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[0:00] I just felt that this was needed for some kind of closure to what we have done on the Sermon on the Mount. And I would rather do it and find that in actuality it really wasn't necessary than for it to have been necessary and for me not to have done it.

[0:14] So I want you to have this opportunity because the Sermon on the Mount is such a well-known passage and very, very familiar and also very much misunderstood.

[0:25] So if you have something ready to go, I will refrain from sharing my comments. If you don't, I will. Anybody? All right, Gary, thank you.

[0:40] Yeah, I was looking in Matthew 5, 17. And just maybe more of a clear understanding of that.

[0:52] Don't misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. Maybe a little more of an understanding of that.

[1:04] I mean, it seems like when we get back to some of the things Paul wrote, he's basically saying this age of grace is replacing the old covenant. Okay. Maybe a little better understanding of that.

[1:16] Okay. Very good question. First of all, bear in mind that one of the principal accusations or charges that was laid at the person of Christ and later to the apostle Paul, both of them endured this kind of criticism, was that they were teaching against the law of Moses.

[1:37] And therefore, they constituted a real threat. Well, neither Jesus nor Paul taught against the law of Moses. But what they did do is they taught against the Pharisees, scribes, interpretation of the law of Moses, which was certainly wrong and had led people astray.

[1:59] It was essential for Christ to fulfill the law of Moses. That means to meet all of its righteous demands. And this he did in every way, shape, and form.

[2:13] Christ never violated the law of Moses. But he consistently violated the Pharisees' interpretation of the law of Moses. And in the main, that centered around the understanding of the Sabbath.

[2:29] That was a great deal. There was a great deal of controversy surrounding what Christ did on the Sabbath. So, there was a lot of misunderstanding there.

[2:40] When Christ said that he came to fulfill the law, it's reminiscent of what Paul said in Romans. I don't know where it is.

[2:51] Maybe it's moved. I'm not sure. But he said, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to all who believe. In other words, it means that Christ was the culmination of the law.

[3:04] Christ was the end product of the law. Who he was and what he did. And when he paid the ultimate price for the sins of the world, he completely fulfilled the demands of the law.

[3:22] Because the law of Moses says, in one of its cardinal respects, is this. The soul that sinneth shall surely die. The wages of sin is death.

[3:35] That's what the law requires. The law demands that. Do you know what that is? That is justice. Justice means that the punishment that is meted out is sufficient and adequate.

[3:51] And in keeping with the offense that was committed. And when Christ died on that cross, it was because of who he was that he met all of the demands of the law.

[4:07] And the demands of the law for you and for me is death, death, death, death, death, death, death. Every one of us, death. And when Christ died as the divine human God-man representative of the human race, he met all of the demands of the law.

[4:30] He fulfilled it. So the law has no more claim upon us. And this is what enables Paul to say, you are not under law. You are under grace. Payment has been laid in full.

[4:41] Is that helpful? Is there a follow-up? You need more clarification? Feel free to say so. Anyone else? After I get home.

[4:56] Okay. Perhaps up front here, Ron has a comment or question. All right.

[5:11] My question is, we're under grace, right? But 633, seek ye first the kingdom of God. I'm sorry.

[5:22] Repeat that last. Matthew 633. Okay. Seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness. And like under grace, isn't that like a good thing for us to do too?

[5:39] Well, we are not seeking God's kingdom. And this is an excellent point that you brought up because I had not thought of it along this line, but it is excellent.

[5:51] Seek first the kingdom and his righteousness. Well, we are not, we who are believers in Christ, we are not seeking Christ's righteousness.

[6:02] We have it. We are in it. We are as righteous as he is, positionally speaking. This is what it means to be in Christ.

[6:13] We actually possess the righteousness of Christ. I know how far-fetched that sounds because we all know ourselves to still be flawed, imperfect people. How can we say that we are perfect like Christ is?

[6:26] And that is a positional perfection. This is the way God sees us. God sees you who are in Christ as not having one stain, one spot, or one blemish to your account.

[6:38] If you are in Christ, your record is as clean and clear as Christ is himself because he imputed his righteousness to you when he saved you. Now, insofar as your behavior is concerned, sometimes there is a lot of unrighteousness about Christians and their activities and their behavior.

