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[0:00] Please turn to Paul's letter to the Colossians, and this morning we'll be in chapter 2, looking at verses 8 through 15.

[0:17] See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception.

[0:31] According to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

[0:43] For in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, and in him you have been made complete.

[0:55] And he is the head over all rule and authority. And in him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

[1:16] Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

[1:30] When you were dead in your transgressions, in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions.

[1:46] Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

[2:03] When he had disarmed the rulers and authorities, he made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through him.

[2:14] Thank you. And what is missing without Paul is truly remarkable.

[2:27] There is a great deal that is missing without Paul. And before we enumerate a few more of those things that would be missing without Paul, I want to provide a little bit of background because we are talking about the introduction through the Apostle Paul of material that is completely new, unthought of before, never mentioned in the Old Testament.

[2:54] And it is just as though God sprang this thing on humanity out of nowhere. Well, it didn't come out of nowhere because it had always been hidden, kept secret in the mind and heart of God, this business about the church and about Jews and Gentiles into one new body.

[3:14] That had been part and parcel of the plan and program of God from eternity past, but he never let anybody in on it. No one even suspected it.

[3:26] And you may be sure that the one who is commissioned to proclaim this information also never suspected it. And that was Saul of Tarsus, who will become Paul the Apostle.

[3:40] So we see with the arrival of Saul on the scene and his conversion and his being commissioned as the Apostle to the Gentiles, he is going to introduce a whole new order of things that no one before had ever even imagined.

[4:00] And Gary read some of them in our portion here in Colossians chapter 2 about the spiritual circumcision and about being buried with him in baptism.

[4:12] And by the way, that is not H2O baptism. That is the baptism of spiritual dry cleaning, if you will. And having installed Christ as the head over this body and having canceled out the certificate of death consisting of degrees, taken it out of the way, nailed it to the cross.

[4:31] All these things are new. These were never even imagined before. And by the way, you will not find any of these truths in the Gospels. They are not there.

[4:43] And the reason they are not there is because they are not supposed to be there. They were not supposed to surface until God raised up Paul and made him the Apostle to the Gentiles and gave him a whole new slate, a whole new agenda of information that no one before could ever have even imagined.

[5:04] I don't know that there is anyone who has difficulty in seeing the change and the difference and the transition between what is commonly called the Old Testament and the New.

[5:19] Even though the Old Testament provides the basis and foundation for the New, the distinctions between them are as dramatic as day and night. In the Old Testament, of course, the principal thing with which we are concerned in approaching God and coming to God is that there was a necessity for animal sacrifices.

[5:43] And I'm sure that those at the time who were commanded by God to make these animal sacrifices had no idea what was really behind it.

[5:55] It must have seemed to them almost as if there was an angry God who needed to be appeased by the blood of innocent animals. So you have to take these animals and sacrifice them to this God.

[6:11] Because after all, that is precisely what went on with all of the pagan deities, with all of the heathen that surrounded the people of Israel. They were all engaged in animal sacrifice.

[6:23] And some of them even stooped to the despicable practice of child sacrifice. They sacrifice their own children.

[6:36] Why in the world would anyone, under some kind of warped religious devotion, be willing to sacrifice your own children? Well, believe it or not, Now this just goes to show you how twisted and warped fallen human intellects are in their thinking processes.

[6:56] Some of these people actually believe that sacrificing your own children and spilling their blood was the equivalent of priming the pump. That out of their death, more births and more children would result.

[7:12] And they were almost looked upon as the coin of the realm. Because the more children you have, of course, the more potential workers you had in the fields and the farms and all the rest of it.

[7:23] So that just kind of went along with it. They looked upon that as much as they did mouths to feed. But they had warped, twisted ideas. And the scriptures refer to this as causing their children to pass through the fire.

[7:37] You know Ruth, the Moabitess, who married Boaz? And they're going to beget Obed. And Obed is going to beget Jesse.

[7:49] And Jesse is going to beget David the king. David's grandmother or great-grandmother, Ruth, was a Moabitess.

[8:00] She came from that kind of background. Where they made their children to pass through the fire. And she became converted and joined with her mother, Naomi. And you know the rest of the story.

[8:11] It's in the book of Ruth. But this is the kind of thing that was going on. And the children of Israel were commanded to offer animal sacrifice. And it goes all the way back, actually, to God himself.

