Bible Basics Conference 2008: Dispensations

… Guten Morgen. I hope that my voice will hold out. It's a little bit croaky, but I trust that with the amplification of a microphone, you'll all be able to hear. The concept of a dispensation. Originally, we were going to roll the first two sessions together, the concept of a dispensation and what dispensations are there. But we realized that really we had to get our definitions in place first. If we were writing a book, we might plunge right into the subject and put the definitions in a glossary or an appendix at the back. But in a live presentation, we can't do that. It would be a little bit like trying to build a house by setting up the walls and the roof, then trying to slide in the foundation underneath, result disaster. So we're going to spend this first session talking about what we mean by a dispensation. The most important question, of course, is, is it scriptural? I mean, we talk about dispensations, but where does that word come in the scriptures? There is a word that is used in the New Testament called oikonomia, and it means a dispensation or an administration. On the screen there, you can see five scriptures that use that expression. 1 Corinthians 9.17 says, For it is woe to me if I should not announce the glad tidings. For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I am entrusted with an administration. Paul was entrusted with the responsibility of preaching the gospel. The second one uses that word in a rather different sense. For the administration of the fullness of times to head up all things in Christ. That, of course, is referring not to the preaching of the gospel. It's referring to the fullness of times, which we understand to be the millennium. The third one, Paul's responsibility in relation to the grace of God, revealed to him for the blessing of others, If indeed ye have heard of the administration of the grace of God, which has been given to me towards you. The fourth one, and to enlighten all, of what is the administration of the mystery hidden throughout the ages in God. The administration of the mystery. Something yet to be revealed, but revealed through the Spirit now to us. Paul's responsibility as a servant of the church. The assembly of which I became minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given me towards you to complete the word of God. The mystery which has been hidden. Different uses of that word administration or dispensation. Here's a slightly different one. Where it's translated stewardship, and it means stewardship. A thought a little bit beyond just an administration, but the same word in the Greek. The stewardship is an arrangement under which the steward was accountable for matters entrusted to him. We're probably familiar with this concept in our own day. But you know the story in Luke 16. There was a man who was a steward. He had not handled his master's goods well, and the threat was that he would no longer be steward. Now, I find that one of the most difficult passages in Luke to understand. But leaving that to one side, you're familiar with the scene. Here is an arrangement under which a steward is responsible to the one who's put him in that position. And he is accountable for the things which are in his charge. Now, so we've seen in six cases that the word dispensation or stewardship, same Greek word, is used in the scripture. Now, is the concept biblical? It's one thing to say, yes, we can find that word in the scripture, but are we interpreting it, are we understanding it in the right way? Well, I think we can see in those examples we've looked at that there are certain common features among some or all of them. As far as Paul's administration was concerned, there was a revelation from God, and there was a corresponding responsibility on his part to whom that revelation was made. Stewardship responsibilities mean that failure in carrying out those responsibilities may bring an end to the stewardship. Now, those features, I think, are important, and they will help us in our understanding of what we mean by an administration or a dispensation. We could apply that situation to many scenes that we read of in the Bible. Perhaps the easiest one to understand is Adam and Eve. In the second chapter of Genesis, they're given a responsibility. They're put in charge of God's creation on this earth. They sinned, and that charge that had been theirs to watch over and to tend the Garden of Eden was taken from them, and they were driven out. Here is perhaps the first example of failure in an administration that comes to an end. We can think of some of the words of the Lord himself in these concepts. In Matthew 11, 11, the Lord's words, he says, Among them that are born of women there hath not been a greater than John the Baptist, notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. In the second one, Matthew 16, 18, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. Scriptural evidence that things change. If we want to define a dispensation, I would offer it to you, Mr. C.C. Ryrie's dispensation, dispensational definition. A dispensation is a distinguishable economy in the outworking of God's purpose. Think about that. A dispensation is a distinguishable economy in the outworking of God's purpose. You may think of variations on that. You may want to expand it somewhat. But I think we've already seen that the essential features, and perhaps they are more important than a precise definition, the essential features of a dispensation are that it involves some distinctive revelation from God. Now, I'm not going to give you examples, more examples, because the second session is going to try and identify what these dispensations actually are. Every time that that revelation is given or that stewardship, there is a responsibility on the part of man. And when we get to look into the dispensations, I think we'll find that inevitably, sooner or later, man fails in that responsibility that he has been given. And the failure may mean that the dispensation is no longer viable and therefore a new dispensation is brought in. Now, it may seem obvious, but what we're talking about here are things that happen on the earth. We are talking about things that have happened in time or will happen in time. We're not speaking about heavenly things. We're not speaking about eternity past. We're not speaking about eternity yet to come. It is God's dealings with man or men here upon the earth. Just a rider that although we tend to speak of dispensations, although it's a matter of time, that's not really right. It's not synonymous with an age or a period of time, but in practice, of course, because of man's failure, one dispensation generally is replaced by another, but the concept is not of time. It is of administration. God's ways. I'm sorry. Some evidences of dispensational change first. Very quickly. The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. John 1.17. Galatians 4.4, but when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman made under the law, when the fullness of time was come. The one that I suppose comes most readily to mind, Hebrews 1.1 and 2, God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son. A concept we're all familiar with. Times passed by the prophets, then finally God sent his son. And so on. 1 Corinthians 10.11, now all these things happened unto them, that's the Israelites. For in samples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world, that is the ends of the ages, are come. Galatians 3.25, speaking of the law, but after that faith is come, we are no more under a schoolmaster. Incidentally, that word schoolmaster, it doesn't mean a learned professor, it means one who has charge of children. So in the well-organized Roman household, there would be someone whose job was to take the children to school and bring them back again. Now it is in that sense that we can understand the law as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. The others, too, are quite well known. No one putteth a piece of new cloth into an old garment, neither do men put new wine into old bottles. Matthew 11.11, we've already covered. Revelation 1.19, write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter. The opening of the revelation of Jesus Christ. Things which are and things which shall be hereafter. Now, speaking of dispensations and changes that have occurred, we may be tempted to think that God changed his mind, that he wasn't omniscient, perhaps, that he didn't realize how things would work out. Well, I think we can show quite clearly that that is not the case. Matthew 21 is a parable. It's the parable of the servants who were sent to work in a vineyard. And the master of the vineyard sent one, and he was stoned, and another one was maltreated, and last of all, he sent his own son and said, surely they will reverence my son. Now, reading that scripture superficially, it is easy to get the impression that one experiment was tried after another, and in the end, they didn't really work, and the son was rejected to the shock of the one who had sent him. But God's ways are not like that. God knew the end from the beginning. Genesis 15-16, perhaps, puts that into perspective. It is just speaking of its words spoken to Abraham of his seed, the tribe of Israel, but in the fourth generation, they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. Now, think about that. The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. God is telling Abraham what is going to happen. It's not going to be brought into being for some generations after Israel had initially gone down into Egypt. The restoration of them to Israel was waiting on the fullness of the iniquity of the Amorites, in other words, waiting until those nations that were living in Canaan had developed their evil ways to the full, and God was justified in bringing in their execution and bringing his people into the land for blessing. God knows the end from the beginning. Genesis 6, of course, is a well-known example. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, and it repented to the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart. Did God not know that this would come about? Oh, yes, God knew it, but again he waited until the iniquity of man had really gone to its full extent. Heavenly beings mixing with earthly beings, a most ungodly way of behavior, man on the earth developing his wickedness to its fullest extent. God was grieved in his heart, and it grieved him to the extent that he made man, but it was not a surprise. Yet even there, one man Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and he was wonderfully preserved. These are serious questions, but there is a divine answer. The divine foreknowledge foresees all these things, gives man a chance, time and time again, in each and every day, gives man a chance, time and time again, in each dispensation until it ends in either failure or disobedience or both. God had his plans and his counsels in place even before man was put to the test. Proverbs 8, 30 and 31, Then I was by him as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, and my delights were with the sons of men. Don't you love to think of that scene in eternity past, the father and the son together, rejoicing in the joys of heaven, and the thoughts of the son were with the sons of men, and all of that which he was going to bring to come to pass in due time. 1 Peter 1, 20, Who verily, speaking of the Lamb of God, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. Ephesians 1, verses 3 to 6, uses phrases like chosen in him before the foundation of the world, and of ourselves having predestinated us unto the adoption of children, and according to the good pleasure of his will. They are some of the evidences of God's plans, his forethought from the beginning. We've been looking at this from perhaps a slightly quizzical point of view, trying to find fault in asking the questions that men might ask, but really a study of a subject like this, the dispensations, we shouldn't approach it in that critical sort of way. We should approach it in a spirit of praise and wonder at what God has done, and that is why I want to read to you this last scripture mentioned on the slide, because at this point, Romans 11, the Apostle Paul has been going through the ways of God in grace, to all men, chapters 1 to 8, his ways with Israel, chapters 9, 10, and 11, and right at the end of that chapter, he bursts out into praise, and I don't say it surprises me every time I read it, but it thrills me every time I read it, because what he's been saying leads up to it so very gently. He's been writing about the goodness and severity of God, and things like that, and then right at the end of chapter 11, he says, and I'm going to finish here. The words indicted by the Holy Spirit will finish this session better than any words of mine, so we will just read these verses, and then I'll sit down. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counsellor? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto Him again? For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. To whom be glory for ever. Amen. …

… Good morning everyone again, and thank you to Brother Hugh A. for the presentation and B. for giving me five extra minutes. It's very rare. Now, the title of the second session is, What Dispensations Are There? And what I would really like to do is give everyone of you a piece of paper with nothing on it, just white and a pen, and ask you to write down what dispensations you think there are. And I expect that probably I would get different answers on different papers. Now, that being the case, perhaps you will forgive me if today you might also get more answers than one in this session here, in this talk. But perhaps that's something to mention up front, that it shouldn't be disconcerting at all if you find that there are different books on the subject, and one book has seven dispensations, and one has five, and one has eight. I don't think that's the main issue. The main issue is that there are dispensations, and I'm glad that Brother Hugh has defined this for us. He's told us that God deals with different people at different times in different ways. Now, that concept has been attacked a lot, but I hope we'll see that it's not a concept that throws any shadow on God or his ways, but the contrary is true. It vindicates God in his ways. But before I carry on with this, I want to introduce you to this young lady you see on this slide. She is called Mary. I came across her a couple of years ago when I read an article on ultra-dispensationalism, and I thought, that must be a very complicated article, and I started reading, and it started off with a story. And Mr. Ironside, he tells this story of Mary. It's a while back. It must be a while back, but she worked in a household in a good working-class family, and after a while, she understood very well how the household had to be run. She had to get up at 5. She prepared breakfast. She rang the bell to wake everyone up. She prepared packed lunches for everyone. At 6.30, everyone was at the breakfast table, and at 7 o'clock in the morning, everyone left for work, packed lunches in hand. Now, that was very good, but after a while, she got a new job. And this time, it was in a banker's family in a mansion up on the hill. And when she arrived, first day, she said, when the lady who was running the house, when she tried to instruct Mary and to tell her how things should be done, Mary said, actually, you don't need to tell me. I've got a lot of experience. I've been working in another household, and I know how a household is run. Her new boss was a bit surprised, but she said, okay, then, let's see how it goes. And next morning, at 5 o'clock, Mary got up, started making breakfast and sandwiches. That was still fine, but when she rang the wake-up bell at 5.30, the banker's family was very disconcerted. And the lady shouted down the stairs, well, what's all this noise? And Mary said, well, I've made breakfast. It's time to come down. And the lady says, well, we never have breakfast before 8.30. Oh, said Mary, and I've already made the packed lunches. And the lady said, well, nobody in this house ever takes packed lunches to work. When I come down, I'll explain to you how this household is run. Now, you see Mary's problem. She did not have a grasp of dispensational truth at that time. But she came to realize that it was very important to realize that a different household is run according to different rules from another household. And that's exactly what God has done and is fully entitled to do with mankind. He can set the rules, and he can set different rules at different points in time. The important thing is that we are not like Mary on day one in the banker's family, and we behave as though we were living in a different dispensation, but that we are intelligent as to the dispensation we live in. I believe most of the points on this slide we have covered. I can move very quickly here. Basically, in a new dispensation, you will find that there is a new way of ruling or governing things. Brother Hugh has been speaking about the economist or economist, the steward, the one who is entrusted with an administration, who runs the house according to certain rules, and God has the right to do the same. Hugh has also given us verses that have shown very clear changes. Verses that say, there was a time when, but now things are different. So it's clear from those verses that there are different dispensations. Now, the quiz question is, well, which ones are there? I'll give you some suggestions. The objective is not so much to quarrel about how many there are or when exactly they started or finished, but the objective is to show a little bit of the character of God in dealing with man in these different time periods. I will offer some suggestions later on on how this scheme might be modified. Now, again, it was mentioned already in the first session that there was the time when Adam and Eve were in the paradise. It was the time of innocence, as you read in Genesis 2, and it was, in a way, a very simple rule or administration. They were not allowed to eat of the tray of the knowledge of good and evil. And you find that God actually placed man in an environment that was ideal. It was a garden. It was a paradise. There was everything there for man to enjoy. And you might say, well, this must have been a very happy time, but we have no indication that it lasted very long. And the first thing you read of what happened in that garden is failure. Now, that's something that will be a recurring theme as we go through dispensations. You might say a dispensation, you would expect perhaps a dispensation to run on until a point in time where there is a significant failure, and then you would expect the dispensation to close. But what you actually find is that with a new dispensation, the failure occurs right at the beginning. And so it is here that the first thing you read is about the fall, and the result is judgment that man is barred from Eden, and there was, of course, the curse which resulted from the fall. You then have a different time period from that point onwards until the time of the flood. And something had changed, of course. What hadn't been the case before is that man now has a conscience. A conscience is a very complicated, a very useful, and sometimes a very irksome thing. I heard of a painter who wanted to draw a conscience, and what he did was he drew a horse that was running at full speed, followed by a swarm of insects. It was trying to get away, but the faster it ran, the faster the insects followed. Now that's the sort of thing the conscience does. When man does wrong, conscience will tell him. Now that's unless, over time, conscience gets distorted. Then it's only, as somebody has said, it's a reasonable goad but not a reliable guide. Now, in any case, it's new guidance that's given to man, a new instrument to direct him, and you might say, well, now that man has this new capacity, things will be better. And the first thing that happened when man had this capacity of distinguishing good from evil was a murder between brothers. And it's shocking that, again, at the start of the dispensation, there is complete failure. Now, that doesn't mean that the dispensation finished, and I think that shows us something of the patience of God. Actually, as one writer has said, a study of the dispensations will give us a deep impression of how patient God has been with man. So you find the end of this time period, you have the flood, and end again in judgment. Now, after the flood, of course, there was again a change. And you might say, again, it was a change that should have helped man to act righteously and to behave in a good way. What was the change? Well, you'll all say, of course, God entrusted government to Noah. God said to Noah, if somebody sheds blood by the sword, then by the sword his blood shall be shed. So now you have man who has a conscience, and in addition, there is government that has been instituted to suppress evil. And you think, now things must go fine. Well, and what happens? The first thing that happens is that Noah gets drunk. The one who was meant to govern and rule the world showed that he was not able to actually govern and rule himself. And you find at the end of this time that there is judgment from God at the time of the Tower of Babel, a full confusion of languages and a dispersion of man over the earth. Now, you might have said, well, I don't want to say if you were God, but you might have expected God at this time to give up and to say, well, I've tried innocence in a wonderful garden, I've tried man under conscience, and I've tried man under government, and he's failed three times, now that's it. Well, God is so patient, he didn't stop there. But actually, he now said, well, I make a completely new start. What I will do is I will call out one man, Abraham, and I will bless him and bless his descendants, set apart from everyone else. And you might say, well, if God singles out one man in that way and decides to bless him, well, things must go well with him and things must go well with his descendants. What happened? You all know that this was in Genesis 12. A few verses down, you find that Abraham goes down to Egypt and he pronounces what is at least a half-truth or half-lie, or let's say a half-truth is a full lie, about who his wife was. And instead of being a blessing to the nations, as was his calling, he wasn't that at all. And what happens at the end of that dispensation, just remember that the point of the dispensation is that one man is called out, is given a country, and he's going to be blessed in that country. And what happens at the end of that dispensation is that the descendants of that man, Abraham, they are in a different country, in Egypt, and they are enslaved with serving cruel Pharaoh. Well, now we had innocence. We had the guide of conscience. We had the mechanism, you might say, of government suppressing evil. And we had the special favor of promise. Now what else is there that can be done? Well, there's one more thing that can be done. You might say, if you write down the nitty-gritty, all the details of daily life, and you tell man exactly what he can do and what he can't do, and when he's got to do things and how he's got to do things, then at least there is a firm rule, and that will go well. Well, that's what God has done with one people, with Israel. He's written down very detailed rules in the law, and you all know how that went. You know that when Moses was on the way down from the mountain that the tables or that the law on the tables which he had in his hands had already been broken. And again you find that the failure occurs in the very beginning of the dispensation. It's not that it goes well for a while and then failure comes in somewhere, but there is failure immediately. And what happened? Well, in the end, God actually had to send Israel into captivity. They had to leave the land that they had been promised. First, the ten tribes were sent away into Assyria. Later on, the two tribes were sent away into captivity in Babylon. And ultimately, in the year 70, there was the destruction of Jerusalem, and it was now obvious for all that although a remnant of two tribes had returned to Jerusalem, it was now obvious for all that God had finished, for the time being, with Israel, that Israel had been completely judged and set aside. Now, what's left? You might say it's completely hopeless, isn't it? Innocence, conscience, government, promise, law, and failure everywhere. So it is hopeless. And that's exactly where God starts in his work of grace. It's really the starting point for grace that man is proven to be beyond repair, you might say, that man is proven to be completely helpless and completely hopeless. And that's, as Brother Hugh mentioned, the fullness of time, when God sent his son and when, as it said in John 1, as Moses had brought the law, Jesus Christ brought grace and truth. Now, during this time, you find, and we'll come back to this, you find kind of a parallel program. On the one hand, you find a program on earth that's to do with the nations. God no longer recognizes Israel as his people, but there are nations. And at the same time, you find, that's what I mean by parallel program, you find that there are people who are called out of that course of the world and they are called out to belong to Christ. Now, called out, of course, you all know means ecclesia, and that is what the church is. So a time during which, on the basis of grace, people have been redeemed, have been joined to Christ, have been called and taken out of this world, although we're here physically, but morally we don't belong to it, and belong to Christ, waiting for him to take them out of this world physically as well. Now, if you want to look at it this way, as a dispensation, you might say, well, actually it didn't last long until failure came in as well. It was a bright testimony in Acts 2 and 3 and 4, but in Acts chapter 5 already you have failure with Ananias and Sapphira, and then in chapter 6 with the murmuring about the distribution of funds, and so it went on until Christendom will end in complete failure and even apostasy. But if God has taken people out of this course of the world, it doesn't mean that he has finished with the world and will not reach his objectives. There is another dispensation, and I love this expression in Ephesians 1, where it is called the dispensation of the fullness of times. It's the dispensation when it will be proved that although things went wrong every time before, one day things will be set right. God's plan, again Adam, man ruling over creation, will be fulfilled. There will be the man after God's heart who will rule over this earth. It says several times in Revelation 20, I think Brother Ernie is going to tell us later how many times exactly, it says that this will be for a full period of a thousand years. It will be a time of blessing, a time of justice, and a time of peace. Now just one word of caution here. If you think, well, at the end of that time man will really have improved. You know Satan is bound, will be bound during those thousand years, but after that Satan is going to be let loose briefly, and immediately people are gathered together from the ends of the earth, and they assemble together in order to attack the earthly capital of the reign of Christ, which is Jerusalem, and the answer is fire from heaven and judgment. Now you may or may not agree with the exact partition here, but I hope what we can all take away is marvel and admiration for the ways of God with man. You see, I think two things come out very clearly if you survey history in this way. One is how bad and hopeless man is, and the other is how patient and how wonderful God is, and in the end God will be vindicated, Christ will be vindicated, the millennium will be a wonderful time, and it is so important to realize that it is literal. It is a time when there will be blessing on this earth, and more importantly Christ will be recognized and vindicated in the place where he was rejected. It was here that he was nailed to the cross, and therefore it is here that God wants him to be honored and recognized. Now this is the same sort of scheme graphically, perhaps a little easier to visualize these times of