Prophecy and Mystery Contrasted - Prophecy10

[0:00] already in the library, have already been offered, and are still already available. So this is going to require of necessity some kind of duplication, but I don't apologize for that. That's not going to hurt a thing.

[0:12] Besides, there are items that I do want to include in this new beginning that were not in the original first sessions. And let us begin by simply saying that the Bible is a divine compilation of doctrine that is in continual development or unfolding.

[0:33] That in itself strikes a number of people as very curious, but it shouldn't. Because after all, the beginning starts in the beginning, and there had to be something after that.

[0:47] So what came after Genesis 1-1 is, of course, all the rest of the content, with the exception of prophetic items that, even though they have been prophesied, have not yet been fulfilled.

[1:00] So virtually the whole Bible is a divine compilation of doctrine that is in continual development. This is why we say the Bible is undergoing a progressive revelation so that what we have revealed in the very early parts of the Bible gives way to updates that are going to occur all through Scripture.

[1:26] If you do not address the content in connection with the update it is revealing, you're going to be very, very confused.

[1:38] And if you see the progress of Revelation, how it is unfolding, God begins with creation and the very earliest dealings with man.

[1:48] And as he relates to the human race and the angelic beings on through the Bible, there is a progression, a development. Things are unfolding. Stuff is happening.

[1:59] Centuries are rolling by. All kinds of historical events are occurring, and they have to be taken into consideration. You've got to make a distinction between the period of the judges and the period of the kings because they're radically different.

[2:13] And you've got to make a distinction between law and grace. You've got to make a distinction between spiritual and material. And all of these things come into play. So we'll be talking more about that as we move on.

[2:26] One very important item, and there are several, but this one and its understanding is so very critical. I am amazed how many Christians who love and study the Bible have never put these dots together.

[2:48] And I'm embarrassed to tell you I am one of them. And I labored under this handicap for a long time before I really got straightened out regarding the truth of it.

[3:02] And yet I can easily see how I reached that erroneous assumption, that faulty assumption, and I can see how so many more reach the same faulty assumption, but it leads to all kinds of confusion.

[3:19] Now what am I talking about? Just this. It has been a faulty assumption of Christians for centuries, and that is that the crucifixion, the crucifixion of Christ was regarded as Israel's final answer to Jesus being the Messiah.

[3:44] They demonstrated their rejection of Him and their refusal to accept Him by demanding His crucifixion. And then when He was crucified, Israel literally cut itself out of the picture.

[4:02] And because they considered themselves finished with Jesus the Messiah, many Christians think God considered Himself finished with Israel permanently.

[4:16] And that is a huge erroneous assumption. But I dare say I am convinced that most of Christendom has made that assumption.

[4:27] And once you do, that almost automatically leads you to the conclusion when you open the book of Acts, you see, because in all of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we've got the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

[4:43] True, the resurrection is in place, but, but, even though the resurrection is in place, does Israel, the nation, recognize the resurrection of Christ? Not at all.

[4:55] Who did? Well, those who were eyewitnesses, the apostles, the women who came to the tomb, and several others, 500 at one time saw Him. But officially, so far as Israel was concerned, Jesus had never been raised from the dead.

[5:11] And the best lie they could come up with, which is still in the forefront today, is that the disciples of Jesus came and stole away His body while the guards slept.

[5:25] And there was no resurrection. So, then, that sets you up almost automatically for looking at the book of Acts and chapter 2 and the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost is a whole new thing.

[5:42] Aha! This! Now that God is finished with Israel, this is the church. Acts chapter 2, day of Pentecost.

[5:55] Everybody knows Acts chapter 2 is the birthday of the church. Except it wasn't. Not at all.

[6:05] Well, let me guard that and say, in a way it was, and by that I mean the word church is identified in different places, in different ways, using the same word.

[6:20] And the word is ekklesia. And it means called out ones. And they may be called out for virtually anything, whatever the occasion.