[6:59] That's an entirely different matter. We are still a work in progress when it comes to our sanctification and our growth. We are not a finished product.

[7:10] Positionally speaking, we are a finished product. You cannot be more complete than you are by being complete in Christ. There is no room for improvement there in your position.

[7:22] There is a lot of room for improvement in your behavior and your practice because we still live in this flesh as a fallen body. We are still subject to sin.

[7:32] We still have the same kind of foibles and the same kind of weaknesses. But in Christ, we enjoy his perfection. Paul said that I may be found in him not having a righteousness of my own, which is after the law, but the righteousness which is of Christ by faith.

[7:54] That's a marvelous thing. That is glory of the gospel. And then when he wrote to the Corinthians, he talked about God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing.

[8:05] He trespasses unto them, trespasses unto them, has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation, and so on. And he says, in verse 18, let me see, it escapes me now.

[8:22] 2 Corinthians 5. This is just amazing. Speaking of God the Father. God made him, Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

[8:48] That is incredible. But it's true. Now, you need to understand, this is nothing for you to boast about. We're not talking about bragging rights.

[9:00] You can't go around with your chest puffed out and say, I'm as righteous as God, just as righteous as God. Well, truth of the matter is, you are. But you have nothing to boast about.

[9:12] Christ did that for you when he saved you. He gave you that position. He put you in that position. That is the very righteousness of Christ. And that's the only thing that God will accept, by the way.

[9:24] He will not accept your righteousness. All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. They're all flawed and stained. And only the righteousness of Christ is perfect.

[9:35] But when you put your trust in Jesus Christ, he gives you, he imputes to you. That is, he puts it in you, his very righteousness.

[9:47] And that legally, judicially, forensically, makes you as perfect as Christ is, despite all of your imperfections in the flesh.

[9:59] And they illustrate it this way, and it's something that I think everybody can identify with. When someone, in one of our law courts, when someone is accused of a crime, and the evidence is presented, and the prosecution does its thing, and the defense does its thing, and there's a summation, and the verdict is given, the charge is given to the jury, and you, the jury, you have to go in and decide a verdict.

[10:26] And the jury comes out, and they say, not guilty. What does that mean?

[10:38] It means you're exonerated. It means you're free to go. It means you're no longer under judgment, or the threat thereof. It means you will not be punished.

[10:49] But let me ask you this. What if you really were guilty? What if you really did do it?

[11:04] Does that matter? No. No. It doesn't matter at all. What matters? What matters is what the jury said.

[11:16] The jury said, not guilty. And you realize the man could walk out of the courtroom and turn to the reporter and say, boy, I really conned them. You know what? I really did do it.

[11:28] Ha, ha, ha. What does that change? Nothing. Well, that's not right. They ought to haul him back in there and retry him again. You can't do that. That's called double jeopardy.

[11:40] You can't do that. But he's guilty. Yes, he is guilty. But legally, he is not guilty. That's the way it is with God.

[11:53] Are you guilty of sin? You bet your sweet boots you are. We all are. But the language of the law court of heaven says, not guilty. And the reason we are not guilty is because our fine, our penalty, our death has already been paid in the person of another.

[12:16] Jesus Christ was our substitute. He took your sin, your guilt, your punishment upon him. And the law has nothing more to say.

[12:28] Because the price has been paid. Amazing. Amazing. Yeah. Wow. Something else. Dave Campbell back here.

[12:47] It's just a further comment on Matthew 6.33 is a good example of Miles Coverdale's rules of Bible interpretation of to whom and what time. And that is actually to the Bible says, but seek first.

[13:00] That's to the Jews. And the kingdom spoken there, just as a comment, would be a future earthly kingdom also. Yeah. Just a comment on that. But that's a good example of Miles Coverdale's rules, I think.

[13:14] It is. We are not seeking the kingdom of heaven. Now, insofar as God's righteousness, of course, we have to be gauging and directing our lives in accordance with what we know to be righteous living.

[13:31] But we are not seeking the kingdom of heaven. What we ought to be seeking is to be more conformed to the image of Christ. We are that that's the purpose for which God saved you is that not just to not just to rescue you from hell, but to conform you to the image of Christ.