[8:24] As far as we can determine, God was the first one who made an animal sacrifice. And he did that on behalf of Adam and Eve. He apparently didn't approve of their wardrobe of fig leaves.

[8:37] So he made them animal skins. And I suppose that God could have miraculously created animal skins without killing an animal. But I suspect, rather, that he did kill an animal and provide skins for a covering for Adam and Eve.

[8:56] So God was the first one to engage in animal sacrifice. And he did that, of course, on behalf of humans. So when he instituted this and required certain sacrifices, and if you want to know in more detail, read the book of Leviticus.

[9:13] That isn't the only place that records them. But there you find a real plethora of instances of sacrifices, animals and grain and all kinds of things.

[9:24] Because the book of Leviticus was the handbook of the priests. That's where they got their directions for prescribing for the different sacrifices, for different sins and so on. And yet, I dare say that probably none of them, probably none of them had any idea, really now, why are we doing this?

[9:48] These poor, dumb, innocent animals. They don't even have a moral capacity. And we just bring these animals up here and slit their throat and drain their blood.

[10:03] And burn them as a sacrifice. And there were whole burnt offerings where none of it was consumed except by fire. And then, for the most part, they would offer that animal as sacrifice.

[10:14] And then, they would butcher it. Just like farmers do today. When you butcher a steer, they would cut up a steer. And the priests and their families would get the meat.

[10:30] They didn't throw it away. And unless it was a whole burnt offering where the whole thing was consumed, this was what the priests lived off of. And the priests lived off of the land that people raised crops on.

[10:41] They would bring the fruit of the land or what's called the first fruits of every crop. They would bring it to the temple and they would present it to the priests. And that's what the priests fed their families on because the priests didn't have any land.

[10:54] When they came into the land of Israel and God apportioned the land, the land of the tribe of Gad gets this much, and the tribe of Manasseh gets this much, the tribe of Issachar gets this much, and they draw all the boundaries.

[11:07] And the tribe of Levi didn't get any land at all. And the Lord said, I'm not going to give them any land. I will be their portion. And all the rest of you 11 tribes, you are going to support and undertake the care and maintenance for the priesthood.

[11:23] And by the way, some are of the opinion that this is the first instance that we have in the Bible of a paid clergy. I guess you could kind of look at it that way. So the priests, because they had no land to raise crops on or raise animals on, they lived off of what the other 11 tribes produced.

[11:40] But I dare say that probably none of them had even the slightest idea that all of these animals being sacrificed year after year after year.

[11:53] I mean, there was the morning sacrifice and there was the evening sacrifice. And you read various accounts in Scripture where sometimes there were hundreds and hundreds of bulls and goats and sheep that were offered.

[12:06] And all of these provided, of course, the basis for a huge feast all throughout the area. But I dare say probably none of them had any idea that what is really behind all of this business of animal sacrifice is the principle of substitution, the principle of innocence, dying in the place of the guilty.

[12:36] Now I ask you, can you find some justice in that? I sure can't. Justice is served when the guilty pays the price for their crime and the innocent are set free.

[12:55] That's justice. That's what everybody wants. But these animals being offered as a substitute, as a sacrifice. And in effect, what God was saying is, hey, either you sacrifice the animal or you die.

[13:13] Take your choice. You can die for your own sin. Because the soul that sinneth shall surely die. Or you can bring the substitute.

[13:25] So you see, it was an act of grace that God provided a substitute so that the guilty didn't have to die for their own sin.

[13:37] They could offer this animal. And the animal, of course, could not be guilty of any wrongdoing. That's why animals are amoral. They don't have a moral dimension about them like we do.

[13:50] So the animal would qualify as innocent and would be a sacrifice in place of the guilty. And as far back as Genesis 3, when God slew that first animal, we have the initial expression of grace.

[14:09] Wherein God said as much to Adam and Eve, you have disobeyed me. You have rebelled against me. I'm not going to take it out on you. I'm going to take it out on this innocent animal.

[14:24] And that's called grace. And it goes all the way back to Genesis. So, little did they know that through all of these animals being sacked, thousands and thousands of animals, day in and day out, this went on.

[14:42] They even had special troughs established there in the temple area to carry away the rivers of blood that were used. And probably none of them suspected that what God is doing is conditioning us as a nation and preparing us for an understanding and an appreciation of the time that is going to come when one innocent sacrifice will be made for the sins of the whole world.