[6:33] So, the scriptures refer to, and I think it's in Acts chapter 7, I'm not sure about that, but I think it's in Acts chapter 7, where Israel, the nation that has come out of Egypt under the hand of Moses, is referred to as the church in the wilderness.

[6:54] Well, why in the world would you call that a church? church? Because it was a called out assembly of people. God called Israel out of Egypt.

[7:06] And they wear the designation church. But it isn't what we think of as a church. Nonetheless, that's the way the word is used, and that's what it means. It means a called out assembly.

[7:18] And also, in the book of Acts, and again, forgive me if I don't get the reference right, I think it might be 19, but don't quote me on that. I think it's, I hadn't planned to go there, but sometimes when you go where you don't plan to go, that's where it turns out to be the most profitable.

[7:36] Paul was in Ephesus. Yeah, it is 19. And this is where the crowd started rioting. And when Paul, Paul did not speak to the crowd at Ephesus, but this is when the crowd rose up and for two hours shouted down those who wanted to speak on behalf of the gospel.

[7:59] And the chant was, great is Diana of the Ephesians, great is Diana. And this went on for a couple of hours. This, this is an old, old tactic of shouting down the speaker so they can't be heard.

[8:16] You don't give them a voice. Does any of this go on today? I rest my case. All right. But anyway, this crowd, this crowd hears all of this commotion going on in Yeah, we'll go to the podium.

[8:43] This technology is going to be the death of me. Okay. So this group, this group outside the city, they're, they're not in the stadium.

[8:56] They don't know what's going on, but they hear there's a huge uproar going on and all the people out on the street that probably didn't buy tickets and didn't get in, they start pouring into the place and guess what they're called?

[9:08] They're called a church. church. This is a group of people who are, where are we?

[9:19] Let me see. Verse 39 talks about a lawful assembly.

[9:32] That's still not what I was looking for, but, oh well. oh yes, verse 32, verse 32.

[9:49] It says, so when some were shouting one thing and some another, for the assembly was in confusion. You see the word assembly?

[10:00] Guess what it is in the Greek? Ekklesia. The church. Now this is a riotous crowd that is there just for the action.

[10:12] They're there for ulterior motives. They're there just because excitement is going on and they are pouring into this place and they are referred to as a church. So all I'm trying to do is make the case that when Acts 2.47 in the King James Version says that the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

[10:36] Well, really, who can blame anyone for arriving at the conclusion that that's the beginning of the New Testament church?

[10:48] And it's there in Acts 2. And this is solidly embedded in virtually all of Christendom across the ages and across the globe.

[10:59] and what it does is it sets you up for a following series of additional erroneous conclusions that keeps things from coming together.

[11:14] And it's a sad, sad situation that it does. But in the original Greek that Acts 2.47, in fact, it doesn't even use the word church there in the original Greek.

[11:26] it uses the word, it actually translates it as, and the Lord added to their number such as were being saved.

[11:37] But the King James renders it, which by, for many people, is as the same as the word of God dropped down from heaven. Exactly, they just, you know, they put such stock in the King James version, they wouldn't consider the possibility of anything else.

[11:53] And the word church is used there. So, how can you add to something if you don't already have it? But you already have it because when the Spirit of God came on the day of Pentecost, then that was the beginning of the church.

[12:08] And that is the standard party line in virtually all denominations, Catholic and Protestant. And it has been for almost 2,000 years.

[12:21] What we're going to see as we move on through this series is how far astray a faulty assumption can lead you. Because when you assume something is true and it isn't, you tend to go with that.

[12:38] You tend to build on it. You accept that as foundational and you start building a superstructure on it. But if the foundation is not true and is not solid, what's going to happen to the superstructure?

[12:55] Not going to make it. And let me tell you something. The church insofar as what we are intended to be and what we could be is just not making it in the world.

[13:08] Can I get an amen? Yeah, well, and we're part of that that's not making it because we're in this mix as well, trying to be a voice in the wilderness and enlighten our brethren, and the most we get from them is, dispensation is well, I don't want dispensationalism because I believe the whole Bible, as if we don't.

