Marv's Final Message Part 6

[0:00] in your bulletin the conditions existing within the millennium. And it has been inserted again for the benefit of those who may not have been here earlier to get a copy and also to remind those of you who already got one that they are available.

[0:19] And at the outset, I want to make something very clear that what I mentioned earlier about the distinction and the differences that separate Christendom, not only Protestants from Catholics, but Protestants from Protestants, has to do with this very issue.

[0:39] Because virtually all see the need for interpreting the Bible and taking it at face value, except in areas of prophetic pronouncement.

[0:51] And those are not to be taken literally, but figuratively. Bottom line means when you read in the Scriptures something regarding the future of Israel.

[1:03] Israel doesn't mean Israel. Israel means the church. I know it's spelled I-S-R-A-E-L, but it actually means the church. The church is Israel, and Israel is the church.

[1:15] That is a faulty assumption that has been followed with enormous negative consequences ever since.

[1:27] And it has led many to believe that we are in the kingdom now. And if you read the descriptions given here from the pen of Dr. Pentecost, and all of the scripture references accompanying it, as to what that kingdom is going to be like when it is established on the earth, you will readily discover that where we are and what we are living in now doesn't even come close to this description.

[1:54] The kingdom of God is the big program. I trust that you will understand that.

[2:06] We tend to think the church is the big program, the body of Christ. No, it isn't. It is a big program, no doubt about it. And all who are in that spiritual body of Christ in union with Him are incredibly blessed, and we have all kinds of resources made available to us, and they all come through the finished work of Christ on the cross.

[2:30] But the church is one small part of the greater overall kingdom, and the kingdom is the whole shebang that is going to encompass the entirety of the globe.

[2:44] And Israel will be headquarters, and Jesus Christ Himself will be on that throne. And the twelve apostles, in accordance with what Jesus told them in Matthew 19, are going to be on thrones themselves, and they will be judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

[3:03] That's the millennium. That is the kingdom of heaven come to earth. That is what we are anticipating and looking forward to. That is that which John the Baptist spoke when he said, repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and so on.

[3:16] And our Lord presented the same message. That is the ultimate game plan. It is the restoration of a ruined earth. It is the planet fixed, repaired, made new, where sin and evil and death and disease are all done away with.

[3:34] And it will be utopia right here on this globe. Any stretch of the imagination that says, this is it, and we are in it, is a greater stretch than I can imagine.

[3:52] So this is not it. But what is it? What happened to the kingdom? What is Jesus talking about in Matthew 13 when He says, the secret of the kingdom of heaven?

[4:10] And let me say this as clearly as I possibly can. The secret of the kingdom of heaven is its postponement.

[4:22] That's the secret. That is key. It is held in abeyance. It has never been instituted.

[4:34] We are not now living in utopia. We are struggling day by day with corruption and death and disease and all of the negatives that fallen man can heap upon this planet.

[4:50] That's what we're dealing with. And the chief enemy is death itself. That's what we're dealing with. That's the reality today.

[5:01] But all of that is going to be changed when Jesus Christ returns. Then He will establish that kingdom that the New Testament makes so much of it, particularly in the Gospels.

[5:14] It is a very, very extraordinary time. It will be the earth as it ought to be. It will be virtually restored to what it was before Adam and Eve brought the curse upon it that resulted in their forfeiting the headship of the kingdom.

[5:34] They were placed in dominion. They forfeited that. And Satan took it up. And he is referred to as the God of this age.

[5:48] That's this present time. This age. He will be deposed in due time. But in the meanwhile, he is like, as I've said before, like a mad dog on a leash.

[6:01] And he can go no further than what God is willing to allow him to go. But he is having quite a heyday. Very timely article just occurred in the latest issue of Our Daily Bread.

[6:15] This is a little devotional that we subscribe to for the congregation. And I thought it was quite remarkable. And again, very timely. Because it's talking about the very thing that we're talking about now.

[6:29] And I want to share this with you. Listen to this, if you would, please. Despite living much of his life as a pagan, the Roman emperor, the Roman emperor Constantine, who lived between 272 and 337 A.D.

[6:50] It's about 16, 1700 years ago. Constantine. Called Constantine the Great. He implemented reforms that stopped the systematic persecution of Christians.

[7:10] He also instituted the calendar we use, dividing all of history into B.C., standing for before Christ, and A.D., standing for anno domini, or in the year of the Lord.

[7:30] A move to secularize this system was changed, and the labels from CE, the common era, and to BCE, before the common era.

