The Progress of Revelation, Part 2

[0:00] Please turn to the book of Psalms, to Psalm 100. And in Psalm 100.

[0:22] Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before Him with joyful singing.

[0:35] Know that the Lord Himself is God. It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

[0:51] Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him. Bless His name.

[1:02] For the Lord is good. His loving kindness is everlasting. And His faithfulness to all generations.

[1:12] Thank you, Gary. One of my favorite Psalms, the Old 100th. Currently, we are pursuing a subject that we are labeling the progress of doctrine, or the pursuit of faulty assumptions.

[1:36] And this was preceded by sharing with you from a book that related some 250 different denominations, churches, synods, councils, groups, you name it, throughout the United States.

[1:54] And the only conclusion that one can draw in reading through those various doctrinal assertions that gave rise to those different denominations is that somebody has to be wrong.

[2:08] Because many of them are in clear contradiction of others. And both positions cannot be true. That is illogical and impossible.

[2:19] So what we are going to pursue is an extended list of what we believe are faulty assumptions that have been made by Roman Catholics and by Protestants and by Jews for literally millennia.

[2:37] And we do not present this with the idea that they were all guilty of faulty assumptions. But we are immune to that.

[2:49] We can never make a faulty assumption. Well, that is certainly not true at all. However, we do have today an advantage that those of years past did not have.

[3:02] And that is, we have a completed revelation of Scripture. The Bible is a complete book in its entirety. And we have that to draw upon, which enables us to allow the Bible to be its own interpreter.

[3:19] And the way you do that is by comparing passages of Scripture that are related, but perhaps are found far apart in the Bible. One may be in the Old Testament.

[3:29] One may be in the New. But we have the advantage of making those comparisons. And as I pointed out to you a number of times, when we were working our way through the book of Revelation verse by verse, there were many things in the Revelation that directly connect to the book of Genesis.

[3:47] In fact, there is no understanding them without the two. So the key to Scripture is using Scripture to interpret Scripture rather than to bring our presuppositions and our prejudices, which all of us have, to the text.

[4:02] Because down deep in our hearts, all of us have a preference for making the Bible mean and say what we want it to mean and say.

[4:13] That's just natural. That way we feel that God is on our side. We're right and everybody else is wrong. Well, we certainly don't want to give the impression that we have any kind or anything close to a corner on the truth.

[4:28] God help us if we do, because we certainly do not. And all we want to do is point out what we think is responsible for some of the doctrines that so deeply divide us today, how those doctrines were established, when and what people had in mind when they came to the conclusions they did, that ended up in a statement of faith that caused different groups to be formed and separated from other groups that did not agree with them.

[5:01] Because my contention from the outset has been that Christendom, and I'm talking about all who profess or claim to be Christian, which includes Roman Catholics and Protestants.

[5:17] All of them have reached doctrinal conclusions that they have built into their statement of faith that are required to be believed by the faithful.

[5:28] And many of them are just based on faulty assumptions. And when you compare scripture with scripture, the faulty assumptions comes out in bold relief and you can see it.

[5:41] But when many of these positions were taken in the first, second, third, fourth century, they didn't have a completed Bible. So I'm sure that they did the best they could with what they had.

[5:58] And I do not think that any of them reached a or made a faulty assumption deliberately. I think these were all men of good faith and good intentions and sincerely believed the conclusions they reached.

[6:11] But one's sincerity is no guarantee for truth. And that's the problem. So we are going to be looking at some of the things that contribute to that.

[6:26] And for starters, in our last session together, we talked a little bit about some of the background things and the larger picture that we will be filling in as we go along.

[6:38] I've often referred you to Miles Coverdale. There was a Bible that was printed after his name, the Coverdale Bible.

[6:50] And along with the Coverdale Bible, which, by the way, was the first completed English Bible ever printed.

[7:00] And in 1535, Miles Coverdale, who gave us that complete English Bible, first one, also provided these guidelines for its interpretation.

[7:14] And folks, in my estimation, and I hope in yours, these things just make such doggone good sense.

[7:25] You wonder, how in the world could anybody do otherwise? It just seems so obvious. And when I read these for the first time, they just grabbed me and wouldn't let go.

[7:38] And I am persuaded that I am, this is not hyperbole. I'm not exaggerating. This is my conviction for whatever it is worth. But what I am going to share with you right now is the most important thing that has ever been written in human language after the Bible.