[13:33] And it just creates one occasion for error after another, and the beat goes on. And when these faulty assumptions are made and people build on them, then they begin building different doctrines and different conclusions on them, and this is how we got so much division in the body of Christ.

[13:51] And as I've said before, the only thing all of these groups have in common, just one thing, and that is they believe that their way is right and all the others are wrong.

[14:04] Well, is it any different with us? No. Should it be any different with us? No. Because if you don't believe what you are doing and what you are teaching is right, why in the world are you teaching it?

[14:17] So all we're trying to do is share some of the discoveries that we have come across that I am embarrassed to tell you I completely missed for the first 15 years of my Christian life with the hope that those on the receiving end will get the blessing and the enjoyment and the connection and the joy out of seeing how everything in this book really does fit everything in this book.

[14:45] Does that mean we understand the whole thing? Not at all. Because this book has no bottom to it. It has a depth that defies anyone plumbing its depth.

[15:00] But all my all my motive is is to get as much truth as we can get because truth gives you something to work with and that makes it all worthwhile.

[15:15] So I say all of that to say this. The setting aside of Israel did not occur at the crucifixion of Jesus and that it did has been a faulty assumption of Christians for centuries.

[15:34] The crucifixion only marked the beginning the beginning of Israel setting aside but would not be completed until a later time.

[15:47] The book of Acts records continual appeals by the twelve apostles to persuade Israel of Jesus and his messiahship. And with that in mind I want you to come just quickly if you would please to Acts chapter 2 and just point out a couple of things that really ought to be so obvious and I don't want to be unduly critical of others for not seeing this because as I've said I didn't see it either for years and one of the reasons I didn't was because I think out of maybe an emotional obligation and gratitude to the people who led me to faith in Christ and nurtured me in those early years I just kind of automatically felt a compulsion to adopt whatever they said was the way it was and that was good enough for me after all these were the people the Lord used to bring me to Christ and you just you develop an emotional connection psychological connection to them and and I experienced this with my spiritual father who's with the Lord now but he is

[17:05] Reverend Harold Sweetland he is the Baptist church planting minister that led me to faith in Christ December 8th 1956 and I shall forever be indebted to that man and as I've told you before when I get the glory I'm going to look for the Lord and then I'm going to look for Barbara and then I'm going to look for Harold Sweetland because he was the man that the Lord used to lead me to Christ and when I enrolled at Cedarville College and I don't want to bad mouth Cedarville College I have a great debt of gratitude to Cedarville they nurtured me and educated me well let me put it this way considering what they had to work with I'm sure they did their best with me and I'm to this day deeply indebted to Cedarville College even though I disagree with some of the conclusions they are good godly people there and it remains one of the more outstanding maybe the outstanding

[18:11] Christian education facility in the country today so I am blessed to be a graduate of Cedarville College but there they are operating under this same faulty assumption that we're talking here in Acts chapter two look at again I don't want to be unkind or too critical but it just isn't it funny isn't it funny how once you get a handle on something it jumps off the page at you whereas before you just glossed right over it and didn't even see it and this is one of these examples the day of Pentecost had come they were all together in one place and suddenly there came from heaven and by the way the they if you look at the context the they limited strictly strictly to Jews there are no non-Jews here in fact non-Jews are not even allowed here by penalty of death they are not allowed here this is Jewish territory and they are together and there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting and there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves and they rested on each one of them and they were all filled with the

[19:29] Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance and now there were Jews living in Jerusalem devout men from every nation under heaven and you can go on we won't take time to read them but you can see all of these areas that follow beginning with verse 9 clear down through verse 11 all of these individuals have but one thing in common their religion their Jewishness that's why they're here this is a Jewish feast it's the feast of Pentecost these people have come to Jerusalem from all over the Mediterranean world some of them hundreds and hundreds of miles some of them save up money for a lifetime just to be able to make this pilgrimage but they speak in the language where they live even though they have a Jewish background so you can't communicate with these people and what God did and it's just a stroke of miracle what