innocence, conscience, government, promise, law, time of grace, or the spirit where the church is called out. We'll hear later, I'm sure, about the time of tribulation, and then the dispensation of the fullness of time, the reign of Christ on earth, and after that the eternal state. I indicated earlier that you may not agree with all the details, and I might even offer you some modifications myself. The first one is if you want what we call dispensations one and two, innocence and conscience. Now there's a question whether you actually have to regard them as dispensations, whether they are dispensations in the full sense, whether something has been dispensed. You might say, well, Adam was just innocent, and afterwards man just had a conscience, but it wasn't dispensed in that sense. So you may come across that comment. Then we just mentioned the time of the church, or the time of grace, or the time of the nations. Well, there's a slight difficulty with calling this time the dispensation of the church, because the dispensations have to do with how God orders and governs and arranges things with regard to the course of this world. Now, in a way, the church has nothing to do with that. The church has been called out of this world, and therefore is not really a dispensation as such. But what is important is to realize that, well, if we are called out of this world, we're certainly not part of a Jewish dispensation that relies on the law and on forms and on outward ceremonies, but it is important to see that the church is completely different. Now, if you regard the church as outside the dispensations, well, you would say, with regard to this earth, what's special at this time? Well, there are two things. One is it's the time of Gentiles, as you find in Luke 21, where the relationship between God and his earthly people Israel is, you might say, broken or interrupted, and the earth is given over to be ruled by the Gentiles. On the other hand, the other important thing is that there is the spirit of God who actually dwells on the earth. So these are two things that are characteristic for our time. Now, then the time of the law. Maybe I should have mentioned that before mentioning the church. You could think of a subdivision of that time of the law because there were some changes. It started, of course, with Moses giving the law, but then there were new things introduced like God introducing the priesthood, and now you have the priesthood, if you like, between the people and God. You then had the matter of royalty being introduced. Suddenly there is a king. It was, of course, bad that Israel wanted a king to be like the nations, but God, in the end, uses it in his grace for blessing by giving an heir to David's throne. But the point is that it's a different way of governing things. It's not God governing Israel immediately or God governing Israel through the priesthood, but now there is a king who is interposed, and that when a king does well, the people does well, and when a king did what was bad, it had bad consequences for the people. So you could find these subdivisions for the time of the law. Now, if you agree with those alterations or modifications, then this is the scheme you would come up with, and you'll see on this slide, where you say, well, with Noah you have a clear start of a dispensation because God gives him the government. He dispenses government. He gives Noah a rule according to which the world should be ruled. Abraham unchanged, time of promise. Israel subdivided, as just discussed, the law, the priesthood, the kings. Then you have the time of the Gentiles, which is also the time of the spirit. The church listed separately here as called out, being outside the dispensations. But then in the end, all being brought to a wonderful conclusion in the millennium, in the dispensation of the fullness of times. Now, perhaps you say, well, I find this a little confusing. I was hoping to get a clear answer today, and now we've got two schemes. Well, I haven't done this to confuse you, but perhaps a bit more to forewarn you that there are slight differences. But I do not think, I repeat, that this should discourage us in any way, because the main conclusions are the same. If you just look at what's on this slide here, whether you believe in one scheme or the other, what is certainly clear is that the church is distinct from Israel. And that's really one of the tenets, one of the core points of dispensationalism, that you distinguish between God's earthly program and God's heavenly program. Between God's earthly people and God's heavenly people. And it's not that one has substituted or replaced the other. It is not that the church is not the New Testament Israel, and Israel is not the Old Testament church. There is Israel, and Israel is Israel. And there is the church, and the church is the church. And if we just read the Bible as it is written, it will not be that difficult. So the church is different from Israel. It's called out, it's heavenly, it's indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and it's linked with Christ as people have never been linked and associated with Christ in any different time. Israel, on the other hand, has a future on earth. It's dispersed all over the globe today, with the exception of a few million who are already in Israel. But I think there are still more Jews in America than in Israel. But they will possess Palestine, as much as this angers some of the neighboring nations. And they will dwell there in peace under the reign of Messiah. Now just a few points by way of conclusion or summary. The first point, dispensations are not a doctrine but a framework that helps us to understand the Bible. And I think that's very important, especially with regard to these slight differences that exist. It's about terminology, it's about a framework, it's about a tool that helps us to read the Bible. Now you may say, well, too complicated for me. But I don't think so. Because I am sure that everybody in this room, when you read your Bibles, you are using a dispensational approach. When you read in the Old Testament about animal sacrifices having been brought, now what do you do? Do you say, oh, I've never done this, I need to rush out, I need to buy a lamb, and I need to kill it and sacrifice it. Well, of course you don't. So you are reading the Bible with a dispensational approach, with the recognition that things are different in different times. It doesn't matter whether there are six dispensations or seven or eight. What does matter is that God deals with different people at different times in different ways. Now, some people attack God because of that. Somebody sent an email to Bible Center complaining bitterly about this. And he says, oh, God must have changed his mind. He must have invented a new religion every now and then. Well, God doesn't invent any religions. But God deals with different people at different times in different ways. And it was not in order to try out things. It was just to try one thing, and that's man. And to prove that man is lost. Man has failed under successive dispensation. And this is why God sent Christ in pure grace. If you survey the failure in all these different schemes in the past, you can see how that it is only grace that can be used to help man. Point number five, it's vital to notice that there are different dispensations. Just remember the story of Mary, which I tried to tell you and borrowed from Mr. Ironside. Christians who do not understand dispensational differences will easily fall into error. Now, that's with regard to different areas of life, worship, politics, and many other things. And we'll have some extra sessions later on on the practical implications, the practical importance of dispensational teaching. Point number six, you may say this is bold, but I believe it's true. Only with a dispensational outlook can the Bible be interpreted fully and consistently. You'll hear later about one great or one very widespread, I don't want to call it great really, one very widespread alternative. Now, if you follow that alternative approach, you will find that you can't interpret everything consistently. You will find that you have to change the meanings of words. You will read Israel, and you have to understand it as church. But the great thing about the dispensational approach is that you can approach the Bible, the word of God, consistently. Point number seven, dispensational teaching vindicates God. Terrible accusations have been leveled against God based on dispensational teaching. But if one looks at this properly, as I've tried to show a little bit, you see how God is vindicated, how God is justified in his ways, if you understand what he has done in these different dispensations. My final point is dispensational teaching sees the glory of God as the ultimate aim, not merely the salvation of man. That's again a difference between those two systems. The other system thinks the most important thing ever is the salvation of man, and it is very important, and we praise God for it. But what is more important is the glory of God, and the dispensational approach shows that this actually is the ultimate objective. Now, when I wrote this last slide, I had forgotten one reference on Brother Hugh's slide, so it can be very quick now. Brother Hugh has already brought this out, and I just close with the remark that I hope our reaction at the end of this conference to dispensational teaching will be Paul's reaction when he surveyed God's dispensational dealings with Israel. Perhaps it bears reading again. Oh, depth of riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable his judgment and untraceable his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Or who has first given to him and then shall be rendered to him? For of him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. …

… Let us pray. I am conscious that time is at a premium. I am also conscious that in a Bible Basics conference that what the Bible says is far more important than what any of us say about it. So I feel compelled to read a paragraph before I begin. Paul's letter to the Galatians, chapter 1 and verse 1. Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, and all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia. Grace be to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another. But there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. Lesson three, the distinction between law and grace. Before we make any direct comparison, first of all we look at the principle under which each system operates, or as we've heard, under which each dispensation operates. When the law of Moses was given to Moses, it becomes very clear, as we read Exodus chapter 20, that again and again the people were told there were things they must do, thou shalt, and there were things they must not do, thou shalt not. And when we've read the detail, we cannot come to any other conclusion that under the law of Moses, blessing was available, offered as a reward in return for an adequate performance, adequate in God's sight, not in the sight of man. And it can be summed up by the phrase, this do, and thou shalt live. As we take account of that, let us remember that the promise of life under the law was no more, and could be no more, than continuity of life upon earth. Eternal, spiritual, heavenly matters are not relative to the law, and we'll come to that. But under the law, blessing was available, the opportunity to meet a certain declared standard in order that life on earth could be continued. A very significant portion of scripture, like many others, there won't be time to look at them, look again at Deuteronomy chapter 27 and 28. A graphic occasion, two mountains, Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. Now, it's easy to remember. Ebal ends with an L, so think of law. Gerizim begins with G, so think of grace. We are getting a contrast between law and grace. And Moses, on God's instruction, said, now look, get six men, representing six of the tribes, to stand on the top of Mount Ebal, and let them shout out, the law, the law, the law. And get others, I'm speaking metaphorically, of course, others had to stand on Mount Gerizim. They didn't have to shout grace. The ones that were directing the attention to the results of the law, they had to say, blessing, blessing, blessing, or curse, curse, curse. And on Ebal, because it was referring to the law, they had to shout curse, a curse. And those on the top of Mount Gerizim had to shout a blessing. Well, I'm happy not to need to repeat what has been said before. But under the law, we have to learn that God set apart a special nation for himself. And when you read Isaiah 5, and the latter part of Matthew 21, which quotes freely from Isaiah 5, you find that what is said there is that God separated one nation. He gave them every possible advantage and every possible favour. And they were, as we might say, creme de la creme among the nations. Now, the first thing that became obvious, as we've learned relative to every dispensation, that once God in his goodness commits things to man, in man's responsibility, man makes a mess of what God has entrusted to him. And so it was under the law. They soon made it plain that if things were to be left to them in responsibility as they were, there would be no blessing, blessing, blessing. All the way it would be curse, curse, curse. God's answer to their falling foul of the law. And when you read Deuteronomy 28, when you get the effect of the law and the result of the law, it's no longer half and half, curse and blessing, as it seemed to be at the beginning. You find that the result of the law can only be curse, curse, curse. Now, curse is not a very nice word, and we'll come back to that again. But early on, it became clear that if Israel as a nation were ever to come into the blessing of God, it could only be by God's sovereign favor, sovereignly dispensing blessing to them, not because of what they were or what they did, but because it was in his heart to bless them. So even then, and we get an illustration of this in Jeremiah 30 and 31, we find that eventually, when blessing does come to Israel, instead of being on the basis, thou shalt or thou shalt not, but in Jeremiah 30 and 31, again and again, score them through, underline them, highlight them, whatever you will, and you will find that again and again, when blessing comes, it is because God says, I will, I will, I will. Grace is different. And one very, very special section, Ephesians 2, verses 8 and 9. We learn there, by grace, the sovereign favor of God, because of his disposition to bless, that blessing, wherever it occurs, will be on the principle of grace. And the verse is clear, as we see here. Blessing flows when an individual soul accepts before God that blessing could never arise because of any response on their side to what God has promised. It can only be because of the sovereign favor of God. And God is in a position to bless. God is in a position to show grace, because Christ has died and risen again. We cannot emphasize that too strongly, that blessing in the Bible is seen to arise because Christ has died and risen again. He blesses on the basis of the value to him of the work of Christ upon the cross. Now, we've had a little look at law, a little look at grace, now we come to where they come together, if at all. Now, it has to be said, most emphatically, that the idea of a mixture of grace and law is not to be found anywhere in the Bible, totally without support. You and I can be thankful to God that we were caused to be born in a land, in a day, when blessing is available, not on the grounds of anything that we have done or ever could do, but on the basis of what Christ has done. Before we leave that word grace, it's not a bad thing to think of what we call an acrostic, where we take the word and we put a word to each letter of the fundamental word. I haven't heard of a better acrostic for grace than to say G-R-A-C-E, God's riches at Christ's expense. Or, work was necessary before blessing can be made available by grace, but not any work that you and I could do. The only work acceptable to God is the work of Christ upon the cross, as far as fundamental salvation is concerned. We then live in the day of grace, whether you call it a dispensation or any other word. We live in the day of grace. As we shall see from Galatians, the two principles are mutually contradictory. Can it live together? Completely incompatible, totally and mutually exclusive. Now, there are many sayings we have which we don't know where we heard them first, but we've heard them. We will never at this stage track down the first time they were said. Now, one of them summarises a distinction between law and grace like this. Run, John, run, the law demands, but gives me neither feet nor hands. Grace speaks of better things. It bids him fly and gives him wings. Now, when you hear things like that, chew over it, think about it, take it apart, put it together and come to something that satisfies you. It's not that you disagree with what said, but you find words or phrases of your own. Now, the version that appeals to me, that seems to me to be right, puts it slightly different. Do this or that, the law demands, but gives me neither feet nor hands. Grace brings me to much better things. It bids me fly and gives me wings. In other words, grace gives me the capacity to do what God wants me to do, but it's not because I have any ability or capacity in myself. It's because it's been endowed upon me by God himself. Now, in a conference like this, we take away far more than what there's time to say on the day. So, one of the virtues is to make notes of something to look at when we get home, and we'll all need to do that. Now, if we haven't noticed before, this is a major matter relative to grace. The epistle to the Romans isn't the preaching of the gospel to the sinner, it's the teaching of the gospel to the saint, the Christian believer. And we say, oh, yes, but Galatians speaks about grace as well, and the gospel. The distinction is this. Romans is a foundational epistle, a straightforward exposition of the principles of grace to the saved sinner, the basis on which salvation is bestowed. It's one of the few New Testament epistles which isn't corrective. It's purely expository. The epistle to the Galatians, on the other hand, is not so much the exposition of grace to the saved sinner, but it's the vindication. It's defending it against attack, and it tells us things that we need to bear in mind. Now, we've read the first nine verses. It's possible that the epistle to the Galatians is the least understood of the New Testament epistles. And it needs to be understood if we are to distinguish between law and grace. We can certainly be thankful that it was included in the canon of scripture early on, and it's been preserved to us for 2,000 years. It was never more applicable, never more necessary than it is at the present time. Without being critical at all, I'm fairly sure that there are very many wholly living, totally devoted Christian believers alive in the world today who cannot or do not distinguish between law and grace, and this is one reason for its inclusion in today's agenda. At Galatia, there was a big problem. Into the second half of the first century AD, teachers had arrived from Jerusalem into the Galatian assemblies in what we would call Turkey now, and it was so important, the matter that arose, that Paul wrote this special epistle in order to make the matter plain. And because of that, he was extremely careful, and the Holy Spirit was extremely careful, in showing him to show us the importance of the teaching that was being made. And much of the teaching, like much of scripture, depends upon the actual words that Paul was led to use. Another thing about the words that Paul uses here, without any knowledge of Greek, Hebrew, Latin or whatever, and I'm one of those happy people that cannot confuse you because I know nothing of these languages. But I can see, and I can read, and I can appreciate the comments of those that I've learned to trust, that the strength of the language that Paul uses is stronger. He is more vehement in the language that he uses in the epistle to the Galatians than he is in any other language. Now, when we see what the problem was, we can understand why he was so vehement on the matter. The error was this. The so-called teachers were saying the cross of Christ is vital, and you must believe that Jesus died for your sins and that he was raised from among the dead and he's gone back to heaven. If they'd said full stop, amen to all that. But they didn't stop there. They went on and said, but Christ has done his bit, but now that you're saved, you've got to do your bit if you're going to be absolutely sure that your salvation is secure and eternal. Now, of course, it's true that, if you're going to criticise me, by the way, criticise me for what I say, not for what I don't say. It is right to say that once you're saved, how you live is very important and we're going to have two sessions at least on that. But as far as eternal security is concerned, as far as the salvation of sins is concerned, as far as being right for heaven is concerned, it is totally obnoxious, totally abhorrent to God to suggest that you and I could do anything or must do something just to make that salvation complete. The question is that we have to ask ourselves, is Christ as a person and the work of Christ sufficient for our salvation? And, of course, it is. There can never be any other suggestion that there's something we can do which is needed to round off or to complete the value to God of the work of Christ on the cross by anything that you and I have to do. Now, that's why I read the opening paragraph of the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians. The very words that he uses are important. That verse in 1 Corinthians 12, is it, is very important. Chapter 2. The words the Holy Spirit uses. Once we can track down what the word was that the Bible uses and the way it's used in that particular case, if we've got an acceptably reliable translation in front of us, it becomes clear what the scripture means. Now, Paul says, what I've got to offer you, I suppose he was comparing himself with these teachers that came from Galatia, from Jerusalem to Galatia. He said, this, what I've given you, didn't originate from man and it didn't come through man as an agent. What he got, he got from God himself and through the Lord Jesus Christ, the instrumental agent of God. And Paul's links with him were as one who was raised from among the dead when he met him on the road to Damascus. Now, after that introduction, he sums up Christianity. He says, relative to the past, he gave himself for our sins. As to the present, he delivers us from this present evil world as to the future glory throughout the ages of ages in eternity lies ahead. Now, this was particularly applicable to the Galatians because they were tending to feel they should be linked with the people of the present age and they had to learn that lesson. And we had a little comment before and it will come again that there's a limit on our associations with the world in its many forms. And to clinch what he says, he has to say, now, if you want to measure of God's view of the world, look at the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The terminal end of all that man does and all that man can do, unsaved man, is demonstrated in that Christ had to suffer upon the cross in order that we might be blessed. There are certain significant words in the epistle to the Galatians. We've had one or two, the curse, crucifixion, and others. And when the word crucified is used in scripture, it all means, it always means a summary end to what has gone on before in a way that is sudden and a way that is the result of the judgment of God. That's its use in scripture. And we've seen it in Daniel 9 over the years, Daniel 9 26, relative to our life on earth as unsaved sinners, that came to an end when Christ was crucified. Historically, he was cut off in the midst of his days. We learn in Colossians that we were cut off in the cutting off of the Christ. Paul says there that when Christ died, and it's a terrible thought, if I was the only sinner that had ever lived, Christ would have found it necessary to die the cruel, shameful death of the cross because of the offence to God by my sins. And when we think that the work of Christ before God was sufficient to cover the sins potentially of every sinner that has ever lived, we get a value of the immense worth of the work of Christ upon the cross. Now, there's nothing new under the sun. Scripture says so. In this last generation or so, we've begun and continue to hear a lot about pollution, about corruption, about adulteration, that it affects our physical health, our medical condition, if we introduce things into the body that shouldn't be there. And it's a good, necessary lesson to learn. But the epistle to the Galatians was preaching this 2,000 years ago. It says the pure, unmixed, unadulterated, uncorrupted gospel of Christ on the basis of grace cannot be mixed with anything else or it will be polluted. And this is why he got so worked up in speaking to the Galatians. He said, how dare you suggest that anything other than the work of Christ upon the cross can be the basis of any blessing in any dispensation. In the end, you will find that God is sovereign and he blesses and he chooses to bless. Yes, David, I've seen you out of the corner of my eye. Another piece of homework. There are two words and they're on the board. We can see it in English anyway. You can see something of what it means. You have a word beginning with A-double-L or alas or something like that. We know the word alliterative, things that sound the same, the use of words that sound the same. We know heteros, heterodox, heterosexual, something which is opposite or different. Now, Paul comes to the climax early on in his epistle and he says, I preach the gospel, the pure, unadulterated gospel of the grace of God through Christ and you believe it. But now you're introducing something which is totally different, totally opposed and he said it's totally obnoxious to God. Now, there are examples here listed which you would well do to consider. There are things that are another of the same kind, the same character and they come under that umbrella of alas or similar words. But there are other groups of things which are, we are told in scripture, are totally different in character, must never be classified with the first group. And this idea that you and I could ever do something which was worthy of blessing as the basis of salvation, he says, is totally abhorrent and it's impure, it's an adulteration and you're mixing things which don't mix and so he comes to that. He says you perverted the gospel of God. And he says, if you introduce something which is other than the work of Christ for the basis of salvation, he says, you will merit the curse of God. It's the only end to that which is of natural unsaved man. And as we read from Deuteronomy or referred to in Deuteronomy 28, we find that which was declared as the curse of those who were demonstrably unable to keep the law, that curse would come upon you and I if we attempt to put ourselves on the basis of regulations. How do we live then? As we close. Every now and again we get a summary and especially in that teaching epistle, the epistle to the Romans, we find that we get a summary. Romans 10.4 says Christ is the end of the law as a basis of righteousness to everyone that believeth. And as far as we are concerned, the law's finished, it's come to an end, superseded by Christ. And then as stated, the teaching of grace is given in the first four verses of Romans chapter 8. Verse 1, a summary of chapter 5. Verse 2, a summary of chapter 6. Verse 3, a summary of 7. And verse 4, an introduction and summary of chapter 8. We can be sure the law did its job. It demonstrated man's incapability of pleasing God and it came in the teaching epistle of Romans it comes to a conclusion in the middle of Romans 3, the whole world is guilty before God. Only once ever in the history of the world has God been completely satisfied with a life lived by a man on earth and that was in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. But it is essential that we live godly in this present world and that is the title of talks which are yet to come. But for the moment, I must pass over to Nick. …