[8:02] And the reason that they are so important is because they deal with the understanding of the Bible. Here it is.

[8:12] It shall greatly help ye to understand Scripture, if thou mark not only what is spoken or written, but of whom, and to whom, with what words, at what time, where, to what intent, with what circumstances, considering what goeth before, and what followeth after.

[8:42] Now, is that so hard? And my contention is, if we could only get all of Christendom to look at the Scriptures with these principles in mind, that to me are just oozing with common sense, nothing would so quickly yield the interpretation like this.

[9:06] And unfortunately, many do not. So, we have attempted to make what we think is an obvious case for the progress of doctrine between the Old and New Testaments that I suspect no one disputes, with maybe the possible exception of our Jewish friends.

[9:25] And what we have in this book called the Bible is truth that is in a beginning infancy stage, such as we related last week, God dealing with humanity in its infancy, because humanity was in its infancy.

[9:46] And this goes all the way back to Genesis. And as you move on through the Bible, you see more and more of the character and nature and working of God unfolding, gradually.

[10:01] And doctrine is based upon that, and it is a progression of doctrine. It isn't static. It is moving and growing and developing. And as you go through the Bible, more and more things are revealed.

[10:15] It is an ongoing case. And when you come to the New Testament, the difference is dramatic. In the New Testament, there is a continuation.

[10:31] I trust you'll follow me closely, because this is really very, very important. In what we call the New Testament, as it opens, it is writing heard very closely on the conclusions of the Old Testament.

[10:48] Our problem is, the two Testaments are separated by 400 years. It's called the four silent centuries.

[11:00] And they're given that name because during that interim, God was not revealing his word through any of the prophets. There was no message, no word from God.

[11:11] Heaven was silent. So the Old Testament concludes with what we call Malachi. And then the New Testament, 400 years later, opens with Matthew.

[11:23] So we automatically kind of make a quantum leap from the Old Testament to the New Testament. And if you look at the opening frontispiece, the page that begins each Testament, it will clearly tell you, this is the Old Testament.

[11:39] You open to the New. Before you come to Matthew, it says, this is the New Testament. Seems simple enough. Here's the problem.

[11:52] The Old Testament economy continues right on in the New. What do I mean by that? I mean that when Jesus was born and began his earthly ministry that lasted about 30 or 33 years, he lived and functioned and died under the Old Testament economy.

[12:21] Understand that? That's critical. We automatically think that Jesus was a New Testament person. No, he wasn't. No, he wasn't. He was very much in tune with the law of Moses and everything it required.

[12:36] That's why Jesus was circumcised as a Jew on the eighth day. That's why he kept the Sabbath, even though he consistently violated the Sabbath as the Pharisees and scribes interpreted it.

[12:49] But they had a misinterpretation of the whole thing. So Jesus never violated the Sabbath in connection with the spirit of his given and why it was given. And Jesus went to the temple.

[13:01] He did all of the things that any observant Jew was supposed to do. And he did them better and more consistently, perfectly, in fact. Because he said he came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it.

[13:15] What law is that talking about? It's the law of Moses. All 633 of the commandments. And it's generally considered to be the Torah.

[13:27] T-O-R-A-H. And that's Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Those five books of Moses. And Jesus lived by that code.

[13:39] And when he died on the cross, and the veil in the temple was rent in two from top to bottom.

[13:51] That, in my opinion, and this is my assumption because the scriptures do not say this. So you need to be guarded with this. This is my idea. But I see that temple being rent in two from top to bottom as God's way of saying, I'm finished with this.

[14:10] It's over. The law of Moses is now defunct. Matter of fact, Judaism is defunct.

[14:24] It's a defunct religion. Now, the Jews, of course, do not consider it that way. They think their religion is very much alive and well. Even though the very core and heartbeat of Judaism has been extracted from it.

[14:41] And that is animal sacrifice. So we as Christians, we look at this and we say, well, now Christ became the final, full, complete sacrifice. So there's no longer any need to sacrifice animals.

[14:54] Right? Right. Well, the only reason we don't is because a whole new order has been introduced.

[15:04] The law of Moses has come to an end. Make no mistake about it. We are not lawless because of the law of Moses coming to an end because all of the commandments that are given, if you want to think in terms of the Ten Commandments, they are repeated in one form or another in the Pauline epistles.