[20:31] God did is he literally reversed the curse imposed at the Tower of Babel is the best way I can explain this so that everyone could hear the message in their own tongue and the beauty of it is the message they're going to hear is going to really impact them and what are they going to do when this feast is over they're going to go home and what are they going to tell people when they arrive at home you won't believe what happened in Jerusalem at the feast of Pentecost and they're going to tell the people about this and about Peter's message here and they're saying verse 7 why are not all these who are speaking Galileans and how is it each one here in their own tongue which were born Parthians Medes so and so and so what does this mean and in verse 13 some say well I know what's the problem these people have been celebrating they've probably been drinking all night or whatever and they're drunk as they can be making a faulty assumption what you were thinking and concluding is not true it's only the third hour of the day and then right up front as bold as can be what

[22:03] Peter says is these men are not drunk as you suppose but this is the beginning of the church and you'd be surprised how many people read it that way what does it say this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel now question automatically surfaces did Joel prophesy did Joel predict this event he sure did but did Joel predict this to be the beginning of the church he most certainly did not how do we know that well if you don't take this position that he did not do that then you've got a contradiction on your hands that just won't quit come back if you will to

[23:05] Ephesians chapter three we'll be there later but I just want to insert this now give Ephesians chapter three and if we can just jump in to verse four for time sake by referring to this when you read you can understand the apostle Paul is speaking my insight into the mystery of Christ which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men that's another way of saying this that is occurring in Acts chapter two that is referred to as originally prophesied by Joel cannot be the same as what is actually occurring because what

[24:09] Joel prophesied was a subject of prophecy he predicted this but what Paul is saying in Ephesians chapter three is that in other generations this was not made known to the sons of men that is it was not revealed to them by way of prophecy or prediction at all that the Old Testament is completely silent regarding this thing of the church now is it wrong or somehow illegitimate to call those 2,000 people or 3,000 people who did believe is it wrong to call them a church no not in accordance with the derivation of the word they are an assembly they are called out group there were 3,000 of them that believed Jesus to be the Messiah and they subjected themselves to John's baptism just as other Jews did who were believers before so what we've got taking place here is very definitely a legitimate church it's an ecclesia this is a 3,000 number called out assembly here's the question is that the same as what is going to be later identified also as a church the body of

[25:31] Christ no it isn't the same it is radically different because the point has already been made what was the most obvious thing about the makeup of the crowd here on the day of Pentecost Jews every blessed one of them was a Jew and no one else was even allowed to be there these are Jews what is the most crowning significant well I won't say the most crowning I'll say the second most crowning significant and I'll tell you why I take that position later what's the second most crowning significant thing about the church which is the body of Christ yeah Jew and Gentile now you tell me that that isn't really different that is cataclysmic different because for 1500 years the thing that distinguished the

[26:33] Jew from all the rest of the population was their separation they had their own holy day the Sabbath they had their own diet the kosher they had their own ritual the animal sacrifice they had their own circumcision that was peculiar to them all of these things establish Jewishness now in this new thing called the church but it is the church which is his body and the reason I say this is the second most distinguishing thing about it is that it is made up of Jew and Gentile because the first most distinguishing thing about it is that Christ is the head Christ is the head of this new church not to be confused with that Jewish assembly 3,000 of whom came to faith on the day of Pentecost but they are not in the body of Christ the body of Christ has not even begun so what

[27:34] I'm saying is in the Bible we've got several different churches but if you don't make a distinction between what church you're talking about and you lump them all together like some have a tendency to do say well the church is the church and that's wherever the word church is used it means the same thing every place well that's ridiculous doesn't mean the same thing it's radically different in its meaning but each of them is legitimately a church it is just one more example folks of things that need to be divided this is part of rightly dividing the word of truth what church are you talking about this church that we are going to be describing later that is referred to as the body of Christ now that's that's a that's a difficult term right there because Jesus had a body and he still does and it was a body it was a body that was in it was he didn't have a body let me start over