… Thank you, Ernie. I'm very glad that, early this morning, both Brother Hugh and Brother Michael emphasized that these things which we're looking at today and tomorrow demonstrate that, from God's side of things, nothing's changed. God is unchangeable. And one definition that we've been given of dispensations is that they relate to God's dealings with men on earth. They don't exactly coincide with time itself. But because you and I, we live in time, we're characterized by time, we order our lives by time, it's sometimes difficult for us to think outside of time and to think in different ways. Well, we know that God is outside of time. He's not limited to time. And it's already been stressed that these things which we're looking at, from God's side, there is no change. It's not a question that God changes his mind. You know, sometimes in my work, we're trying to achieve something and I make a few suggestions as to how we're going to approach it. We make a start. And then the question might be put to me, now, if this doesn't work, have you a plan B? I normally say, well, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Let's be clear. God has no need of a plan B. We mustn't look at dispensations with a view that God tried plan A, that didn't work, so he tries plan B, that didn't work, so he tries plan C, and so on. That is completely the wrong way of looking at it. God is not taken by surprise. God knew exactly what would happen. It was all in the counsel of his will in eternity. But in making heavens and earth, in creating time, in creating man, certain things have to be worked out in time. And as time unfolds and men and women live on earth, God has dealt with them in different ways according to different times and different purposes. But essentially, overall, God has no need of a plan B. And speaking reverently, we can say that we can look in this session exactly what is God's plan A. And has it failed? Does it need to be replaced? Does he need to try again with another scheme? And I hope at the end of the session we'll be able to say, no, God is in complete control. I'd like to refer to some scriptures very briefly. First is in Ephesians, and in the first chapter. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3, we read there, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him, that's Christ, before the foundation of the world. So this verse alone teaches us that that which God had in mind, he had before the foundation of the world. He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. So that should settle at once any question that God's plans for salvation met with failure, and he had to start again with a new scheme. No, when God had in mind you and me, those of us who put our trust in the finished work of Christ, he can say we were chosen in Christ, in him, before the foundation of the world. And then in chapter 3 and verse 11, we read, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. And as we'll see in due course, that which is at the very center of God's dealing with man is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is an eternal purpose. We read here, it's the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. So we can at least disabuse our minds of any notion that God is limited in time and he's had to make things up as he goes along, as we might say of ourselves. And then lastly, we can refer to Colossians 1. Colossians 1 and verse 12. Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. That in all things he might have the preeminence. So that verse is very helpful. It shows us what is the centre of God's thoughts. It's Christ. It's his own dear Son. And everything that God has done in creation and in his various ways of dealing with man through time in the various dispensations, it has one thing in common. It's all centred in that eternal counsel, the eternal plan of salvation, and it's centred on the person of his beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, we have a very well-known passage, Hebrews 11. We should all be familiar with it, that great chapter of faith. And the first point of this section is how do we obtain salvation? Well, we obtain it by faith, and that's true throughout all dispensations. However God has saved people, individuals, from whatever circumstances, the way is the same. It's an unchanged way. It's by faith. And we can read Hebrews 11, just go through verses. Verse 4, we read, By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. So right at the very beginning of creation, whatever dispensation or period we may think that fits, we have Abel by faith. And then Enoch, we read in verse 5 of Enoch, and he was caught up. He didn't die, he was caught up to be with God. Noah, verse 7, we read, By faith, and he went into the ark, he preached, he was obedient. And it wasn't the fact that he was obedient, that he worked, he built the ark, that wasn't the point of it. The point of it was that it was by faith. Abraham, verse 8, we read, By faith. Sarah, by faith she apprehended, she believed that she would conceive. Isaac, by faith, he went willingly to be sacrificed. Jacob and Joseph, Joseph Moses, we can read on. Verse 29, it comes now not to individuals but a whole nation. Israel, by faith, they escaped Egypt, they went through the Red Sea. And they apprehended by faith what God had promised them through the Passover. Rahab, an individual, a heathen. Gideon, Barak, Samson, the scripture, Hebrews 11, it says, well we could go on and on. And finally, it brings us in, the writer of the Hebrews says, of us. And by faith we apprehend that the worlds were made, created out of nothing. So the scripture is very plain. It doesn't matter whether you start from the very beginning of man's history right up to the present day. Individuals, men, women, nations, ourselves, salvation is a matter, it's by faith. And let us not forget that faith is a gift of God. Let us not think that faith is an inherent thing which we have. We can't look back and claim the glory. We can't say, well, it was our own faith that achieved this. Faith given to us by God, but it's by faith. Therefore, having been justified on the principle of faith, we have peace towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5, verse 1. So this follows on from Ernest's session, the principle of faith, the principle of grace, and it's through faith, by faith, that grace is made good to our souls. Well, if faith is the means, we might say, what is the basis of it? Has the basis changed? Well, I trust we've understood, we've followed Ernest's session, and we should have a clear idea that certainly the basis of salvation is not by keeping the law. In fact, there was a time when the law didn't exist. The law was given quite late on in the scheme of things. Noah, Adam and Eve, they weren't under the law. Noah wasn't under the law. So it's not possible that the law could be that by which salvation is wrought. All that law did was to bring another proof that man in himself was incapable of attaining the standards required by God. No, the basis of salvation is Christ. And we've read in our verses, the eternal purpose, it's based on Christ. Christ is at the center of God's thoughts. It's God's desire that Christ should have the preeminence in all things. And I believe that the scripture teaches us, and we'll see from some examples, that it is Christ that is pointed to in the various ways God has dealt with man throughout all the dispensations. And we'll start at the very beginning. Adam and Eve, a story with which I hope we're familiar. After the fall, God pronounced various judgments upon the serpent, upon Adam, upon Eve. And this is one of the things that he said. Her seed, he, that's Christ, shall crush thy, Satan's, head. This is a judgment addressed to the serpent. But what was God's point about it? What was God's answer? It was that Adam and Eve, Eve would have a descendant, her seed, who would crush Satan's head. So right at the very beginning, after the first failure of a dispensation, God's answer is that it would center on the person of Christ. And Adam and Eve, they'd taken fig leaves, they'd tried to make aprons to cover their nakedness. And again, this is a picture of what man tries to do. He thinks he can earn salvation or work out his own salvation. And it was insufficient, completely inadequate. And God himself made coats of skin. So it was a work of God. It was something that God did. Adam and Eve didn't deserve it, but it was something that God did. Undeserved grace. And what do we understand by the coats of skins? Well, some animal had to die in order for those skins to be available. And it teaches us that salvation is through substitution. It requires the shedding of blood, the death of another, and this is a pointer to the person and the work of Christ. We go on to Noah. Noah was saved and his wife and his sons and their wives ate souls. And they were saved through water from the flood by taking shelter in the ark. And the ark is a type, a picture of Christ. And the scriptures are very clear. If you read Peter, you see that it's a figure of Christ. So even in that, God was painting a picture which was pointing on to Christ. Abraham. Abraham and Isaac, they went up. Isaac said, where is the lamb? And Abraham's response was, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together. Abraham had faith. He apprehended that there was one coming. God's lamb. The Israelites, they escaped Egypt. Passover lamb had to be killed and blood put on the door post, the lintel. And God said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. That Passover lamb, do you think it had any value in itself? Do you think the blood of a lamb in itself is sufficient? No. It's that it points forward to Christ. And it's Christ's precious blood. That's what has value to God. Because God, when he looked upon that blood, he saw not those lambs, but he saw his own dear son. He saw Christ. You may say, well, Christ hadn't yet come. Christ hadn't yet died. But remember what I said in the beginning. God is outside of time. We're constrained by time. If time has gone, then we can't reclaim it. If something should have happened and it hasn't happened, we can do nothing about it. But God is outside of time. It matters little to him whether the thing is to be accomplished yet or it's accomplished in the past. And I put to you that Christ's work on Calvary's cross is sufficient for God to work before and after that event. And so the Israelites, their escape was made good on the basis of Christ's work. It was at that point then future. But that's of no consequence to a God who is eternal and outside of time. Let me come to Job. Job is a very helpful character, one of the most ancient characters that we have in the Scriptures. And he's not a Jew. He's a Gentile. He's outside of that special nation called out for God's purpose. But it's clear from this verse that he could say, For I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at that latter day upon the earth. Job evidently knew something of a Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that alone was the basis of the salvation of Job. Simeon would come right up to the time of the Lord Jesus. He held the little child in his arms and he could say, Now let your servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Simeon recognized that salvation was of God. And there he held the Lord Jesus. Yes, the basis of salvation is the work of Christ. I've put that. We might say, well, the basis is Christ. Well, it is. The basis of salvation is Christ. But it was necessary that the Lord Jesus should die and be raised again for the work to be complete. So I've put it in this way, the work of Christ. John the Baptist, again, we had brought before us that he was the very greatest, we might say, of his own dispensation, but the least in the kingdom of God. John, he saw Jesus coming up unto him and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And we should note carefully, it's the sin of the world, not the sins of the world. The Lord Jesus is the Lamb of God. He dealt with that which was offensive to God. The matter of sin. And because he dealt with sin, God is able to come out in grace and blessing. The Philippian jailer, he said, What shall I do to be saved? The answer, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. A well-known matter in the Gospel of John. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Again, that serpent in the wilderness, it was a picture of the Lord Jesus. And that's why those who had been bitten by the serpents were saved. Not because that bronze figure had any power or efficacy in itself, but because it was a symbol of the work of Christ. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Now that encompasses everybody, whosoever, you and me. And I especially urge, if there's anyone here that doesn't know the Lord Jesus as their Lord and Savior, well, this is a word to you, whosoever believes on God's Son. Going into the future now, I think we should cover something of this. The remnants of Israel, this verse, I believe, refers to them in Zechariah 12. And it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come up against Jerusalem. So this here, I appreciate, is a salvation from a real, literal, physical enemy. But the principle remains that the salvation from anything is always on the work of Christ. I will call upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him. So even in the coming day, God is able to act in salvation on the basis of the person, the work of Christ. And the remnants of Israel, looking upon the Messiah that they once rejected, and will then recognize on that basis God is able to come out in blessing. Well, those two things are unchanged. The principle of faith, the basis, the work of Christ. But here's a definition from the Concise Bible Dictionary. Saving faith is confidence in God founded on his word. It is believing in a person as Abraham believed God. And we have the quote here. He, Abraham, believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness. The object of faith, the detail of it, is something which differs from dispensation to dispensation. But the principle and the basis is unchanged. So it's not a question of God changing his mind, but it is a question of a different administration, a different economy. When Mary, that servant girl, moved from one house to another, there were different rules, different things to bear in mind. And this is what we see. What was it that Eve had faith in? Well, we read, she conceived and she bear Cain and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. Now, what little Eve appreciated, she knew about this seed, the seed of the woman that would bruise the serpent's head. And when Cain was born, rightly or wrongly, she apprehended that this possibly was the answer. Was this God's answer? And she said, I've gotten a man from the Lord. Well, we know what happened to Cain and Abel. And later on, she bear another son, called his name Seth. For God, she said, she hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel. Another seed. She still had in view this promise of God. She had faith in the promised seed. She didn't understand. She didn't have faith in what we have faith in. But nevertheless, that which God had revealed to her, she believed in. Abraham, he went up. He says to the young men, you stay here with the ass. I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you. He had faith that even if he went through what he'd been told to do, if he sacrificed Isaac, that somehow Isaac will be raised. And they would both come again. He had faith practically in salvation and revelation and resurrection. Job, we've already seen that. Whatever little he understood, he understood there was a Redeemer and that in a later day, he would stand upon the earth. Wonderful statement for a man of that time to make. He had faith in a coming Redeemer. What is the object of our faith? Well, many things, but I would particularly refer us to this verse. Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. And I suggest to us that the blessed hope is the rapture, our being caught up to be with the Lord and also the glorious appearing. Get yourself a reliable translation. Regrettably, some of the more modern so-called translations, if you read this verse, there's no and. It reads, looking for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour, as if these two things are one and the same thing. And I believe a good, reliable translation will help us maintain a proper distinction, rightly dividing the word of God. So for us in this dispensation or this period, day of grace, what is the hope of the Christian believer? Well, we're looking for that blessed hope. The Lord Jesus will come for us, each one. And we're also we're looking for that day when he will come in glorious appearing and be vindicated in this scene where he was once rejected. The nations, too, they have an object of faith. If they if they think of such things, thus saith the Lord of hosts, in those days shall come to pass that 10 men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, we will go with you. For we have heard that God is with you. This, I believe, is of future fulfillment. The nations will recognize in the nation of Israel, the Jews, that God is with them. They will have faith in association with the Jew, with the Jewish nation. So you can see that the object of their faith is quite different from our own. It's quite different from the patriarchs and the others we've had some examples of. The woman at the well, she said to the Lord Jesus, I know that Messiah is coming who is called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things. She had faith in a coming Messiah who would tell her all things. Whatever else she knew, whatever great detail she didn't know, nevertheless, she had faith. The object of her faith was in the coming Messiah. After lunch. …

… I'll try not to overrun. The next session, God's progressive revelation and his purpose. Just a verse I'd like to refer to. 2 Corinthians 6, but not yet, if you can have your finger in that page, it will be of help. We've already seen how throughout history God has dealt in different ways with individuals and nations. And another way of looking at it, another aspect, is to look at the evidence of this in regard to the names that God has revealed himself to man. As an example, we have here this fellow, and we might ask ourselves, what do we know of him? It seems that he's enjoying a holiday, a vacation, and perhaps we would wish we were there as well. But what can we say of him? We know nothing about him. We don't know his name. We can't see his face. We can't see the expression on his face. There's no clue. And I'd like to use this as an illustration. Here is a man. I'm going to tell you a bit more about him in due course. But from this picture, we can't say anything. We don't know what his name is. We can't see his expression. To us, he's a stranger. And in a way, this is a picture to us of how God can be to man. God exists. But for many, God is a stranger. They may, as we can see, we can see there's a man here. They may believe that God exists. They may look around and say, I can see creation. I believe that a God or God created everything. But more than that, they cannot say. And sadly, many people today, they don't even go that far. But so we have, potentially, we have a God who is a stranger to man. And yet, let's look at this little more, this man. Here he is. He's come home from holiday and he's gone into a bank. And here he is talking to the bank teller. He's obviously withdrawn some money. And here she is handing over some money. Now, to this bank employee, this is the same man, but he's not a stranger to her. And also, she can see his face. So she can read certain things about his demeanor. So let's say to her, she knows him as Mr. Smith. He's a customer of the bank. He comes in maybe once a week and she knows him. She recognizes him. When he comes in, she can say, good morning, Mr. Smith. And there's a relationship. There's a bank customer relationship, but it's very formal. She probably, if she did know his Christian name, it wouldn't be right to say, hello, Bob. It's a formal business relationship and she knows him as Mr. Smith. Well, we know something else about this Bob Smith. He's a family man. He's married with three children. And here they are having fun on a trampoline. Now, when he gets home from work and they're at home and they run to greet him, I don't suppose they run up and say, hello, Bob, nor do they run up and say, hello, Mr. Smith. To him, he's daddy. And there's a loving relationship. They jump up into his arms and he'll give them a hug and a pat on the head and a kiss. And to him, he's daddy. Now, can you see already we have the same man, but three very different circumstances. We would be surprised if when he went into the bank, he was greeted by the bank teller in the same way that his children do. Because they're in a completely different relationship. He's their daddy and they're his children. Well, here he is on his wedding day and here's his bride, his wife. And we would say she has the closest relationship with this man. She doesn't call him Mr. Smith. She doesn't call him daddy. She calls him Bob. Maybe they've got a pet name for each other. And it's a name that only she knows or only she is entitled to use. To her, he is her husband. And that's true for her and true only for her. It's true of no one else. So we can say here is a relationship which is even closer and more intimate than that of his children because it's a one-to-one relationship. His three children, each of them, to them, he's their daddy. But it's a relationship that they share between themselves. Here we have a relationship which is true only of his wife. Now, I've used this as an illustration to show that the relationship that we have with God can differ depending on the name with which he's revealed himself. And the circumstances of the enjoyment of that relationship will be very different. Now, there's one caveat I have to say because an illustration always breaks down. The thing is, of course, this man here, there was a time before his wedding when he wasn't a husband. There was a time when he wasn't a father. So the name of father wouldn't have been appropriate. When we come to God, we have to be very clear and say God is outside of time. He always was what he is. God was always a father, the father. And eternal characteristics of God, we should be very clear in saying we're not suggesting that God became anything successively. He always was, but it wasn't necessarily known to man. If we take now the first introduction of God in the scriptures, Genesis 1, we read in the beginning, God. And the word there in the original or the transliteration is Elohim. And it means the creator God. It's God. In English, we use the word God. That's really a generic name, an overall name. It refers to the creator God who is overall. And the scripture introduces us in this way. It's God, Elohim, which is plural, created the heavens and the earth. Well, we know the Genesis story, God the creator in Genesis 1, 1. In due course, he created Adam and Eve. And there in Genesis 2, we have a change. The Holy Spirit in penning the words it says of God, it calls him Jehovah, Elohim. And it seems from this that we understand that the name of Jehovah is always used in connection with God's relationship with men. And we get another example of this in the case of Noah. When God told Noah to build an ark, the word is God, it's Elohim. But when Noah went into the ark and we read God shut him in, the scripture uses the name Jehovah, Elohim. So Jehovah is a name of God that he has been pleased to reveal to indicate a relationship with himself. And it means Jehovah who is, who was, and is to come. And note the order of that. It's really a statement. God is who he is. He's eternal. He's unchanging. He's the ever existing one. And that's a statement which rests in itself. He, a God who is, but he also is a God who was. And in a past time and a past eternity, he was no different from who and what he is. And it's true of future time and eternity. So God is unchanging. He's ever the same. He's outside of time. God who is, who was, and is to come. Well, moving on in the Old Testament, we read of the patriarchs, in particular Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And they knew God by the name of revelation, El Shaddai, which means God Almighty. And I wonder if you can get the sense of the relationship here. God Almighty, it's very much in the order of Elohim. It's a God of power, a God of might, the one who is over all. So it's a rather distinct, distant relationship. But nevertheless, it's an advance on merely the fact that God is the creator God. And the scripture tells us, I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty, El Shaddai. But by my name, Jehovah, was I not known to them, Exodus 6, verse 3. Now, there's a very clear scripture that God himself has said, the patriarchs knew me by one name, but by another name, I was not known to them. I think we can say it's not necessarily meant to imply that they weren't aware of the name Jehovah, because clearly that was used of Adam onwards. But I think what's meant is that it wasn't in that relationship. They didn't know God in that relationship of Jehovah. They knew that it was his name, but their dealings with him was in regard to God Almighty, El Shaddai. And Abraham was 99 years old when Jehovah appeared to Abraham and said unto him, I am the Almighty God. Two things here. It's clear that God always was Jehovah. The scriptures say that when he appeared to Abraham and said, I am the Almighty God, the scripture refers to him as Jehovah. It's the same person. It's not that he was Almighty God and he became Jehovah. It's not now circumstances like we understand of ourselves where we become something we weren't before. When it comes to God, he always ever was Jehovah, but he came to Abraham as the Almighty God. Jehovah, as we've said, means who is, who was, and is to come. And it's in particular a name that's linked with the nation of Israel. God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am Jehovah, Exodus 6, verse 2. It's interesting to see that if we accept that Moses is the author of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, Moses, having come to know God by this name of Jehovah, by the Spirit, is free to use that name in his historical writings. So he uses the name Jehovah to refer to God historically at a time when Moses himself had not necessarily learned that name. But he was free to use it of the past. Another scriptural proof that God, these names of God apply back in time and back in eternity. But here we have this clear statement. I have also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. So I suggest that this name Jehovah, in connection with the nation of Israel, is linked up with this covenant. They were in covenant relationship with God. It was something that was true of them that wasn't true of the nations. They had been strangers. And other nations were still strangers. And those strangers did not and could not know God as Jehovah. And so it's an entirely different relationship. It's now a matter of privilege which God has bestowed upon the nation of Israel and them alone. So it's a bit like those three girls, the children, only they have a relationship to that man as daddy. Well, when it comes to our own time, all true Christians, we have a relationship with God which goes beyond that of the nation of Israel, beyond that of the patriarchs. It's a family relationship. Maybe we could have other descriptions, but I hope you're happy with that. It's at least true in itself. We are children and sons of God. The Lord Jesus himself said to the woman at the well, that Samaritan woman, The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeks such to worship him. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. I won't say any more about that because I'll be encroaching on later session. I would like now just to refer to that scripture in 2 Corinthians 6 and the second part of verse 16. As God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord. And touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you. And ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Now here the Apostle Paul is referring to an Old Testament scripture, and he's using it to drive home this wonderful truth, that God has said to those who believe on the Lord Jesus that I will be a father unto you. And notice at the end it says Seth, the Lord Almighty. So there we have an Old Testament name. That's the person saying that I will be to you a father. It's a new relationship, but it's the same person. And so God always was the father. He always had the son. Proverbs 8, I'm very glad our brother Hugh used that as a reference. There, the father and the son in eternity past, in the counsel of God, their thoughts were with the sons of men. So it's the same person, that eternal relationship, but it's now been revealed. Israel, the patriarchs, Adam and Eve, they did not know God as the father. He was such, but it wasn't in his mind and will at that time to reveal such a part of his characteristic. So just to summarize, if we start off with, we might say, the very lowest revelation, Elohim, God the creator, men as creatures. Now, it's a remote and distant, is that my phone going off? Embarrassing. It's a remote and a distant relationship, and potentially all men can know God as such. If they're observant, if they look around and they acknowledge creation is the work of a creator, they can say, yes, there is a God, God the creator. But more than that, they don't necessarily know. Then the patriarchs, I've summarized this as a relationship of friendship, and I base that on the fact that the scripture says Abraham was called friend of God. So it's certainly a less remote and distant relationship. It's a matter of knowledge and friendship. They had the privilege of knowing God, God Almighty, being friend of God. That's a wonderful privilege, and it's certainly a closer relationship than merely knowing God as creator. But then God comes in, in a special way. He takes up this nation of Israel. Why did he pick Israel? Were they the best nation? Were they the most deserving, the best looking, the most effective, the most intelligent? No, there was absolutely no reason, humanly speaking, why God should have chosen the nation of Israel. It was a matter of sovereignty, a matter of grace. But he took them up, he took them out of the nations around them, and he established a covenant with them, and thereby he revealed to them this name of Jehovah. And then we might say the highest pinnacle, God fully revealed now as father. And it's true of all Christians. It's a family relationship. We're children of God, and that's a very wonderful thing. You think of those children illustrated with their father. Think of what it is to the relationship between children and a father. Certainly much more intimate and wonderful than those which preceded it. But also, you know, in our relationship by virtue of what the Lord Jesus has done, not only are we children of God, but we're sons of God. And I suggest that brings out even more fully the wonderful revelation of God towards us, and the relationship we have with him, that we're sons of God. And it's a matter of wonderful privilege to know God as such. So, God is now fully revealed, and his name of the father, just a few verses to establish that. I ascend unto my father, and your father, and to my God, and your God. The words of the Lord Jesus in John 20, 17. God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by his son. And so, the Lord Jesus himself, the son, revealed the father. And the scriptures are very plain and clear, that only the son could reveal the father to us. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Now, this is an example of what we can bring in worship and praise. Not just merely acknowledging God as creator, not to call upon God as God Almighty or Jehovah, but to take up such a theme. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therewith, bless we God, even the father. Another New Testament verse bringing out this wonderful relationship we have. …

