2026_07_26_Dispensationalism

We started a series here on the topic or the subject of dispensationalism. We talked last week really about what is dispensationalism, but also just looked at where we are, you know, why we're talking about it.

We talked about how we just did a series on the law of Moses, specifically the Ten Commandments, and we're going to be in the future here looking at the epistle to the Galatians, the letter to the Galatians.

And there's quite a sharp contrast between looking at the Ten Commandments and looking at that letter to the Galatians. There's a big contrast, a distinction made in Galatians between law and grace.

And that's a big part of the Christian life is understanding specifically that distinction, but there are also other distinctions that it's important for us to recognize in the Bible.

And dispensationalism is a system, a framework, a way of reading or looking at the Bible that tries to make those distinctions sharp, to make those distinctions clear.

There are other systems that instead of making distinctions, and everybody makes some kind of distinction, it just depends on what it is. We'll be looking more at that this morning and in the future weeks.

So everybody makes distinctions, but just in different areas. And dispensationalism makes distinctions where others try to mix things together or tries to unify things.

I want to start with this. Have you ever been to, let's say, the mall? I don't know. Do people still go to the mall these days? Yeah, what mall?

So many of them have shut down, right? Maybe think about a big, a large trail network. If you go, sometimes our family will go down to the Red River Gorge down in Kentucky, and they have hundreds of miles of trails.

And you might, let's say, get to some trailhead, and you see a map, and it's a map of all of these trails. And you see this trail going this way, and here's a loop going over here, but I need to be able to navigate where to go.

But the big question is, well, where am I on this map? And a lot of times at the trailhead, you will see a little, maybe a little red dot that says, you are here, right?

And wow, is that so important, so helpful, right? Because just knowing where you're at helps you with where you're going, navigating the map.

And the Bible is kind of like a map. It tells a story. It maps out a story, a narrative about God's plan for the world. In general, the story of the Bible is a story about God and man.

It's a story about how God created the world and man he put into it, and then something broke. Man broke.

Sin came into the world and caused corruption. It caused corruption in the heart of man, but it actually also led to corruption in the world itself.

And the general story, the general story of the Bible is God's plan to redeem mankind and to restore things to the way they ought to be, to the way that he originally created it to be.

Last week, I think we finished up at the end of the message listing the seven dispensations or eras that this system of dispensationalism provides as a framework to understand God's plan or what's been going on through the history of the world and also into the future.

We listed them off as that time of the dispensation of innocence, which was that time in the garden from the creation until the time of the fall.

We had a time of, there's a time we call the dispensation of conscience. It goes from the fall until the flood. And then the dispensation of human government.

Those three eras were not targeted at any particular group of people. Those were just what you see God doing.

He's doing for all mankind. When God created the world, he started with one man and one woman. And so just looking at that first dispensation of innocence, we actually look and see what does that cover.

If you look in the scriptures, what portion of scriptures does that cover? Just three chapters in the book of Genesis. So if you're in Genesis, you can just look at chapter 1, 2, and 3, and that covers that dispensation of innocence.

God established a few things, a created order, where he put man as the pinnacle of his creation, and told man that he had a job.

His job was to take dominion over the earth, and then also to multiply, to get married, to have families, to reproduce and fill the earth with people.

That was God's intention for the world, that man would take dominion over it and fill it up. But then we see sin entering into the world, and that ended that time of innocence.

And that really kind of soiled God's ideal for his creation. And from that time on, God established a plan, a plan to redeem the world.

If you turn to Genesis 3.15, God gives a little hint towards this plan when he reveals the curses, the results, the fallout from sin entering the world.

In Genesis 3.15, he says this. This is talking to the serpent, who we know is Satan.

He says this, And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. And he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

It's kind of a funny thing to say. What exactly does that mean? But he's looking into the future and saying, Hey, there's coming a day when the seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent.

The serpent will just bruise his heel. It won't be a fatal blow, but there will be this conflict between the serpent and the seed of the woman.

And that is just the very beginnings of God revealing his plan of redemption for the world. We go through a time from the fall to the flood.

Noah takes a big role in there. And then after the flood, we have a time where the world is divided. Excuse me.