[28:44] Jesus didn't have a body he was spirit in his essence but he assumed a body when the word became flesh and dwelt among us there at Bethlehem he assumed a physical body and it is a body that looks just about like anybody else's so that's Christ's physical body but when it talks about him being the head of the church which is his body now it gets a little complicated let me try to explain this you and I are made up of two elements one is physical and one is non physical when you came to faith in Jesus Christ the non physical part of your being this is the part that was regenerated when you came to faith in

[29:46] Christ this is the part of you that was born again this is the part of you that came to be in Christ and that's the expression Paul uses so many times your body your physical body is not in Christ your physical body is in this chair right here where you're sitting but your spirit being that immaterial part of your being really does belong to the body of Christ now the reason this gets difficult is when we use the word body we automatically think of physical matter so what does a spiritual body look like it's hard it's almost a contradiction in terms but for lack of a better expression this is the way the scriptures speak of it and it is using the human body as an analogy or a metaphor of what the body of Christ is like and he does this in one place likening a physical body to members of

[30:53] Christ and he says well we're not all arms or legs or heads or feet or whatever each of us has a legitimate part in this body each of your body parts your eyes and head and everything each of all of these physical parts are a part of your physical body and each one has its own legitimacy for being a part of the body spiritually speaking we belong to the spiritual body of Christ and the reason this concept is so different is because like I said we automatically think of physicality when we talk about a body but if we don't call it a body what else are we going to call it what other term do we have we use the word body because it it illustrates and it explains and I think that's why Paul uses it also so Christ is the spiritual head of this spiritual body and everyone who is a believer in

[31:56] Christ is in that spiritual body of which Christ is the head but there isn't anything physical about it that's where it gets complicated and yet it's the only analogy that we can use because we have to have something with which to make a comparison so Paul the apostle settles on the body and he refers to this a number of times in right here well let's see if we could in Ephesians 3 verse I'm sorry chapter 2 and verse 21 and here he's using an analogy of a physical building and the whole building is fitted together growing in the holy temple in the Lord and whom you are also built together into a dwelling of God in the body well what are we which are we a body or a building we're both depends on the analogy that's being used each of us and

[32:56] Peter likens us to spiritual stones each believer is a like a stone a building stone in this whole body that is being erected and when the body is complete it's like the topping off of the building and when that body is complete and the last stone is put in place when the last person who is going to become a member of Christ's body and become a believer in him and one of the building stones then the body is removed the body is complete it's finished and this we call this we call the rapture so what we are saying is the body of which we are members is Christ's spiritual body and it is comprised of everyone Jew or Gentile who has placed their faith in Jesus Christ as their

[33:57] Savior and they may have a whole lot of wrong doctrine about them but it is not he who believes and has all his doctrine straight shall be saved listen we've all got wrinkles in our theology none of us has this thing called doctrine altogether none of us has it 100% right I've often told you that when we get to heaven we're all going to get straightened out and some of us are going to need more work than others but nobody is going to arrive there stick their chest out and say I want everybody to know that I'm one who had it all right no surprises here well there won't be any of that there might be a lot of oh me and oh my and and so on but but nobody's got it all together and someone asked me one day are you saying that you think you teach some things that are not true

[35:10] I said well yeah yeah yeah that's what I'm saying well how could you why would you do that how could you do why would you teach them because I don't know what they are if I knew what they were I wouldn't teach them and every now and then I I am embarrassed by discovering something that I think I should have learned or should have known a long time ago and didn't and it stuck up on me and it showed me where I was wrong and I think oh boy what am I going to do about this well you just have to come clean about it because this is just a this is just a wise man hunch and I can't give you a chapter a verse for this but I just I just call it a gut feeling I guess and they can be wrong too don't put your faith in gut feelings but I just have a gut feeling that anything that we come to discover that we were wrong about and we refuse to admit it or acknowledge it but we hang in there in order to save face and avoid the embarrassment