… Some here are probably too young to remember the old public telephones where you could press button A or press button B. I'm going to be pressing buttons here. Basically, if you connected and you wanted to speak to someone, you press button B. So there's a great temptation here to press button, instead of pressing button A and continuing with the conversation, to press button B and sit down and let others get on with it. Nevertheless, I've been roped in and in the Lord's mercy, we may be able to look at this subject of the covenants. And first of all, I'd like to read from the Word of God, from the Old Testament or Old Covenant, first of all, and then briefly from the New Testament. First of all, in Jeremiah chapter 31. And verse 31. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, saith Jehovah, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God. And they shall be my people, and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the graces of them, saith the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. And then in Hebrews chapter 13. And verse 20. Just these words, the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant. I expect that we all know something about covenants. At least we should all know something about covenants, because they're mentioned in the Word of God. And fairly frequently too, when we look at the subject in more detail. And also, if we even take up our New Testament, it's the New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But some translators, in place of the word Testament, use the word covenant. So it's really the idea of an old covenant and of a new covenant that is enshrined in the two divisions of our Bibles. If William Tyndale, in translating the Bible into English, and the New Testament at least in modern times, if he perhaps had used the word covenant instead of Testament, we would be speaking of it as the New Covenant and turn to the New Covenant rather than turn to the New Testament. Covenant and Testament are the same words essentially. It speaks of an agreement in the French Bible. It's the word alliance. It's an alliance that gives the significance of the word. Now, there are two views of covenants. We can view covenants from a dispensational point of view, or there is a system of belief, which is known as covenant theology. Covenant theology is held in the reformed circles by those who are more or less Calvinist. Now, the latest flavor of the month in speaking about dispensationalism, if you look around on the web and make certain inquiries, you'll very quickly be told, oh, but dispensationalism, it's only 170 years old. It was the creation or it was the brainwave of an Anglican minister by the name of John Nelson Darby. You would think from the way that it's spoken of that he wakened up one day and he pulled a verse from here and pulled a verse from there and took something from somewhere else. And like the magician, he put it all in the hat and shook it around and voila, he pulled out the white rabbit, dispensational truth. Well, I think it was not like that at all. And I think we can show that the covenants and dispensational truth, which is the framework in which they fit in, is something which is clearly shown by the connection of the scriptures in the word of God, because no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. But actually it's a dangerous argument. And it's setting up a man of straw to say that dispensationalism is only 170 years old, because we come to inquire about covenant theology. And I'm reliably informed that, with apologies to our Swiss brethren who may be with us here today, that covenant theology began with Caspar Olivianus in Switzerland in the 1500s. He lived from 1536 to 1587. So what's the difference of a belief system that's 170 years old and a belief system that's, say, 370 years old or 450 years old? Might as well say, well, where was that in the early church? And where has that been through all the centuries of the Christian era? In a sense, a couple of hundred years is not a big distinction. We could almost say that one system is as new as the other. But actually it's not important for us what was taught in the early church. If we want to go back to the early church fathers, we wouldn't be here today. We'd be good Roman Catholics. The important question for us is what does the word of God say? And so we need to turn to the word of God, as we already have done. Just before I do that, I'll just give the belief system of covenant theology. It speaks of God's dealings with mankind in history under the framework of three overarching theological covenants. Covenants of redemption, of works, and of grace. Then it amplifies it to speak of the covenant of redemption as the agreement to effect man's salvation, God the Father and God the Son, in that past expanse of eternity before the world was made, entered into an agreement or covenant. That was the covenant of redemption. And then with Adam and Eve, according to this system of teaching, there was a covenant of works. And because Adam and Eve sinned, then it was later made known to man as the covenant of grace. So those are the three constituent elements of covenant theology. Covenant of redemption, covenant of works, covenant of grace. And so I'm telescoping the covenant of redemption and the covenant of grace into one covenant. As I say, it was this Swiss theologian, Olivianus, through the Westminster Confession of Faith, it passed into the first mainstream English confession. It was held by such theologians as John Owen during Puritan times. It was held by Jonathan Edwards in New England, later by the Princeton Theological School, and today by such men as James Packer and R.C. Sproul. So it is a very widely spread system of belief. But we have to ask the question, where in the word of God do we read of a covenant of redemption before the world, or even of a covenant of works in Genesis chapters two and three? It's not mentioned, or of this covenant of grace. It's well described as theological covenants because that's what they are. They are theological covenants. They're something that comes from theology. They're not scriptural covenants, and there's no scripture to back them up. So first of all, they're not scriptural. But also, does it really present God in a true light? We know that there's that about God which is inscrutable, which is incomprehensible, which is beyond our finite minds, and we know that we can only know divine persons as and when they are revealed. But God is one in his essence and attributes. God in three persons. They're one in unity of nature and being. They're one in mind and purpose. So why would they ever need a covenant between themselves whenever they essentially are God in being, in three persons, in complete agreement of mind and purpose? So I would suggest that covenant theology, not only is it not scriptural, but it's also, in a sense, it's really derogatory of a God, and it misrepresents God. So turning now from men's theories, we turn to the word of God. And we have a statement in Romans 9.3 which is helpful. Paul is speaking, he says, of his brethren. He says they're Israelites. He says certain things pertain to them, the adoption and the glory and the covenants. I'm giving up the law. The covenants. They belong to Israel and therefore earth. Keep earth in view, keep Israel in view, and this gives us the proper framework in which to understand the covenant. Certainly we're not going to need any covenants in heaven. And it's quite clear if we read the previous verse. When Paul says Israelites, here he's speaking about his brethren according to the flesh. He's talking about his natural kith and kin. So covenants pertain to Israel and they have to do with the earth. What is a covenant? Galatians 3.15 tells us it's a binding agreement. To give a human example, brothers, even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls or adds to it once it has been ratified. That means if God has made a covenant and lays down certain conditions, we're not at liberty to spiritualize it or change the terms or add to it or to take from it. So a covenant is binding. No one annuls or adds to it. It involves two parties. And Abraham made a covenant with Abimelech. Israel in a future day will make a covenant with death in hell. They'll enter into a nefarious agreement with the revived Roman empire for the purposes of protection. But we're not so much concerned with covenants on a human level this afternoon. We're concerned with covenants that God enters into. And I say with man, with mankind, with an individual, with a nation. There are two parties, God and men or varieties of men on the other side. And then another thing I want to note about the covenants is that they can be either conditional or unconditional. We will not have time to develop this in its entirety, but I think if we look at the Abrahamic covenant, we'll see that it was unconditional promises to Abraham. God does not go back on it. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. That means if God decides on a certain course of action, he's not going to change his mind. So there are unconditional covenants. But when we come to the giving of the law, we find it's a different situation because they're Israel covenant. They entered into an agreement with God to keep certain terms, which they were not able to do. And so of course, that covenant failed. And it's referred to in scripture as the first covenant. It's not the first historically, but it's the first with Israel as such. And it's the first as in contrast with the later with the new covenant, it's the old covenant and the new covenant. And there's a lot to be learned by contrasting these two things. Another point in connection with covenants, I think we'll maybe have time to illustrate is that subsequent covenants generally embody the principles of preceding covenants. In other words, there's a succession. One adds to the other and there's a forward movement and a continuity. William Kelly, as a young man, in one of his early writings in the first magazine, he edited The Prospect, wrote an article on the mystery and the covenants. And the covenants will find, carry right through from Genesis, right through to the book of Malachi, from the days of Noah, even right through to the new covenant with Israel and Judah, which will be in a future day. So the covenants carry along. But the mystery, we'll be hearing about the mystery in the love of the Lord. The church is a mystery. The mystery was something hid from ages and generations. The mystery was hidden God. It was not revealed onto the sons of men until the time of Paul and particularly in his prison epistles. So there is a continuity of God's earthly dealings, the covenants. But then in the new Testament, we have this mystery, this truth as to the heavenly character of the assembly. These truths which center around God's heavenly peoples, those who are joined to the Lord as the body is joined to the head. And this represents something which was hidden and which was previously unrevealed and to which there's no continuity. We were standing at the train station last night, somewhat later than we anticipated, actually. And they announced over the tannoy, please stand back. It's an express train. It's going through and it's going through very quickly. So we had to allow a margin of safety. But if it was just a one line, one track system with the upline and the downline, and suppose there'd been the standard passenger chain at the platform and the express train was coming, well, what would happen? Well, the standard passenger train would have to be shunted into the siding in order to let the express train through. And I think it's a bit like that with the word of God and with the assembly. You've got the covenant, you've got God's earthly purposes, you've got what he's carrying out, these agreements that he's committed himself to. And then at a certain point, room is made for the church, those believers from Pentecost to the rapture. And then once they're caught up again, the express train, so to speak, has run through and God is going to revert to his earthly purposes. And these covenants then will find their fulfillment literally and in actuality. Well, now, we haven't time to, you've probably been looking at them as I've been speaking and you may have liked or wish to copy down the relevant scriptures. But I count here, I think a nine, that there may be some overlap, the new covenant. I think it's fairly clear in Hebrews 13, that the everlasting covenant is equivalent to the new covenant. But everlasting covenant is a term that's used of the other covenants also. It's used of the Noahic covenant, for example. And there's one there, there's a covenant of peace in Ezekiel 37 verse 26, which I haven't got in. So that would make 10 covenants. 10 covenants in the word of God, which covenant theology doesn't even touch upon, doesn't even speak about. Instead, they introduce three covenants, which don't have any basis in the word of God or any specific, any direct scripture, any mention of them as a covenant as such. There are certain elements in covenants. They suppose and are consequent on some intervention of God. They give the terms or conditions in which God can be with man or with the nation at any given moment. They're in order that the benefits of God's intervention may be enjoyed and a covenant sets forth God's dispensation, disposition, sets forth his attitude towards the people. So to go back to Romans 3, to go back to Romans 3, verse 3 of chapter 9, that the language used in covenants is very straightforward. It's easily comprehensible. There's no special system of interpretation in dispensationalism. It follows on what is known as the historical grammatical principle of hermeneutic principle of interpretation. The Protestant system of interpretation, it differs from the spiritualizing or the allegorizing which characterized the early centuries. And it differs from the school men in medieval times who wanted to work out how many angels could dance on a pinhead and things like that. The way of interpreting the word of God, which we'll speak about a little bit more, is look at it in its grammatical connection, look at it in its historical context. If it's poetic language, you may expect it not to be literal. But it comes down to this. If the literal sense makes good sense, seek no other sense in case it makes nonsense. It means that you read it intelligently and take it and what it says in its plain meaning. If the literal sense makes good sense, seek no other sense in case it makes nonsense. People talk about dispensationalism and they say, oh, it's grasshopper exegesis and you're just jumping over the scriptures. It's almost as if J.N. Darby was in his day to Bible teaching what Bill Gates and the Windows operating system is to computers today. You cut and paste and you put a whole system together. It's not a question of extracting certain bits of truth and putting them together in a specific way. It's a matter of taking the word of God in its literal sense and in its totality and looking at the complete picture. So Romans 3 helps us to see clearly what's involved. And then when we come to the covenants with Noah, it's actually with the earth and it's with mankind. The point there is, essentially, while the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter and day and night shall not cease. God gave his sign in the cloud, he gave the rainbow, he made his covenant with Noah that he was no more going to destroy the earth. And that's a wonderful truth. No one in Moscow is going to press the red button and send the world into self-destruct. No one at CERN in Switzerland with these colliders or colanders or whatever are going to create a black hole that's going to swallow us all up. This world is not going to be hit by a meteor. It's not going to be blasted out of existence. God says it's going to continue right through until the reign of Christ, until the day of the Lord. And during that period in the which it'll be dissolved, it'll be burnt up with fire in preparation for the new heaven and new earth. This world so minute in the whole solar system is yet it's the theater. It's the stage on which God is working out his moral ways and for the glory of Christ. The world's not always going to remain the plaything of the devil. It's not always going to be the devil's toy. God will assert his rights in Christ. Here on this earth, there will be the victory of grace. There will be the victory over death. Satan will be bruised under Christ's feet. Mankind will be brought into blessing. This covenant with Noah, the rainbow recurs in Ezekiel and in Revelation. It shows that the earth is the stage on which God is operating. The Abrahamic covenant builds on that. They gave me a big subject this afternoon. I can't really do justice to it. The Abrahamic covenant promised blessing to Abraham, promised blessing to his descendants. It promised geographical boundaries. I think it's in Genesis 15 that we have the boundaries of the land right at the close where it says, I've made a covenant in addition to the scripture I've highlighted in Genesis 17 from the river of Egypt onto the great river, the river Euphrates. The only time ever they had that was in a limited sense under Solomon. Even then, a large part of it was desert. Prophets tell us that in the future day, the desert will bloom as a rose and that it'll be a proper country. This will be all under Abraham's seed because it says, in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Not seeds as of many, but seed as of one. Paul brings that out in the New Testament. Speaking not of Isaac, it goes beyond Abraham and Isaac and Jacob to whom it was promised to Abraham and to his seed, but it centers in Christ as the seed of Abraham. How blessed a thing that is to contemplate. Abraham, Israel, the descendants of Abraham will be in the land without any enemies. They'll have the possession, geographical possession. He'll be the father of many nations. I presume that's through Ishmael and that's the Arab nations, but there'll be blessing not only to him and to his seed, but all the nations of the earth will be blessed through. That was the blessing under Christ in a future day. That covenant is recurred to numerous occasions of the Old Testament because God has committed himself unconditionally to carry out certain purposes. At Sinai, we know that it's referred to as a covenant in Jeremiah in chapter 24 of Exodus. God says, here's my law. People didn't know their own hearts, their own weaknesses, their own sinfulness, and they said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. So that covenant was broken. The Levitical covenant is really with the house of Levi, a perpetual priesthood and with Phinehas. Deuteronomic covenant, Palestinian covenant is interesting because we've already referred to the preceding chapters. It's an interesting thing that the blessings in chapter 28 are contained in about the first 14 verses of a chapter that has 65 verses. So about 40 verses, I mean, there are some descriptive, I'm not giving a precise breakdown. There are descriptive verses as well, but we might say 14 verses of blessings, but 40 verses of curses. Some of you young men can go and look it up and analyze it and give the precise figures on it. That's a pretty clear indication that in regard to keeping the law and blessing as a result of law keeping that they were going to fail because the curses greatly surpassed and extended beyond the blessings. And then subsequently upon that, God tells about what he's going to do in chapter 30 of Deuteronomy and how he'll bring them into that. And it supposes pestilence. It supposes disease coming upon them. It supposes captivity. It supposes subjection to their enemies. All these things were to come upon them, which mirror the literal nation of Israel's actual history. And that shall come to pass. Then God says, after these things, I will do certain things and you'll return to me and I'll turn your captivity. They'll be gathered in the land and they will be blessed. The Davidic covenant narrows it down. It's not just the seed of Abraham, but it's the seed of David and a sure covenant. And it speaks of Solomon, but we know that the scriptures in 2 Samuel 7 are taken up in Hebrews and applied to Christ. So all these scriptures point forward to Christ. And this is true, particularly of, we haven't time to look at them all. This is true, particularly of the new covenant, because when Jeremiah was writing, it could only have been future. He said, I'll make a covenant with Israel and with Judah. Israel was carried into captivity by the Assyrians and Judah at a later stage by the Babylonians to Babylon and the 10 tribes and the two tribes have had a separate history subsequently. But in a future day, God says, he'll make this covenant both with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. And under the terms of the new covenant, they will be brought into blessing. And I certainly believe that this will have a literal fulfillment in a future day in keeping with God's dispensational dealings. So, I mean, the interventions of God with Noah, it was a flood with Abraham. It was the call God's call out of the earth. That was the intervention. Then God said, walk before me and be perfect. I'm God almighty. There was election. There was the call of grace with the Sinaitic covenant. The intervention of God was when he brought them out of Egypt. And we can trace it right down, all these different events. And of course, the new covenant is based on the greatest event of all in human history. We read about the blood of the everlasting covenant. It's consequent on the death of Christ and Israel in a future day will be brought into this blessing Israel and Judah. But now, what about the relation of the new covenant to the church? Well, now, I don't know whether they're going to give me an extra session on this, but this is a very interesting question. Are we blessed without a covenant? Well, in its strict literality, there's no question that the house, that the new covenant will be ratified with Israel and with Judah. But at the same time, the new covenant has a great place in the New Testament. It's mentioned in six books, is it not? And it's mentioned extensively in the book of Hebrews in chapter eight and chapter 10 and chapter 12 and in chapter 13. Hebrews was written. It's not like the epistle of James written to the 12 tribes. Hebrew was written to Christian believers from amongst the Jews who had embraced the faith of Christianity. They'd professed the faith of Christianity. So, it was written to a Christian company and it says there that we come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. In the gospels, on each occasion in which the cup is mentioned at the Lord's supper, it's spoken of as the cup of the new covenant, which is shed for many. And you might say, well, that's in the context of Israel and that's in the upper room. And so it is, but in the gospel of Luke, which is more towards the Gentiles, it says it's the cup of the new covenant, which is shed for you. And when Paul comes to reiterate the truth in 1 Corinthians 11 from heaven, he speaks of it. This cup is the new testament in my blood. This do we as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me. The cup which he gave us to drink in remembrance of himself is the new covenant in his blood. And I do think, if we were more established in the truth of the new covenant, our meetings wouldn't fall flat so much after the breaking of bread, where we just have a hymn or a prayer, or we send the box around and close the meeting. Surely the new and a proper appreciation of the new covenant insofar as the blessings of the new covenant are now enjoyed by the assembly in a spiritual way would help us in regard to approach to God the father and an approach to worship. Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more that we read in Jeremiah, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins in Israel. And Judith says the law will be written on our heart in second Corinthians three, Paul speaks of the new covenant ministry. There are four great ministries of Paul in Colossians one, he speaks himself as minister of the, of the gospel of which I minister, which preached to the whole creation under heaven. He speaks of the church of which I made a minister. He's minister of the assembly. Those two we're very familiar with, but there are two other ministries in second Corinthians in chapter three, there's the ministry of the new covenant ministry. And in chapter five, there's the ministry of reconciliation. These are, would be great subjects to take up, but in second Corinthians chapter three, Paul says of himself that he's a minister of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit. So what Israel will have in the letter in a future day, we can enjoy now in a spiritual way, because we are one with the mediator of the covenant and his blood, the blood of the covenant is the blood under which we also are sheltered and redeemed the blessings of the new covenant. The church enjoys because we are one with him who is the mediator. I think that's the important point. We come into these blessings because we're one with Christ. We're one with the mediator. And as I say, we have forgiveness of sins. We have the knowledge of God, perhaps even in a greater way than Israel has. This is life eternal to know they the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent. They will have a knowledge of God in a future day. Today we have the knowledge of the father and the son and that day to come, they will all be taught of God. And surely today in the Holy spirit's power, we are also taught of God. We're taught of Christ and we're taught of the father. And the other thing is where they will have the law written on their hearts in the future day. The spirit of God is writing Christ on our hearts. There's that subjective ministry. There's that formative power by which the spirit of God impresses Christ on our hearts, not with ink. It's by the spirit of the living God through Christ and through the spirit. And then it goes on to say, Paul says he's enabled minister of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit. And there's a little parenthesis in the, in that chapter. And you jump on to chapter two, verse 17. And it says, now the Lord is the spirit. And I noticed in Mr. Darby's French translation, the spirit there has a small S the Lord is the spirit, the spirit of all scripture, just like, because he's the subject of all scripture as on the road to Emmaus beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he expounded onto them and all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. Scriptures are all about Christ. He's the spirit of the scriptures. He's the spirit of the covenant. And we're introduced to this. So there are mentions of the new covenant or the new in the new Testament. And while we are blessed without a literal covenant being made with us, we certainly can come into the enjoyment of these things, which are spoken about in the covenant. So just to sum up, then there's no covenant of grace in the Bible. We've shown that we've talked about the way that the covenant with Abraham was on conditional and we'll have literal fulfillment according to the normal sense of language and the passages we've been revving. We've spoken about the Sinaitic covenant being broken. We've looked in some detail at the new covenant, which is also on conditional. And we've seen that the covenant is not made with the church, but that we enjoy the blessings. We know the value of the blood of Christ. It's the basis on which God will work. It's been the basis of all God's ways. And in a future day, Paul says, so all Israel will be saved. They'll come through the time of Jacob's trouble. We'll come through great tribulation, but the covenant will be made with them. And if you study what the word of God actually says about covenants, it certainly supports the dispensational view. …

