we didn’t sing that tonight, did we? Did we sing it? “Just to walk with him,” “it is glory.”[26] And as we walk forth, here’s a man who doesn’t believe God’s Word. Well, what’s my life gonna do to him? It certainly isn’t gonna push him down any lower. I’m not going to criticize him and find fault and tear the rug out from under him. That poor boy’s already got the rug torn out from under him. All I’m going to do is just bless him good. And I will just love him with the love that I can engender. And that’s the essence of what this scripture means: to the one, we’re the savour, the sweetness, to those who are dying unto death; to the others, we’re the savour of life unto life because they believe the Gospel.
Now it says:
II Corinthians 2:16b
… who is sufficient for these things?
Well, who? Nobody except that body or that person whom the Lord has made sufficient. For it is, our:
II Corinthians 2:14
… thanks be unto God … [who] always causeth us to [what?] triumph …
It isn’t that V. P. Wierwille triumphs. It is that God within me—if there’s any triumph—it is God within me, it’s God within you that makes you to triumph. Who is sufficient? Nobody, but when Christ is in you, you are more than a what? {Conqueror.} Don’t you see it? That gives you the sufficiency, He is our sufficiency.[27]
Verse 17 says:
II Corinthians 2:17a
For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God:
This is how they got the practical error: they corrupted the Word of God.
II Corinthians 2:17b, 3:1a
… as of sincerity [they did it sincerely, they corrupted it, they thought they were right] but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.
… [dare] we begin again to commend ourselves?
No, for our sufficiency is not of ourselves; our sufficiency is of Him. It reminds me of the apostle Paul’s statement in the Word of God where he said, “Am I not well qualified? Could I not offer all of my credentials? I came out of the best stock of Israel. I was always obedient to the law. When it came to the fervency of believing the law and carrying it out, I was more enthused than any man of my generation.”[28] And yet he says in that same passage of Scripture, “That which was gain to me, I counted but loss.” Why did he count it but loss? Because of the excellency of the knowledge of the Word of God, that’s why.[29] This is why we commend not ourselves.
II Corinthians 3:1b
… [do] we [need] … epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?
Ha ha. Does a man of God in whom the Word of God lives needs a letter of introduction to you. huh? Does he have to present his credentials? Or is his life—the teaching ministry, the apostolic ministry, the prophetic ministry, the pastoral ministry, the evangelistic ministry—are those wrapped up in that second verse where he says:
II Corinthians 3:2
Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
This is it, for when we speak the Word, when we believe the Word, then the people among whom we minister, they are living epistles. And it’s a lot better to having, having a living epistle than to have a letter of commendation or recommendation, or to have something put into a little eight-by-ten picture frame hanging on your wall. These are living epistles. And you know what makes it living: the Word of God [taps Bible]. And outside of that Word of God, there is no life.
This is why God calls men. This is why God gives ministries. And ministries live because men and women dare to believe God’s Word.
[1] Acts 19:10, “And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.”
[2] The first of three segments of the Power for Abundant Living class series – Foundational, TIP or Intermediate, and Advanced – taught by Dr. Victor Paul Wierwille and available to students searching for an accurate knowledge of the Word of God and desiring to increase the power of God in their lives.
[3] From the King James Version of the Bible as in all other scripture references in this transcript unless otherwise noted.
[4] Dr. Wierwille’s laughter, means of emphasis, comments within quoted material or the comments of others, etc., are indicated by/within brackets – [ ].
[5] Noted in the transcript when, for apparent emphasis, Dr. Wierwille does this once, repeatedly, or intermittently.
[6] Mayo Clinic, the first and largest integrated nonprofit medical group practice in the world, based in Rochester, Minnesota.
[7] The statements, questions, and responses of individuals and/or the audience as a group are indicated by/within modified brackets – { } – unless repeated by Dr. Wierwille, in which case they are not included.
[8] Ephesians 2:8, 9, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
[9] Matthew 23:23, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.”
[10] Colossians 1:27, “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:”
[11] Ephesians 2:14, “For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;”
[12] Romans 10:9, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
[13] Ephesians 3:6, “That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:”
[14] Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.’
[15] Jeremiah 17:5, “Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.”
[16] Romans 8:37, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”
[17] Kings of Babylon referred to in the book of Daniel.
[18] Hebrews 11:39-40a, “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us.”
[19] A perfume concocted by Gabrielle Chanel.
[20] A perfume concocted by André Fraysse.
[21] General-interest magazines first published in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.
[22] Parentheses ( ) within the text indicate an insertion by transcriber for clarity, explanation, etc.
[23] Acts 1:8b
[24] A toothpaste first introduced in 1901 by the Bristol-Myers Company of New York, heavily marketed on radio broadcasts and in women’s magazines.
[25] An antiseptic mouthwash manufactured by Johnson & Johnson.
[26] From a hymn written and published by Avis B. Christiansen in 1918, set to music by Haldor Lilenas.
[27] II Corinthians 3:5, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;”
[28] Paraphrase of Philippians 3:4-6.
[29] Paraphrase of Philippians 3:7.