[15:15] And that will be through Yoshea Hamashiach, Jesus the Messiah. It was the preparation for the nation of all those animal sacrifices for a couple of thousand years that created the climate that gave meaning and value and understanding to that one sacrifice that would be offered.

[15:40] And if you really want to get the good scoop on that, read the epistle to the Hebrews. And it talks about this man. This man, Jesus Christ, having made one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down by the right hand of the majesty on high.

[15:59] It is a glorious, glorious testimony to who Jesus Christ is and what he did on that cross. Amazing. Amazing. And yet, without all of that sacrificial preparation, they would not have been able to connect the dots and make that quantum leap from the animals to the Messiah.

[16:23] When Moses came down from the mount with the tablets of the law to present them to the people, and he said, this is what the Lord is going to require of you, and this is the deal.

[16:40] Okay? You see, the law that God gave Moses on Mount Sinai was never imposed upon the children of Israel. That's a misnomer.

[16:51] It was provided for them. It was given to them for their acceptance.

[17:03] And it is as if Moses came down and said, this is what God requires, this is what God wants. And he says, if you will do this, you will be a peculiar people unto him, and he will be with you all the days of his life.

[17:17] And he will be your God, and you will be his people. Like nobody else. So, what do you think?

[17:30] And the people said, all that the Lord has said, we will do. Yeah, you tell God, that's good. Sign us up. We'll go along with that.

[17:40] That's good. And then Moses took a hyssop branch of animal blood. And he sprinkled that blood on the tablets of the law, and he sprinkled some of the people of Israel.

[17:58] That was ratifying the covenant. That was kind of like signing the covenant in blood. But it was animal blood.

[18:09] And yet, that will give significance to what Jesus will be saying on the night of his betrayal, when he has the apostles together.

[18:21] And he holds up this cup of wine. And he said, this cup is my blood. The covenant.

[18:34] The new covenant. And it would be ratified with his blood. Not animal blood. But with his blood.

[18:47] And I'm sure that none of the twelve apostles had any idea what was going to happen. Little did they suspect that a crucifixion was going to follow.

[19:00] And that what he said about his blood ratifying, he really meant it really was going to be his blood in a very literal way. But none of them believed that. After the fact.

[19:12] And after the resurrection. Of course, it all made sense then. Everybody can see after the fact. Then it all kind of fell together. And they made sense of it. So we've got a quantum leap here between the Old Testament and the New.

[19:26] We've got the New Testament opening with the arrival of the Messiah. And let me make this really as clear as I can. I want to insert this point because this is really very, very important.

[19:38] And that is, when Jesus came, beginning with Bethlehem and growing to adulthood and all through the three years plus of his earthly ministry, Jesus was functioning, operating, conducting his ministry in an Old Testament climate.

[20:05] Not the new. It is amazing what understanding that will do for you in helping to connect the dots. Jesus functioned as an observant Jew.

[20:21] He said he did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law. And no Jew had ever kept the law as precisely or as thoroughly as Jesus did in attitude and action.

[20:35] So all of his ministry was under the Old Testament economy. Not the new.

[20:45] And the reason that is so confusing to people is that when you open your Bible, there it says right there, Matthew 1.1. And you look at the heading up at the top and it says, New Testament.

[20:59] According to St. Matthew. Well, technically, and insofar as how we categorize the books in the canon of Scripture, yes, they do belong in the New Testament.

[21:14] Starts with Matthew and ends with Revelation. But from a functioning process. From a ministering process. From a theological and doctrinal position.

[21:26] The Gospels belong to the Old Testament. Not the new. Can you get your brain around that? That's quite remarkable.

[21:39] Because everyone kind of assumes that with the birth of Jesus, everything is changed. Everything is. No, it isn't. No, it isn't.

[21:50] With the birth of Jesus, everything is pretty much the same old, same old. Now, what is going to change? Is the death of Jesus.

[22:03] When he dies on that cross, that is the game changer. That changes everything. That's just, that's, that's the focal point of all human history.

[22:18] But up until that time, all the while Jesus was ministering on earth, performing his miracles, giving his teachings and everything. You know what? He kept the Sabbath. Why did he do that?