[7:43] Some people point to this as yet another example of how the world keeps God out. But God hasn't gone anywhere. Regardless of the name, our calendar still centers itself around the reality of Jesus' life on earth.

[7:58] In the Bible, the book of Esther is unusual in that it contains no specific mention of God, yet the story it tells is one of God's deliverance. Banished from their homeland, the Jewish people lived in a country indifferent to Him, that is, indifferent to God.

[8:15] A powerful government official wanted to kill them. Yet through Queen Esther and her cousin Mordecai, God delivered His people, a story still celebrated to this day in the Jewish holiday.

[8:33] Interesting thing about Constantine, when he legalized Christianity, he did a lot more than legalize it.

[8:45] What he did was, he virtually made it a law not to be a Christian, for people to become Christians, whether they wanted to or not.

[8:56] And the story is told that there were thousands of pagan priests, pagan priests, who stood in line to be baptized into the Christian faith.

[9:09] And Constantine himself became an avid convert to Christianity, providing all kinds of perks and privileges for Christians and for Christian leaders.

[9:20] And he decreed that before he died, just before he died, he was to be baptized. What was that all about?

[9:35] Well, in adopting the unfortunate, untrue, but commonly believed idea that somehow water baptism to the exterior of the body washes away sin, which is really just a figurative way of expressing something, he believed that if he were baptized right before he died, all of his sin would be washed away and he wouldn't have time enough left to commit any others.

[10:03] Then he would be home safe. Now, this just goes to show you, and no doubt, no doubt he was a rather brilliant, intelligent man. I mean, you couldn't be Constantine the Emperor and not have something going for you back then, even in that third century.

[10:18] So he was obviously a very accomplished individual. But you know, all through human history, humans have made what I call faulty assumptions.

[10:29] you assume that a certain thing is true and you act on it. But it isn't true. It never was true.

[10:40] Yet, you acted on it. So there are going to be consequences that come from your action. Even though you may have done it in good faith and innocently and really believed it, that doesn't make it true.

[10:55] And we really need to understand that because in the day and age that we're living now, it is more popular to create your own truth.

[11:07] You have your truth. I have my truth. And they may completely contradict each other. But that's no matter. Because what is true for you is true for you.

[11:19] And what is true for me is true for me. And ne'er the twain shall meet. And the beauty of it is, neither one of us is wrong. Isn't that remarkable? It is remarkable.

[11:30] It also borders on insanity and a denial of reality. But listen, if you've been listening to and following the news of late, you know this is where our culture is and where it's going.

[11:43] And just when you think the last aberration can't be topped, they top it with something else. And now, the latest is if you don't like being a boy, there's no reason why you can't be a girl.

[11:59] And listen, these people really believe that. Now, you talk about a faulty assumption and that's just one of many.

[12:13] But I've already gotten more into that than I plan to. So, what I would like to do, if I can find my notes here in the midst of all of this, I find my notes, now all I have to do is pay attention to them.

[12:30] All right, let's go. Matthew 13. Matthew 13. We won't be there long, but it is important. I just want to point out one particular thing to you. I want you to see it in print for yourself.

[12:45] This is called the parable of the sower. Be reminded, if you will, please. Jesus is completely changing his methodology beginning with this chapter. And the reason he is doing so is because Israel, in accordance with prophecy also, has made it quite clear that they are not about to embrace Jesus of Nazareth as their long-awaited Messiah.

[13:14] And the writing is on the wall. Actually, it was even predicted way back in the Old Testament because our Lord did not come in his first coming to establish the kingdom.

[13:25] It was announced as being at hand. He came in his first coming to provide the basis for his being able to establish the kingdom, and that is to pay for it, lock, stock, and barrel with his own blood.

[13:41] In the first coming of Jesus Christ, he came for the sole purpose of dying. dying on that cross. The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom.

[14:02] And that's what he did. And because he picked up the tab for a fallen world when he comes the second time, he will claim what he paid for the first time, and then that kingdom will be established.

[14:16] But for now, it's in obedience. As I've told you repeatedly over the how many years we've been here, 50 plus, there are two things, two things necessary before God's kingdom can be established on earth, and the earth will really know peace and prosperity and blessing and all the rest of it.

[14:38] Two things. The first thing is Messiah has to die to pay the penalty for human sin. That he did. The second thing is Israel, the nation to whom he came, has to recognize that and get on board by embracing Yeshua HaMashiach, Jesus the Messiah, as their savior.