[13:52] Someone said that God loves his son so much that he's going to populate people, heaven with people who are in his image. And that's what we're supposed to be doing.

[14:03] The Jew, however, in the context of Matthew 5 and what Jesus said in verse 33, seek ye the kingdom of heaven and his righteousness. Well, absolutely. That's what they were supposed to be doing.

[14:15] Because to the Jew, everything is about the restoration. The Old Testament fully recognizes that the world is in a mess.

[14:26] It's a ruined world. It's chaotic. It is a damaged world. And the promise that God gave that he said he would fulfill through the nation of Israel is that he is going to restore a broken, damaged world.

[14:44] He is going to bring the reign and rule of heaven to earth and install it here as a worldwide government.

[14:55] That will be the kingdom of heaven come to earth. And this is what every Jew looked for and longed for. And this is why so much was wrapped up in their anticipation of the Messiah, the deliverer who would come.

[15:09] Why? Because it's that Messiah who's going to bring and establish the kingdom of heaven on earth. And that's why that is included in the prayer. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

[15:22] Thy kingdom come. Thy kingdom come. So what's the big deal about the kingdom coming anyway? What's that going to do? Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

[15:38] It isn't now. It never has been. But it will be. When that kingdom comes, that will be realized.

[15:49] This is not it. In case you haven't noticed. This is not it. But it is coming. And the reason we know it is coming is because it is linked to the integrity of God who cannot lie.

[16:01] And he's promised he's going to bring this to pass. He has also promised that he is not going to bring it to pass without the strategic instrumentality of the nation of Israel.

[16:17] And where is Israel now? Out to lunch. Spiritually. Out to lunch. They're held in blindness.

[16:30] Judicial blindness. Blindness has happened in part to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles become in. Israel is set aside on a track. But the time is coming and it may be a lot sooner than we think.

[16:42] The time is coming when God is going to reach over here and take Israel off of the sideline. And he's going to take the church, which is the central focus now, and remove the church from center stage and put Israel right back where it was before.

[17:03] And things will start happening with Israel in the center. And it's going to be quite remarkable. Some of this has prophetic overtones and that will be coming up in the material we'll be giving you when we start a new series.

[17:19] There's another comment way in the back there. Terry Fisher has a comment. Question. Would you just go through a brief chronology from like the rapture until the kingdom and just the steps that are going to occur?

[17:36] Well, I'll be as brief as I can. And you need to realize that this is simply my flawed understanding of these events.

[17:52] And all I'm asking you to do is consider them. You know, I can't give you any ironclad guarantees. This is the way I see the prophetic program.

[18:02] The next item on the agenda. It's what we refer to as the catching away or the parousia or the.

[18:18] The rapture of the church of the body of Christ. And this is referred to in First Corinthians four. And also in. I'm sorry.

[18:28] First Corinthians 15. And first Thessalonians chapter four. And in both of those passages, the apostle Paul is talking about the physical.

[18:42] Removal of everyone who is a believer in Christ who is alive at that time. And this will occur all over the world. It will be simultaneous.

[18:54] I do not know many of the details about this. Some of you are familiar with the popular book and movie series left behind. I suspect that that there is a lot of truth in that.

[19:07] I suspect that there is also some things that the authors got wrong. But when this rapture takes place and the church is caught up to be with the Lord, there will be no warning.

[19:21] There will be no anticipation. Nobody has it down on their calendar. It is something that is going to take place in a moment in the twinkling of an eye.

[19:32] We shall be changed. And this earthly body that is in the grave, the graves will give forth. And the sea will give up the dead which are in it.

[19:44] I can't imagine. I can't imagine the physical logistics of this. It just sounds so bizarre. But I am confident it's going to happen. And we just don't know when.

[19:56] That's the rapture of the church. And for those of us who are what we call pre-tribulation rapturists, which I happen to be, we believe that this is going to take place prior to the beginning of the tribulation.

[20:14] We don't know how much time will lapse then until the tribulation begins. But just suffice it to say, everyone who is a believer, young, old, wherever you are on the globe, you are going to be gone just like that.

[20:34] You're just going to disappear. I have no idea how God's going to do that. I don't know if we're going to be taken bodily. Some suggested, as in the Left Behind series, that our bodies are glorified immediately.

