Rightly Dividing The Word Of Truth
by Cline Hancock
       The subject for our lesson is how to divide the word of truth.
   It seems strange that people would take it lightly when we have a specific command from the Holy Spirit from the Apostle Paul to young Timothy to study, to show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. There are many things set out in this particular command. The first one is the command to study. Study why? To show thyself, not someone else or our brothers meanness, but to show thyself approved unto God.
   Now, how can we do that? Well, the verse continues to tell us how we can be approved unto God, by rightly dividing the word of truth. It seems terrible that we have a command like that—to rightly divide the word of truth—and yet we have over three-hundred different churches in the land. Revelation 20:13-15 has this to say "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Now, I feel sure today that no one wants to be cast into the lake of fire.
   The obligation rests upon us, squarely upon us. to rightly divide the word of truth, believe and obey it. Let us take an example from the Bible. Some people divide and thus construe by reading the Bible like this: " Judas went out and killed himself. Then we find another statement on the next page, "GO out and do likewise." Then we turn over to another page and see, "Whatsoever thou doest, do it quickly." That would indicate to us that to read and divide the word like that we'd have to go out and hang ourself like Judas did. Now, with a little common sense and reason we know better than that. In John 8:32 Jesus said, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." This truth in John 8:32 refers to the gospel, the system of faith—not the faith in Hebrews 11:6, but the faith of the gospel.
   The faith Jude 3 uses is also the system of faith or the gospel. In John 1:17 it said, "For the law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." In I Corinthians we have this statement, "Now I beseech you brethren, by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that you all speak the same thing, that there be no division among you, and that you all be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgement." Now, here's a command for us to be joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. In Mat. 26:39 we have this statement from Jesus himself when he prayed the noted prayer he was so earnestly praying to his Father. "Let this cup pass from me if it be possible." We find in this particular statement here, "If I had not done among them the works which none other man did they had no sin, but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father." So we see there the division Jesus predicted to us in his prayer when he prayed to his heavenly Father.
   Now, when Paul gave this instruction to Timothy he was not a babe in Christ; he had been taught by his mother Eunice from his very youth. Then Paul told him in Timothy 4:16, "Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in so doing thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee. So he was admonished to take heed unto himself and unto the doctrine and that means teaching. Sometimes we get all excited about doctrine. The doctrine simply means teaching. So Timothy was admonished to take heed unto himself and the doctrine, or the teachings of Christ. Continuing in them for in so doing thou shalt save thyself and all that hear thee. Now, for a gospel minister to preach any other thing than the doctrine of Christ is liable to get him into trouble. In this sinful world that we live in today, we study back in the old testament and find that we have three dispensations of time this side of eternity. One is known as patriarchal in Noah and Abraham's time. Jacob's name was changed to Israel because it meant "God among us." Now, they were guided until the time of the Jewish nation. The Jewish nation was taken from the tribe of Judah by the one named Judab. Jewish means Judah. Joseph was sold into Egypt and finally the people went down to Egypt and God sent Moses to deliver them out of Egypt. Then finally, after they had crossed The Red Sea on dry land, all Egyptians that pursued them were drowned in the water. Then on Mount Sinai God gave Moses the law--what we know as the Ten Commandment Law. That Ten Commandment Law lasted until the time of Christ and the apostles. There it ended at the cross, Col 2:14. We are now under the Christian era from the day o[ Pentecost to Judgement Day, Acts 2. It was said in Hebrews 9:27, "...it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:" In II Cor. 5:10 it says, "...we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that be hath done, whether it be good or bad. In the following statement Paul said, "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men" What do we try to persuade men to do? Accept the simple, plain teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to be judged according to our work. In Matthew 16:27, "For the Son of man hail come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works." So, again, whatever our works are, thats how were going to be rewarded.