[36:25] I believe God shuts down the flow of information and understanding I think one of the most dangerous things that any believer can do is hear something that he knows to be true and refuses to accept it or go with it I just you know it's you you walk in the light that you have and someone illustrated this but you know when you when you when you take your vehicle out at night and you intend to go someplace and it's two miles away you turn on your headlights hundred feet before you get more light to go further and if you if you stop anywhere where the light is and you refuse to follow the light then there isn't going to be any more light it just shuts down it ceases it stops so you walk in and you operate in the light that you do have and you you just follow the light and when you get to the end of that light the

[37:54] Lord is saying I'll give you more light but if you stop anywhere you stop walking in the light then there's nothing ahead but darkness and I think that's a spiritual principle and I've already taken more time than I intended to with this so and we don't have a roving mic here do we Marvis Marvis I wouldn't want have you got a mic okay well Joe Moore has got something to add or a question okay Dave just pretend that you're on the basketball court make some moves here testing okay you were in chapter two of Acts and they're at 17 verse 17 and on there it refers to that's what

[38:55] Pentecost got underway Pentecost and it was Peter's sermon right at that time and Peter quoted Joel it shall come to it shall be in the last days God says this this this this okay that's when Pentecost occurred and it looks like the Jews then felt that the last days were coming that Christ was going to show up because in the Old Testament it talks about the last day the judgment well last days refers to the judgment of God coming okay and then they he didn't come of course the early church you're talking about the Judaizer church the ones that repented and accepted or didn't accept the Messiah that were supposed to be baptized that early church not the grace church that we know today they believed that they thought Christ was going to come but 27 years later in I think it's in 1st Peter or 2nd

[39:55] Peter Peter clarifies that and says that to God one day could be as a thousand years could be as a thousand years so the tie in of that tribulation period then shall be of the last days then is explained it could be like now we are 2,000 years so since that time and he has not come and brought judgment yet thank you thank you I appreciate that and by the way when you look at the Acts 2 thing when he says this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel you how much of that was fulfilled then on the day of Pentecost very little almost none because what this is describing and what Joel is describing here has to do with what he calls the last days and the last days well let me put it this way the

[41:01] Bible seems to be divided between the former days and the latter days the former days and the last days what was it that divided them it was the cross the cross everything on the other side of the cross belonged to the former days everything on this side of the cross belongs to the last days so what he's talking about here is actually last days and Joel is talking about last days and virtually all of the prophets predict that has to do with revelation and things to come all fall into that category in the last days Paul writing to Timothy says know this that in the last days or the latter days perilous times shall come he was talking about the time in which he was living and he was talking about the time in which we are living so all of this belongs to the last days and look at the phenomena here in verse 19

[42:08] I will grant wonders in the sky above signs on the earth beneath blood and fire and vapor of smoke sun shall be turned into darkness the moon into blood the great and glorious day of the Lord shall come none of that's transpired all of this is future and when you try to try to meld the church which is the body of Christ into this passage here it just simply does not fit at all what this shows to is the long suffering of God the long suffering of God look at all the time basically he's given us to repent and come to him he's just given us time and again and this same thing last days was referred to before Noah back in the days before Noah the flood before the flood occurred it was talked about then as being the last days and it was the last days everybody went except Noah and his family and of course you know what happened right thank you thank you

[43:12] Joe well I'd like to continue this on but we're out of time so I do want to make one more pitch however and that is so parallels what we are going to be talking about in this series and this is the July August issue 2020 Israel my glory and it is an excellent publication this is one of the few things that I read cover to cover when it comes and there is a stack of them out on the table in the hallway please pick up a copy and those of you who already have one you already have it but this is really excellent material and why premillennialism matters and it too is a position that is a minority position so we have become accustomed to being in the minority but that's the way it is so thank you for your kind attention and you're welcome to partake of the goodies that are back there delicious looking array of cookies and so help yourself and enjoy your coffee break but keep your distance and we are discouraging we are discouraging handshakes hugs so