[20:52] And what you leave behind is whatever you're wearing. Some of you may have seen the movie series. And I think it was one of the scenes in an airplane where there was a believer and was seated there in the passenger area of the airplane.

[21:08] And all at once where this live person was, just like that, there's nothing there but a pile of clothes. What that person was leaving behind there in the seat.

[21:21] Now, can you imagine the incredible panic that would happen in a situation like that? I can't imagine. You talk about confusion, consternation, question.

[21:33] There's going to be all kinds of theories as to what happens to these people. Because it's going to involve millions of people. It's going to involve every single person who is a believer in Christ. They're going to be gone immediately.

[21:45] We don't know how many that is, but it's a whole bunch. It's a lot of people. Then we are told, after this rapture, which is the catching away, after this takes place, at some determined time thereafter, there will be a pact that will be entered into.

[22:05] This is Daniel chapter 9. This is an agreement. A pact that will be entered. Call it a peace pact, if you will. That will be entered into between the Antichrist, who will have surfaced by that time.

[22:21] The Antichrist, by the way, is not someone who tries to make people believe that he is Christ. But he will be opposed to Christ in every way, shape, and form.

[22:34] And he will enter into some kind of a contractual agreement that will be stipulated for seven years with the nation of Israel.

[22:45] And Daniel tells us in chapter 9 that when you see the abomination of desolation stand in the holy place, and that is, of course, the Antichrist, and the holy place will be in Israel, then this is when this time of tribulation is going to break loose.

[23:02] It is a mistake to think that the great tribulation begins immediately after the rapture. We don't know that. It may be a short time after. It may be a long period there. We don't know.

[23:13] But the tribulation period is going to last for seven years. Three and a half years will be the midpoint, and that will be a very significant time because other things are going to happen for the second three and a half years.

[23:28] It will be a total period of time of seven years, during which time there will be two things that seem utterly incongruous. Number one, there will be intense persecution, the likes of which the world has never seen.

[23:46] The Holocaust that took the lives of seven million Jews during World War II will be tame compared to what's going to happen in the tribulation.

[23:57] Jesus himself said that then, this is in Matthew 24 and 25, Jesus said, Then there shall be great tribulation, tribulation such as the world has never seen before, or will never see again.

[24:15] That's called Hothlipsis, the great tribulation. It will be a time of intense outpouring of persecution, of mayhem, of murder.

[24:27] There are going to be massive amounts of beheading take place during the great tribulation. And John refers to this in the Revelation when he saw the souls of those under the altar who had been beheaded.

[24:44] They had been beheaded for the cause of Christ. Many already have been in ancient history. Some are being beheaded today because of persecution of Christians in Muslim lands in different areas of the world.

[25:01] But this is going to be standard method of execution during this time, and it will be carried out by the Antichrist and his minions. He will be virtually ruling the entire globe.

[25:14] He will have everything under his thumb. And what seems so incongruous about this is during this time of great persecution, when there will be open season on the Jew, the Jew is going to be getting it from every corner.

[25:30] They are going to be persecuted like they have never been persecuted. And the reason for that, primarily, is because the instigator behind the whole thing is the Antichrist.

[25:44] And the Antichrist knows how vital the nation of Israel is to the plan and program of God. And he is going to paint a big bullseye on all of Israel.

[25:56] I wouldn't be surprised if there would be a bounty paid for the life of a Jew. during this time. And yet, the incongruous part is, at this same time, there is going to be an enormous wave of evangelism that is going to be taking place.

[26:16] This will be the result of the 144,000, 12,000 from each of the tribes mentioned in Revelation chapter 7, and then referred again to, I think, in chapter 14.

[26:29] And these will have the seal of God in their foreheads. These will be people, supernatural agents, supernatural agents assigned by the God of Israel, 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes.

[26:42] And don't let anybody tell you they are Jehovah's Witnesses. They are Jews, and they're 12,000. These will be believers in Jesus as the Messiah. They are going to be proclaiming the gospel throughout the whole earth.

[26:54] This is in fulfillment to what Jesus said in chapter 24, that the gospel, this gospel of the kingdom shall be proclaimed throughout the whole world before the end comes.