[22:30] Well, he was a Jew. He was supposed to keep the Sabbath. He kept the Sabbath. He consistently violated the Sabbath insofar as the Pharisees' interpretation of the Sabbath was concerned.

[22:41] But he kept the Sabbath perfectly as the law of Moses required. And he went to the temple. And he did everything that a Jew was supposed to do in every respect.

[22:52] Because the law of Moses was still very much in effect. It was not abolished. It is the death of Christ that will succeed in abolishing the handwriting of ordinances that was against us.

[23:10] That we read in Colossians chapter 2. Taking it out of the way. Nailing it to his cross. That's the passing of the law. And that's what's going to enable Paul later on to say when he writes to the Romans, we are not under law.

[23:26] We're under grace. He's saying it's a whole new ballgame. Everything's different. Everything's changed. But you know something? We are such diehards when it comes to change. We don't want change.

[23:38] We get comfortable with same old, same old. And somebody changes our formula. Boy, they're going to have a fight on their hands. I'll tell you. Because we tend to get set in our ways.

[23:50] Tell me about it. The older you get, the more set you tend to be. That's just human nature. So the Apostle Paul is going to be raised up of God. And he is going to administer a whole new thing.

[24:05] It's called the church, which is his body. It is a spiritual church. And the most dramatic thing about it is its membership. It's going to be comprised of Jews and Gentiles.

[24:20] Gentiles? Where do they come from? God doesn't have any interest in Gentiles. They are pigs. They are dogs. They are uncircumcised. God wouldn't want anything to do with a Gentile.

[24:31] Yes, he does. Jesus came to Israel, but for the world. And he had Gentiles in mind all the while. That's why when Jesus Christ died on that cross, he died for every last man, woman, and child, Jew and Gentile.

[24:50] No one was left out. So when we come to the New Testament, we look at Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and the tendency is to say, well, here is where everything changes. No, it isn't.

[25:01] Here is where everything stays the same. Another thing that makes us think that the change is dramatic and that there obviously is a change is because between the closing of the Old Testament and the opening of what we call the New Testament, there's 400 years.

[25:17] That's a long time. 400 years. And there hasn't been during that time any new revelation from God at all. It is as if the prophets just put down their pen permanently with the writing of Matthew.

[25:34] I suspect that probably everybody thought, that's it. That's the end. And do you know something? Our Jewish friends to this day still think that's the end.

[25:47] They still think that Malachi is the end of the revelation of God, begins with Genesis and ends with Malachi. Malachi, and there isn't any more. Oh, well, it's true, they say.

[25:57] The Christians claim that there is a New Testament, but we don't buy that. We don't accept the New Testament. We don't believe that that's true. We believe that Malachi ended it. But Malachi leaves the story just dangling in midair.

[26:09] Malachi doesn't have an end to the story. And the New Testament provides an end to the story. But do you know where the New Testament actually begins? Well, I don't.

[26:22] So if you do, let me know. Because the New Testament talks about the New Covenant, New Covenant, and the New Testament, same thing. The Old Covenant, Old Testament, same thing.

[26:34] It's a covenant. We are not under a covenant. We and the body of Christ are not part and parcel of the Old Covenant or of the New Covenant.

[26:46] We don't belong to a covenant, per se, at all. We are a bunch of oddballs. We don't belong to either covenant. We have our own thing going, and it's called the body of Christ.

[27:01] And we are not under that New Covenant. Jeremiah 31 says, The time is coming when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Judah. That's as Jewish as you can get.

[27:13] And with the house of Israel. And that's as Jewish as you can get. Northern ten tribes, southern two tribes, twelve tribes. I'm going to establish it with both of them. Not like the covenant which I gave them before, which they broke, which of course was the Mosaic Covenant, called the Old Covenant, the Old Testament.

[27:30] But a new covenant. And you know, Israel has never had that new covenant. Jesus inaugurated it when he said, This cup is the new covenant of my blood. But Israel has never had a new covenant.

[27:41] It's never been instituted. It's just hanging. It's waiting fulfillment. And do you know what is injected in between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant?

[27:56] You are. We are the gap. We are the body of Christ. We don't belong to the Old Covenant. We don't belong to the New Covenant.

[28:07] We are completely different. We are that which was never predicted nor prophesied in the Old Testament at all. We are the church, which is the body of Christ.