The languages are confused in Babel, and men are spread out all over the earth. This time period of just 11 chapters in the Bible that goes from Adam to Noah, and then finally to Abraham, is a period of about 2,000 years.

Think about that. That's the amount of time from now going all the way back to the time of Christ. And it just takes the span of just 11 chapters in this big book we call the Bible.

2,000 years. The next thing that we see in the story of the Bible is God calling out a man.

Turn to Genesis chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12. You know, I said before that in the beginning, you know, in these first 2,000 years, God's dealings with mankind had to do with all of mankind.

There wasn't any kind of delineation, any kind of separation, any kind of special groups. But starting in Genesis chapter 12 with the story of Abraham, God identifies a single man that he wants to create a special group from.

God wants to create a family for himself on the earth. And so in Genesis chapter 12, we read this, starting in verse 1.

Now the Lord had said to Abram, Get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation.

I will bless you, and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing. I will be a blessing, excuse me, I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you.

And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. God establishes here with one man, a family, a people, and ultimately what he calls a nation in the world.

And you might think, well, God here is just kind of playing favorites, and he's picking one person and one group of people to be a blessing to.

And that is true to a point. But also, what does it say there in verse 3? I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you, and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

God starts here by establishing a family, a people group, in the earth, and he wants to use this people group to bless all the nations of the world, all the people of the world.

Genesis chapter 22, verse 18 says something similar. This is God talking to Abraham again. In your seed, he says, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.

Christ. So God establishes a nation, a people group, a special people. And with this family, we move ahead to the next dispensation.

By the way, this promise that God makes to Abraham, we, in this time era, if you will, we call the dispensation of promise.

It's a promise that God makes to Abraham. We fast forward to the end of the book of Genesis and get into the book of Exodus.

And God raises up somebody new, a man named Moses. And Moses is kind of the figurehead, if you will, the key figure in a new dispensation called the dispensation of law.

And the dispensation of law covers most of the rest, or really the rest of the entire Old Testament. And by the way, continues even into the New Testament.

We'll talk about that more in a little bit. But with Moses, he calls Moses, we know that Moses delivered the people of Israel from the land of Egypt.

But then God gives Moses a law. And he gives him a blueprint, a blueprint for how these special people, the family of Abraham, ought to live and ought to worship God.

He gives them a blueprint for legal requirements, regulations, moral codes, rituals, but also buildings like the tabernacle, furniture, a whole system of worship that included sacrifice of animals, special garments, all kinds of different things that were part of their worship to God that would make them a very unique and special people in the world.

in Exodus chapter 19, it's actually, let me turn there, Exodus 19 verse 5. This is right before God gave the Ten Commandments.

This is what God says, Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people, for all the earth is mine.

And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. God is giving Moses the words to speak to the children of Israel.

So he's saying, listen, I'm going to create a covenant, an agreement with you, and you will be my special people on the earth. and here is my design. I'm giving you all these laws, all these regulations, all these rituals to follow.

But ultimately, I want to make you into a special nation, and specifically, a kingdom. A kingdom full of priests.

Now we know that the priesthood was a part of that kingdom. There was a special tribe that was to serve as priests. But the idea was that they would be an entire nation of priests sometime in the future.

And God gave, you know, we have Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy just full of the laws and the regulations that would make this people, the children of Abraham, a special and a unique people.

The next thing that we, kind of the next big era that we get to, which isn't necessarily delineated as a dispensation, though it is by some.

And by the way, when it comes to the seven dispensations, that's the most common way to divide things, that dispensationalists divide things. But it's not the only way. You know, you know how the saying goes, there's more than one way to skin a cat.

Well, there's more than one way to kind of divide up the Bible, right? And so, some divisions can be helpful to understanding some things and sometimes you can divide things into broader categories and sometimes you can divide into many smaller categories and those kinds of things help.

But if we look at this dispensation of law, we looked at Moses and he provided a religious system, a system of worship. The next thing we see is an era of the kingdom of Israel in which God established a king and a kingdom for Israel to rule among the nations of the world.