[27:08] And that is during the tribulation time. And at the close of the tribulation, which will be seven calendar years, at the end of the tribulation period, the return of Christ will occur, and that's described in Revelation 19.

[27:27] It will be during a time of intense darkness throughout the earth. We are told that the moon will be turned to blood, and I think that refers to one of the blood moons, which is a reddish-like moon, looks like blood.

[27:42] It's not actual blood, but it looks like blood. And the sun will not give its light. There's going to be a time of intense darkness over the whole earth during this last period of the tribulation, to my understanding.

[27:55] And in the midst of that darkness, then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man coming in glory. And with him will be his own light, the Shekinah, the glory that will penetrate that darkness.

[28:12] And everyone will see him. And Israel, as a nation, Israel will be right on the precipice of going over.

[28:25] And the Antichrist will be the force behind it. This is when the armies gather in northern Israel, Har-Mageddon, or the plains of Israel, and they are marching southward, and Christ will be marching northward, and the conflagration will take place there.

[28:42] This is when the sharp sword proceeds out of his mouth in Revelation 19, and it will be no contest. He will simply decimate the enemy. That's when Israel will really come into her own with Jesus being the Messiah.

[28:58] And Zechariah, I think it's chapter 12, I think maybe, maybe verse 8. Zechariah says, of Israel, and they shall look upon him whom they pierced.

[29:14] Well, actually, they didn't pierce him. Their forefathers did. But it was Israel. They will look upon him whom they pierced, and they will mourn.

[29:24] And Israel's mourning will be tears of repentance, and tears of rejoicing, in recognizing Yeshua HaMashiach as their Savior.

[29:38] And Christ will literally put an end to all of the enemies of Israel, and all of the enemies, and the Antichrist, and all of his minions will be summarily dealt with.

[29:49] Right then and there, it will be such a massive slaughter that we cannot begin to comprehend it. Cannot begin to comprehend it.

[30:00] That's going to end the tribulation period. And then, at the conclusion of the tribulation period, Christ will establish this kingdom.

[30:11] It will be a kingdom that will be situated in Jerusalem, where Christ will occupy the ancient throne of his ancestor, David.

[30:26] And David will have some part to play in that as a vice-regent. We don't really understand the implications of that. But David is going to rule and reign also, as well as the greater son of David.

[30:40] And this is all in fulfillment of what God promised through the nation of Israel. This kingdom will be established. This, by the way, this will be the kingdom of heaven come to earth.

[30:53] It is the same thing as the millennial. It's called the millennium because the word millennia means a thousand. And Christ will rule and reign on the earth with his headquarters in Jerusalem throughout the whole world.

[31:11] and it will be ideal conditions that will be lasting for a period of one thousand years. And during this time, it will literally be the rule and reign of God.

[31:24] It will be a theocracy, not a monarchy, not a constitutional government, not a republic. It will be a theocracy.

[31:34] It will be a benevolent dictatorship and Christ will be the dictator. But he will rule and reign in righteousness.

[31:46] We are told that peace, peace will cover the earth as the waters cover the seas. The knowledge of the Lord will abound to and fro and it will be heaven come to earth and it will last for a thousand years.

[32:03] During this thousand years, the adversary, we are told, is bound. Satan, at the end of the tribulation period, when the enemies of Christ are all literally decimated, then Satan himself will be cast into a bottomless pit.

[32:25] I have no idea what that means. I don't know how he's going to be bound. Remember, he is a spiritual being, but I'm sure that God is quite capable of taking care of that.

[32:36] So Satan will be out of commission. He'll be incarcerated for a thousand years. That means he will have no influence upon the people on earth. Nobody will be negatively influenced by Satan.

[32:50] He'll be out of commission. However, important thing to keep in mind is this. During this time of millennial rule and reign, there are going to be two factions of people dwelling on the earth.

[33:07] There are going to be all of those who were raptured, who were taken to be with Christ, who received glorified bodies.

[33:20] These glorified bodies are immortal bodies, bodies. And they are bodies that have put off all corruption. It will be a glorified body.

[33:31] Our bodies will be like the body Christ had when he came out of the tomb. It will be a perfect body, not subject to death, not subject to disease, not subject to any of the frailties that these bodies are.

