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What the Bible says about Doing God's Work
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Jeremiah 23:21-22

"I've had nothing to do with them," God says. "Yet they went on their own, presumptuously, to speak their own words in My name."

The work that God says needs to be done in the latter days is to turn the people from their sin, and back to God. It is a message of repentance, of returning and then strengthening the relationship that we have with God. In the latter days, you will understand it. Not only will you understand what needs to be done, but you will also understand why it needs to be done—and do it because what good is understanding if it is not done? Any other kind of work at this time appears to be either window dressing or contrary to the will of God—and presumptuous.

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Presumptuousness

Matthew 24:14

We are assured in Matthew 24:14 that the gospel of the Kingdom will be preached. God will see it done. He will preach it through whatever means, by whatever agency, and in whatever time He has already ordained. The question for us, then, is whether we will be in alignment with Him and usable by Him so that we can be directed by Him as He completes His work. However, this will be successful only if we let Him lead, rather than assume we already know what He is doing.

Because God is the One who preaches the gospel, and because He sanctifies and prepares His servants to perform His will, He also determines the results of His various works. For 1,900 years, it was not His priority to preach the gospel in a major way. We know this because it was not done. During the last century, a major witness was made because God had ordained it be so. He controls the results and the effects of His preaching. His word does not return to Him void, but it will accomplish what He pleases (Isaiah 55:11). Thus, when we look out today at the various efforts to preach the gospel—and we do not see the same results—it is because something else is God's priority, not that we are not trying hard enough.

Is it possible that the church is not yet "spiritually worthy" to be involved in making a witness to the world? In its present spiritual condition, could the church end up making a witness against God rather than for Him? If a witness is being made against God, does it even matter if the true gospel is spoken?

The bottom line is that we cannot insert ourselves into God's plans. God already knows what will be done, how it will be done, when it will be done, and whom He will use to do it. Our task is to be close enough to God that we recognize His guidance of our lives and to be practiced in submitting to it. When the time comes for Matthew 24:14 to be fulfilled, it will be, according to what God has ordained.

However, whether or not we play a part in the fulfillment of that prophecy, our focus is to be the sanctification that God has already given us. It is through that process of becoming holy and going on to perfection that we become "spiritually worthy" and able to be used by God in whatever capacity He ordains—large or small.

Our goal should not be to fulfill Matthew 24:14. Our goal is to get to the place where we, like Jesus Christ, "always do the will of [our] Father" (John 8:29)—no matter what His will may entail. God is doing far more than just making announcements. He is creating us in His image (Genesis 1:27), and that requires a lifetime of submission and a level of focus and energy far beyond simply preaching to the unconverted world. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10).

David C. Grabbe
'This Gospel of the Kingdom Shall Be Preached'

John 4:31-34

The disciples expect Jesus to be both physically tired and hungry. John notes in verse 6 that he was indeed wearied from the journey, but when they urge Him to eat, He is no longer weary. In the meantime, doing the work of God and seeking His Kingdom had become His food; it drew Him, filled Him, energized, and strengthened Him. It is exhilarating to know God's will and to know that we are doing it! What a sense of satisfaction and well-being it adds to our lives!

John W. Ritenbaugh
Eating: How Good It Is! (Part Three)

1 Corinthians 3:7

"The days of our lives are seventy years," writes Moses in Psalm 90:10. King David concurs: "Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow" (Psalm 144:4). Unlike God, "who inhabits eternity" (Isaiah 57:15), we mortals have a limited existence. Because of our finite time, we tend to view things through the lens of immediacy. We continually take stock of where we are and how much progress we have made toward this or that goal. We take a short-term view of time—relative to God, at least—and in our zeal for efficiency, we measure where we are against where we have been to get an idea of how things are going.

This natural aspect of humanity is readily seen in business, where all manner of data is collected and analyzed to evaluate where a company is and where it seems to be headed. Companies publish press releases to highlight quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year growth. If a given metric can be massaged into a chart to show an upward trend, it will be the talk of the company.

But unless their disclosure is required by law, the downward trends are typically boxed up and hidden in a dark closet. Companies highlight the metrics that make them look superior to their competitors, and downplay the impressive numbers their rivals trot out for display. Such is business in the Western world.

But problems—serious problems—arise when such practices are applied to the church because numbers cannot tell the whole story. In the relationship between God and man, the things that truly matter cannot be measured—and those that can do not really matter. Members, co-workers, visitors, and subscribers can all be tallied, yet who save God can track the increase of faith or the building of character of members of a church? No minister can present a yearly report to a church board on the ratios of sheep to goats or wheat to tares. Managers can keep close tabs on income and expenses, but no quarterly reports can be given on the ripening of the fruit of the Spirit. No chart can mark the increase or decrease of the poor in spirit, the meek, or the pure in heart. Humans cannot measure such things, yet paradoxically, those are precisely the matters about which a church should be most concerned.