And the key figure in that era was a certain king. He wasn't actually the first king, he was the second one, that that is King David. And this era of kings lasted for a while but then eventually decayed.

But I want to focus on a promise that God made specifically to David. Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 7. This is a covenant, an agreement, and a promise that God made to David.

2 Samuel chapter 7, we'll start with verse 12. He says this to David, David, when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, your seed is your children, who will come from your body and I will establish his kingdom.

He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father and he shall be my son.

If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. But my mercy shall not depart from him as I took it from Saul whom I removed from before you.

And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.

And so here is this promise made to David. You know, there was a king before David, King Saul, and ultimately God removed the throne from Saul. But he makes a promise here to David.

He says, I promise that I will not do the same thing that I did with Saul. Instead, I will establish your throne, the throne of David through your lineage, through your seed.

I will establish that throne forever. Now, what, how does the rest of the story go? Was that throne, does that throne continue to this day?

No, eventually because of what? Because of sin, because of corruption of the heart. the people of the kingdom and even the leaders or the kings of the kingdom became corrupt morally and eventually divided into two separate kingdoms and then eventually even after that the kingdoms were overthrown, they were destroyed, the people were dispersed across the nations of the world.

And that's what happened with the kingdom that God promised that he would establish forever. Well, there's more to the story. And so the next kind of era or the next thing that we'll look at is the era of the prophets.

Now, there have been prophets from the very beginning. But if you look through your Bible, you've got the book of Genesis and then you've got Exodus and those first five books of the Bible that established the law and the legal system.

and then you have all these narratives about from Samuel to the kings and chronicles and it tells the story of what happened among these different kings and what happened with the kingdom of Israel.

And then you have in your Bible all of these prophetic books. Isaiah and Jeremiah and Micah and Ezekiel and Daniel.

These are the books that most Christians just skip over because they're kind of hard to understand a lot of times. And some of the prophets are just talking to Israel, rebuking the nation of Israel for their sin.

But much of what is written in the prophets is a foretelling of God's plan to restore the nation of Israel.

To fulfill God's promise to the people of Israel. And do that in two ways.

The first way God planned to restore Israel was by changing or cleaning their hearts. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 31. Jeremiah chapter 31.

Here is Jeremiah prophesying about future days. Jeremiah 31 starting in verse 31. Behold the days are coming says the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

At this point there were two kingdoms. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.

He's talking about the covenant made through Moses. My covenant which they broke though I was a husband to them says the Lord.

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days says the Lord. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people.

No more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother saying know the Lord for they all shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them says the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and their sins I will remember no more.

God has a plan a plan in the future to establish a covenant not the same old covenant the same covenant made with Moses which included a law but this was a law written where?

Well on tablets of stone and on parchment right? Written down as we would say today on paper in black and white which by the way sometimes I you know we ask the question well why did God do all of these different eras where he kind of changed how things worked?

During this dispensation of law you have laws written down in black and white for people to follow and how does that work out? It doesn't work out very well people end up ignoring the law or sinning against God not following the law that they ought to the big lesson there by the way is that with a sinful heart having a law written in stone or in black and white cannot make men righteous it cannot be successful in reforming their hearts but there's a new covenant coming that will be established in the future which God will make with Israel go back here to verse 31 behold the days are coming says the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah is he saying he's going to make that covenant with the world no that covenant is with Israel and it's a covenant in which he will cleanse their hearts he will put the law not just on stone not just on parchment but in their hearts and they will become cleansed their sins will be forgiven and they will live for him as they ought to that's one type of restoration that is coming in the future for Israel according to

Jeremiah turn to Isaiah chapter 2 it's just one book over Isaiah chapter 2 and we'll start at verse 1 Isaiah chapter 2 verse 1 the word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem so who is this written to this is a word of the Lord to Jerusalem or excuse me to yeah Judah and Jerusalem this is Israel now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains now there's some figurative language used here but the mountain of the Lord the Bible calls that Mount Zion hey that's a reference to Jerusalem specifically but represents Israel as a whole the mountain of the