[15:25] So they're very much in order for us today. But what we are saying is the transition from the Old Testament to what we call the New Testament is very obvious.

[15:36] And the most critical apparent thing about it is the animal sacrifices are over. And when someone asks you, do you believe the Bible?

[15:49] Well, of course I believe the Bible. Well, do you sacrifice animals? Well, no, we don't do that. Well, then you're not doing everything the Bible says because the Bible does require that. Doesn't it?

[16:00] Yes, it does. Well, then why don't you? Because we see the scriptures as being a progression of revelation where it is doctrine on the move, doctrine that is developing.

[16:14] And back in Genesis and the Torah and the Old Testament, those things were very primitive. They were exclusively for the Jewish people. The law of Moses was never given to the Egyptians, never given to the Babylonians, given exclusively to the people of Israel.

[16:32] Because they were the chosen people. So we have little or no argument about there being an obvious transition between the old and the new and the animal sacrifices and the conclusion of them, the ending of them.

[16:50] That ought to be proof positive to anybody that's looking halfway for an answer. But now, here is the rub. Here is where great misunderstanding occurs.

[17:04] No one, to my knowledge, has any difficulty understanding the movement and the transition between the old and the new.

[17:15] But I must tell you that for the first 14 or 15 years of my Christian life, I never once saw the transition or the development or progression of doctrine within the new.

[17:39] Therein lies a huge difference. And at the expense of boring some grace people who have heard this before and for whom this will be ho-hum stuff, I still have to take you there.

[17:57] And we've got to get it in the record. So we're going back to the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 10. Would you turn there, please? Matthew, Chapter 10. Well, while we're in Matthew, let's do one better.

[18:13] Let's come back to Matthew, Chapter 3. We'll be in 10 in just a moment. Matthew, Chapter 3 and 10. And we're going to confine ourselves to these particular portions of the Gospel.

[18:25] And I think you'll be able to see some real enlightenment here. Matthew 3 opens this way. Now, in those days, John the Baptist came.

[18:37] And by the way, let me insert this. In the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi. Malachi closes out with a promise, a prediction that there will come on the scene a forerunner of the Messiah.

[18:58] That is, one who will announce the coming of the Messiah. And Malachi gives us a brief description of this man.

[19:09] And he is the one who is to announce to Israel the coming of the Messiah. And then, as you look at the last chapter of Malachi, which we don't have time to do, but if you look at the last chapter of Malachi, you will see that Malachi not only promises the forerunner, but he promises the one whom the forerunner is going to introduce.

[19:34] That is the Messiah himself. And how striking it is when you open the Gospel of Matthew. What do you find in the very first chapter?

[19:45] The genealogy of Jesus Christ. Well, blow me down. Why not? That's exactly what Malachi is talking about. And then, when you get to chapter 3, here's the forerunner.

[19:59] And Malachi was talking about both of them. The one who should come, and the one who would announce the one who should come. So, we're in Matthew chapter 3. In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

[20:16] For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet. It's referred to by Malachi also. And by Isaiah the prophet. Saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ready the way of the Lord.

[20:33] And who is that? It's John. You see, if you happen to have a New American Standard, you will see that the phrase, the expression, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ready the way of the Lord.

[20:46] Make his path. That's all in caps. At least it is in my New American Standard. And that is a clue that it is a direct quote from the Old Testament. And the reference tells us that it is in Isaiah.

[20:59] Now, John himself had a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt about his waist and his food was locusts and wild honey. And Jerusalem was going out to him and all Judea and all the district around the Jordan.

[21:13] And they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they confessed their sin. And the peculiar thing that must be noted about all of these people who came to John, including John, they're all Jews.

[21:26] They're all Jews. John was a Levite. His father, Zacharias, was a Levite, a Levitical Jew.

[21:37] And his mother, Elizabeth, was Jewish also. And John was Jewish. And all these people who were coming to John to be baptized are Jews. And the reason they are coming is the excitement that was generated among these people was absolutely electric.

[21:59] Because the Old Testament prophesied that God is one day going to fix this broken world.

[22:12] And the way he's going to fix it is by sending a Redeemer who will redeem this broken world and make things the way they are supposed to be.