[15:04] This, they have never done. They will. And when they do, they will cry out to God from where I believe will be Petra as they are gathered there for an enormous time of reflection and repentance and crying out to God to send the deliverer.

[15:28] And God will do just that. And Jesus will return. But he will return to a highly decimated Israel for most of them will have already been disposed of by the Antichrist.

[15:45] During this tribulation period, there will be, I know this is a bitter pill to swallow and you're thinking it's going to be an exaggeration, but it isn't. There are going to be billions, that's with a B, billions of people who will die in that tribulation period.

[16:10] All at the hands of the Antichrist. And he will be energized by none other than Satan himself. And as I've often told you, Satan loves a high body count.

[16:25] All of the world wars that we've had, we attribute to human frailty and human foolishness. in part they were, but there is an evil mastermind behind all of it who just loves death like God loves life.

[16:44] And he is the prince, the power of the air. He is a liar from the beginning. Jesus said there's no truth in him, and all he wants to do is get at God however he can.

[16:58] So how does he do that? He gets at those whom God loves. And that's people. And he has succeeded in eliminating millions of people.

[17:14] And the vast majority of those eliminated had no idea what was going on. They just thought it was just a plain old ordinary war, plain old ordinary shootout or whatever.

[17:26] But it's much more than that. This evil genius has his fingerprints over so much that we humans are capable of just overlooking and not even considering.

[17:41] Okay, Matthew 13. All I want to point out to you is in connection with this parable being the parable of the sower, it would more accurately be translated and be rendered the parable of the soils because the burden of the whole parable is not the sowing of the seed, the burden is the kind of soil into which the seed is sown because that is what determines the success of the seed.

[18:12] And he goes on to explain in verse 31 and he talks about the mustard seed and all the ways that the different percentages and what is produced and so on.

[18:25] But all I want you to notice is, and we don't have time to expound the thing, but I just want you to notice verse 38. Or verse 36, Jesus left the multitudes, went into the house, his disciples came to him saying, explain to us the parable of the terrors of the field.

[18:41] And he answered and said, the one who sows the good seed is the son of man and the field is the world.

[18:53] And we don't have to guess at what it is. He tells us quite clearly. The field is the world, and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom, and the tares are the sons of the evil one.

[19:07] And the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. So, all that he is saying with this parable is including it as one of the secrets, or the secret of the kingdom, and that is its postponement.

[19:28] It is held in obedience. We are not now living in this kingdom. We are now living in a period of time that was completely unexpected, unanticipated, unpromised, unprophesied, unknown, and just, it seems like it almost came out of thin air.

[19:47] And what is this thing? It is called the church age, the dispensation of the grace of God. Where do you find that in prophecy?

[19:58] You don't, anywhere. It is just not there, absent, gone. It is something that was just sprung, appearing to us at the last minute, out of nowhere.

[20:11] And the thing that most strikingly characterizes it is that it blends two distinct human groups together that had not been together since before the flood.

[20:28] And that was Jew and Gentile together in one unit called the body, the spiritual body of Christ of which he is the head.

[20:42] We'll look at that later. I want you to go to Acts chapter 2 now if you will please. And I'm really going to try and make this as quick as I can so we can have some time for Q&A and I'll do my best to get it in.

[20:55] Acts chapter 2 and if you will look at verses 14 and 18. This is on the day of Pentecost.

[21:06] Peter is explaining what this phenomena is. And we read that Peter taking a stand with the eleven raised his voice. There's a huge number of people here.

[21:17] Thousands of people here. They're in the temple. Feast of Pentecost. Big celebration of the Jews. They're gathered from all over the country. Raised his voice and declared to them, Men of Judea, all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you.

[21:33] Give heed to my words. For these men, who were speaking in languages they had not learned, these men are not drunk, as you suppose. Jews, it's only the third hour of the day.

[21:45] That's nine o'clock in the morning. There are time. But this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel. I want you to notice something very important. He doesn't say this is the fulfillment of what Jude said.

[22:01] Because Joel talks about something that isn't going to be happening, and didn't happen yet, and still hasn't happened, but it's going to. He says, this is that which Joel was talking about, but he's not using the word fulfilled.

[22:16] That's very important. And it shall be in the last days, God says, that I will pour forth of my spirit upon all mankind, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams, even upon my bond slaves, both men and women.

[22:37] I will in those days, pour forth of my spirit, and they shall prophesy. And this is at least in part, not only what happened on the day of Pentecost, but what happened in the time succeeding that, as the miracles of God were increasing among the Jewish people to authenticate the claim of Christ.