… Perhaps it might be appropriate just to commend for the next hour to God briefly in prayer. God and our Father, we would take this time to give you thanks once more for this occasion to be able to hopefully have a fuller understanding of your dealings with mankind. We thank you for what's been presented to us already and for those who have presented these things to us. And we do again look to you for guidance for the remainder of this conference and this session in particular. So we do commit ourselves and the reading and study of your word into your care. And we do this in Jesus' name. Amen. One of the potential dangers in the study that we've got for this weekend in looking at dispensations is that we might fall into talking of dispensationalism, talking of what dispensationalists teach or what a dispensationalist believes. I don't think we've fallen into that danger or into that trap yet. But as our brother Andrew made clear in the previous session, what we're looking at this weekend is not a man-made doctrine. It's not something that you find in a textbook. It's not something that you need to subscribe your name to, as you might to the many political doctrines of this world, Marxism or something like that. What we are studying is what is presented in God's word, the Bible. Having just made that remark, there are many Christians, faithful Christians, who come to a different view of God's dealings with man. And again, our brother Andrew went through one of the alternative approaches, that of covenant theology. These people would purport to base their approach on the Bible as well. So the purpose of this session is to set out the proper way in which we should interpret the Bible. And hopefully we'll see that doing this leads to the view that God has dealt with man in various dispensations, as has already been presented to us and as will be presented to us over the rest of the weekend. So just what we hope to get through in this session, look at the problem. And then to look briefly at what is the Bible. And then to move on to how we should interpret the Bible. We might briefly mention what I've called some unhelpful approaches to interpreting the Bible. But then we'll come on to one particular issue of biblical interpretation that's pertinent to this weekend, and that is distinguishing between Israel and the church. And then, time permitting, we might just look at a few passages that at first glance might appear difficult. So the issue of what we're dealing with. I might start by reading some verses from Genesis chapter 12. This is God's promise to Abraham. Genesis chapter 12, starting at verse 1. The Lord said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great. And thou shalt be a blessing, and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee. And in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. So Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken to him. Just jumping down to verse 7. And the Lord appeared unto Abraham and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land. I'll leave the reading there. Those verses are perhaps well known to most of us here. But imagine for a moment that you were giving those verses to somebody who'd never read the Bible before. And you didn't give them your Bible, but you just copied those verses onto a blank sheet of paper, gave them to your friend to read, and asked your friend what they thought those verses meant. I suspect that the answer would be that God was giving a promise to Abraham that Abraham would be the father of a great nation and be blessed, and that his descendants would be given the land that God told him to go to. That would be the ordinary interpretation of those verses of God's promises there. God's made a range of promises to Israel. I've listed some of them there. We unfortunately don't have time to go through them all. But again, some explicit promises to Israel and promises that would be encouraging to Israel as well. God's promises were expressed to last forever. This gives rise to the question then, did God intend his promises to be taken literally? Or if that's not the case, has God stopped dealing with Israel, perhaps because of their unfaithfulness, and these promises have now been given to another group of people, perhaps particularly the Church, for them to be fulfilled? It's the distinction between those two, or difference between those two interpretations, that's really the focus of this session. God's promises to Israel, were they literal promises? Are they going to be fulfilled in the ordinary way that we would read them? Or have they now been given to the Church? Just before we come to that particular question, I just want to say a few words about what the Bible is, because I think it helps us understand the right way to interpret it. These things that are mentioned here on this slide are fundamental, and I'm sure they're well known. The Bible is divinely inspired, was written under the power of the Holy Spirit, and it contains God's words to us. In 1 Corinthians 2.13, Paul, referring to his own writings, describes them as the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth. I think it's important to note that the Bible's very words are inspired of God. Again, Paul's words, the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth. The Bible isn't just a series of concepts or principles. Obviously, there are concepts and principles in there, but the Bible's words are absolutely important. With that in mind, it might give us a help as to how we should interpret the Bible when we read it, remembering that it contains God's own words. The method of interpretation that I'm going to describe is often referred to as the literal interpretation of the Bible. It's perhaps not the best way to describe it for a reason which I'll come to in a moment, but it's the label that it's often given to it, and it's the label that you would find if you were to turn to a book on dispensationalism. The so-called literal interpretation means, and our brother Andrew's covered this briefly, that we need to give God's words, the words in the Bible, their natural and ordinary meaning. They're God's words speaking to us. It doesn't seem unlikely that God is going to speak to us in a hidden language, or while the Bible may contain parts that are difficult for us to understand, it's not God's intention to hide anything from us or describe things in such a way that we have to look for a hidden meaning. We should give God's words their natural meaning. This doesn't mean that we don't have metaphors and other figures of speech. Plenty of examples for this. The Lord, or John rather, describes the Lord as the light of the world. Now we don't take that description literally as in the Lord was a physical light. We understand that it's a metaphor of what he was presenting, presenting everything that was right and good. So when we do interpret the Bible, we have to take account of metaphors and figures of speech. We also have to take account of context. We can't just pull a few words out of the Bible, but we have to look at them as they appear. The reason why I said literal interpretation perhaps isn't the best way to describe this method of interpreting the Bible is that it isn't a literal interpretation because we do take account of metaphors and other figures of speech. Perhaps we might want to call it the natural interpretation of the Bible or the ordinary interpretation of the Bible. Interpreting the Bible in this way becomes particularly important when we get to the topic of prophecy. A lot of Old Testament prophecies have been fulfilled literally. A good example is the verse that's mentioned here, which is a prophecy of the place of our Lord's birth, Bethlehem. That's been fulfilled to the letter and there are many other examples of Old Testament prophecies being fulfilled as we would expect them on their ordinary meaning. I said before that the Bible is not always easy to interpret and I think everyone here would agree with that. We have the Holy Spirit to help us and the Lord's promise is that the Holy Spirit can reveal to us all things. That's not to say, though, that what's often referred to as spiritualizing or trying to find a spiritual meaning in things is a biblical concept. It's not. Again, particularly in the context of prophecy, we have to look at and interpret prophecy on its ordinary meaning and not look for some hidden meaning. I don't want to spend too much time on the negative side of things or what we shouldn't do. I'll just mention here a couple of perhaps unhelpful approaches when interpreting the Bible. This one here begins in the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, which I assume means the current dispensation. Our guide is the scriptures of God in their broad outlines. Well, I think we could stop there and already recognize that this is wrong. We don't just, as I mentioned before, look for concepts and principles in the Bible. It's not just a recitation of those. It's God's very words. So anything where it's suggested to us that we can ignore the words of the Bible is obviously incorrect. And the particular verse that's relied upon there, the letter that killeth, is an example of picking a few words and taking them out of context. Because those particular words are not the Bible condemning itself. Obviously, it's illustrating a contrast between law and the gospel. Another one which I found, which might sound attractive at first, is that we understand words in the words of the Bible in a literal sense first, then in a figurative sense if the literal doesn't make sense. It might sound attractive. It might sound reasonable at first. But, again, it involves doing away with God's words. If it all becomes too hard, then we can turn to a figurative meaning of things. And this method of interpretation leads to some strange results. And I just mentioned a couple there. People who rely on this method of interpreting the Bible come to the conclusion that the rapture, perhaps one of the things that we as Christians should hold most dearly, doesn't have any scriptural support. And the reference in Revelation to there being two witnesses during the tribulation somehow symbolizes churches and not individuals. And the people who come to this conclusion skip over the fact that Revelation 11.9 refers to dead bodies, the dead bodies of these witnesses, which doesn't really fit if the witnesses just symbolize churches. Perhaps the most difficult thing about this approach is where does one draw the line? When does it become too hard to interpret things in a literal sense such that we have to go to a figurative sense? I mentioned before that the interpretation of prophecy, in respect of which it's important to have a proper interpretation of the Bible, and also in distinguishing between Israel and the church. Dispensationalism isn't fitting a system onto the Bible, but rather it's what one sees from the distinctions which the Bible itself draws in its own words. As I mentioned before, and as has been alluded to, there are many Christians who would believe that the prophecies given to Israel in the Old Testament that haven't been fulfilled are going to be fulfilled, but not with respect to Israel, but rather in some spiritual way with respect to the church. These people would claim that there's New Testament support for this view, that a lot of New Testament references to Israel are really references to the church, that the church has somehow subsumed Israel or taken the place of Israel as God's favoured people. But if we again take a literal approach to the Bible, we have to recognise that different words are used throughout the Bible for Israel and the church, and that the words are never used interchangeably. This verse is a good example of Israel and the church being distinct. 1 Corinthians 10.32 tells us to give no offence to the Jews, the Gentiles or the church of God. The command there isn't to not give offence to the whole world or to not give offence to the church and everybody else, but to three particular groups, Jews, Gentiles and church of God. So the Bible uses distinct terminology for Israel and the church, and the reason for this is that Israel and the church are different. This isn't an exhaustive list of the differences between the two, and some of these differences are going to be the subject of later discussions this weekend. But Israel had a different beginning. Its beginning was with Abraham. The church is a mystery hid in God. That's from Ephesians chapter 3, and it had its beginning on the day of Pentecost that we have recorded in Acts 2. Its beginning had nothing to do with Abraham. We also see a difference between the hope that Israel has and the hope that the church has. Israel looks to blessing in the land that was promised to Abraham. The verses that are mentioned there from Jeremiah 32 say, So that's Israel's hope that concerns their land on earth. But our hope as Christians is very different. We have the hope of the rapture to heaven and always to be with our Lord. As I said, this isn't an exhaustive list, and perhaps when you go to Bible Centre to download this weekend's slides, you might also want to print out an article by Mr Schofield called Jew, Gentile and Church of God. It quite helpfully draws out many of the differences between Israel and the church. Coming back to Old Testament prophecies concerning Israel, Israel understood God's promises in a literal sense. To take the example of Luke 24, it's the disciples on the road to Emmaus. They were disappointed because the Old Testament prophecies hadn't been fulfilled literally. Importantly, there was never any suggestion to Old Testament believers, even by the Lord himself, that looking for a literal fulfillment of God's promises was wrong. In Acts 1, we have these words of the Lord. Starting in verse 6, we have the words of his disciples. So they're asking again, is now going to be the literal fulfillment of the promises to Israel? The Lord's response to them in Acts 1-7 is, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put in his own power. Note there that the Lord doesn't say to them that you should stop looking for a literal fulfillment of these prophecies. He doesn't say that the church has replaced Israel or this new thing, the church that's going to be created is going to have the blessing of all of the promises to Israel. But rather his statement is, it's not for you to know the times and seasons. And implicit in that is that the promises will be fulfilled literally one day in the future. And that's supported by some of the Lord's words on this earth, when he said that he came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it and so on. And we might remember that some Old Testament prophecies have been fulfilled literally. We had an example of that earlier. And I think it's right to say that every unfulfilled Old Testament prophecy will be fulfilled in the same way. That is literally. So the end result of all of that is that when we're looking at the Bible and we see a reference to Israel, it means Israel. Similarly if we read about the church, then that's what we're looking at, the church. We shouldn't confuse the two and in particular shouldn't think that references to Israel somehow now mean the church. There are some difficult passages, however, and perhaps got a few minutes to look at some of them. In Romans chapter 4, there's the statement that Abraham is the father of all them that believe. From looking at this verse and the surrounding verses, one might think that the statement that Abraham is the father of all who believe means that all believers form part of one family. And so as a result of that, what's said about Israel in the Old Testament must now apply to the church because they all form part of the same family. You've got this common father, Abraham. I don't think it necessarily follows, however, that because we have a common father that we all have the same future. Or that where Israel and the church are now being dealt with in the same way. I think it's reading too much into that verse to conclude that Israel and the church are the same or that the church has now taken the place of Israel. There are various ways that we can understand the word father. And I think the reference to Abraham being the father of all them that believe is really a statement that Abraham is the originator or the one who establishes what Paul is discussing in these verses. And that is justification through faith. Abraham was the first example of that. And we are justified by faith just as Abraham was justified by faith. But he was the originator. The reference I've given to Isaiah chapter 9 perhaps isn't the best one. But it perhaps illustrates the point there in the JND translation. We have the statement that the Lord will be in the millennium the father of eternity. And what that really means is that he's the one who establishes or calls into being that time. So he's the one who brings that into being. So we can, I think, read this verse in a similar sense. That Abraham is the first one who gives us an example of justification through faith. Chapter 4 of Romans distinguishes between the content of Abraham's faith and ours. In verse 24, verse 21, sorry, we read that Abraham believed that God would perform his promise that he would raise life out of what was effectively dead. But in verse 24, we have faith in a finished work, the finished work of the Lord Jesus. So there is a distinction drawn in this very chapter between Israel and the Church. This next one I'll skip over because it's essentially the same thing. The children of Abraham, again, this verse doesn't say that Israel and the Church are one. In Galatians chapter 6, there's this statement at the end of the chapter, Peace be upon them and upon the Israel of God. One might note that one of the important teachings of Galatians is that there's no longer any distinction between Jew and Gentile. And we have that in these very verses that are mentioned on the slide. One might try and conclude from that that the reference to the Israel of God must be a reference to the Church. And extrapolating from that, that every reference to Israel in the New Testament can be a reference to the Church. But if we do look at those verses, we see that Galatians makes it clear that the absence of any distinction between Jew and Gentile concerns those in Christ Jesus. Verse 15 is, For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision. So that absence of distinction only applies to the Church. The distinction between Israel and the Church still remains. And I would suggest that here, the reference to Israel is a reference to Israel. Perhaps in illustration of the point that the Bible is sometimes difficult to interpret, there might be different approaches to this expression, the Israel of God. Perhaps it does mean Israelites who have become believers, who have become part of the Church. My own view is that it is a reference to Israel. At the beginning of the part that's quoted at the top of the slide, Paul is giving a benediction of peace be upon them, peace be upon believers. And the end is, and upon Israel. And we know from Romans that Paul had a great love for Israel, for his kinsmen. And my own view is that he's just repeating that here, that he's seeking peace to be upon Israel, even if they're not believers, but just because he has such a love for his own people. But in any event, it's clear that there remains a distinction between Israel and the Church. One last passage to look at is from Romans 9. There are a few verses in that chapter which might be relied upon to suggest that God has broken down all distinctions between Jews and Gentiles, or between Israel and the nations. A couple of them are quoted there. They are not all Israel which are of Israel. And then in verse 25, God saying that he will call them his people who are not his people. So it could be said that the Church has replaced Israel as God's chosen people. But this is perhaps an example of where we need to look at things in context, because chapters 9 through to 11 of Romans, in fact, deal with dispensational distinctions. In the chapter that we've got, verse 6 is distinguishing between faithful and non-faithful Israelites. And verse 25 is just an example of God's sovereign choice in showing grace to people who are or who were not his people on this earth. In chapter 11, we see that God still has plans for Israel. We read there that Israel has been made blind and has been replaced, if you like, by the Gentiles in terms of who God is showing favor to at the moment. But that doesn't last forever. In the verse that's quoted at the bottom of the slide, it's only until the fullness of the Gentiles, only until this current dispensation. It's implicit in this verse that's quoted there, that there still is a future for Israel. So again, this passage can't properly support the contention that the Church has replaced Israel. So just to summarize where we've got to, Israel was God's chosen people in Old Testament times. And because they were, and because God loved them, God made a number of promises to them. The Church is something entirely different. It wasn't known at all in Old Testament times. It was a mystery, something that was created after the Lord was resurrected and rose to heaven. And it has a heavenly hope. During this current dispensation, Israel has been set aside because of their unfaithfulness. But Israel has not been set aside forever. After the rapture of the Church, we might say the prophetic clock will resume. And God will resume dealing with Israel in literal fulfillment of the promises that he made to them. These last couple of points on the slide, I think, are very important. God spoke to Old Testament believers. He also spoke to them through prophets. And they made predictions about the future. And the people who received God's words, or the prophets' words, understood them literally. Again, to go back to the verses about Abraham. Abraham no doubt understood that he was going to be taken to a particular land, a particular portion of this earth. And that one day that was going to be given to his descendants. That was the way that God's promises were understood. I'm sure we all recognize that God is faithful and he keeps his promises. If we were to suggest that any of his promises should now be interpreted in a different way, as perhaps applying to us, then we're effectively making God a liar. And it is quite a serious thing. Because it means that when he gave his promises to Old Testament believers, that in fact he didn't really mean them in the way that those people understood them. Perhaps just to finish with a couple of points. Why is all of this important? It's not just so that we can understand dispensations correctly and be able to number them all and so on. Errors as to prophecy often lead to errors as to the Christian's place in this world. Relying on a misapplication of prophecy, many people, many Christians for example, might try to establish peace on this earth. Because they read that a time of peace is coming. But in fact a proper appreciation of prophecy makes it clear that the time of peace will only come when our Lord comes and reigns over this earth. He's the only one who can establish peace. A more general application. Why is this important? If we genuinely have a desire for the Bible and desire to put into truth principles such as we have in Psalm 119, that the Bible should be a lamp unto our feet, then we need to have a proper appreciation and understanding of the Bible. And so we do need to understand it in its literal or natural sense so that we can apply it properly to our lives. But perhaps a final application returning to the focus of this weekend and it's the last point on this slide. The church is heavenly and has a heavenly hope. That is each of us here, our true place is in heaven and our true hope is a heavenly hope. If we start confusing Israel and the church, then we lose the hope of what is before us. We rob Israel of its blessings but perhaps more seriously we rob ourselves of the many wonderful hopes and promises that God has given to us in his word. …