[33:44] we will be in that millennium ruling and reigning with Christ. Some of the grace position will not allow for that.

[33:57] They want us to be in heaven and stay there. But I am convinced that we are going to be where Christ is. And he is going to be here, and I think we are going to be here, too. We may very well have access to heaven or earth.

[34:09] I don't know. I don't understand about that. And there will also be people who did not receive the mark of the beast during the tribulation period.

[34:23] And the reason they didn't was because they were believers, and they would not succumb to the Antichrist. Some of these people are going to pay for their refusal with their death.

[34:35] Others will be survivors. They will somehow manage to escape. They will be fleeing. They will be hiding. They will be in secret.

[34:46] There will be times of great mistrust and betrayal and everything. This is all spelled out too in Matthew 24 and 25. And these people who are alive in just their ordinary regular bodies, just like our bodies, when Christ returns, but who are believers, they are going to survive.

[35:10] They are not going to be with those who are going to be put to death with Christ. They are going to be survivors because they are Christians. Yet, they are Christians in bodies just like these.

[35:21] These will be tribulation saints who survived the tribulation. I have no idea how many there will be. But these people are going to continue living. They will be living in the millennium along with people with glorified bodies.

[35:36] These people are going to mature, grow up, they're going to marry, and have children. And their children are going to have children, and their children are going to have children, and that's going to continue on for 1,000 years.

[35:51] That's going to produce a lot of people. And during that time, those who are born of these tribulation saints, survivors, are going to be believers and unbelievers.

[36:08] Just like today. In Christian homes, there are children, some of whom are believers, some who are not believers. And when this takes place during this tribulation period, these people are going to be growing, maturing, begetting, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so on.

[36:26] And at the end of 1,000 years, you're going to have a whole bunch of people, many of whom will be believers, many of whom will not be believers.

[36:37] Kind of like today. And when those 1,000 years are fulfilled, guess what happens then?

[36:50] Satan is loosed from that bottomless pit. And he has not been reformed.

[37:04] He is the same as he was when he was cast there. And Revelation 20, I believe it is, tells us that he goes out upon the earth to deceive the nations.

[37:19] In other words, same old, same old. He hasn't changed one bit. His method, his modus operandi, always has been, always will be, deception, deception.

[37:32] temptation. And he is going to present a case to the world that he can get them a better deal than what God is giving them. And we are told that he will succeed in recruiting a great number of people.

[37:46] And they will rebel against the authority that Christ has ruled and reigned with for 1,000 years. And this time, the text simply says, I think you can find this in Revelation 20 or 21.

[38:02] The text simply says that with this great crowd of rebellious people gathered probably to march, to demand, to protest, to do whatever, but they are a congregate, aggregate number of unbelievers.

[38:19] And the text simply says, fire came down from heaven and devoured and that's the end of that. There isn't going to be a battle. There's just going to be a roasting.

[38:29] And that will be the end of them. And as best as I can determine, once that is concluded, then what we call the eternal state begins.

[38:42] And I do not know if it is a resumption of the millennial reign of Christ or not, but it appears to be much like that. Only this time there will not be an interruption a thousand years later.

[38:55] This will continue on. I do not know exactly how. The new Jerusalem fits into this, but if you want to turn to Revelation, I think it's 20 or 21, and it speaks of what we would call, I think, the final state.

[39:24] Revelation 21, I'll just read these few verses. By the way, you were going to do all the talking this morning. What happened to that? Okay.

[39:41] John says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, Jerusalem, not to be confused with the Jerusalem that now is, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.

[40:07] I can't imagine that. This new Jerusalem is going to be, well, given a description of it, it is just amazing.

[40:28] New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride, adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men.

[40:43] He shall dwell among them. They shall be his people. God himself shall be among them. He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall no longer be any death.

[40:53] There shall be no longer any mourning or crying or pain. The first things that passed away. Then he goes on and gives a description of this new Jerusalem, the gates around it, the foundations of it, etc.

[41:06] I cannot fathom this. It appears to be some kind of a massive cube. I don't know how else to describe it. If you can picture a massive cube, that would stretch from say, here where we are to halfway across the United States, that wide and that narrow and that high, it's going to be a threefold dimension, equal dimensions, and this is going to be a dwelling place.

