The Pattern of Paul: The Gospel of Grace

By David Fortner

The Pattern of Paul brings comfort to all believers seeking to understand grace.

Learn through The Pattern of Paul to
seek grace;
show grace; and
share grace.
Learn through The Pattern of Paul the
power of grace;
provision of grace; and
potential of grace.
Learn through The Pattern of Paul the
gracious words of God;
gracious will of God; and
gracious works of God.
Learn through The Pattern of Paul to
think grace;
talk grace; and
teach grace.
Learn through The Pattern of Paul the
message of reconciliation;
ministry of reconciliation; and
minister of reconciliation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Nov 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9781490857664

David Fortner

David Fortner is Dean of Saint Louis Theological Seminary at Houston, Texas, and Wilmington, North Carolina. He was a missionary to France and Spain, and he rebuilt churches in Jackson, Tennessee, and Dickenson, Texas, through individual Bible studies. David has over one hundred Bible studies and ten books. He teaches, develops courses, and trains believers in the pattern of Paul. He provides lessons for pastors, families, and anyone else who wants to learn and teach grace. David trains leaders to become leaders of leaders. He develops house churches through home Bible studies. He trains pastors to develop churches. His passion is to equip believers for the work of the ministry. His approach is to help parents teach their children how to teach their children. The purpose of his life is the reproduction of the pattern of Paul. David and his wife, Karen, presently reside in Wilmington, North Carolina. They have six children and nine grandchildren.

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Copyright © 2014 David Fortner.

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Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-5765-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-5767-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-5766-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014919105

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/07/2014

Contents

Introduction

1.   The Importance of Patterns

2.   The Pattern of Paul

3.   The Pattern of the Development of Truth

4.   The Pattern of the Gospel of Grace

5.   The Pattern of a Lifestyle of Grace

6.   The Pattern of the Minister of Reconciliation

7.   The Pattern of the Ministry of Reconciliation

8.   The Pattern of the Message of Reconciliation

Introduction

The concept of the pattern of Paul developed in my heart and life after years of struggles with dying churches. The Lord enabled me to restore two churches, and they are in existence today. The first was down to four people. They told me that if I could not help them, they would close their doors.

The second church was in a righteous war. Before I could get there, they split twice. Then immediately after I arrived, they split twice more.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand that churches are in trouble. I do not say this to criticize anyone; I merely establish that I understand the problem. I believe the problem is the lack of understanding of the pattern of Paul.

I grew up a preacher’s kid; that life instilled in me a passion for the work of the ministry. I followed the example of my dad and my granddad who had both started churches and reproduced ministers. This was a tremendous foundation for what the Lord taught me.

I became a missionary to Europe; I spent sixteen years in France and Spain. I would take nothing for the experiences. I received great training during those forty years of ministry from what these people and churches taught me. The most essential point I learned was what not to do. There is much I learned with the pattern of Paul that works.

I remember as a kid sitting around the piano and singing with believers during a time when many people trusted the Lord. These memories became my motivation to see God reproduce what I saw as a child. There have always been moments of sheer bliss. Believers will never forget those memories. My prayer is that you will see the importance of these memories in your life. If you haven’t, I pray you will. May we learn to reproduce these memories today for our children and our grandchildren!

The most heartwrenching stories, however, are the multitudes of believers who have been hurt and destroyed by destructive belief systems. Growing up, I could not wear short pants, go swimming, or play cards. I couldn’t have a television or listen to any music except hymns. Women could not wear pants. No one could do anything for the Lord if divorced. The list continued.

You might think this was absurd; no one thinks this way today. However, you don’t have to be that narrow minded to destroy the morale and excitement about winning the lost; the only thing you have to do is be apathetic to the pattern of Paul.

My desire is not to point out all the wrongs of church today but to offer possible solutions to them. I will attempt to show the tremendous need and responsibility God placed on us to reconcile the world to Him. My favorite verses in the Bible are Ephesians 3:20–21.

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

These verses establish that the power of God works in us today and will continue working throughout the world without end. We cannot use any excuse to justify our ineffectiveness or lack of concern. We perform the work of the Lord not by our ability but by the ability and power of our Savior. He came back to life; He alone can do His work. We can see His work if we desire to see what He wants us to see.