Lord's house shall be established on the top of all the mountains Israel will become the head and not the tail over the nations of the earth and shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow to it many people shall come and say come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob he will teach us his ways and we shall walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem he shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nations shall not lift up sword against nation neither shall they learn war anymore God has a plan for this nation of Israel in the future at least in the future from Isaiah's perspective that he will establish them as the nation above all the nations the mountain above all the other mountains the hill above all the other hills and they will be like a light to the world and the nations of the world will come to that nation the king of that nation and the people and they will look for them to teach them about their

God turn to Zechariah chapter 8 Zechariah chapter 8 God plans to restore Israel's nation to restore Israel's kingdom in the future just like he promised to David his kingdom will last forever in this chapter in Zechariah this is also a prophecy about Israel's kingdom their nation being restored again and I want to focus on one specific verse Zechariah chapter 8 in verse 23 thus says the Lord of hosts in those days in the days of this new kingdom ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a

Jewish man saying let us go with you remember what God told Abraham that in you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed and this is part of the flow of God's plan to set them up as a nation for all of the other nations of the world to look to and when that day finally comes when Israel's heart has been purged when God gives them this new covenant when he abides with them they will be the evangelists of the world the world will come to the Jews and ask them show me your God we have heard that God is with you teach us about your God and these people the

Jews will teach the nations about their God when is that when is that going to happen when is that going to occur well there's more prophecy about this go back to Jeremiah chapter 30 Jeremiah chapter 30 because the prophets foretell that before this nation can be established God needs to do a work of purging in the earth and purging among even the Jewish people and this time of purging is something that is sometimes referred to in different ways but sometimes referred to as the time of Jacob's trouble Jeremiah chapter 30 verse 7 says this alas for that day is great so that none is like it this is a day an era a time period that will be like none other that the world has seen and it is the time of

Jacob's trouble but he shall be saved out of it for it shall come to pass in that day says the Lord of hosts that I will break his yoke from your neck and I will burst your bonds foreigners shall no more enslave them but they shall serve the Lord their God and then David their king excuse me and they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king whom I will raise up for them there's coming this time of trouble for Israel a time of such horrendous trouble has never been seen in the world before but at the end of that Israel will be saved by God and they will serve their God but not just their God but they will serve someone a king a king here referred to David specifically not David himself though many of the

Jews thought maybe David himself will be resurrected and he will become our king but this is a metaphor for the seed of David who will come and establish a throne on the earth turn to Matthew chapter 24 Jesus himself repeats what the prophets spoke when Jesus came to the earth he had a three year ministry in which he preached a message that he called the gospel of the kingdom he came preaching that the kingdom of God is way out in the future no what he said was the kingdom of God is at hand what the prophets promised would come what God promised to David to establish his throne forever that a king would finally come that kingdom is at hand in

Matthew chapter 24 this is a prophetic chapter of the Bible in which Jesus basically gives a very clear prophetic foretelling of what will happen in the future with this kingdom in verse 21 so Matthew 24 21 he says this regarding the future for Israel for then there will be great tribulation this is what the prophets of old called the time of Jacob's trouble sorry for for then there will be a great tribulation such as not been seen since the beginning of the world until this time no nor ever shall be he describes it exactly like the prophet skip down to verse 29 and he describes what will happen in and through and then following this tribulation immediately excuse me verse 29 immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken then the sign of the son of man will appear in heaven and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory and he will send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they will gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other in in relation to this tribulation when is the king coming immediately immediately after the tribulation of those days the king is coming to rescue his people so here's the timeline in the future there will be a great tribulation and immediately following that great tribulation the king is going to come and he's going to save his people he's going to rescue them from the four corners of the earth where they have been oppressed he's going to establish them as a nation again a nation above all the nations with their

Messiah! with their king sitting on his throne but is this just happening at some point in the future that we don't really know or understand it's not just someday in fact one of the prophets gives a very specific timeline on when this is supposed to happen turn to the book of Daniel Daniel chapter 9 Daniel chapter 9 and verse 24 Daniel is given lots of visions and the visions contain all kinds of figures and metaphors there's statues of different materials on that statue and they're supposed to represent certain things and it's up to the reader to try to understand exactly what he's talking about with some of these figures and metaphors but in chapter 9