[28:20] And it is this which began with, as far as we can determine, with the Apostle Paul. And up until Paul became the first member of that new group, that new organism, not organization, it's an organism.

[28:42] And it is, some call it, the invisible church, because it is made up of all believers all over the world from the time of the Apostle Paul until the time that that church building body is complete.

[29:01] We don't know when that will be, but it is filling up day by day. And every time someone comes to faith in Jesus Christ, they are placed into that spiritual body and they become one with other believers.

[29:18] And it doesn't make any difference whether they're Jew or Gentile, whether they're slave or free, what the color of their skin is, or what language they speak. They become a member of the body of Christ through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.

[29:32] And when that body is finished, it's gone. That's the translation. And it will be removed from the earth.

[29:44] And then, that 70th week of Daniel will be the next great event. And that will begin with the signing of that covenant in Daniel chapter 9.

[29:55] So, we are now living in the dispensation or the administration of the grace of God. And the thing that is being emphasized here is grace, grace, grace.

[30:07] And you know, grace has always been around. We pointed out to you that grace was exhibited first in the slaying of that innocent animal. That was an act of grace. And Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

[30:18] So, grace has been around as long as Adam and Eve have been around. But, and here is a big but, this grace of God has never been so magnified, so out front, so occupying everything as it is during what is called the dispensation of the grace of God.

[30:45] The administering of the grace of God. It means that the grace of God is front and center. It is what it is all about. It is the big thing in this dispensation.

[30:56] And that is grace. Whereby, an individual becomes righteous before God solely on the basis of exercising one's faith or trust in Jesus Christ as your personal substitute, as your Savior.

[31:16] And God responds to that. You don't have to do anything. You don't have to promise anything. You don't have to give anything. All you do is believe.

[31:29] And for those who say, but that's too easy. My comeback is always, it is easy. God has already done the hard part. He did that when he gave his son.

[31:43] That was the hard part. And as I have said so often, God did the very most that he could do so that he could require from you the very least that you could do.

[32:01] And do you know there are men who will complain about that? You talk about ingratitude. That is amazing. Man wants to be able to contribute something.

[32:15] If I don't have something to do with it, I don't have any bragging rights. I want something to boast about. But with grace, there is no boasting.

[32:27] It is excluded. By what law? By the law of faith. We are justified. We are declared righteous before God solely on the basis of grace.

[32:38] You don't do anything. Jesus paid it all. Wow! That's the message the Apostle Paul was commissioned to preach.

[32:54] Now, how do you think a message like that is going to set with people who have been conditioned for the animal sacrifices, for observing the Sabbath, for binding your P's and Q's, for doing this and for doing that?

[33:14] How is this message going to come across? Heresy. That can't be heresy. That's what they'll call it. You just cannot accept that because it is devoid of human works.

[33:29] I've got to contribute something. Well, you do contribute something. You contribute your sin. That's what you contribute. Big deal, huh? You contribute your sin and God does all the forgiving and all the grace bestowing.

[33:48] Just amazing. Been around for 2,000 years and it's still very difficult to convince people of the truth of this message because they tend to think that it's too easy and some even ridicule it and call it easy believism.

[34:07] Well, what would you add to it? Do you realize the audacity that would have to be mustered in the heart of a human being to actually think that there is something you could do to augment what Jesus Christ did on that cross?

[34:28] Do you think that he left everything completed, that he completed everything except just one thing, just one work that needs to be done and that's your job?

[34:43] No, he paid it all. And when you exercise faith, that is a non-meritorious act of the will. And God responds to our faith.

[34:59] You see, we respond to what Jesus Christ did on that cross. We respond to that with our will, with our faith, with our trust, with our reliance. Yes, I see him in my mind's eye.

[35:10] On that cross, I realize that he was there for the sins of the whole world, including mine. And I want to identify with him and accept the payment that he made on my behalf.

[35:24] And when I do, that's called exercising my faith. That's an act of my will puts my trust in his hands and what he accomplished.

[35:37] Someone has said, everybody who's planning on going to heaven is counting on something to get him there. What are you counting on? What are you planning on? If it is anything other than the finished work of Christ, it's no good, and God will not accept it.

[35:54] So, we've got this marvelous message of grace that Paul has given unto me, who am less than the least of all the apostles.