[22:25] We live in a fallen world. It is wracked with sin and misery and death and disease and adversity and everything you can think of. But when this promised one comes that goes all the way back to Genesis 3, the seed of the woman that will crush the head of the serpent.

[22:43] When this one comes, he's going to be God's fix-it man. And he's going to fix this broken world. Now, they had no idea that he was going to do it.

[22:56] By dying on the cross. Is that a way to fix anything? But that's exactly what was going to be involved.

[23:09] And these people had no clue about that. But they knew a Redeemer was promised. And a Redeemer would be coming. And someone would announce him. And here it is.

[23:20] And John saying, repent the kingdom of heaven. That's a way of saying God's reign that is going to come to earth is right around the corner.

[23:30] You people, listen. Get your house in order. Shape up. You better believe this message. Get ready for the Messiah. And undergo the cleansing that God requires.

[23:45] And this was nothing more than the application of water. And all that portrayed was that the individual was claiming to be inwardly pure.

[23:56] And he was washing himself as a symbol of that. And there were many, many baptisms. They didn't just do this once. When the Jews were involved, the priests were involved in the service.

[24:08] They underwent many washings. This is what Hebrews 6 is talking about. So John is announcing that this Messiah is coming. And then we read that Jesus arrived in verse 13 from Galilee at the Jordan, coming to John to be baptized by him.

[24:27] And this is setting off a whole new paradigm that is just absolutely breathtaking. All of Judea were coming out. They were coming to be baptized of John.

[24:41] People were lining up. They were agreeing with and getting with the message. With the exception of the elite who stood off at a distance looking at all of this, shaking their heads and lamenting the fact that obviously these poor peons, these poor ordinary everyday people are being misled and misguided.

[25:10] And they are caught up in the excitement of this fanatical guy who has a strange diet, wearing strange clothes. And he's preaching this message. And they are believing it.

[25:23] This was the intelligentsia of the day. We are told in the Bible. We are told in the Gospels that it was the common people who heard Jesus gladly.

[25:37] But these, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, they were the most educated. They were the elite.

[25:47] They were the experts. They were the ones who looked at John the Baptist and shook their heads saying, this man can't be for real.

[26:00] He hasn't been to any of our rabbinical schools. He doesn't have the training that is required. He cannot possibly be on track with what he is saying. And they rejected John.

[26:13] You'll recall Jesus put them on the spot one time when he said, the baptism of John. Was it of man or was it of God?

[26:25] And they were put on the spot because if they said, well, it was of God, then Jesus would say, then why didn't you believe him?

[26:39] And why weren't you baptized by him? But if we say it is of man, then they're going to be in trouble with the populace because the vast majority of the people believed John and were baptized by him.

[26:53] And their response was, well, we don't know. They wouldn't take a position.

[27:04] That's how they tried to wiggle out of it. And then Jesus said, well, then neither will I answer the question you gave me. This was a real hot button issue.

[27:14] Because when John introduced Jesus as the Messiah, and he tells us in John's Gospel, chapter one, John tells us that the reason I came baptizing was that I might introduce him to Israel.

[27:32] And that's what he meant when he said, behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Virtually no one really understood the significance of what he was saying.

[27:44] Now the question is, if John is not legitimate, then what does that make Jesus?

[27:58] Uh-huh. He's not legitimate either. And that was the position that the rulership took. That was the position that the shakers and movers took.

[28:10] That was the official position. Jesus, not the Messiah. Everything hinged on this.

[28:21] Before his crucifixion and after his crucifixion, after his resurrection, the hot button issue remained the same.

[28:32] And it is today. It is today. And the question is, is Jesus of Nazareth really the Son of God sent by God to this earth to do what he did or not?

[28:47] That's still the issue. That's still the question. Two thousand years later, it's still bandied about. Isn't that amazing? This is the watershed issue.

[29:00] And it all centers on the identity of this person. Either he was sent from God to do what he did or he wasn't. Can't have it both ways.

[29:11] This is no place for subjectivity. I'm talking about an objective reality. It is either true or it is not true. If it is not true, you have no choice but to categorize Jesus of Nazareth as the greatest religious faker, phony charlatan that ever came down the pike.

[29:30] And none of this business about his being a good example. If he was not who he claimed to be, he was not a good example. He was a liar. Not a good example at all.