… It is clear that with the amount of material available, that to present a balanced view of the points that need to be considered, we haven't time to read every verse, and we haven't time to expand every verse that we do read. Now as David has said, all the notes corresponding to the slides are available online. Now even in this advanced age, it's possible that there are one or two who don't have access to online facilities. Now if you're one of them, all you need to do is go to Michael Hart at the end of the conference, tell him what a nice English gentleman he is, how lovely his wife is, and how delightful his children are, and how well behaved they are, and a credit to the way they've been brought up, he'll provide you with hard copy. I thought he was editing that out. And if he isn't available, go to any of the speakers and they will arrange for a hard copy of any talk, or the whole lot if you wish. In part I'm saying that because this session definitely finishes 5.30 and it's now 5.05. Would you turn again please to a verse that Mark listed, 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 32. Give non-offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God. At the present time, indeed since the day of Pentecost, when the church of the living God was inaugurated, God has recognised three entities, three groups of people on the earth. The nation of Israel, the other Gentile nations, and as a separate entity, the church of the living God. I'm sure we're getting that message by now. And that will continue as long as time shall last, which that will emerge in other things that need to be said. So that's the only scripture I read and I want us all to bear that in mind. This has been made to the next event, the next climactic event when the Lord Jesus comes for his own and takes them to be with himself, a scriptural consideration, the rapture of the believers of the present dispensation and one or two others who don't concern us this afternoon. When that takes place, when we've gone to be with the Lord, there are certain prophetic events which need to be fulfilled to fulfil God's word and they will take at least approximately, perhaps a little more than seven calendar years as we know them. And on slide 96, we list the basic prophecy in Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel 9, and we find that that period of seven years, as Michael indicated on the original overall dispensational talk, that that seven years is split into two periods of three and a half each. Now, not much is said about the first three and a half years of that seven year period, but we get a lot of information in the book of Revelation about the second half of Daniel's seventieth week, which we've listed there. We'll start now with reminding and refreshing our memories. Israel has a future, God says so, and as said earlier, there's nothing new under the sun. The world at large at the moment is saying, well, we hope for a final improvement, but things will get worse before they get better, and I'm sure they're right. We know from scripture that for the nation of Israel, things will get much, much worse before they get better. And where we turn to for that, we look at Daniel and Revelation and others. This is not the scope of this afternoon's talk. Just a reminder, it is a scriptural topic, and scripture gives the details if we are prepared to look forward. Well, there will be that seven year period when Israel will find to their horror that things will get worse and worse, and eventually, when they are on the brink of extermination by all their enemies round about them, with enemies to the north of Palestine, the east of Palestine, and to the south of Palestine, there with their backs to the Mediterranean Sea, they will be on the point of extermination as a nation, and then, and only then, will they be delivered by a personal Redeemer, their personal Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ. And when that happens, I'm telescoping a lot together, when they are delivered, they will find to their delight that they are constituted God's earthly nation again, which as we've heard, they've forfeited by their sinfulness and wickedness, but God will give them life as a nation, and they will rejoice in that which God is bringing in. Now we get little touches of this. In Ezekiel 36, we get an illustration of new birth. In chapter 37, we get an illustration of quickening. Let me remind you what we've heard. Things that will be true of Israel as a nation are true of Christians now as individuals. We need deliverance as they need deliverance. We need to be born of God as individuals. They will need to be born of God as a nation, Ezekiel 36. We need new life. We need to be quickened as individuals, and they need to be given new life, Ezekiel 37, and so on. We've had a little bit about the dispensational part of Romans 9, 10, and 11. I won't repeat that. Israel has a future then, set aside at the moment because of their rank disobedience. Because of that, they will pass through a terrible time of tribulation, details of which Scripture gives, which are outside the scope of this particular talk. But they have a hope, and what we have to bear in mind, Mark referred to it briefly – Israel's hopes are earthly, relative to the earth, they are material, and related to material things, and they are temporal, related to time. Whereas the Christian's hope, the Christian's blessings, are heavenly rather than earthly, spiritual rather than material, and they are eternal rather than temporal. Well, these things we've learned from Scripture. It will be an amazing thing for the nation of Israel. When they are delivered by their personal Messiah, they will look at him on the point of their deliverance, and they will be obliged to say, it's him, the one that we crucified, the one that we put to death, Isaiah 53, is the belated cry from the redeemed of Israel when he appears in power and great glory as they look back to what happened at Calvary. Think of that, the words were prophesied about 800 BC, they will be spoken at his appearing which is probably just a little more or about seven years from now, and they will say words that will take them back to what happened at the cross of Calvary. That's prophecy as the Scripture gives it. Now this hope that Israel as a nation has, where do we look for it in Scripture? Well for a start, the public appearing in glory of the Lord Jesus is spoken about much, much more than the private coming for his own which we speak of as the rapture, a scriptural expression usually referred to in Scripture as catching away or snatching away, but the word and the thought is there. But when the Lord Jesus comes in power and great glory, bringing his heavenly saints with him, he will then introduce this period of blessing for the nation of Israel. Now how are we to recognise from Scripture when that period is referred to? Well there are a number of terms. One is the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ in 2 Peter. The other is, another is the millennium, well we'll come to that, the word is scriptural even if the Latin word isn't found in our English Bibles and we read about that in Revelation 20. But I would certainly encourage us all to take account of this other term which is not used so much or so often as it might be because it gives part of the character of the coming kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Six times over in the Synoptic Gospels, Ephesians and twice in Hebrews, we get this phrase, the world to come. Now speaking about things at the moment, the Bible speaks about the present world, sometimes it talks about the present evil world and sometimes the world that now is. Well that's in contrast to the world that is to come. And it is a reminder that the world that is coming, Christ's world when he will be supreme will be entirely different in character to the world as it is now. And we are just for a few moments going to think about this. Clearly we cannot limit our knowledge to what we see or hear today and tomorrow. We do really need to get to the scriptures to study them and to meditate upon them prayerfully and carefully. And when we do that, you will find that one way of putting it is that there will be seven major features about the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, the millennium, the world to come. It has its own character. It has its own king. There are those who are given the privilege of being subjects of that kingdom. There are blessings or benefits connected with the kingdom. The kingdom has a beginning, a commencement. It has a duration and it has an end. We need to go to Daniel chapters 2 and 5 where again it may seem a surprise but God raised up a Gentile king, the first, the head of the first of four Gentile kings who would successively conquer and have the rule over the nation of Israel or at least part of it. And we get in him, even though apart from a small period he could not be called a godly man, nevertheless he was put in a position which attracted certain features which illustrate the kind of king that God's king in the kingdom will be like. So we have here that this, the overriding principle will be one of righteousness. Old Testament, Isaiah 32, behold a king shall reign in righteousness. And that lovely verse, we use it in the gospel, that's fine, but really it's about the world to come that the verse really refers to at 1731, God has appointed a day in which he will rule the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained whereof he is given assurance in that he has raised him from among the dead. Third feature, this kingdom will never be superseded by any other. Yes, literal interpretation of the Bible, all for it, we must be. But we have to read words with care, taking account of the immediate context and then the context of scripture as a whole. Now it's like that when we come across the word eternal or the word everlasting. Usually we would expect it to mean forever and ever, although the main emphasis in the word eternal is not duration but the character of the thing. But we have to learn that there are places in scripture where everlasting or eternal is used, not in the sense of everlasting duration, but in the sense that having been installed by God, it will never be superseded by any other, neither man nor demon can eradicate it or remove it, and this kingdom will never be superseded by another. To the believer, one of the most delightful things about this kingdom is, and the king is, his name is Jesus, my saviour, who loved me and gave himself for me. Oh yes, there's much to instruct the renewed mind in the prophetic outline, whether it's about Gentiles, the Jew, or the church of God, but central to this is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. So I would say this ranks in a tremendous way as an outstanding feature. His name is Jesus. Secondly, because he is the king, he gives character to the kind of kingdom that he is. And when you get the notes in detail, look at these features. When we start reading the Bible as Christians, it takes some length of time, reading the Bible carefully, before we realise that everything relates to Christ as such. And one of the most delightful blessings about trusting Jesus as saviour is that when he comes in glory, we'll be alongside of him. He's coming for us, that we might be with him, and then at a later stage, that he might come at his appearing and we, to use the word, his consort, his companion in his public presentation in glory, will be the church of the living God. A delightful thing. In fact, scripture goes further than I could ever go in my own reasoning. Scripture speaks of the church of the living God as the complement, the fullness of him that filleth all things. And I wouldn't dare to say it, but scripture tells me the church, you and me, all believers of the present day, we are so special to the Lord Jesus that he does not count himself to be complete unless he has us with him as his partner, his bride, his wife, and as the scripture variously distinguishes this. The church is the king's consort. Scripture makes it plain that when Jesus comes to take us to be with himself privately at the rapture, that he will come, set up the kingdom, and then having established the kingdom by his power and great glory, he will then withdraw from the earth, but he will leave in Jerusalem a prince regent of the house of David to conduct his affairs on earth during that thousand years reign. This is something that takes us time to come to, but it's what scripture says. We need to read the later chapters of Ezekiel to come to that conclusion. Who are the subjects of the kingdom? Well, we need, there are various, there's a hierarchy relative to this. The chain of command from God through Christ through the church of the living God down to earth to Jerusalem and out through the nation and the tribes of Israel to the four quarters of the earth. And there will be features I can do no more than list now in order to keep to the time. And Jerusalem will be God's earthly center. Now let us say again, the main emphasis in the blessing of Israel is that it is the center and administrative center of a world government. Micah tells us that it will be the teacher's training college for the world, tells us it will be the center of worship. And so we could go on. We are being selective. There are other features for which there isn't time. But wonderful thing, for a period of a thousand years, there will be things that are rarely seen now. First of all, there will be justice or righteousness. There will be peace. There will be joy. Now pause there. Your minds will be going to Romans 14 and you'll be thinking, ah, the New Testament says something very similar. The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, material things, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. The moral features, which will be stable and current in the world to come, are intended to be seen in Christian believers of the present day. Fourth feature, fertility, the scriptures are listed. The curse having been removed, there will be fertility, increased yield in persons and in land. There will be longevity. Have you ever wondered why the oldest man that ever lived, Methuselah, was taken out away from earth in 969? He didn't quite make the millennium. He didn't quite make a thousand years, a full cycle of time. We can expect that in a world that's riddled by sin. But in the millennium, in the world to come, the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, death when it occurs will be exceptional, but it will be summary judgment when sin occurs. Animal creation will show itself in the way they treat each other. Scripture tells us that the bigger ones, the more powerful, will no longer be carnivorous, but that they will all be at peace with one another, eating, having a common diet. Seventhly, I've said opposition, rebellion, idolatry will be no more. This wonderful situation, this future where Israel is the administrative center of blessing for the whole world, it will commence with the appearing in glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. It will last for a thousand years. Now here's a case where we must take it literally. Sometimes people have said to me, but it's only mentioned in one place. If it is clear and within the framework of Bible prophecy, if there were only one place, it would be sufficient, wouldn't it? But I like the way that in this concentrated section of seven verses in Revelation 20, we get a thousand years, the thousand years, to couple it, repeated three times. So it is a period extending a thousand years, but it's not any old thousand years. It's a special thousand years, a specific thousand years where God will be vindicated for the way he has been long suffering with men and with the nation of Israel until that happy period dawns. So it's not only a thousand years, it's a specific thousand years. Now, again, it will never, ever be superseded by another kingdom. As time merges into eternity, and it's not our subject this afternoon, we can see what scripture intends us to understand. Where all previous kingdoms have been conquered and superseded by someone else, that will never be true of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. When God's ways have been recognised, fulfilled on earth, time will merge into eternity after one expression of defiance and rebellion by Satan and his hordes. This kingdom, proper as in the future, it's the climax of God's ways on earth. As all blessing and for the glory of God, it centers on Christ personally. It rests upon the work of the death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we need the whole scripture to give us the force and the balance of it. One more thing. We will come to this. There are two sessions which give us the practical implications of the things we're talking about. I would only say this, does God give us information about the future of Israel? Yes, he does. Does he give information about the future of the world? Yes, he does. But when God gives us information about the future, it's with the intention that it regulates our lives at the present time. Now, it gives us the grace and the facilities for acting now in the light of what God is going to do in the future, and acting in the light of what he has taught us to be true. As we say, God grants that having been here and saturating ourselves in what scripture says about what God is going to do in the future, that he would give us the grace and the courage to be obedient to what he says he's going to do. …

… Ephesians chapter 3 to begin with. Ephesians chapter 3 verse 1. For this cause I pull the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you would, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in few words, whereby when you read you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel, whereof I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power, unto me who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. No doubt we'll refer back to those verses as we go through the presentation. The church and her hope. Now when each of us were preparing our slides I'm sure we were thinking well I need to say this and I need to say that to put my presentation in context but of course others were preparing slides for their subjects too and some of the things that I've put in my slides don't really have to be dwelt on for very long because they've already been spoken about. The church and our subject which is the dispensations. God works out his purpose in different ways at different times. We've seen that. We call those ways dispensations, literally household arrangements but all this has been mentioned already so I won't spend a lot of time on it. The present dispensation and I know that we've wondered whether we can call this present time a dispensation in the same sense as the other times in which God has wrote his will in this world but for the sake of simplicity we're just regarded as a dispensation to involves the church. Now I'm using the term church because that's the one we normally use but I'm sure most if not all of you here are aware that there's a better word for the original word in the Bible which is ecclesia, called out ones, the assembly and we're going to refer to that in a moment. But of course one of the things we can say about this present time, this present household arrangement is that it involves the church and this is a very precious subject for all of us, the church, the assembly of God. Now the church isn't a dispensation but intimately connected with one and we've just mentioned that. Sometimes people wonder what my pictures mean. I hope that they convey something of the subject but I'm trying to convey here that this one is very special and that might be conveyed by the orange step. Other dispensations as we've seen already have a lot to do with human relationships, couples, Adam and Eve, families, Abraham and his descendants, not forgetting Noah and his family, nations, the people of Israel. But in this day we have a very different arrangement. The membership of the church is based on a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus. Israel was under the dealings and blessings and discipline of God. But for that to happen you just had to be born an Israelite. You might be ever so profane and disobedient to God in your own life but you were still under the terms of God's relationship with Israel. That isn't the case today. To benefit from what we're speaking about today you must have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus. It means trusting him only for salvation. No one else and nothing else. And that's because of his work upon the cross of Calvary. And grace characterizes the dispensation that we're in today. It's a wonderful word. We've already had it spoken about a number of times. We've thought about it as the riches of God at Christ's expense. And the church is the fruit of God's grace. Remember the Lord Jesus likened himself to the corn of wheat falling into the ground. He died falling into the judgment as it were of God. But from his death there has come much fruit for God and we're part of that fruit. So a very personal question. A wistful look on the face of this girl. And I hope if there's anyone here who's come along perhaps because their parents have come along. Perhaps because their friends have come along. And also because of the prayer we had earlier. This isn't an academic thing. This is a most important thing. You can't get anything more important than this. You could listen and understand all about the dispensations. You could be a great dispensationalist and yet not know the Lord Jesus as your savior. You could still go into a Christless eternity. So we would say to you, what about you and God? What about you? Are you really a Christian? And that's another aspect of the dispensation too. It's Christian. Christian means Christ man, Christ woman. If you look at that first assembly outside Jerusalem which the Bible speaks much of at Antioch in Syria. You'll see that they were marked by disciples who were believers. Who gathered together. Who heard and learned and put into practice the apostles teaching. Remember Barnabas was there. He went and got Paul to come along with him. They taught in the church there. And what happened? That was the first place where disciples were called Christians. It's the Christian dispensation. But they were called Christians by other people. Other people saw Christ in them. They were identified with Christ because of what they believed and how they behaved. And we have to ask ourselves the question, are we like them? It's the Christian dispensation. What makes the church the church? Well we've already mentioned that church means assembly or called out ones. Believers on the Lord Jesus have been called out of this world. Now this is going to influence what's going to happen I'm sure with what we say in the next two presentations. It's a very important feature. Remember we said earlier on that in other dispensations it can be quite clearly seen that God is working out purposes in this world which affect this earth. But what makes this a special kind of dispensation is that Christians have been called out of this world. They're not being expected to play some part in this world. And I won't say any more for fear of anticipating what we'll say in the next two presentations. And Christians were baptized into one body by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Remember those believers, those followers of the Lord Jesus who were in the upper room. Upper room. It's all evocative, isn't it, of what the church is about. They were in the upper room. A heavenly thought. Something above this world. And on that day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit baptized them into one body. That's what the Bible means by baptism by the Holy Spirit. It's not an individual thing. It's a collective thing that makes us one body. And it happened because the Lord Jesus had gone back to heaven. Remember in John chapter 7 he said he would pour out his Holy Spirit. And that's what happened on the day of Pentecost. Consequent on his ascension and exaltation the Holy Spirit came down. Two fundamental aspects of the current day are contained in this thought. That there's a man in the glory of heaven and there's a divine person here upon earth indwelling the church. And those who've believed on him since that wonderful day have been included in that baptism, have been added to those believers, have been added to the assembly. It's in Acts chapter 2 verse 47. So the church is not a continuation of Israel. Remembering what we just read from Ephesians chapter 3. This has been mentioned already. A mystery. Something not known before. Even to those great worthies of the Old Testament they didn't know what was going to happen in this current day. They had no idea of how God was going to work. That should immediately make us realize that there is a dispensational aspect of the dealings of God. That the church is not a continuation of Israel. The Lord Jesus himself said in Matthew chapter 16, I will build my church. Obviously the church didn't exist already at that time. I will build my church. And remarkably the church comprises Jew and Gentile. One aspect of Israel was that it was exclusive to those born Jews. I know there are exceptions. I know about Ruth. You do as well. But characteristically it was a national thing. Limited to those who were born of the stock of Abraham. But the church includes Jew and Gentile. And we read about the Gentiles being those, I'll just read it so I don't get the verse wrong, in which the apostle Paul says in verse 6 of Ephesians chapter 3, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. And you've only got to see the importance of this to God for it to come home to our own hearts. We have in Jerusalem the Holy Spirit confirming the work that was done that day. That he had done by the signs, the speaking in tongues that occurred on the day of Pentecost. A very signal in itself that the work that was being done was going to spread beyond the confines of Israel. The confines of the Jewish system. But in Samaria there were those who came to know the Lord Jesus through Philip's preaching. John, Peter came down. They verified what was happening. That same gift was given to confirm it was a work of God. And then in Cornelius' house, in Acts chapter 10, the very same thing happened when the gospel was preached and they believed. Gentiles, full Gentiles if you like, brought in to the blessing of God. And in a sense the church is more Gentile than Jewish. You only have to read some of the things that the apostle Paul says in Acts to see that as the people of Israel generally rebelled against the preaching that was made firstly by Stephen, that led to him being stoned, and then by the apostle Paul, that really there was a turning to the Gentiles. And so in many ways we see what's prefigured in women in the Old Testament like Asenath and Zipporah. We see that the church is predominantly Gentile. Israel has been set aside until the church has gone to heaven. And that's the teaching we get in Romans chapter 11. So what are the big differences between Israel's day, that dispensation in the past, and the church's day, the current day? Well we've seen some of them. Law was what came through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Ongoing sacrifices in the Jewish system. Today a finished work, the work of Jesus Christ religion of the Jews was chiefly an earthly one. The very sphere of blessing we had it was earthly. Man looked for prosperity on this earth. We look to heaven as we've been singing in our hymn. Our citizenship is in heaven. Their service was material. It involved animal and vegetable sacrifices. Our service is a spiritual one. The very features of that system were symbolic. The burnt offering for instance was symbolic of something that was going to answer to it perfectly in the death of the Lord Jesus. We've got the reality of that today. We see in the burnt offering the wonderful offering of the Lord Jesus upon the cross of Calvary when he devoted himself to his father's will even unto death. And of course we could say that of the other offerings as well. As we've already mentioned the Jewish system was a national one. Our one is for all as it says in Romans chapter 10 verse 12. In Judaism the status of people was of servants and children. We get this in Galatians. But it's brought out that we are sons. God dwelt among the people of Israel. A wonderful thing was mentioned in the meeting this morning at Plumstead. God dwelt among his people Israel in the camp, in the tabernacle. That was a wonderful privilege for the people of Israel. But God indwells the church as we get in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 16 a completely different thing. Israel was time bound from the foundation