[36:04] unto me is this grace given that I should preach the gospel of the grace of God among the Gentiles. And when Paul tried this same message on the Jewish brethren that gathered with him in Acts chapter 28, and they came to him for their day long Bible conference, and Paul said, seeing as you regard yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, I turn to the Gentiles.

[36:30] you Jews won't have it. You won't receive the grace of God. You're hanging in there with Moses and the law and the works and all the Sabbath and all the rest of it.

[36:41] I turn to the Gentiles and they will receive it. And he was successful in winning thousands of non-Jews to faith in Jesus Christ.

[36:56] And you realize this was the first time these Gentiles had heard any kind of a message at all that provided anything close to assurance. You realize what this assurance thing is?

[37:09] How big that is? It lets you sleep at night. It's rest for the soul. When you have this assurance that Jesus Christ paid it all and there was nothing that he left undone and there is nothing that you can do or need to do or that is required for you to do other than put your faith and trust in him.

[37:32] And he did it all. And when you do that, when you understand that, you have a basis for security, for assurance. But if you're operating under the law of Moses, like the question, since nobody's perfect, how good is good enough?

[37:49] You don't know. You have no idea. Have I done enough? Have I prayed enough? Have I done this enough? Have I given enough? Have I been nice enough? To enough people?

[38:00] What am I lacking? There's no basis for assurance. And it is only the gospel of Jesus Christ that provides people with a no-so salvation.

[38:12] Not a hope so, or think so, or maybe so. And the reason you can be sure is because faithful is he who calls you who also will do it.

[38:24] He will never leave you nor forsake you. He becomes our peace. He becomes our surety. He becomes our everything. And when you put your faith and trust in him, put your head on the pillow and sleep like a baby.

[38:39] And I don't mean wake up every two hours and cry. Isn't that something? This salvation, this great salvation, it's the only thing that provides any peace or security. Do you know what the security is for Islam, for Muslims?

[38:51] They have an item of security too. there is one way and only one way that you can be sure of being accepted by Allah when you die.

[39:03] And that is if you die as a martyr while in the furthering the cause of Islam. If you fly a plane into the World Trade Center, you've got it made.

[39:14] That's your ticket and you will go to heaven. And all sins are obliterated. That's why those people, those people who flew those planes, those Muslim radicals, the FBI and other authorities started looking into their background and everything.

[39:32] They started checking out all these places where they went for their flight training to learn how to fly a 747 loaded with fuel.

[39:44] And it never occurred to the flight instructors why these men were not interested in learning how you fly that thing in a takeoff or in a landing.

[40:01] Because they didn't need to know how to fly it for a takeoff or a landing. They weren't going to take off and they weren't going to land. They were just going to commandeer the plane and steer it into the World Trade Center.

[40:12] And of course, the flight instructors were a little puzzled about why these guys don't want to learn the ropes, the whole thing, take off and land. But it never occurred to them. They never connected any dots. So, the night before, they were able to plot their activities.

[40:29] And you know what all these guys were doing? I mean, all these guys, all these pilots who flew those planes, they hit the bars and the girly clubs and the prostitutes.

[40:45] were not supposed to do that as a Muslim. You're not even allowed to drink alcohol as a Muslim. So, why did these guys go out the night before and get all liquored up and have their way with who knows how many women and what went on there?

[41:03] Because they knew the next day that all their sins, no matter what they were, would be completely obliterated in this act of martyrdom that they were going to perform for the sake of Allah.

[41:18] And we look at that with complete unbelief and we say, that's crazy. Yeah, you're right. But all that matters is that they believed it.

[41:33] Doesn't make any difference that it isn't true. If they believed it and they acted on it, that's what made the difference. That was their security.

[41:45] That was their assurance of heaven, being a martyrdom for the cause of Allah. And if you can take out all of these infidels, that stands you in good stead.

[42:00] Do you see what I mean when I say that fallen man thinks with a warped intellect? And I do not know anything that presents more of a warped intellect than the faith of Islam.

[42:12] someone says, Marv, you shouldn't speak ill of other people's religion. Listen, I have an obligation to speak ill of anything that I know is untrue.

[42:25] Only the truth is entitled to our respect. Everything that is not of the truth is entitled to our exposure. I realize that's not politically correct.

[42:40] And nobody ever accused me of being politically correct either. So we've got a new administration. Requires a new gospel. Gospel of the grace of God.