Daniel is given a very specific timeline for when certain of these things are supposed to take place Daniel chapter 9 verse 24 this is what God says to Daniel 70 weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city now there's no such word for week like we have a week it's just the number seven actually but many times the number seven was just used if you wanted to describe seven of anything it could be seven days which was pretty common but it was also could be used to describe seven years which we know is what is being is how it's 70 weeks so 70 times seven 490 years are determined for your people and for your holy city to finish the transgression to make an end of sins to make reconciliation for iniquity remember that new covenant that was talked about by

Jeremiah 490 years from some point that covenant will arrive to bring everlasting righteousness to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy the king will be anointed on that day as well in 490 years know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there shall be seven weeks and 62 weeks gotta do a little math 69 weeks the street which is by the way 483 years the streets shall be built again and the wall even in troublesome times and after the 62 weeks so this is the 62 weeks after the first seven initial weeks

Messiah shall be cut off Messiah shall be cut off this prince this Messiah will be cut off what does that mean well cut off is a euphemism to be cut off from the world is to be killed and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary by the way this is a people of a different prince shall destroy the city and the sanctuary the end of it shall be with a flood until the end of the war desolations are determined so this is describing a timeline starting with what does they say know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem and that's something that when this was spoken to Daniel had not yet happened but for us we can look back and see and it is recorded in scripture the time when the

Israelites were allowed and sent back from their captivity to go back and rebuild their city we know what that date is I don't have it written down I'm not sure exactly what that date is but many people who have studied prophecy have looked at figured out that date because the Bible by the way is a book full of dates it makes it actually quite simple not always simple to determine when things actually happen throughout the whole history of the Bible but people have been able to determine what that date is and then move forward in history 483 years to the time when Messiah the prince would be cut off and guess where that lands around 2000 years ago around 2000 years ago right around the time when Jesus Christ was put up on a cross and he was cut off from the earth by shedding his blood on a cross for the sins of the world this was

Daniel's prophecy going happening exactly as he said that it would and then what happens after the Messiah is cut off the time of trouble begins in verse 27 here Daniel 9 chapter 27 then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week so there's another week another period of seven years here but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering and on the week and on the wing of abomination shall be one who makes desolate even until the consummation which is determined is poured out on the desolate here is a description of the final week of these 70 weeks after the Messiah is cut off will be a time of trouble for seven years and what do we know from the from the previous prophets after that time of trouble what is next the deliverance of

Israel and the establishing of their kingdom is a kingdom above all kingdoms we know the story Jesus died on a cross he was cut off Messiah the prince was cut off 2000 years ago and then seven years later after a time of such tremendous mayhem and turmoil and pain and misery as has never been seen before or since we see Israel's kingdom established in the earth is that what we see no we don't see it Jesus didn't establish a throne on the earth the people of Israel remained dispersed among all the nations for almost 2000 years what happened but yet the

Bible continues we see things going on through the New Testament with people like the apostles that were left behind when Jesus ascended into heaven and then Paul after him and we see letters written to the churches about how they ought to live and what they ought to do and then finally we get to the very end of the New Testament and we see in the book of Revelation this plan this thing that's going to happen in the future that by the way looks very similar to what the prophets of old said would happen it describes a time of intense tribulation that is coming for a certain group of people and a lot more detail than any of the Old Testament prophets provided but what happened to the timeline well here is where dispensationalism comes in and why so dispensationalism takes a very literal approach specifically to the prophecies of the

Old Testament it looks at that timeline of Daniel and it says hey this is talking about 490 years this happened but others say well look it didn't happen so it must be a metaphor the 490 years must be something else and all these other prophecies about what the kingdom is like and what will happen in the kingdom and how it will be established and how the king will rule maybe all those things are just metaphors maybe Jesus is just ruling from heaven ruling from our hearts and so all of these things are just figures and metaphors and when you make all of those things figures and metaphors there's all kinds of ways to interpret exactly how they're to be interpreted but here is what dispensationalism teaches or says God has this prophetic plan this story that I've been laying out that is focused on the nation of Israel and he plans to bring that to fruition but there's something that happened in the story that caused there to be a pause an interruption some people call it a parenthesis in the story and we call that era that interruption that pause the dispensation of the grace of God now we're not going to get into the details today we are going to get into the details next week about how all that works but what effectively happened is the clock stopped and God did something special with a different group of people there's a reason why he stopped and put on hold his program his plan for this nation of

