SNT 0273 Comparison of Epistles and Gospels
Comparison of Epistles and Gospels February 14, 1965 Comparison of the two: law and grace. SNT – 273 Excerpt from 273 Comparison of Epistles and Gospels (02/14/65) In order for the Word of God to live abundantly within men and women, we will have to rightly-divide it and have the true Word. To the end we rightly-divide the Word of truth we will have the true Word. To the end we wrongly divide it, we will have error. And as I have taught my people all over the nations of the world, that sincerity is no guarantee for truth. It is wonderful to be sincere, but sincerity alone is not enough. We have to have The Word of God. In my life and in my ministry, one of the things that disturbed me for many years was the place of the Gospels in relationship to the Church Epistles, as well as the Old Testament. I could not harmonize, I could not put together, the record of the Gospels with the record that was set in the Epistles for instance, the Church Epistles. Nor could I reconcile it with the Old Testament. And so for me, the Gospels stood out like a sore thumb. Very wonderful. Tremendous. But I could not put it together. Tonight, by the grace of the Lord, we want to see the relationship of the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, to the Church Epistles. I believe that the greatest literary miracle of ages is the four, the presentation of the four Gospels. The thing that astounds me about the four Gospels is that they were written much later than the death, the resurrection and the ascension of Christ; many years after Paul had already received the revelation as to what the church of the body really was. Take for instance the Gospel of Luke. Luke was a companion of the Apostle Paul. Right? In the book of Acts it says how ’we traveled’ here, there and yonder. Luke traveled with the Apostle Paul, and therefore the teaching of the Apostle Paul was heard by who? By Luke. And the remarkable thing is that there is not one thing of the Pauline revelation in the Gospel of Luke.
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we are called sons of God this way, in a perpendicular relationship, sons of God this way in a perpendicular relationship and servants to our fellow man on an horizontal plane. It’s something, isn’t? Why? Because of the accuracy with which the Word is set. Look at Luke 17:9. Someone get Luke 17:9, someone else John 15 verse 14 and someone else the first epistle of John, chapter 3 verse 2. Now remember, I’m showing you the difference between the Gospels and the epistles. Luke 17:9, who has it, please? Anyone? You got it? Stand up. That’s wonderful. Luke 17:9 Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. Right. Does he thank that servant, does he thank the servant because he carried out? (And in that body of that text and other places, it talks about the Lord’s return and the servants being ready for his return.) Matthew 24, don’t look it up, but