[22:56] And then verse 19, And I will grant wonders in the sky above, and signs on the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke, the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord shall come, and it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

[23:18] When did any of those things take place? They never did. What's going on here? Why didn't God go on and do all of these things, bring all of these things?

[23:33] there is an abrupt stoppage. And I want you to notice something that is not at all obvious, and the only way that we can discover it, is through a diligent comparison of scripture with scripture.

[23:50] And when you do, which by the way is the only way to study the Bible, when you do, it is amazing how things come together and fit like a hand in a glove.

[24:02] I want you to notice between verses 18 and verse 19, there's a break.

[24:20] Or there's no break in the text. Nope, the break isn't in the text. The break is in history. There is stoppage here.

[24:30] there is an abrupt ending to this, and all of the passage has not been fulfilled, and I'm persuaded that's the reason that Peter didn't say that it might be fulfilled, the prophet John.

[24:46] No, because it isn't fulfilled. It's only partially realized up to that point. now, if you will look at the space between 18 and 19, and you look at that and you say, the space between 18 and 19.

[25:05] Well, there isn't any space. There's just a space between two lines and the words. Yeah. And in that little dinky space between those two verses, that's where we are.

[25:20] We're there. And you look at it and you say, well, it doesn't say that we're there. Nope. It doesn't say that we're there, but we're there. How do we know that?

[25:31] By comparing Scripture with Scripture, and there are a couple of others. So while we're nearby, let's go back to something else that Dr. Luke, who wrote the book of Acts, also wrote, and we're talking about Luke's gospel, chapter 4, and verse 14.

[25:52] Luke's gospel, chapter 4, verse 14. Electrifying passage. Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through all the surrounding district.

[26:10] And he began teaching in their synagogues, and was praised by all. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as was his custom, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read.

[26:26] And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Now, bear in mind, if you will, the prophet Isaiah had written what he wrote about 700 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

[26:42] So, this is old stuff. And the Jewish people were used to reading the prophet Isaiah because they saturated themselves with the writings of the prophets. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him, and he opened the book.

[26:59] Actually, it wasn't a book, it was a scroll, scroll, wrapped up, wound up, and he unwound the scroll to get to the place that he was looking for, and we are told that he found the place where it was written, the spirit of the Lord is upon me.

[27:16] And this is all from Isaiah chapter 61. Because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.

[27:41] And he closed the book. Well, that's no time to close the book. Why should he stop reading there? Why didn't he read the next verse that says, and the day of vengeance of our God?

[27:59] Why didn't he read that? Because that wasn't the day then. That was yet future. it would have been inappropriate for Jesus to have read that and to consider that that was being a fulfillment because it wasn't.

[28:13] Now, this is clearly drawing a conclusion from what is absent. Some may say that it is just an assumption. It's just a coincidence or a supposition.

[28:28] But we've got other instances of that as well. And if you will look at Daniel's prophecy, chapter 9, Daniel, chapter 9, and this, by the way, happens to be the key to the entire prophetic program of God.

[28:52] In verse 24, Daniel is saying that 70 weeks, and we've noted that these are 70 sevens. The word weeks is not in the Hebrew at all.

[29:04] It's sevens, 70 sevens, and it is translated weeks because no doubt the translators thought 70 sevens didn't make any sense, so they're going to help us out, and they put in the word weeks, and it is actually sevens.

[29:19] 70 sevens, or 70 weeks, have been decreed for your people and your holy city, and your holy city, to finish the transgression, and very key, but we cannot take time for them.

[29:34] Make atonement for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up the vision of prophecy, anoint the most holy place, so you are to know and discern from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince.

[29:45] There will be seven weeks, and actually that's 49 years, it's seven times sevens, 49 years, and 62 weeks added to the seven, you've got 69 weeks.

[29:57] This is 69 sevens, and actually it turns, turns, well you can do the math, but we won't take time to now, and it will be built with plaza and moat even in times of distress.

[30:09] Then after the 62 weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the Prince who was to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary, and its end will come with the flood, even to the end there will be war, desolations are determined, this is all tribulation content, and verse 27 says, he, that is the Antichrist, will make a firm covenant with the many, that will be the Jewish people, for one week, that's one period of seven, but in the middle of the week, that is three and a half years into the seven years, he will put a stop to sacrifice, he will contaminate the most holy place by standing in the holy place and announcing that he himself is God and will demand worship, this will be the Antichrist and his thing, on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete desecration, one that is decreed is poured out on the one who makes desolate, and you add all of this up and do you know what you get?