The reason we do not experience the resurrection power of Jesus Christ is not that we do not; we do not know how He has, is, and will work in and through us. We keep looking for what we already have. We search for a blessing when we already have all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus.

We do not know or see what God is doing, so we feel defeated and unworthy of doing anything. Paul told us the Devil has blinded the eyes of the lost; he does not want us to see the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. Believers are not blind to their eternal salvation; their blindness is to who they are in Jesus Christ.

Who we are in Christ is the most amazing truth contained in the message of Paul. He called this the mystery hidden from the foundation of the world; these truths are the foundation for the work of the ministry. The pattern of Paul is the work of the ministry, an outpouring of who we are in Christ. We must understand that these work hand in hand.

There is a process to develop the pattern of Paul, which is simple but difficult. We have learned so much wrong from tradition. Why do churches not reproduce churches? Why are we not reproducing ministers? Why do we not see more unbelievers accept Jesus Christ? By the help of the Lord, I will do my best to answer these questions.

The simple answer is that we are not following the pattern of Paul. To compound the problem, believers never knew the pattern of Paul. This is not to be critical, because I was guilty of this. I realized I had to learn the process. I spent the last thirty years trying to answer these questions.

I taught many of the principles, but I was unable to communicate them effectively. I taught the need to train leaders and believers to win people to the Lord. I taught leaders to train leaders to train leaders to win people to the Lord. The most important thing we must teach is that God calls every believer to do this by His grace and power. If we do not communicate the purpose, plan, and pattern as essential elements for all potential believers, they will never follow.

I am humbled and recognize completely that unless the Lord opens hearts to this message, I am helpless to show the pattern of Paul. I can talk about the process and explain the principles, but unless I can show you my heart and my passion for the pattern of Paul, you will ignore these words.

I write to you without thinking I have a special revelation; I have no superiority over the massive numbers of ministers and churches. There are so many who effectively taught the Word of God before me. My prayer is that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ might open your eyes to the truth of the pattern of Paul so you can see this as a plausible solution to the myriad of problems in ministry.

The purpose of this book is to work through all the difficulties for believers to accept the pattern of Paul. I will state what the pattern of Paul looks like, but please read the entire book if you want to understand what it means. After thirty years of trying to implement the pattern of Paul, I feel like a child just getting started at it. There is so much involved in the process that you must read every page and absorb all you can. This is the most crucial of all instructions you could ever learn from the Bible, the holy, inspired, revealed Word of God.

I assure you I do not say this because I wrote this book; I am not concerned whether this makes the bestseller list even though I would not complain about that. I am more concerned that every believer understands the pattern God revealed to the apostle Paul for us. Please read every word!

The pattern of Paul was to establish the Scriptures as the Word of God. We establish the Word of Truth as the gospel of grace. We establish the accomplishments of Jesus Christ through who we are in Christ. We establish a lifestyle of grace, and we establish a pattern to show grace to everyone. We train leaders to train leaders. This is not optional; God called every believer to this pattern. Jesus Christ gave Paul this pattern for us to follow.

The question is not should I, could I, or would I, because they all result in the same action—nothing. Jesus Christ gave us the marching orders that many have rebutted, rejected, and repudiated for too long.

The way this looks is that every member of the body of Christ is instructing others. They start with their children and family, and as they teach, they train teachers to teach others, and from these will develop leaders of teachers. Every believer must achieve this natural progression.

Chapter 1

The Importance of Patterns

The word pattern means a sketch for imitation or a form. It can also mean a stamp, scar, or model for imitation, for example, a fashion, manner, or print. There is one word used in Hebrew for pattern that means a structure, model, resemblance, figure, form, likeness, or a similitude.

The importance of a sketch for imitation is crucial because humanity must have a guideline to follow. Rules and regulations make people comfortable. Without them, people have no idea the instructions to follow.

Believers have asked me for years why God just does not tell us what to do. The reality is that He has; we just did not know that or were unwilling to follow His instructions. God has not left us without guidance. We attempt to change what God designed, but our attempts end in failure.

I knew nothing of these patterns, nor had I heard them taught. God gave them and us specific patterns. Why did we not know? Are they still valid? There is no doubt in my mind that historically, humanity always tried to follow these patterns. The confusion today is the focus of the church on image and performance.