[29:40] Why would you follow him? But if he is, then we have no logical alternative but to fall on our face before him and worship him as Lord.

[29:55] God sent from God to do what he did. So, John is on the scene. He's doing his ministry, baptizing.

[30:06] And shortly after that, in Matthew chapter 10, we read something that is just absolutely stunning. I don't know exactly how long this was after his baptism, but I suspect that it wasn't too long.

[30:19] Maybe even just a couple of months because it was early on in his ministry that Jesus chose his 12 apostles. And as far as we know, his earthly ministry lasted about three to maybe three and a half years from the time he was baptized by John and introduced to Israel.

[30:40] And by the way, John began his baptism and his ministry at the age of 30. That's when the priest was inducted into the priesthood.

[30:52] And John was a Levite. He was baptized himself at the age of 30. Jesus was six months the junior of John, and they were second cousins.

[31:03] And Jesus is also baptized at the age of 30, but not into the order of Aaron or of Levi. He was a priest after the order of Melchizedek.

[31:14] And here in chapter 10, I'm going to skip reading all of the names, but in verse 1, having summoned his 12 disciples, he gave them authority over unclean spirits.

[31:27] They didn't have it, but he gave it to them. To cast them out and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. And then all of the 12 apostles are named.

[31:39] And I want to come down to verse 5. These 12 Jesus sent out after instructing them, saying, Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

[32:07] And as you go, here's your message. You preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. And in order to be able to back up what you're saying, and to give credence to what you are saying about the kingdom of heaven being at hand, you've got to give them some evidence, some demonstration of that.

[32:31] So Jesus gave them the same power that he himself had to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons, freely you receive, freely give.

[32:46] This was to be the calling card. This is what was to give real substance to the message they had. They could say, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. And someone could say, Well, prove it.

[32:57] Show me. I don't see any kingdom. So what did he do? He gave them the ability to do what he did. And he performed these miracles. They constituted his calling card.

[33:09] They were evidence that he was who he said he was, and that his father sent him. And the people were lining up. Where Jesus went, there were often thousands that were gathered.

[33:23] Because listen, when you see somebody walking around, apparently with 20-20 vision, and you've known that person for the last 30 years, to be stung blind, wherever something like that happens, a crowd's going to start to gather.

[33:39] People are going to be asking questions. How did this happen? Who did this? Isn't this so-and-so? Yeah. Well, he's blind. He can't see. Well, he sees now. And here's somebody that's been crippled for as long as I am.

[33:54] He had an incident with an ox cart. He broke his leg and never did he right. And he can't even walk. He has to walk around with a homemade kind of crap. And now he's walking on two good legs.

[34:04] How did that happen? All of these kind of things were taking place. Let me tell you something. Whereas you might think these kind of evidences and miracles would certainly suffice to convince anyone of the truth behind them.

[34:28] No. Nope. Not if you do not wish to be convinced. Because there are people for whom a lack of evidence is not the problem.

[34:46] You can give them evidence till it's coming out their ears. But it will not suffice. Because if one is predestined, predetermined, that he is not going to believe that stuff.

[35:01] Largely because he looks ahead and he sees the implications of where that belief is going to take him. And he doesn't want to go there. That's a moral impediment.

[35:12] It's not an intellectual one. And there were a lot of people who had that problem. The scribes and Pharisees had hearts that were not in tune with God and never were.

[35:24] They just had positions of religious authority. And connection. And respect. And perks. And everything that went with it. But these were they of whom Jesus said, This people.

[35:37] This people. Honor me with their lips. But their heart is far from me. Oh, they went through all of the rituals and the rigmarole and they had it all down to a science.

[35:50] Outwardly. But inwardly, Jesus said, inwardly, you're like whited sepulchers. Dead men's bones.

[36:02] That's the contrast that Jesus had to contend with. And this became the basis for their rejection of him. It was just sheer unbelief.

[36:13] when we have clear evidence right here that this is a Jewish situation and nothing could be plainer. And I don't I don't know how I missed this.

[36:25] I honestly don't. Do you have a problem with this? I was I was taking Bible courses at Cedarville University and I'm sure we, you know, we had a course in four Gospels.

[36:40] We saw this stuff and it never occurred to me. Nobody ever brought it up. What? What's going on here? This is this is limited specifically limited to Jewish people.