Israel for this people the Jews but he went and he turned to a different group of people a people group he calls the Gentiles to give them also a relationship with God a relationship with God that doesn't really have anything to do with Israel's program with their religious system with their kingdom but he did it for a reason we're just going to dig into this more next week but if you turn to Romans chapter 11 I actually didn't write this down so I'm going to have to make sure I turn there myself Romans chapter 9 10 and 11 are pivotal chapters in the

Bible for helping us understand this this detour this pause in the program of God related to Israel now I gotta see if I can find alright I'm just gonna start reading starting in verse 13 for I speak to you Gentiles remember these are the Jews Paul is an apostle to the Gentiles he calls himself that specifically for I speak to you Gentiles and as much as I am an apostle to the Gentiles I magnify my ministry if by any measure I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them remember

Paul is a Jew he's saying I have a ministry to the Gentiles and part of my ministry to the Gentiles is to provoke Israel to be jealous God has established a relationship with the Gentile world in order to make the Jewish people jealous but there is one day and I'm just gonna quote it but he says when the time of the Gentiles is complete that he will graft those Jews back in again that for the time being they have been cut off from the root from the plan of God but not forever it's just a delay it's just a pause but he will graft them back in again when he is done when the time of the Gentiles is complete and then things will pick back up right where they started again now the big picture of dispensationalism is that the next thing to happen in this age of grace is the rapture of the church that the church will be taken away

God's people these Gentiles which by the way it's not just Gentiles Jew and Gentile but those who trust in God are a part of more of this Gentile program will be taken away through the rapture and then begins the next part of the timeline that terrible seven year tribulation described in Revelation and then the return of the king to establish his throne in the world to establish Israel as the nation above all the nations and by the way they will receive their new covenant the new covenant that was already been established through the blood of Jesus has been founded the foundation of that new covenant is the blood of Jesus Christ but they will be transformed in their hearts as the Jewish people and they will become evangelists to the world the people of the world the nations of the world during that thousand year reign of Christ and that thousand year reign of Israel over the world they will come to Israel and they will be taught about God and they will come to God and then finally everything will be wrapped up in an end there will be a final battle at the end of that thousand year reign of

Christ and in 1st Corinthians chapter 15 Paul describes the very end of that millennium and what comes next 1st Corinthians 15 24 says this then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the father so this is Jesus he's going to deliver the kingdom to God the father when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and power for he must reign till he has put all of his enemies under his feet the last enemy that will be destroyed is death for he has put all things under his feet but when he says all things are put under him it is evident that he who put all things under him is the exception now when all things are made subject to him then the son himself will also be subject to him who put all things under him that God may be all in all and that describes the eternal state in which all mankind Jew and Gentile will live with God forever being subject to him going back to what was originally designed for the world that state where mankind was created to have a relationship with one another to have a relationship with

God and to build to work to be productive and that will be the future state of the world both Jew and Gentile on and on into eternity that is the big picture going back to the that sign there at the trailhead when you look at that big map and all the things that are going on understanding that you are here helps us to know how we ought to live the Christian life how we ought to navigate what God would how he would have us to live how he would have us relate to others and understand what our future path is and those are the distinctions and the details that we will be digging into in the!

coming weeks comparing the kingdom of Israel to another group called the church the body of Christ our future versus Israel's future and all of those other details!

Let's finish up there Father the Bible is a big book it's a tremendous story it's your story of redemption!

It's redemption not just for the Jewish people but it's redemption for the whole world you have provided to redeem the whole world all those who are willing but as we read these scriptures and try to understand it to the best of our ability you have revealed so many things we ask that you help us understand by seeing things through the correct framework if these this framework of dispensationalism can help us we ask that you would help us to understand where we came from where we're going what our future is and how we ought to live in this life for you!

we thank you for working in us to help us understand all this in Jesus name Amen