The pattern of the traditional church is the appearance of godliness. People strive to prove how right they are by the things they do. The majority of believers are sincere, but sincerity is not proof of truth. You can believe you can fly, but the moment you jump from a ten-story building, you immediately understand you cannot defy the law of gravity.

The difficulty of a pattern is that humanity wants to make laws to obey. Paul declared that no one was justified by the works of the law.

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. (Galatians 2:16)

We cannot and must not try to justify ourselves by something we think should be a law. We humans want to justify ourselves; we want others to think we are right no matter what we do.

This could never be clearer than when it comes to working with believers in churches. All believers think they are right and have self-righteous attitudes that what they think is right should be implemented. The sad fact is that believers are more concerned about some truth than they are about brothers or sisters in Christ. This should show us how wrong we are to think we are police officers for God to enforce what is right.

When what you believe is more important than protecting your brothers and sisters, the motive for your belief is wrong. I pleaded with churches at war with one another that for the sake of their children they should not destroy themselves through their determination to be right. This is hard for believers to accept because by their righteous anger, they justify their actions and destroy anyone who gets in the way. This vivid truth is that throughout centuries, religious wars have massacred innumerable believers.

Paul understood that the Lord saved him. He showed him His pattern he brilliantly described to us. The basis of the pattern of Paul makes this judgmental attitude a total impossibility. We cannot destroy believers and think we understand the pattern of Paul. Paul was clear to declare to us how evident this is: But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, the just shall live by faith (Galatians 3:11).

The confusion between the pattern of Paul and the pattern of Moses is the belief that they are teaching the same thing. Multitudes of believers today are confused about God abolishing the Law at Calvary. God removed the ordinances of the Law because Jesus Christ nailed the curse of the Law to the cross. This means that there is no Law to accomplish; God removed it. This means there can never be a consequence of the Law against believers in Christ.

The pattern of Paul is that there is no Law to accomplish. The only thing that matters at all as far as what we receive is the rewards that come from following the pattern of Paul. There is nothing to prove or accomplish as far as our closeness to God is concerned. There is nothing to attain as far as our position in Christ is concerned.

You might wonder why you would want to accept such a challenge if there is nothing but reward. The reason is the benefits that come in this life doing what God tells us to do. We develop bonds with coworkers that strengthen our faith and families. God enriches us with amazing experiences. We see lives changed before our eyes. We see God release believers from bondage. We see much more, and we have the eternal rewards that will come in glory.

The pattern of Paul is in his explanation to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2. This verse has been the basis of my philosophy of ministry. Paul told Timothy to show believers how to show others to follow and duplicate this pattern. The simplest answer is that you can do this only one person at a time. This means you must have someone willing to learn and focus on that person to teach that person. The purpose of this book is to help you avoid the many wrong ideas and show you how to implement this pattern in your life.

I pray that God will enable me to communicate effectively the great truths that could change your life. We can accomplish more for the glory of God than we could possibly imagine. There is more to this than meets the eye, because the rewards are far greater than I have the ability to express. Paul himself said that our glory today is more glorious than that of Moses had when his face shined like the sun.

Many examples come to mind as I remember the multitude of people who saw the truth of God. Their experience was like a lightbulb that would come on in the darkness. Their confusion of religious beliefs would disappear. The glorious gospel of grace would shine on them. This I pray will become a challenge and a burden that you will see for yourself.

Lord, give us a passion to turn on the light of the truth of your Word to a world lost, dying, and on their way to hell. Help us have a passion to win souls and teach the glorious truths of your Word. Open the eyes of the lost, and all believers, to see the glorious truth of the power of the gospel of grace. Amen.

The Pattern of Adam

The first revelation of the sin of Adam was in the oldest book of the Bible, Job. Job told us Adam hid his sin. God told Adam this according to Moses in Genesis. However, we must not read into Scriptures what they did not know. Paul was the first to explain to us the sin nature, that all are sinners because of this transgression. If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom (Job 31:33).

When Paul told us that this is written in the Scriptures, we must understand that he alone tied these truths together. He explained to us the pattern of Adam. Otherwise, we would still be without this understanding. We should be grateful God gave His revelation progressively and we have His completed revelation.