[36:54] Why is this? And there's going to be a rare exception regarding this woman who's called the Canaanite woman and she had a daughter who was ill and she came to Jesus which was quite remarkable and somewhat flattering to him I suppose because she was not a Jew.

[37:15] She was a Gentile. She was what the Jew would consider goyim. They uncircumcised pagans, heathen, even called them dogs. But this woman had obviously heard about the miracles of Jesus.

[37:29] Maybe she'd even seen some of them and she came to him and appealed to him and she said, Sir, I have a daughter who's gravely ill. Would you would you please consider healing her?

[37:41] And Jesus said, this is the mild and gentle Jesus oozing with compassion. This is what Jesus said. It is not appropriate to take the meat for the children and give it to the dogs.

[37:57] What? What? May I say that Jesus was not politically correct? And do you know what the woman she didn't say how dare you call me a dog?

[38:11] She knew that that was the way that the Jewish people looked upon non-Jews and they called them dogs because just like a dog they would eat anything. They would even eat pork chops and sausage and shrimp and stuff like that.

[38:26] These are dogs. And she said, true Lord, I admit that, but isn't it true that even even little dogs get the crumbs that fall off the table?

[38:42] And you know what? The heart of the Savior was melted and Jesus said, well, wow, you've got a point.

[38:58] And with compassion he healed that non-Jewish little girl. Isn't that wonderful? Why is all this limited to the Jew?

[39:12] Didn't Jesus care about the whole world? Didn't he come to everybody? No. He didn't come to everybody. He came to Israel. He came to his own and his own received him not.

[39:26] Jesus did not come to the world. He came to Israel. Now listen, get the prepositions because they're important. Jesus came to Israel for the world.

[39:37] and the intent and the game plan from the beginning was in fulfillment of the promise that God gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was to utilize Israel as a nation.

[39:52] The 12 tribes of Israel to be the spearhead nation to be the point for the eventual establishment of the kingdom of God on the whole earth.

[40:06] And he's going to use Israel to bring it about. Now the Jews believed that. That's why they were so excited when John came preaching, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

[40:22] That means that God's fix-it man, God's Messiah is going to be coming and he's going to fix this broken old tired sinful world.

[40:34] And no wonder these people were excited. They were beside themselves. And great crowds gathered for John and great crowds are going to gather for Jesus. And the time's going to come when there's going to be a choice to make.

[40:46] You're going to go after John and hear what he's saying. Are you going to... And they came to John and they said, John's disciples says, we're not getting the crowds we used to get.

[40:57] And word is that a lot of the people that used to come here and hear you, they're going to hear Jesus now. And all John could say was with John, yeah, isn't it wonderful?

[41:08] He must increase and I must decrease. And that's the way it's supposed to be. And there was no jealousy on the part of John. This kingdom thing is so big and so incredible and so I have no words to describe it.

[41:27] It is the issue that permeates the whole of the book. from Genesis to Revelation.

[41:39] When you come and begin in Genesis, we've got a beautiful garden, we've got a paradise that's been created, and in chapter 3, it all goes down the tubes.

[41:50] Paradise is lost. And all the rest of the Bible, all the rest of the Bible from early Genesis clear up to the Revelation is the romance of redemption and it is all about how God is bringing back a fallen world to paradise regained.

[42:16] did you know, by the way, this is not paradise? You suspected that all along, didn't you? That's just another word for the kingdom.

[42:29] Because when the kingdom of heaven comes to earth, this is the key now, and it is found in what so many repeat almost every Sunday in their churches, and they call it the Lord's Prayer, it will be a fulfillment of thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

[42:57] And if you believe it is now, you're looking at a different world than I am. This is a broken, ruined world, ruled over by the master of this age, 1 Corinthians, 4, 4, he's the God of this age, he is calling the shots.

[43:19] That's why men are at war, that's why people cut off other people's heads, this is why so much brutality and child abuse is going on, this is why so much division and divorce and heartache and everything is going on, because the world remains a broken place.

[43:39] And what this message is all about, is God's fix-it program, and it's going to be affected through a group of people who are the least likely in the whole world to do it.

[43:55] The tiny little nation of Israel. And you know something? For the most part, even the Jews today don't believe that. They don't believe that.