[31:11] you get 69 weeks, 62 weeks, and the seven, 69 weeks, but this last week, verse 27, for one week more, and that's the 70th week, which is the week of all hell breaking loose.

[31:39] It will be during this time, this seven year time, particularly the last half of it, that the billions spoken of earlier will be slain.

[31:52] They will be slain through death, conflict, disease, war, starvation, and everything that will accompany it. It is a time Jesus himself described as a time like the world has never seen before and will never see again.

[32:12] It is called tribulation, the great one, ho flipsis, and one wag interpreted it as being just like a grape put between two fingers and you start squeezing the grape and putting pressure on the grape until finally it just bursts all over.

[32:40] That is a picture of planet earth during the tribulation period. It will be a devastation the likes of which will make the twin towers seem like a Sunday school picnic.

[32:54] That is what is coming. That is the 70th week. Well now, where are we regarding that?

[33:06] Are we in the 69th week? Nope. Are we in the 70th week? Nope. Where are we?

[33:18] We are sandwiched right between them. We don't belong to either one. The church, which is the body of Christ, is an entirely different entity altogether.

[33:30] We cannot say that it was not in the mind of God because it most definitely was. We in the church age and the past postponement of the kingdom, we do not belong in the 69th nor in the 70th.

[33:47] We are between them. Most in Christendom, both Catholic and Protestant do not see this.

[33:58] They do not agree with the interpretation that we have just given you. They believe we are presently in the kingdom. But since these times are far removed from the Old Testament description of the kingdom in your inserted shoot that I've given you from Dr.

[34:14] Pentecost, then they say, well, we must be in the kingdom spiritually. Well, pray tell me how in the world can you spiritualize those things that are set forth as being realities in the kingdom?

[34:28] How are you going to spiritualize those? What does that mean anyway? And they cannot tell us. They cannot tell us because there is no telling. It just doesn't exist. Israel means Israel, the church means the church.

[34:43] The article in our Daily Bread in Constantine in 325 and this gave rise to another thing that needs to be brought out. The church was undergoing tremendous persecution.

[34:59] During these first two or three centuries after Christ went back to heaven, there was a bloodbath of Christendom. That's what the situation in Rome was all about.

[35:16] That's what all of the killing was all about. That's what the Colosseum was all about and the wild animals and Christians fed to it and imprisoned and impaled and Christians crucified by the hundreds with oil poured over them and set a fire as torches to to to and wise There to Trip to kill all of that was taking place for a couple of hundred years and many Jews were put right in with it because the Romans sometimes had great difficulty separating those who professed to be Christian from those who professed to be Jews, and they just kind of lumped many of them together, and a lot of the Jews were put to death as a result also.

[36:11] And this went on until Constantine the Great. I don't know that it's true, and there's no way of verifying it.

[36:23] But Constantine the Great gave a kind of testimony whereby he said, what caused him to do what he did to actually join the church instead of persecute the church was that he had a dream, and in his dream, he saw a cross.

[36:45] And the caption beneath the cross was, in this, conquer. Now, we have no way of verifying that.

[36:58] And we have no way of, we just, we just can't. But at least in his mind, according to what he said, that had a lot to do with his completely changing course and joining what we would call the Christian church, and many others did as well.

[37:18] And do you know how that was interpreted by many of those who were believers at that time? At last! This is the kingdom!

[37:31] This is the political and the military joined with the religious. The kingdom of God has come to earth.

[37:42] And they rejoiced in that. But it was another faulty assumption. No such thing had happened at all.

[37:54] The church, as it existed then, in the very birth pangs and earliest days of what would be called the Roman Catholic Church, was so filled with corruption, and sometimes they even had multiple popes who were vying for the right to be the pope.

[38:12] And there was all kinds of graft and political and priesthood offices were being bought and sold like you wouldn't believe the corruption was rampant. You mean to tell me that was the kingdom of heaven?

[38:24] That's complete nonsense. When Jesus Christ returns, we are told he will rule with a rod of iron. And that means it's going to be a no-nonsense kingdom.

[38:35] It means that justice will rain down. Justice will prevail throughout the earth. Today, as I've often said, in the United States of America, you often get the best justice that money can buy.

[38:50] And you know it's true as well as I do. In fact, you can escape what we would call justice if you just happen to be well enough connected. It makes a farce of it.

[39:03] Well, there won't be any farces during this kingdom time because the one who knows all and sees all is going to run a tight ship. And yet, it will be the most glorious, enjoyable, wonderful expression of love and benefit and blessing and plenty such as the world has never seen or ever could imagine.