[41:42] I have no idea what those arrangements are going to be like, how it's going to be situated. I have no idea what we're going to do with glorified bodies, how they're going to function, but this is the essence of it, and it's a pretty dramatic thing.

[41:59] I know I've probably created more questions than I've answered, but as best as I can understand, I think this is the way the future lies. Other comments or questions?

[42:12] Okay. Okay.

[42:29] I guess really a couple questions. I mean, I've heard some pretty well-known pastors talking on TV for the most part, people like Jeremiah, Hagee, Stanley, Stone, different ones, and I've never heard them talk about the dispensation that we've been learning about, especially becomes real evident when you listen to the Sermon on the Mount.

[42:54] Sure. And it's really an eye-opener when you go through that, and I don't know whether they have most of these people, either they may have taught it at some point in time and I missed it.

[43:08] I've just never heard them talk about it. And is there a percentage of Christians who understand and believe in the dispensation we've been talking about, and is there a percentage or is there a number of these people who have heard it and rejected it or considered it and rejected it?

[43:29] I don't hear people talking about it as much as what we've heard, and it makes so much sense, and that's why it's so strange that I haven't heard them talk about it. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's a very good question, and I can certainly understand your concern and your puzzlement over that.

[43:46] I would just say this, and I don't mean to say this, I don't want this to come across as sour grapes because I don't have a big TV ministry or whatnot, and I hope people wouldn't interpret it that way, and I have great respect for the men that you've mentioned.

[44:02] I think they are great Bible teachers. I consider David Jeremiah to be probably one of the premier teachers, and a lot of others, you know, Stanley and Swindoll and all these guys.

[44:18] I love these men, and I think they are doing a wonderful service for God, but having said that, let me say this. These men of necessity have to teach for general public consumption, and if I were teaching the general public, I would not be teaching what I'm teaching here, because they couldn't handle it, they wouldn't take it, you know.

[44:47] They would say, oh, it's too deep. I don't think there's anything all that deep about it, but when you're talking to the general public, you cannot believe, you cannot believe how naive and unknowing and uneducated the general public is in a land where we have compulsory education.

[45:10] It's amazing the level of ignorance out there and the level of naivete. How do I know that? I'll tell you how I know that. All you have to do is look at the television commercials. Doesn't that tell you that there are a bunch of real dumbbells out there?

[45:24] Doesn't that tell you that? And they know that. The people who make those commercials, they know who their audience is, and they know what it takes to get them into the store to buy their product. And it's reflected in the commercials.

[45:36] The assininity of some of them is just mind boggling. So, and I'll qualify this as carefully as I can, quickly as I can also.

[45:53] You will meet some Christians in some circles who do not even like the word dispensational. Even the word scares them.

[46:06] A lot of times it's just because they don't know what it means. But dispensational theology is nothing more than a method of approaching and interpreting the scriptures that is based upon a progressive revelation of the scriptures.

[46:27] We feel that this is very, very important. And dispensationalism really did not come into its own until in like the 1800s, even though Miles Coverdale gave us, he didn't call them dispensational rules.

[46:47] He didn't call them this at all. He just called them his rules for interpreting the Bible and you're all familiar with it because we've gone over it a number of times. And really that's just a dispensational approach to scriptures without the word being there.

[46:59] But in the 1870s, 80s, and 90s, within a couple of decades after the Civil War ended, there began a new awakening in America regarding the study of the scriptures.

[47:21] And some of the men who were at the forefront front of that were men like Dr. C. I. Schofield. Schofield was an attorney.

[47:34] He served in the Civil War. I don't even remember which side he was on. But he was a lawyer who was a confirmed alcoholic.

[47:46] And I don't know if it was through the agency of D.L. Moody and who it was. But anyway, Cyrus I. Schofield came to faith in Christ. And he had a brilliant legal mind, a mindful organization, etc.

[48:03] And he conferred with D.L. Moody and told him that he wanted to write an explanation of the Bible.

[48:17] And actually what he did ended up to be the Schofield Reference Bible. And in it dispensations, of course, are recognized. And there were meetings that were held that were very well attended by thousands of believers in Niagara, in Niagara Falls, New York.