Paul explained the first Adam and the second Adam, Adam and Jesus Christ. By the first Adam, our sinful nature came about, but by the second Adam, we gained forgiveness of sins and a new creation. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit (1 Corinthians 15:45).

God revealed to Moses that in Adam, humanity became a living soul. This creation of the soul is the cause of much confusion. Some believe that God creates a soul each time a person is born. However, God does not have to redo His creation each time. The soul is an integral part of the breath of life at human’s birth. And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7).

David made the first mention of the quickening power of God. However, we must not confuse this with the revelation of Paul, because David, like all the prophets, knew nothing about Jesus Christ; they knew only what God revealed to them. We know today that they are the same, but they did not know this. Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth (Psalm 71:20).

Jesus was the first to announce His quickening power. However, at that time, those who heard Him did not understand either. Even the twelve apostles were clueless, because John told us that even when Jesus told them about His death, burial, and resurrection, they understood none of these things. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will (John 5:21).

Jesus told the disciples again that even the words He spoke were spirit and life. He has the power and ability to quicken us, but only Paul revealed to us the accomplishments of His quickening power. It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life (John 6:63).

Paul explained that even Abraham believed in the quickening power of God. This is true with many of the prophets, but it was little revealed. We learned from Paul concerning the pattern of Adam, the sinful nature of man, and the quickening power of the second Adam, Jesus Christ.

As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations, before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. (Romans 4:17)

Paul established that our sins separated us from God but that Jesus Christ quickened us. God actually quickened us together with Jesus Christ. Our quickening was and is by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved) (Ephesians 2:5).

Our quickening is due to the resurrection power of Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of our sins. This quickening occurred when Jesus Christ came back to life. This essential truth is the basis of the gospel of grace revealed by Paul. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the effectual accomplishments of the quickening power of Jesus. We by faith believe in the accomplished work of Jesus Christ. The quickening power of Jesus is a work of His grace offered to all but given only to those who believe. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses (Colossians 2:13).

This accomplishment of Jesus Christ obviated all chastisement for our sin because Jesus became sin for us; He took our punishment for us. This accomplishment created in us a new creation that the first took from us.

So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8:8–11)

Paul revealed to us this figure or pattern. Adam was the father of sinful man, but Jesus Christ is the father of His new creation. We can celebrate His accomplishments for us. We credit Him for them by grace through faith.

Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure [pattern] of him that was to come. (Romans 5:14)

Paul elaborately depicted three patterns that God used to make major changes in the history of man. Adam received the first pattern to follow; he was the basis and example of the pattern that made him of the likeness of God. However, his sin made him the father of sin. The first time we read this was from Paul in Romans 5:12: Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned (Romans 5:12).

Paul established the role for women: through stillness and desistance from bustle or commotion, they must learn subjection to their husbands. This is why many believing women assume Paul was against women. However, Paul referred to multiple women ministers under him. Priscilla and her husband taught Apollos, and Phebe was the deaconess of the church of Cenchrea.

Paul referred to the role of the woman and the struggle to maintain a quiet spirit or to stop the commotion. Men and women need to learn from these instructions. Paul made the point to demonstrate grace, which is to learn to accept our role in life. God created an order for men to take the responsibility for the family, and women are to support their lead.

This is the pattern of Adam. God created man to take his role seriously. The breakdown in the family is due to the fact that neither man nor woman wants to take responsibility, but healthy families cannot exist without structure. Who knows best but God, who established this structure?

Let the woman learn in silence [quiet spirit] with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence [quiet spirit]. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. (1 Timothy 2:11–14)

We never received this information until Paul wrote it. We think all people understood the same as we do today. We must understand that the revelation of God is progressive; we receive it a little at a time. We should be grateful that we know what we do today. However, we must not think that because we know something today, we are more capable of understanding the information we have.

There is no greater evidence; Paul declared a different pattern. His pattern was different from Adam’s and Moses’ patterns. It has taken me thirty years to compile this information. I feel like a child when I consider that I did not have a clue about the importance, implications, or the impact of the message of the pattern of Paul until now.

God originally gave Adam a natural pattern, the pattern of male and female as the example of marriage. The marriage of male and female is