of the world and not continuing into eternity. But the church was the thought of God from eternity, the mystery that we just thought about in Ephesians chapter 3 and goes on into eternity because the Lord Jesus said the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. It goes on into eternity as we see in Revelation. The church is so special to God. Some of these things that we've got here could be said about Israel. Yes she had a house, she had a temple. But the church is the house of God, is the temple of God, a spiritual house. Yes Israel is presented often like a bride, like a wife. But the church is the bride, is the wife of the Lamb. And yes sometimes Israel is likened to sheep, God's sheep, the sheep he cares for. He was so concerned about when those who should have been shepherds didn't look after them. But the church is called the flock of God. And in contrast to Israel is presented in that rather lovely way as the flock when Israel is simply referred to as the foe. There shall be one flock and one shepherd. But the most basic presentation of the church that we have in scripture is as the body. And you won't find a reference to Israel as being the body. An organism, not an organisation. The Lord Jesus is the head of the body. United to him all saints, all believers on the Lord Jesus are united to him. He is the head. The body is one, it has many members. Each believer is a member. There should be unity and variety not uniformity or independence. We have differences as to gift and responsibility but each one of us is a member of Christ's body. That intimacy, that closeness of relationship to him is something that was never true in Israel in that previous dispensation. We should be joints of supply seeking to build one another up in our most holy faith. Do we realise how vital we are to one another? Not because of who we are but because we are connected to the Lord Jesus and he wants to use us for his glory, for the blessing of each and every saint that we come into contact with and as a witness to those who are outside this wonderful grace of God. But we've heard before that dispensations have gone wrong. God has put responsibility in people's hands and they failed. They failed the particular responsibility that God has given to them. Israel is the classic example. There to be a witness for God in this world and yet turn into the idolatry of the nations around them and rebelling and acting and behaving in a way that was even worse than the nations around them. And in some ways this is where it's all too sadly true that the current day is a dispensation because we failed in regard to our responsibilities for God. As in every other dispensation God's people haven't been faithful to him and his word. But God is faithful to his people and that's what we've seen, haven't we? In God's dealings with men, although they haven't been faithful, he has been faithful. And so the story of the church's failure also tells us that he will help those who want to put the truth of the church into practice. And that really is one of the key exercises I think behind this day, this conference. That as we understand the dispensations we realize just what our privileges are today, just what our responsibilities are today, and we seek to put them into practice. Not because we think we're better than other Christians, far be the thought, but we realize just how much this is close to the heart of God. And if we do realize that and we seek his help and we keep humble and lowly, he will help us to be overcomers. And that's the message, isn't it, of Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3. Now I'm going to show you a slide which I think gave Mike a little bit of a shock when he saw it. He wondered what I was going to say. But I do just want to say that there have been others who've been faithful in previous centuries of the church's existence, and to whom we owe a great deal for their faithfulness. Because on the left is a church as it was in England up until the time of the Reformation. You would have gone in that door underneath the spire because I think we would have all been those who would have gone through that door. And we would have stood there in that place and we would have had no part to play in the church service. The whole church service would have been conducted behind that screen that you see there. All the singing would have gone on there. You could have smelled the incense, you could have heard the singing, but you probably wouldn't have seen much and you wouldn't have participated in it. How different is that from what God intends for his people? We enjoyed this morning, didn't we, where we gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. The freedom to be together around him and to sing praises to him, to worship him in our heart. For those who were directed by the Holy Spirit to give sound in prayer to the thoughts that we had in our hearts, to read out God's word. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst. How different is that from what the Lord Jesus intends for his people when they come together? You know, it's one of the great gifts of the Reformation. The fact that the brother who was led by the Lord to act in faith, Martin Luther, he emphasised the importance of congregational singing and he wrote hymns. Many of the Reformation leaders wrote hymns because they believed that all the people of God should be involved in the worship of God. The one on the right is the kind of compromise church that occurred after the Reformation, which we won't go into in too much detail, but I just put that slide up to you to indicate really in the church there has been a return to the old Jewish way of worship, being at a distance, not participating, being outside. One of the themes of the meeting this morning at Plumstead was that we've been brought nigh by the precious blood of Christ and we should value what it is to be gathered about the Lord Jesus. When we remember him in his death and we can give worship to the Father, we are near and we can't be nearer than we are because of what the Lord Jesus has accomplished for us. But we see always that the devil is trying to undermine what God wants to accomplish in his dealings with us. This is the picture of the history of the church in Revelation 2 and 3. We haven't got enough time to go into it, but it just shows you that right at the beginning there was a loss of first love. They left, or rather they left their first love is the more scriptural way to put it. And what has it ended up in the end? A complete lukewarmness in regard to God. We have to challenge our hearts. How much are we really devoted to the Lord Jesus in our lives and in our companies of his people? So what's next? Well, you know, sometimes things strike you and you say, somebody referred to this yesterday, people deny the rapture, the heavenly hope. But you know, there's a remarkable thing, isn't it? That in this panorama of the church's history in Revelation 2 and 3, what's immediately said in the beginning of chapter 4, come up hither. Don't you feel when you read words like that, the Holy Spirit is saying to us, that's the truth of the rapture. When the church's time on earth has gone, she has come to an end according to the purposes of God. The Lord Jesus will call her up to be with him in heaven. That wonderful hope that we have. The Lord Jesus gave himself to receive and present the church to himself. We're going to be called up to heaven and we're going to enjoy the marriage and the marriage supper of the Lamb. The tribulation, what happens on earth, is of a completely different character from the ways of God in grace with his heavenly people. And it's when he comes to judge, we'll come with him. We had that emphasized to us yesterday. So the church's wonderful future is a blessed hope, is a heavenly hope. It's above. We're a heavenly people. Our citizenship is in heaven. It's not down here. The glorious appearing is a different thing from the blessed hope. That's the church being called up to be with Christ. The appearing is when he deals with this earth. One is a secret thing we could say as far as this world is concerned. Another is a very public thing. And after that, after the marriage and the marriage supper of the Lamb, as wife, the church will reign with him over the kingdom. We'll be the consort of the Lord Jesus for a thousand years. It's a different way to the way things happen at the moment in our marriages, isn't it? We're a bride for a day if we're a woman, and we are then the wife for the rest of our lives together. But the wife, the church's wife, she's going to be wife for a thousand years. Maybe this is making it a little bit too cut and dried, but I'm trying to convey the thought that we'll enjoy being the bride for eternity. We have bridal characteristics already, of course, but you know what I'm saying. So let's give the Lord Jesus the preeminence and seek to keep the unity of the Spirit among us today. Do you want to become a member of the church? I'm sure what we've heard would encourage anyone who hasn't trusted the Lord Jesus to say, I want to be a member of that church. I'm not talking about the Brethren or the Baptist, the Church of England. I'm talking about the church as it's presented in scripture. Do you want to be a member of that church? You need to believe on the Lord Jesus as your saviour. It's not enough to be baptised or to take communion, certainly not to join a denomination. If you want to be a member, you just simply have to trust the Lord Jesus as your saviour. Of course, that's perhaps not the chief motivation why we've become Christians, but I hope that something of what you said would really encourage our hearts to put into practice what it is to be a Christian today in this current day and age, and anyone who hasn't trusted the Lord Jesus, trust him now before it's too late. Don't be left behind, because when the church goes, you'll have no opportunity to be saved there. Let's encourage ourselves with these thoughts anyway. …

… Well, it is my job to take on session number 10. I'm very thankful that 10 is the number in Scripture which we often say is the number of responsibility. I spoke to an old sister last evening and she said to me, we've heard a lot today and each one of us is responsible to live up and to answer to what we've heard. And so what I say in the little session here will be something that will be practical. And I trust as we have listened to these lectures on the dispensation, we've had a lot of doctrine, a lot of truth that we may look at them and apply them to our lives in our everyday walk. Now I'm going to begin by reading two verses. One is in Isaiah. It's Isaiah 30 verse 21. We'll just read the middle of that verse. Isaiah 30 verse 21. This is the way, walk ye in it. And a verse in James chapter 1. James chapter 1 and verse 22. But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own self. So what we've heard this week and we have now got to put it into practice and we've got to say what difference is it going to make what I've heard? Is it going to be any different or am I going to go home tonight and go to school, to college, to work tomorrow or whatever we do? Is it going to have any effect upon my life? And upon the various subjects, the various points that are for me to bring before you. The other problem I had is as I sat listening to the lectures yesterday and again today, I was slowly ticking off all the points that I was going to bring out. All the practical points that I heard. Hugh spoke from Galatians 3. The law is the schoolmaster to Christ. I thought there goes a good point. Ernie spoke on that verse from Romans chapter 10. Christ is the end of the law. Nick spoke on the progressive revelation of God. And there went my third theme. And then Andrew mentioned last night the fact that this world is under the authority of Satan. And there went another one. But then I thought to myself, if I'm going to try and tell you something practical, it's got to be based on the doctrine. And we've heard the doctrine of the dispensations. And I want to just to open this up and to apply it to us. Now, here we have a Christian who ignores dispensation distinctions is likely to go wrong in our practical life. And we have some examples. And we're going to look very briefly at these examples. The first one is law keeping. And the second is worship. And we have two things, the addressing to Christ and the use of Old Testament Psalms. And then on here, it's Christian giving. Very practical things that we should consider as we have spent time looking at the dispensations. The one that we're going to look at first is this whole question of keeping the law. There are many believers that firmly believe and we have to accept that they are genuine believers on the Lord Jesus. They are part of the church. They will be part of that company that will form the bride of Christ. And yet they believe sincerely that we ought to keep the law, that we ought to follow the law, that the law should be the motive in our lives, obeying the law. And so I asked the question, is the law sin? It wasn't me asked the question. It was the Apostle Paul writing to the Romans in Romans 7 verse 7. And the answer is given, no, the law is not sinful. What is the law? The Apostle Acts in chapter 7 verse 12. And he answers it, it is perfect, it is just, it is good. There is nothing wrong with the law. And as we heard previously, the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. And I think that gives us a little help and it shows the distinction. The law till Christ. We read in John 1, the law was given by Moses, grace and truth came by Christ Jesus. And what is the purpose of the law? Paul goes on to say, the purpose of the law is that it shows us what sin is. And I'm sure that we know what sin is. But that same law can be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. And so we find that we could not keep the law. And the verse that we could perhaps read in Romans chapter 8 and verse 4. We've got that there. Romans 8 verse 3, for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. God send in his own sinful son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. The law couldn't heal man. The reason why the law didn't work was not because the law was bad. It was because we are bad. It's because we have within us the flesh and the flesh could not keep the law. And again, referring to yesterday, to those verses in Deuteronomy, where we have the curse and the blessing, because we are incapable of keeping the law. And if it was left to us to keep the law, it would be failure after failure. And the wonderful thing is, is that because man couldn't keep the law, because man couldn't obtain eternal life on this earth through keeping the law, that God sent his son, the Lord Jesus. And so when a believer attempts to keep the law, we are trying to improve the flesh. It's the flesh that will want to keep the law. It's my own self that would want to do something to seek to be slightly better, to be more in keeping with what God wants. But we find that the law was unable to be kept by mankind. But it does say in that verse eight, four, it's fulfilled in us. And I'm going to take up the story that we had yesterday of Mary. You remember the story of Mary, the young girl who was in the house as a maid. And while she was in that house, she had to abide by the rules. And if she broke the rules, she got punished. And yet there came a time as she grew into, from a maid to a young girl, that the son of the house spied her. And the son of the house said he would like to have her for his wife. And instead of being a servant, she was promoted, and she became the wife of the heir of the whole house. And in that condition, she didn't keep the law. It wasn't her object to keep the law. But she did keep the law. And the reason why she kept it was because of her love for her husband. And if we really have affection for the Lord Jesus, we will automatically, so to speak, keep those laws that God has given. They are just, they are perfect, and they are good. And so we're not going to say we're going to completely dismiss them. But we're not making them our motive in life. And so as we move through this scene, we will be able to fulfill the law by our devotion to the Lord Jesus. The next question on our list was, is Jesus my King? Very good question that is often raised. And there are many of our believers, again, that believe that the Lord Jesus is King, and they feel free to sing to the Lord Jesus as the King. And we have further questions on this subject in relation to singing to the Lord Jesus as King. But I ask this simple question, is Jesus King now? Is the Lord Jesus the King? Well, Luke 19, 14 gives us the answer. They said, we will not have this man to reign over us. The nation of Israel united together and said, we don't want Jesus as our King. And at this present moment, the Lord Jesus is a rejected man. He is rightfully the King of Israel. And one day, as we've seen previously, He will be King. But at this moment, the Lord Jesus is rejected. That verse in 1 Corinthians 15, 25 says, He must reign. It is absolutely vital in a world in which the Lord Jesus was cast out and crucified that He is going to reign and He is going to be supreme. But at the moment, the Lord Jesus is not King. When He is King, we shall reign with Him, 2 Timothy 2, verse 12. The Corinthians, they got it wrong because they reigned as Kings. We're living in a day, dearly beloved friends, when our Lord Jesus is rejected. Where He is not wanted. And if we are going to be associated with Him today, we have to be associated with a man that is rejected. And are we prepared to follow a man that is rejected and not wanted by this world? Because if we are going to be true to what we've heard today and yesterday, we're going to have to follow a man that is rejected. Not one that is King, but one that will be King. I might not have convinced you yet, but if you look up the term King in Acts and all the epistles, it will only appear in relation to the Lord Jesus twice. In 1 Timothy, one of those verses says, who in his day he will declare, who is that only potentate King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And yet it's around 460 times that the Lord Jesus is referred to as our Lord. And why don't we stick to the scriptural definition and call Him our Lord? And may that have an effect upon us, that we may, in our practical lives, realise that the Lord Jesus is the one who should be in control of our whole life. And so, is Jesus King at this moment? No. But he is going to be, and he is, or he should be, our Lord. Now we come to giving of tithes. Perhaps we are well familiar with the fact that in the Old Testament, there were those that gave tithes. And most of us would probably remember Jacob, who made a covenant with God, or he made a suggestion to God that if God looked after him, he would give 10% of tithes of all that he had. Abraham, he gave tithes to Melchizedek, so it was something that had already begun. And in the end of Leviticus, we find that there were tithes not only of money, but of land, and of trees, and of the animals. So a giving of a tenth was something that seemed to have been established in the Old Testament order. But then I answer another question, a question that I think we all know the answer. How much did the Lord give? I'm sure that we all would look at this and we would say, well, did he give 10%? Cannot visualize the Lord Jesus just giving 10%. 20 or 40? 50? No, when the Lord Jesus was here, the opening words we mentioned in our meeting here this morning, at the age of 12, he could say, don't you wish or not that I should be about my father's business? The Lord Jesus gave 100%, and Galatians 2 verse 20 says, he gave himself. There was nothing more that the Lord Jesus could give. He gave himself, Matthew 13, 44. He gave all that he has. And if the Lord Jesus was prepared to give all that he has, how about each one of us? Because you know, we're not following Jacob. If we were following Jacob and had Jacob as our Lord, we could justify give 10%. If we were following Moses and the nation of Israel, we could give 10%. But following the Lord Jesus, nothing less than 100% of our lives, of our income, of what we had is worthy of the Lord Jesus. Remember those words that the Lord Jesus said, they're recorded in the three gospels. He that will not come after me, lay down, take up my cross and follow me is not worthy of me. And in Luke 14, we read there, you cannot be a disciple of the Lord Jesus if you are not prepared to devote yourself 100% to him. And so nothing less than 100% is right for us Christians. And this is the challenge that I would give to each one of us. Are we prepared from this day forward to devote our lives 100% to him? Because after all said and done, you don't belong to yourself. 1 Corinthians 6 says, you are not your own, you are bought with a price. Everybody here that is a Christian that knows the Lord Jesus, he has bought you. He bought you in his death upon Calvary's cross. He bought you, you belong to him. And each one of us should devote our lives 100% to the work of the Lord Jesus, not just our money, but our talents. Some of you are at university, some of you are at colleges and you don't have much money, but you have time and you have brains and you have talents. These are the sort of things that we should give 100% to the Lord. And so nothing less than 100% is right for the Christian. Many of us would perhaps agree with that. One of the sad things is that we look around and we tend to look down at our brethren that give 10% of their income and we say, well, I don't give 10%, I give 100%. And we give ourselves a pat on the back and we say, yes, everything that we have, we hold for the Lord. And then we proceed to spend our money on whatever we like for ourselves. And the challenge tonight is this, are we prepared? Are we serious about our Christianity? If so, we should be seriously thinking about giving everything that we have, of holding everything for the Lord Jesus and for his glory. And if we do, we get a reward in heaven. What a tremendous fact that the Lord Jesus is going to reward those that give for him in this scene. And then we come to this final one in relation to the Psalms. What are the Psalms? Quite simply, they're the Jewish hymn book. It wasn't very long ago, perhaps 1500s, when the Psalms was the main hymn that was used in all of our churches in this land. Indeed, when they tried to introduce some of the handwritten hymns in some of the churches, there was great trouble and they wanted to stick to the Psalms. And when would they use some of these Psalms? We have this one, 102, a great Psalm, which is used for the godly in time of trouble. 120 onwards, those that were going up to the feast, the songs of decree. 136, a time of joy and thanksgiving. And yes, they were very good and they are very right to be used at particular times. We touched on this subject that was mentioned yesterday about the revelation of God and I just mentioned this very briefly. God has revealed himself in different ways. We read the verse in Exodus 6 verse 3, read it a year later, it's well worth reading. God revealed himself to Abram as the Almighty. To Moses and the children of Israel, he was revealed as Jehovah, the covenant-keeping God. But to the church, he's revealed as the Father. And I suggest that the Father, the revelation of God as Father, is the highest truth of Christianity. And the reason why I say that is because I want to justify that statement by the three verses that follow. Hebrews 1, God who at sundry times in a diverse manner spoke unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken unto us by or in son. And so we find that the Father, we find that God has spoken, not by the prophets now, but he is speaking in his son. And speaking reverently, there is no other one that God could speak in. He gave his very best. We read the verse in John 3, 16, we know it off by heart. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. And so coming into this scene of the son of God is something which is absolutely unique. And according to John 1, 18, the only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him. The only way in which the Father could be declared, the only way in which God as Father could be known, was if somebody came who was intimately and knew God. And the Lord Jesus was always in the bosom of the Father, and he came into this world and was competent to reveal the Father. And therefore we have a revelation of the Father by the Lord Jesus. And there is no other revelation. God is not going to be revealed in any other way, because he has been revealed by his Son as the Father. And John 4, verse 23 tells us very simply that God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth, because the Father seeketh such to worship him. And so true Christian worship is to the Father. If in this present dispensation, this present time of the of the church, we have a revelation of the Father in the person of the Lord Jesus, true Christian worship is to the Father, as God was not revealed as Father till the coming of his Son. And so the Psalms cannot be used for Christian worship because they were written before the Father was revealed. That to me is very simple. If we want to use hymns which would be of Christian worship, they have to be those hymns which address God as our Father. We're very thankful that in our hymn book there are many hymns which are addressed to God as Father. So in the Psalms, what do we do with them? Are they any good for our practical use? Well the Psalms are the experience of godly men. They're an experience of men that walk through this scene. We too are walking through this scene, and we can use the Psalms as an expression of experiences that we have. But as far as our Christian worship, we cannot use the Psalms. They are addressed to God as Jehovah, and if we are to act rightly, we have to use hymns which are addressed to God as our Father. There was a subsequent question that was raised, passed on to me yesterday. It was in relation to addressing divine persons. The question goes similar to this. In the Old Testament, we have God known as the Almighty. We have God known as Jehovah. We have God known now as the Father. Is it right at this present day, in this present dispensation, to address God as Jehovah? Or should we always address God as our Father? Well I'm going to stick my neck out and say that everybody in this room has heard and has had the ability to sit under ministry this few days, where you have been brought to realise that the revelation of God as Father is the highest possible truth. And as responsible to reply to that, we ought to address God in our prayers as our Father. Would it be wrong for somebody who hasn't had this truth, and we have to acknowledge that there are those in churches around us that haven't had the privilege of sitting under ministry as we have, that has given us the truth of the revelation of the Father, and they pray to Jehovah. They may even pray to the Almighty. That's their responsibility. But I believe that our responsibility here today is to live up to the truth and to the light that we have. And having had these truths brought before us, that we live in a time, we live in a dispensation if you like, where God is revealed as Father. Surely it would be right for us to address God as Father. Indeed, I could go a step further and say it would be wrong for us not to address God as Father. And I use those words that the Lord Jesus said. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Why? Because the Father seeketh such. It is the will of the Father that there is those here in this scene that we are competent and have the intelligence to worship him as our Father. What a wonderful privilege. What a wonderful responsibility that we have. And so, hopefully, that's the end. These simple thoughts, each one of us here are responsible to answer to what we've heard this week. We're here, we're responsible to answer to what we've accumulated over many, many years, many of us in the assemblies, to live our lives that has the truth of the dispensations would be clearly seen that we would give ourselves totally and wholly to the Lord Jesus. …

