Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest

Tribulation. Is not this very discouraging? Does it not prove that the plan of salvation is a failure?
To both of these questions we respond an emphatic negative. The plan of salvation is a glorious
success to all who willingly appreciate it. The very fact of man’s failure in all dispensations, and
under all environments, is the grandest incentive conceivable, inspiring all truly and intelligently
awakened souls to abandon humanity, world without end, and sink into God. Man never was created
for independency. Hence whenever he undertakes it, failure and calamity inevitably supervene. When
the Pentecostal generation failed to preach the gospel to every nation, a period came on, designated
“the time of waiting.” Meanwhile the Son is waiting on the Father to verify His promise, “Sit thou
on my right hand until I make thy enemies thy footstool” (Acts 2:34.) At the same time the Son is
waiting on the Church to preach the gospel of the kingdom to every nation (Matthew 24:14); while
the Church at the same time is anxiously watching and waiting the return of her divine Spouse, who
flew up to heaven from Mt. Olivet. During this period of waiting, in which the Father alone knows
the end and the time of our Lord’s return, the commandment is repeated, rigid and explicit: “Watch
therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of man cometh.” In this twenty
first verse, we have a terse, clear and beautiful revelation of the gracious economy during the time
of waiting. In our hurried rush to evangelize every nation on the globe, we have no time to bother
with human ecclesiasticisms. They are utterly out of harmony with gospel expedition and New
Testament simplicity. What do you mean by human ecclesiasticisms? I mean the human
appropriation of the divine ecclesia. This word used by the Holy Ghost simply means the souls He
has called out from this wicked world and separated unto God. The Holy Ghost Himself in
regeneration and sanctification brings the New Testament church into existence, Himself organizing
the same with bishops, i.e., pastors, elders, and deacons. The human usurpation of the ecclesia has
girdled the world with popery, prelacy, and priestcraft, locking the nations in the Briarian arms of
spiritual Babylon and dumping millions into hell. In this verse, oh! how beautifully, simply and
unmistakably does the Holy Ghost define the gospel economy and the plan of salvation: “Whosoever
may call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” So what are we to do? Why! simply go to the ends
of earth and prevail on the people to “call on the name of the Lord,” i.e., to pray to God. All who
fall in line, begin to pray and keep on to the end of probation, fly right up to heaven, as God’s Word
is infallible as Himself. Instead of all the Christians on the globe running to the ends of the earth,
preaching Jesus and getting all the people to pray, we have the nations humbugged by intriguing
priests and tyrannized by ecclesiastical laws unheard of in the Bible. The apostles were “unlearned
and ignorant men” (Acts 4:13). Yet they were fully competent to the great work of the gospel
ministry. Instead of wearing out your nerves, eyes and brain by poring over dry-boned theology, get
the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire, and run like Samson’s foxes, preaching hell-fire to sinners
till you get them all on their knees praying to God to save them from the burning pit. At the same
time preach heavenly fire to Christians till you get them all on their knees crying to God for the
baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire to sanctify them for heaven.
CHRIST, DAVID’S SUCCESSOR.
22-35. We find in these Scriptures that Christ was predestinated to suffer and die to redeem the
world. While this is true, it was perfectly optionary with Judas, the Jews and the Romans to betray
and crucify Him pursuant to their own diabolical malice and turpitude. We must remember that God
is not tied to the prophecies, but the prophecies to God, who sees the end from the beginning and
with whom everything is present. We read in Samuel that when David came to Keilah in his flight