   Then somebody said, "I thought we were saved by grace." Yes we are saved by grace. Grace is the unmerited favor. The unmerited favor was what caused God to look down in tender mercy upon us and send his only begotten Son to die upon the cross the ignominious death that we might have life and have it more abundantly. Now, some are all messed up on this occasion. He said, "For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourself it is is a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast." I've heard that over and over and over. They say, "Well now there you have it, not a thing we can do." It's by faith that we're saved. We ought to know better than that. Paul was not speaking about the faith that is in Hebrews 11:6. He was speaking of the simple faith of the gospel that God gave us. It was by the grace of God, the unmerited favor, that his Son died and brought forth to us the gospel. And they contend—so many of them—there's nothing we can do. Well the next verse says, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works that God before ordained that we should walk in them." Eph. 2:10. Now, in Mat. 20:1, He said, "For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard." Now what is a laborer? Well, it's somebody that works. So we are selected to be a laborer in the Master's vineyard. We are to work in that vineyard and it's good work because God ordained it. Continuing the story in Matthew 20 we find that some were hired the third hour of the day through the eleventh hour, and the ones hired the first hour complained that they didn't receive any more money than the ones hired at the 11th hour of the day. Well that penny a day they received simply meant to us eternal salvation. So it makes no difference how long we work, if we have eternal salvation we will be well paid for it. We are judged by what is written in the book. Rev. 22:18. Question: Will we be judged by all that is in the Bible? No. How much of it then? By Noah and Moses? No, we're not going to be judged by Noah or Moses because their time has come and gone. And the Bible contains the Old and New Testaments: 66 books in the entire Bible; 39 books in the old, 27 in the new. Twenty-one in the new tell us how to live the Christian life, 4 tell us of the life of Christ and his personal ministry, one— Acts—tells us when the church was established and how to have our past sins forgiven, and one—the last—tells us about our eternal home.
   Now, we don't live under the personal ministry that Jesus lived under when he was here. But we live under what he gave the apostles. He told them, "Whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatsoever you loose shall he loosed in heaven." The apostles and others were guided by the Holy Spirit and that's the law that we live under. Of course, there are some things in the law that Jesus kept that are applicable today. But a lot of them are not. They were taken out of the way and nailed to His cross. Col. 2:14. Now man has a right to know what he will have to meet at the judgment. Well another command parallel to II Tim. 2:15 is I Peter 3:15 to sanctify. That means to set apart the Lord God in your heart and be ready always to give an answer to everyone that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meakness and fear. So we are set apart. by Gods word, we are to live by God's word.
   But again someone says, won't we be judged by the Ten Commandments? The answer is no. Want proof? Read Heb. 7:12. "For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law." Please notice a change of the law not a change in the law. Rom. 6:14 says we are not under the law but under grace. The law here refers to the law of Moses.
   Christ is our high priest. Heb. 3:1. "Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus." Christ took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross. Col. 2:14. In Zech. 6:13 Christ was to be a priest on his throne. In Heb. 8:4, he was not a priest until after his ascension. Today he is our High Priest in heaven.
   We are to he judged by the New Testament, or the law of Christ. There are two divisions of the law of Christ. One to the alien--Repent and be baptized for the remission of past sins. The other to the erring child of God—-Repent and pray to God. An alien sinner has no business trying to pray to God. I Peter 3:12, John 9:31.
   In II Cor. 4:7 Paul says the gospel was left in earthen vessels.
   The spirit sent the apostle and other Jewish brethren to the household of Cornelius to tell him what to do. Christ wouldn't tell Saul what to do when he was on the road to Damascus. He told him to go into the city and it would be told to him what he must do. What did Annias tell him? Keep on praying Saul? No, he said, "...arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord." Acts 22:16.
   Friends. I don't know how anyone can misunderstand this. God said it; I believe it; that settles it!
   Now friends on this second law of pardon, or the erring child of God, please read I John 1:6-10, 1 John 2:1-4, James 5:16-20.
   Another law to the Christian (and remember a Christian is one who is willing and does follow Christ—otherwise we are not Christians but just erring children of God) is found in Titus 2:11-15. Please turn and read these scriptures.
   Friends if anyone is lost Christ died in vain. He died for all. Jesus prayed for unity, John 17th chapter. The Bible says there is one Lord. one faith or one gospel, one baptism. That is a plain, simple command—be buried in water for the remission of our past sins.
   No use arguing with God. What did Jesus say in John 3:5, "Except a man he born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Water, the element; spirit, the teacher. We cannot be born of the lesser—it has to be of the greater; hence a burial in water. If you doubt me, please turn and read some scriptures first: Acts 8:12, 8:36, 9:18, 10:48, 16:14,15, 16:31, 18:8. Many of the Corinthians hearing believed and were baptized. There is no way to change God's law anymore than we can change day and night or winter and summer.
   I beseech you to obey from the heart the plain gospel. Live by it; die by it; and go to heaven to bask in the sunshine of God's eternal love.

    God said it; I believe it; that settles it. The Bible is right!








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