[42:52] Background of it becomes something like for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

[43:07] It's a gospel that comes with no bragging rights. Paul said, well, yeah, actually there is one thing that I do brag about and I can't get over it. My boast is in the cross and the glory of the cross.

[43:24] I boast in that. God forbid that I should know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. Paul says, I got a fiddle.

[43:37] It's got one string on it and I just play it. That's the string. Wow. So this new administration requires a new message or a new gospel and he is giving it.

[43:51] And this gospel of the grace of God that we are explaining, you will not find in the four gospels. It isn't there because it isn't supposed to be there.

[44:05] It is part of the dispensation of the grace of God that did not begin until well after the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

[44:16] And it was revealed first of all to Paul the apostle and he had the responsibility of communicating this to others. So, what's missing without Paul?

[44:28] First thing that's missing is the gospel of the grace of God, new administration, the body of Christ concept that we've read about in Ephesians 4, 1 Corinthians 12, 27, about the spiritual body of Christ, new revelation which is an update given to Paul, and some have a problem with that.

[44:52] They say, well, why Paul? And all we can say is, why Abraham? Why Moses? They were just individuals whom God chose, and it's his prerogative to do that.

[45:05] And he chose Saul of Tarsus, who among men would probably have been the least likely, the least likely to put in that position because of his attitude toward believers in Christ prior to that time.

[45:22] The rapture, translation, the body of church. Ephesians 1, Colossians 2, 14. We looked at the rapture in some detail in 1 Corinthians 5, and I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians 15, and 1 Thessalonians 4, 13 through 18.

[45:42] They both spell out the translation of the church. But you don't have anything like that in the four gospels, because it's not supposed to be in the four gospels.

[45:54] It wasn't ready to be revealed until this new concept was given to Paul. It's a whole new order, whole new paradigm, and everything that went with it.

[46:08] Christ is positioned as the head of the body, baptism by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ, and this is really different. Some think that this is exactly what happened on the day of Pentecost, but it isn't.

[46:20] It was different. Paul said, if you repent, you repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

[46:32] So they, on the day of Pentecost, were baptized with the Holy Spirit, or by the Holy Spirit, but what Paul is talking about is that the Holy Spirit is the one in the dispensation of the grace of God, who baptizes or identifies us into the body of Christ.

[46:54] So the agent and the recipient is different, and there is a distinction to be made. This is the argument that so often is set forth by believers of the grace message, is that these are things that differ, and we need to note the differences, and why they are different.

[47:14] They are different because this is a whole new order. It's supposed to be different. There are changes that are afoot, that are taking place, and listen, when the body of Christ is complete, and is removed from the earth, there's going to be more changes on the earth.

[47:35] I mean, really big, big changes, because at some point after that, and we don't know exactly when, at some point after that, that pact is going to be signed by the Antichrist and the leadership of Israel, and the 70th week of Daniel is going to get underway, and you talk about things changing, boy, there are going to be catastrophic changes all throughout the earth.

[47:59] So what we've got from Genesis forward is a continual, progressive, unveiling, updating, changing plan and program of God where doctrine is on the move.

[48:10] It is not static. It is developing. And right now, what Paul has revealed to us in the letters that he has written, and by the way, ought it not to be significant that these are letters to the churches, churches, churches?

[48:34] If you want to know what a church is supposed to be like, you won't find it in the book of Esther. It's not in Ezra, it's not in Chronicles, it's not in Exodus.

[48:51] You're going to find what the church is supposed to be all about in the letters that are written to the churches. This is not rocket science. This ought to be pretty obvious, where all of the Bible, all of the Bible is for us, but it's not to us.

[49:12] Sometimes you can get into a lot of trouble reading other people's mail, and trying to make it applicable to your situation, because it isn't. So all of the Bible is for us, and Paul said, whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

[49:32] He didn't say, whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written so that we could go and do those things, which of course would require the animal sacrifice and the keeping of the Sabbath and all the rest of that stuff.

[49:45] So, I just heard the voice of thunder speaking. Maybe it's telling me that I ought to quit. Well, next Sunday you're going to get the message that I intended for this morning.

[50:03] We didn't get there. Sometimes it turns out better that way. We've got two whole minutes left. Is it enough time to entertain one question?

[50:13] Anybody? Feel free. Gary in the back there has a question, comment. Get our roving reporter back and wait for the mic, Gary, otherwise it won't be on the thing.