We need to look no farther than the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) to see that impressive membership numbers and abundant income are profoundly poor indicators of spiritual health. Before the scattering of the church, WCG had upwards of 140,000 members. It had eight million subscribers to the Plain Truth magazine, and radio and television programs that blanketed the globe, not to mention its own television studio and publishing department to handle all of its media. It had full-time ministers in nearly every corner of the world and an increasingly active youth program. It had a four-year college spread across three stunning campuses, complete with multiple gardens, fountains, streams, paths, and ponds.

On every count, the metrics and markers pointed to growth and vibrancy. The people took these indicators as proof that God was with—and pleased with—them. Yet their spiritual state went unmeasured—and immeasurable, except through anecdotes—and eventually, the WCG imploded.

This suggests that a focus on preaching to the world does not give church members the staying power that they need to grow and persevere in the face of doctrinal confusion. The vast majority of the WCG's infrastructure and support used to preach the gospel—very impressive on paper—crumbled.

When things fell apart, it became evident that only a small percentage of those supporting that work was truly converted. If we follow the same pattern today—focusing on financial and membership growth rather than "the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God [and growing] to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13)—will the result be any different? Can a church make a faithful and true witness of God to the world if its members do not resemble Him?

It is helpful to recall what God is doing. If we examine the many examples and statements in the Bible, we see that God's work is not defined as preaching the gospel of the Kingdom to the world. That is only a facet of what He is doing. God is creating men in His image (Genesis 1:26). Psalm 74 says He is working salvation. John 6:29, the closest thing to a definition scripture in this regard, says clearly that the work of God is that we believe in Him whom God sent.

In short, the work of God is centered on changing people—bringing them into alignment with Him so that they are ready to live with Him for eternity. The announcement of a major step in this process—the establishment of His Kingdom on earth—is not His overriding concern. It will happen, to be sure, in the time and manner that He has ordained, for "this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come" (Matthew 24:14).

Paul gives the proper approach in I Corinthians 3:7: "So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase." The ones doing the planting and watering should not be the focus. God is the One leading His work and the One determining its results.

While it may be natural—and harmless enough by itself—to want to measure the number planted or watered, we must remember that such metrics cannot tell the whole story. The vital measurement is the spiritual increase that He gives—in faith, in character, in humility, in love, in unity with Him and with the brethren—the metric only He can track.

David C. Grabbe
The Impossible Metric

1 Thessalonians 2:8-9

Although the context is somewhat different, I Thessalonians 2:1-16, like Romans 1:15, reinforces the point that "preaching the gospel" includes teaching the church. Not just a means of conversion, the preaching of the gospel supplies continued growth in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Paul followed this procedure in Thessalonica. He preached to the Thessalonians for a long time, stretching from their first exposure to the gospel through conversion until with further growth they became imitators of the churches of God in Judea (verse 14).

John W. Ritenbaugh
Get the Church Ready!

1 Thessalonians 5:2

"The day of the Lord" can be a lot longer period of time than the specific day or hour (Matthew 24:36) or even season (Acts 1:6-7) of Christ's return.

Does anybody know when a thief is going to come? A thief comes at a time when the householder does not expect. We might just be able to throw this out except for one thing: This is written to Christians. The day of the Lord is going to come as a thief in the night.

All this adds up to something that might be a bit disconcerting: He is saying that we are only going to know general conditions regarding the time of His return. The specifics are going to be touch-and-go.

Over the years, some have been making a determined effort to know each prophecy's precise fulfillment. It seems as though our curiosity demands that we know all of the whos, whats, whens, whys and wheres, but the whole thrust of the instruction is to be ready regardless of when His return is. Doing "the work" in one's life is far more important than knowing the specifics of His return.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Where Is the Beast? (Part Three)

Hebrews 4:1-2

These verses show that Jesus was not the first of God's agents mentioned in the Bible to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God. The Bible does not name him directly, but Moses is most likely the one who preached to the Israelites. Did he preach it as he and Aaron were preparing the Israelites to leave Egypt? There is a gap in God's revelation here because it is not terribly important who did it.

We can go further back and suppose that Abraham probably heard the gospel from God Himself as he was preparing to leave his homeland for Canaan. Hebrews 11:10 informs us that Abraham "waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God." That city is the heavenly Jerusalem that will come down from heaven with the Father when He comes to earth (Revelation 21:1-5). This, too, is an aspect of the gospel of the Kingdom of God.

However, the earliest implication of all appears in Genesis 3:15 within God's pronouncement to Satan of His curse for his involvement in Adam and Eve's sin: "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel."

Early in the New Testament, Matthew 3:2 quotes John the Baptist preaching the gospel, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" However, Jesus certainly gave the most expansive and detailed information regarding the gospel's message. Nobody else even comes close. He also clearly gives the message's title in Mark 1:14-15: "Now after John was put into prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying 'The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.'"

John W. Ritenbaugh
Where Is God's True Church Today?


 




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