[44:06] they don't see themselves in that way at all. For the simple reason that they have long since abandoned the authority of their own scriptures. And I'm talking about the majority of Jews. Of course, there are those who are observant and so on, but they are a tiny, tiny minority.

[44:23] So this is all going to come about, and God is going to use the world's most hated, persecuted, vilified, ostracized, marginalized people that ever lived on the face of the earth.

[44:36] The Jew. Amazing. And don't you ever forget, Jesus was a Jew. Jesus still is a Jew.

[44:48] Jesus is not a Christian. Someone told me one day, I think Jesus Christ is probably the best Christian that ever, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't put Jesus in the category of a Christian.

[44:59] A Christian is someone who has dealt with the reality of his sin. Jesus is not qualified to be a Christian. And we can be glad that he isn't.

[45:11] All of these things are in focus here in the scriptures. And this issue is so big. Let me put it this way. It is bigger than what we call the Christian church, or the mystery, or Paul's apostleship.

[45:30] It's bigger than that. This is all encompassing. This is universal. This is for the whole globe. And it's going to involve all the nations and all the people of the world.

[45:45] And when it is established, righteousness will prevail throughout the earth, and the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. And the lame man will leap like a deer, and the child will play on the den of a deadly serpent.

[46:02] The lion will lie down with the lamb. all of that is going to be affected when this kingdom of heaven comes to earth.

[46:15] This is the issue. This is why these people were so excited. This is why John was preaching his message, and Jesus took up with the same message, and the twelve went throughout Israel preaching the same message, and he told them, where did he tell them to go?

[46:34] Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth. I have a question to ask him. Just before Jesus ascended, he told them that they were to go into all the world.

[46:53] When you come to the book of Acts, chapter 10, and even earlier, chapter 7, Peter and all the apostles are still in Jerusalem.

[47:13] Well, for crying out loud, what are you guys doing in Jerusalem? He told you to go to the whole world, and this has been six, seven years later, and you're still in Jerusalem?

[47:26] What's going on here? Well, Philip got a little further. He got into Samaria. That was right next door. And by the way, Jesus said, don't go to the Gentiles.

[47:41] Don't go to the Samaritans. What was Philip doing going to the Samaritans? And they've been told not to. What's going on?

[47:54] And when he told them in chapter 10, don't go to the Gentiles, confine your ministry to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And then later he says, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.

[48:05] Well, for crying out loud, is that a clear-cut contradiction or what? What are we supposed to do? And the answer is, there is a progress of doctrine.

[48:18] The thing is shifting. It's moving. It's developing. Why? Because circumstances have changed. And make no mistake about it, nothing is changed about God.

[48:30] He hasn't changed. His character, his integrity, everything about him remains the same. God is unchangeable. But God's methodology changes. God's directives change.

[48:43] God's marching orders change. And the rule of thumb, if you know anything about the military at all, is you always obey your most recent order.

[48:55] and what we have is an order that is going to be given that will transcend the order, don't go to the Gentiles, confine yourself to the lost sheep of the house.

[49:09] That's going to change. And they are to go into all the world. What's going on there? And then when the Apostle Paul comes on the scene, there is a dramatic shift that is taking place that is explosive.

[49:30] And that's what we'll look at in our next session together. Thank you for your kind attention. We've covered some very basic material that I know I fear that many of you have heard before.

[49:45] But repetition is the mother of learning, so I'm not going to apologize for it. I do want to remind you that next week, Congressman Jim Jordan will be speaking, and it'll be really interesting to hear what he has to say, especially in light of what's been going on in Washington for the past few days.

[50:04] As usual, I wish we had question time, but we don't have time for it, so if you have questions, jot them down so you don't forget them, and you will have opportunity to ask them sometime in the future.

[50:16] Would you bow with me, please? Thank you, Father, for the expression of your word, and thank you for Miles Coverdale. Thank you for this man with this wonderful insight that lived over 500 years ago and blessed us with the first complete English Bible and these wonderful rules for interpreting it.

[50:43] We cherish his memory, and we ask that as we continue to engage this subject, you will enable us to see not only the progression of scripture, but the beautiful interconnectedness of it, how that everything in the book is connected to everything in the book, and we have the privilege and the joy of searching it out, understanding it, believing it, living it, loving it, and appreciating it.

[51:17] We bless you and thank you to God creation and revelation, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.