[39:24] It's going to be as good as God can make it. How good will that be? And it will be wonderful. But, in case you haven't noticed, this isn't it. I suspect that as time goes on, there may be more and more who will be jumping ship from this this is the kingdom business into the arms of reality because there's nothing about this present world that fits that description.

[39:50] And, I have much more that I would like to share, but I'm determined to allow at least a little bit of time for Q&A. So, we've got a roving mic and whoever has questions or comments feel free to ask them.

[40:04] Okay, there goes a pair of young legs. Thank you, Daniel. That's good.

[40:21] Let's go. For those who believe that we are in the kingdom today, how do they explain Paul and everything that the Lord gave to him, raising him as the 13th apostle?

[40:45] Well, that's a good question. And, to the best of my knowledge, they don't. They just don't because there is no explanation for that.

[41:02] And, let me just, let me just read something to you. And, thank you for bringing that up, Terry, because I hadn't planned to bring this because I didn't think we had time, but you just gave me time. So, in Ephesians 3, and you, here is the clearest, I think, the clearest delineation of the plan and program of God and the injection of something that I mentioned before, the body of Christ completely unprophesied, unpredicted, unexpected, just, there it is.

[41:34] And, it was the blending of Jew and Gentile together. And, the one thing they had in common was they both had personal faith in the person of Jesus Christ as a Jew and as a Gentile.

[41:51] and God put them together in one body because in Christ there is no distinction for you're all children of God by faith in Christ. There is no Jew, Gentile, bond or free, male or female.

[42:02] You are all children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. And here in Ephesians 3, let me just read this as quickly as I can. For this cause, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles, if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me, Paul, for you, the Gentiles, to wit, that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery.

[42:32] Everyone in the world, whoever you are, whatever your skin color, whatever your religion, whatever your language, you are a Jew or a Gentile. If you are a Jew, you are a very rare commodity because Jews make up two-tenths of one percent of the world's population.

[42:54] Everybody else is Gentile. So to say that the Jew is in a minority is quite an understatement. He's really in a minority. Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which, through the good news, of which I, Paul, was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power to me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ and to bring to light, to expose, to bring out into the open what is the administration or the doling out or the administering of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things.

[44:07] Hidden in God but never revealed, never even suspected until this time in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church that is this body to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places and who are they?

[44:29] Well, they're not human beings. These are angelic beings probably fallen and unfallen. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ our Lord in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.

[44:48] And when it says it was with the eternal purpose, with the eternal purpose, it means God had this in mind from eternity past but nobody had a clue. It had never been revealed until this precise strategic time.

[45:05] And as Paul wrote to the Galatians that it was in the fullness of time that God sent forth His Son made of a woman made under the law that He might redeem those who were under the law.

[45:17] That means that Jesus Christ came into this world at just the right moment. He had been promised as the seed of the woman 4,000 years earlier.

[45:33] And then one day this strange man was heard repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

[45:45] It was the second cousin of Jesus John the baptizer and he pointed to our Lord and said behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

[46:00] Wow. Oh my. Oh my. Oh my. So you see where all of this is going. Thank you again for your question Terry. Other comments or questions? Anybody? We've got a pair of young legs back there with that microphone.

[46:17] You can put him to work. Okay. I'm just going to let you go then. Three minutes. Just three minutes late provided you don't tell anybody.

[46:30] And if you will stand we will be dismissed. Our Father there's still so very much about all of this that escapes us because with the finite minds we have we can only grasp so much at a time and there's a lot that escapes us.

[46:52] But somehow we always seem to learn enough to be able to be grateful. and I trust to want to understand more.

[47:04] Thank you again for this blessed book that was given for our learning so that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope or confidence.

[47:17] and thank you for the truths that are found within these pages that are available to all who will ferret them out. Thank you for the marvelous way in which you have constructed this book and put it together so that everything in it is connected to everything in it.

[47:38] We rejoice over the revelation that you've given us because we believe that it reveals more and more of you and your love for us that leads us to greater thanksgiving and greater rejoicing and we are so thankful for it all.

[47:56] Should there be anyone in our midst today that does not know the peace and the joy of sins forgiven may they understand and recognize that's exactly why you came because you loved them even while we were yet in sin Christ died for the ungodly.

[48:17] There's not only hope but there's deliverance for all who will put their faith and trust in him. Thank you for that marvelous privilege and for the joy and the privilege of communicating a message that gives life and understanding.

[48:33] We bless you for it in Christ's name. Amen.