[48:36] And this spawned the Bible school and Bible college movement came out of that. Part of which was Moody Bible Institute and Lancaster School of the Bible and on and on, several Bible schools throughout the country training men and women for the ministry.

[48:57] And they were all emphasizing a dispensational approach to the scriptures. And that simply said that there was a time when Israel was at the forefront, but they have since been displaced and now God is working primarily through the church.

[49:14] And it is called the dispensation of the grace of God. Paul talks about it when he writes to the Ephesians and the Colossians. And he talks about the dispensation of the grace of God.

[49:26] It's amazing how many people don't even understand what the word means. But what do you think of as a dispensary? What do they do at a dispensary? They dispense, don't they?

[49:38] They give out drugs, medication, treatment, they dispense things. Well, this is the dispensation of the grace of God.

[49:51] That means that the grace of God is front and center and it is the dominant thing for this dispensation.

[50:03] The emphasis is upon God's grace. It's not upon God's law. all. It's upon God's grace. And we make much of that. The apostle was raised up to be the apostle of the grace of God, the apostle to the Gentiles, with the emphasis on the grace of God.

[50:22] And eventually a seminary came into being, actually more than one, but the one that is probably most predominant, the one that I would have attended and planned to attend, except the money kept going and the babies kept coming, so I didn't get the seminary, but that would have been Dallas Theological Seminary.

[50:41] And they take an Acts 2 interpretation, an Acts 2 position, regarding the beginning of the church. This is the principal reason or area where we disagree with most dispensationalists.

[50:54] We do not believe at all that the church began on the day of Pentecost. First reason we don't is because the Bible doesn't say that it did. Men say that it did, and they read that into the Bible, but it isn't there.

[51:06] So that's another subject for another time, but we'll get into that in this new material that we plan to be bringing. And you will not hear most of these men who have a loyal radio or TV ministry talk about these issues that we talk about here.

[51:24] They have to keep their things very generic, very basic, very elemental because they're trying to appeal to a vast audience, a lot of width there. people are and what I am doing, they are using a shotgun, and I'm using a rifle.

[51:46] That's a big difference. And all I can say is more power to them. I think they're doing a great job. May their tribe increase. They all believe what we believe regarding salvation and the new birth, and they're trying to reach the masses and I'm sure they're reaching people that I'm not reaching.

[52:03] Maybe I'm reaching a few people that they're not reaching, but that's the way it is. And by the way, with all of these really good, outstanding men of God out there on radio and TV, you've got to really watch the landscape because there are phonies out there up to your eyeballs.

[52:23] There are guys out there who are just as phony as they can believe. And all they want is your money. They're out there too. So you've got to be very discerning.

[52:34] You can't assume anything. Well, so much for you doing all the talking. But it's 1130.

[52:48] Good time to quit. Good place to quit. Okay. Is there anybody that's got a question that can't wait? Okay.

[52:58] Thank you. Would you stand? Donnie. Okay, Donnie. We'll blame you. Quick.

[53:10] In Revelation 21, 7 and 8, they talk about two groups of people. He who ever comes and then but the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable.

[53:21] Who would be the cowardly? and it must be really bad to be cowardly. Who are they? Well, I can't identify them anymore specifically.

[53:32] You know, I can't put names with them. These are obviously classes of people and those who fit into those categories. You know, it's not going to be pleasant.

[53:46] And as far as the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death, is all of this stuff literal or is it figurative? And my answer is, I really don't know.

[54:00] But if it is not literal, if it is figurative, then it speaks of something that is still horrible to contemplate, whatever that might be.

[54:15] I just don't know. Sorry, I can't give you a better answer or more definitive answer. You all have a lot of the same questions that I do. Would you stand, please? Father, as lacking and as wanting as these thoughts may be, we trust that they will be of some help and encouragement to those who are listening.

[54:37] Thank you for having unfolded what you have in your word. And we feel a very deep need and sense for additional light and additional information that we do not now have.

[54:48] and we want to be open to it and receptive. Thank you for the plan of salvation that has been set forth so clearly. And thank you that those who are in Christ need have no fear regarding the future because our security is in Christ and he is already there.

[55:08]  And we are so grateful. We pray in his name. Amen.