[50:24] So, okay. I guess I had thought of the new covenant being grace.

[50:35] Am I understanding that if the new covenant is not grace, what is the new covenant and when does it start? I think the new covenant, the first time it surfaces is in Jeremiah.

[50:49] And you've got to remember, Jeremiah lived and prophesied about 500 years, maybe 600 years, before Christ came to Bethlehem.

[51:03] And Jeremiah 31, 31 is the first reference that we have about the new covenant. And Jeremiah, God speaking through Jeremiah, makes it very clear.

[51:17] He said, the time is coming when I will establish the new covenant with the house of Judah. and when he said that, when Jeremiah said that, and God inspired Jeremiah to say that, the nation of Israel was a divided nation.

[51:35] The cleavage had already taken place and that was realized way back in, don't hold me to this, I think it was like 931 B.C.

[51:50] when Solomon's son, Rehoboam, came to the throne to take over from his daddy, Solomon, and he said, first thing I'm going to do is raise all your taxes.

[52:03] And the people had a tax revolt, and they said, no, you're not, we're getting out of here. And these 10 northern tribes, which was the majority of the nation, 10 northern tribes, says, to your tents, O Israel, we're not going to have anything to do with this guy's government, all he's going to do is raise our taxes.

[52:22] So they pulled out of the and that just left the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, in the south. And the text says, Jeremiah says, and this is, like I said, this is hundreds of years after that cleavage took place, and the kingdom's divided.

[52:38] And God said, the time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Judah and with the house of Israel. And what that signifies is, it means the covenant is going to be with all 12 tribes.

[52:52] They'll be united then. And then he said, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers, which they broke.

[53:03] That was the covenant, the Mosaic law, and they just fractured that. So the new covenant is still prophesied.

[53:14] It is a subject of prophecy. It has never been established. It's never been realized. It will be. It will be. And it will be with those people of Israel.

[53:25] And that's when the church is gone. And when the church is gone, the church is raptured out of here, who or what is it that comes back on center stage, front and center?

[53:36] The nation of Israel. And God says, we've got a lot of unfinished business with these people, and it's going to begin now. So that will be the 70th week of Daniel, also called the time of Jacob's trouble.

[53:54] And it will be trouble, too. Tribulation big time. Okay. Is there another question? Anybody? Chuck has a comment or question up here.

[54:05] This will have to be our last one. And I'll try to, Marie, remind me next week, will you, to try to leave more time for Q&A. And I wish you luck.

[54:16] come. The church is the body of Christ. Is the church also the bride of Christ? Oh, boy. There you've opened a can of wine.

[54:28] I've been on both sides for years. Yeah, yeah. Well, I can see that our time is gone. Like you, I've been on both sides of that issue, too.

[54:42] Maybe we can talk a little bit about that. But I just, I just, I'm not able to have what I would consider a real dogmatic answer to it. In some ways, I see it as the bride of Christ, especially in connection with Ephesians 5.

[54:56] And yet, there is something there is reserved for Israel. In the Old Testament, as you go through the Old Testament, God identifies Israel as his bride and himself as the husband.

[55:15] And several of the prophets use that motif. And God's charge against Israel is, where have I been unfaithful to you, O Israel? Where have I not kept my promises to you, O Israel?

[55:29] But you, you have played the harlot. You have gone after all of these foreign deities and these false gods, and you have been fickle, and you have been unfaithful to me as a wife, but I have not returned that with being unfaithful to you.

[55:49] So, the husband-wife motif is established in the Old Testament, and then in the New, well, that's something else. Well, maybe we can get into that a little bit later. Would you stand, please?

[56:01] Yes. once again, Father, we've talked about a lot of things that we don't know nearly as much about as we would like, but we are so grateful for information that you've been pleased to reveal, and we do thank you especially for the assurance of our salvation that we have in Christ, because the basis for it all lies upon who Jesus Christ is, and what he did, and why it matters, and the fact that you have found his death a propitiation, you have found it satisfying, so that it fully met all the demands of righteousness and holiness, and we are so grateful for such a wonderful Savior.

[56:58] prayer that our goal of being conformed to Christ may be realized more and more as we meet together and focus upon what you've provided.

[57:08]  We bless you and thank you for it in his name. Amen.