… Following on, really, from what Rosti was speaking to us about, I'd like to read one verse from Philippians chapter 3. You won't be surprised by the verse. It's chapter 3, verse 20. For our conversation, or you could translate that, our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. The subject, again, is dispensational truth and daily living. But I suppose you could say it could be described as God's ways and our ways, because the dispensations are God's ways in this world. He has different ways according to His mind and will at different times. Now, what we need to make sure is, is our way in accordance with His way? Do they match? Are we going in the same direction as God is, reverently speaking? And for that to be so, we need to know His word and put it into practice. And then we'll be faithful to Him and a blessing to others. And I've given two scriptures there. One scripture from Philippians mentions us as being lights in the midst of a dark and perverse generation. That's from Philippians chapter 2. There's a danger that if we don't follow God's way, our light, our witness will be distorted. It will be in some way masked or may even not be shining at all. So what are His ways today? Well, I'm not going to try and anticipate what Mike's going to say in the last session, but just to look over some of the things that we've been saying about the current day, the church's day, we could describe it, the day of grace, the Christian day, the Spirit's day, the Gentile day. Are we living in accordance with some of those things? Well, of course, we are Gentiles, most of us, I think, here today. But are we being true to the character of the current day? The church's day, the day of grace, the Christian day, the Spirit's day. Now, there's five wonderful facts about today. And I must admit, I got these facts from an article which is on biblecenter.org. But I thought they encapsulated the character of this day very well. There's a man in heaven, we mentioned that earlier. There's a person of the Godhead on earth. The church has come into being. The Father has been revealed. The Lord Jesus could come at any moment. Now, are we living our lives in accordance with those glorious facts? Well, those facts actually help us to live our lives in accordance with God's mind and will. Because the Lord Jesus is in heaven for us. He appears before God for us. The Holy Spirit on earth, we mentioned that he indwells the church. But, of course, he indwells each individual believer, too. To enable him to live for the glory of God. We have the word of God. We have a new nature. But the Holy Spirit gives us the power and energy, guidance, direction to live according to the will of God. We are members of the body of Christ. And we need one another. And we enjoy this most intimate relationship with God. That you couldn't have enjoyed in any other dispensation. Just think of it. You and I can say to God, Father. In fact, we can go further than that. We can say, Abba, Father. Doesn't that bring home to you the reality of the work of the Lord Jesus upon the cross? That he's brought us into this close relationship. Nearer we cannot be to God. We know him as our Father. He's the one who cares for us. Who loves us. He's the one who desires to hear our worship to him. And we've got a heavenly hope. We've got an object in heaven, the Lord Jesus. If we can refer to him as that. Sounds a bit impersonal. But we've got a person as an object. A hope. Someone to whom we look. But someone also to whom we're going. We're going to be with the Lord Jesus. We expressed that in one of our hymns earlier on today. The one who loved us and gave himself for us. He's in heaven. And we're going to meet him one day. Doesn't that put a different color upon our lives from the lives of other people? It must do, mustn't it? It must affect the way we think and speak and act. We can always come into the presence of God as our Father. This, of course, is a verse which speaks about the throne of grace. There's a place we can go to whenever we meet a problem or difficulty. We can go to the Lord Jesus for help. We can go to the Father for his loving care. We know all things. We have the Holy Spirit. John says this, doesn't he, in his first letter? That even the babe in Christ knows all things. Has an unction from above. The Holy Spirit poured out upon us, indwelling us. And as a result, enabling us to see right from wrong. We may not be able to explain every verse in the Bible. Doesn't mean that we know everything that's in the Bible and we can explain everything. But we have an understanding of what God's will is for us at any point in time. If we keep close to the Lord Jesus. We're here as companies of his people. And we're to display the all various wisdom of God to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies. Have you ever thought of that? That where you gather, if you gather according to scriptural lines. There are those who are looking down. They're looking down on the whole church of God, of course. But it's often locally that we put these things into practice. We're a lesson book for the principalities. And the authorities in the heavenlies. And we have this privilege which Rusty spoke about of expressing our love. Which is really what worship is. It's expressing love to him in the way he desires and approves. The Lord Jesus said that the father seeketh worshippers. True worshippers. And to worship him in a way which is according to his mind and will. We must worship in spirit and in truth. And of course as we've already mentioned we're waiting for his son from heaven. So to just go back a little over those points. What is Christian worship about? I don't want to overlap too much with what Rusty said. But this was one of the things that was mentioned in the exercise in regard to this particular presentation. Our worship is by the spirit. Our service is by the spirit. That's what Paul says in Philippians chapter 3. And the word of God should form our worship. That's why we're privileged to have the hymn book we have. So many of the hymns, virtually all the hymns in that hymn book. You can, as you read them, think of verses in the Bible. That's the way it should be. Our worship to the God should be formed. Its substance should come from the word of God. We're expressing to God the truth which he's given to us. There should be substance in our worship. Choruses are good in their place. But very often they're not expressing fully the thoughts of God. And that's what God looks for. If you look at the verse like the one that's up there in Colossians chapter 3 verse 16. You'll see that it's speaking about worship that has spiritual substance in it. And then praise the fruit of our lips expressing to God what we feel about his love towards us. His greatness. The perfection of what he's done. The way he's working out his will. And yet it's also so simple. It's been said so often that when you think of the remembrance of the Lord Jesus on the Lord's Day morning. The only tangible things we have there are that loaf and that cup. And they're so expressive of his love to us. The wonderful thing about gathering to the name of the Lord Jesus is it's so simple. It leaves out all that man would bring in. That would distort things. And take our attention away from the Lord Jesus himself. Those two things, the loaf and the cup. They immediately focus our thoughts upon the fact that the Lord Jesus gave himself. His body and his blood separated in death for us. We simply take that loaf and we take that cup. In answer to his love and request made all these centuries earlier. And it's come down to us through those centuries. Do this in remembrance of me. Is there a believer here today? Perhaps you've trusted the Lord Jesus for some years. You've been baptized. But are you answering to the request of the Lord Jesus to remember him? You know the opportunity to do this will soon be gone. When we're in heaven the Lord Jesus will be there. We'll see him. We won't need the loaf and the cup. They're a kind of photograph of his love to us. When we have a photograph we say that's my dad. That's my wife. We don't say that's a photograph of my wife. That's a photograph of my dad. We say that's my dad. That's my wife. And in the loaf and the cup we have as it were a photograph of the Lord Jesus. In the moment of his devotion to his father. Yet his devotion to us in giving himself upon the cross. Are you remembering the Lord Jesus in his death? You should if you believed on him as your savior. Why aren't you? I must admit I left it a long time in my life. But really and truly you're depriving the Lord of what he should have from you. Perhaps you're doing it because there's something in your life that you know is not compatible with remembering him. You need to get rid of that from your life. So that you're free to remember the Lord Jesus. Give him what is due. But in Romans chapter 12 we're told that our lives should be a living sacrifice. Now are we really living a living sacrifice? And that goes back to something of what Rusty was saying earlier. We shouldn't be molded by this world. We should be transformed. That's what Paul teaches in Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2. By the renewing of our mind. It's letting the word of God come into our mind. There's so much material around today. Books, yes but the internet especially. Films and so on. The news. 24 hours. We live in a 24-7 culture unfortunately today. When the devil is occupying people all the time with the things of this world. But the trouble is a lot of us as believers we're being occupied by these things as well. They're coming into our minds and we're giving very little time to God's word. And as a result we're not living it out in our lives. But if we were we would answer to this verse in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 2. Walk in love. The Apostle Paul says. And he gives the standard, the example of the Lord Jesus. I'll read the verse out. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 2. Walk in love. Sometimes we forget those words at the beginning of this verse. We start at Christ. Well of course that's good and very appropriate when we read this verse out at the supper. But we shouldn't forget walk in love comes first. Walk in love. Christ also has loved us and has given himself for us. An offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour. Are we thinking of giving a sweet smelling savour to God from our lives? And in Hebrews 13 verse 16. We are exhorted to be doing things for the Lord. And to be communicating, giving to others. So that talks a bit about our relationship with God. But what about our relationship with one another? Well we've mentioned some of these things already. The church is one body, it's not an organisation. It's a spiritual, not a physical house. But here's a practical thought in connection with the thought of it as the bride of Christ. In 2 Corinthians chapter 11 the Apostle Paul writes with jealousy. He says I'm jealous for you. I want you to be for the Lord Jesus. Because he says that we should be a chaste virgin for Christ. Sadly some of us when we look at our lives we feel we're not really practically of that character as we should be. We allow ourselves to be mixed up with the defiling effect of things in this world. And of course we are together the sheep of God's pasture. And we are to look after one another's needs. And we're to care for one another, not exploit one another, not dominate one another. As we see very often happening in the religious systems of man. But caring for one another readily and willingly. That's our lives with one another. And then what about our lives in respect to the world? Well we're in the world but we're not of it. Once we've trusted the Lord Jesus we're no longer of this world. And this is something the Lord Jesus speaks about in his wonderful prayer to his father in John chapter 17. If you read Ephesians chapter 5 you'll see some of the practical characteristics the Apostle Paul expects to see in the lives of believers. Who realise they're in the world but not of it. And the thought of being light comes back again so powerfully in those verses. We have an entirely different principle of life from those around us. For me to live is Christ. Sometimes we've sung that, many of us have sung that in these choruses haven't we? But have we really taken home to our hearts what we're singing when we sing those words? When the Apostle Paul wrote them he meant them for me to live Christ. Christ was his life. And everything he did, everything he said and he spoke. Well I know he no doubt failed because he was a sinner like we are. And there were times when he didn't always do exactly God's will but the great Apostle's motivation was Christ. It was Christ. And if there's ever a man who's lived for Christ it was the Apostle Paul and he's an example to us. For me to live is Christ. Can we really say that? We're created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Remember we had earlier in the thought of law and grace the thought that we've received God's salvation. It's a matter of grace and yes even the matter of faith is a matter of grace on God's part who's given us that faith. But later on in that chapter as a direct result of it having said that we can't work for our salvation. The Apostle Paul says you can't do anything for your salvation it's all grace. But having believed on the Lord Jesus you're then those who should do good works. Good works should mark us in our lives. And in Titus chapter 3 verse 8 the Apostle Paul is quite definite about it. He says I strenuously affirm, I strenuously affirm that Christians should do good works. And we should seek to live in peace with all men. Christians shouldn't be cantankerous, difficult neighbours, colleagues. They shouldn't be people who make life awkward for other people. We shouldn't be like that. People should see our good works and they should give praise to God for it. I know they won't often do that but that should be what they should do. Because they see in us good things which can only really be approved. Now is that true of our lives in a practical way? Or are we marked by those who always try and screw the most we can out of other people when we do business with them? I've heard people suggest that that's alright for Christians to do that. Because you're in business, screw what you can out of something. Well they haven't actually used that word. But that's more or less what they've meant. I don't think that's right. Are we really meant to be like that as Christians? Of course we have to be wise. We have to do our jobs correctly. We have to do what our boss wants us to do. Within what's legal etc. But we have to be very careful that we don't allow other things to become a more important motivation. That person you just did down five minutes ago. Are they really going to accept a tract from you when you try to witness to them later on? They're not are they? So our lives must, must back up our words. Now this gets on to the vexed question I've been asked to just mention. Should we get involved in politics? Because here we've got some Christians. I think they're all Christians who are involved or have been involved in politics. I'm not going to go through them all. But some of them you'll recognise. And I'm pretty sure from what I've researched that they probably all trusted the Lord Jesus as their saviour. Some of the things they say now might not indicate it. But the Lord knows them for his. So we don't have to really be too worried about that. But they're all people who have trusted the Lord Jesus as far as we know. But they've also got involved in politics. And some have done very great things. The man on the middle row there, one in from the left, is William Wilberforce. We all know that he was used to the abolition of slavery. But sadly there are some there that have also been connected with things that have not been so good. And have often brought dishonour upon the Lord's name. So I'm not going to mention them because I don't want to start getting into criticisms of believers who've lived at different times. But nonetheless, some of them are great men. And they were believers and yet they've been involved in politics. So just bear that in mind while I say what I'm going to say next. Some Christians have used politics for good ends. But what of Paul's words about being unequally yoked? Now if you go on the internet you can find a website that's called Christians in Politics. And what it says is it's supported by the major political parties in this country. And what it tells you to do is first of all decide which political party you're going to join. When you've done that you can join us. Is that really a right principle? Do you think that's a right principle? I don't think it is. How can Christians be from different persuasions about what should be done and then just join together because they're Christians when they disagree probably about some fundamental things? I don't think that's a real practical way forward. And it will involve you of course being connected with people who aren't believers on the Lord Jesus. Now I work for a political organisation. Not because I'm involved in politics but simply because councils are political bodies. And I can see and I know what kind of horse trading, what kind of actions are done by people who are in politics in order to get their way, in order to achieve their aims. Because remember the only successful politicians are the politicians in power. And in the end they'll do anything to be in power. If you get in connection with politicians you'll find that you will be connected with compromise in order to get into positions of power and influence. And you will be forced to make decisions which will go against what the word of God says. So being involved in politics will almost certainly involve you being unequally yoked. What about the vexed question of voting? Well I remember a brother saying that very often he used to be asked the question I'm very sorry dear brother that you were imprisoned during the Second World War and you suffered at the hands of the political party that was in power in Germany in those years. And that brother used to say don't worry brother you don't need to be sorry, you don't need to apologise to me unless you voted for that political party. So maybe we have to be very careful and say if I vote for a political party I become responsible then for their actions because I've put my thumb if you like, my signature, my cross to their voting card. So I think you have to think very seriously about whether you should get involved in voting. How can it be that one Christian can vote one way and another Christian can vote another way? Goes back to a point we were making earlier. Does the Lord direct one person to take one decision that's completely opposite to another Christian's decision? I don't think he does. So I think we have to be careful about that and of course I've put up a point there that if you, and this is an argument you'll find quite a lot on the internet, the Apostle Paul never got involved in politics because there was no point. It was a dictatorship in those days. But if he was living today he would because we live in a democracy. But you know one act of democracy that did occur in the Bible was when Pilate decided to pass over the question of whether the Lord Jesus should be crucified to the people. And you know what they voted. They said away with him, crucify him. So democracy, despite all that we say about its merits, won't necessarily involve the right action being taken. So be very careful about voting. We need to remember this world is under judgement. Now, take that boat there as a picture of the world. I don't think it's an exaggerated thought. Particularly after the last few weeks on the money markets, I think we could say that that's a pretty good picture of where the world is at the moment. What would you do? Would you send a carpenter to try and patch it up so it doesn't sink? Or would it be better to send a lifeboat to get the people off it? If you get involved in politics you're a carpenter. If you stay as a believer, a witness for the Lord Jesus in what way you can, you're a lifeboat. Barack Obama, however good he may seem to be, he's another carpenter. And we have to remember that there have been many, many people who seem to be great hopes in this world. But often, ultimately, because they are dealing with a world which is under judgement. And remember what the word of God says. The whole world lies in the wicked one. In fact, the word means it lies in the lap of the wicked one. It's like a cat in the lap of the wicked one. It's totally under the control of that wicked one. Of course, God is overall superintending things. But in a practical sense, we live in a world which has rejected God and therefore is suffering the consequences of the activities of the evil one. So really, we need to have a clear witness to people. And very often we'll be found, if we get involved in politics, having to compromise. And our witness will be compromised. You know, I was listening to a radio program. Perhaps I shouldn't, but I was. And I was listening to this radio program and somebody said to this man who worked for Christian Aid, well, it was about the sad case of that aid worker who got assassinated in Afghanistan a few weeks ago. He said, are you involved in any kind of spreading the Christian message? He said, I can tell you, Christian Aid is absolutely not about that. So really, you have to see an organization there which was created, no doubt, with a Christian desire to do good in this world. And there's nothing wrong with that. But because it's got involved in politics, it's had to amend the way it works to the current ways of this world, which means it's lost its Christian testimony. And that will happen to us. We have to remain outside the systems of men. But remember what the Apostle Paul said, I strenuously affirm those who've believed that they give themselves to good works. So God's not saying to you, don't care about the needs of this world. But what he wants us to do is to meet the needs of this world individually. I don't just mean entirely individually, two or three of us, if we felt there was a need in this town for helping the down and outs, it would be completely right to do that if we felt it was the Lord's will. And through the opportunity that gives us to witness to those people. There are many who do practical good things like that. And that's just what the Apostle Paul is talking about. But he's certainly not talking about joining men's systems and organizations, political or otherwise, to achieve this. We should be model citizens. We're citizens first of heaven. We should uphold God's creatorial order. They're model citizens, I think. We should uphold God's creatorial order. Not very well at the moment. It's obviously used to Michael's touch. So we're citizens of heaven, but we should uphold God's creatorial order. It would be completely inconsistent with God's will if Christians who know God's word were to go against his order. God has set certain order in creation. For instance, there's the family order. So Christian young people should honor their parents, should obey their parents. As subjects, we should honor God's government. The dispensation we mentioned that involves Noah involved government. God has instituted government in this world. He hasn't taken that away. So that's why the apostle Paul says we should pay our Jews to the government. We should pay our taxes. And we should respect those in authority. Very often Christians, I hear Christians talking, I sometimes do it, very disrespectfully of those who are in places that God has ordained they should be. Is that a good witness to those around us? We might not think much of those who are in those positions, but you'll never find Daniel talking disrespectfully of Nebuchadnezzar. And I think Nebuchadnezzar in some respects was far worse than many of the rulers we have today. So we have to be a bit careful in that respect. Sometimes we become a bit loose and careless about the fact that God has ordained authorities and powers. They are there because he's allowed them to be there. We need to remember law and order is a very important part of a society being able to go on together, Christians being able to meet together and to be able to witness to him. We should pray for those who are in authority. That's what the Apostle Paul says, lifting up holy hands. Like the Apostles, we can turn the world upside down in a different way. By preaching the gospel, by being witnesses for the Lord Jesus. We should be occupied with our Lord's affairs. He's gone into a far country, we're left here in this world waiting for him to come for us. We're here to serve him till he come. Occupy till I come is what the one who went into a far country said to his servants. And in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, the Apostle Paul says our weapons are not fleshly weapons, they're spiritual weapons. Remember that group of people who thought that it was terrible that people in Ireland were worshipping this particular idol in a square, I don't know what it was. And they went at it with sledgehammers and knocked it down, this was a few years ago. Now I'm sure their motives in some respects were good, but did it honour, was it a good witness for the Lord? No, of course it wasn't. That was the wrong thing to do. Our weapons are spiritual, they lie in witnessing according to our Lord's words. We should let the Lord Jesus shine through our ways and our words. And if you get the copies of these presentations, you'll see that those scriptures all point to that. We should present our bodies, a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, not conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of our mind, that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Think about these things in your life, particularly if you're young. Your education, where you will go to university, what course you will take, what job you're going to do, what interest you should have in your life, what you're going to spend a lot of your time doing, what possessions you're going to go in for, what friends you're going to have. Think about them in the light of this verse. That verse will guide you to make the right choices. Now, remember there was a bus on the first presentation. This is the last presentation, David. But this just brings home to us the world in which we're living. This world isn't going to get any better. It's going to get a lot worse. There's no point in putting investment in your future here as if you are an earth dweller. You're not. We are heavenly men by birth. This world is going down the plug hole. And we are going to heaven. And we should show by our lives that that's where we're going. And our aims and objectives should be connected with heaven. There are practical responsibilities, but let's not let those obscure the fact or be an excuse for us to lose the sense that we're going to heaven, that we're going to be with the Lord Jesus one day. Wherefore we receive in a kingdom which cannot be moved. Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. …

… Thank you very much for that time. I'm very glad for what has been brought out. If there was anyone here or anyone who wondered before the conference whether this is a topic that you need to study at all, dispensations, and whether it's practical, I think those doubts have gone now. And there's been a lot of food for thought, and I'm sure there'll be a full question box afterwards as well. Most of them with Simon and Rusty on there. Now, this last session, I'm not quite sure, how many minutes have I got? I always listen to David. It depends. Right. The topic for the last session is a dispensational panorama. And perhaps the exercise behind it is best described by a verse from the longest psalm, and that's verse 18 of Psalm 119. Open thou mine eyes. I'm convinced that this framework of dispensational teaching is something that can open our eyes to see things in the Word of God that otherwise we wouldn't see there. It says, open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. There's another rendering that I like even better which says, and I shall behold wondrous things out of thy law. There are wonderful things in the Bible that you can see by just reading it and taking it as things are said, but there are also things that you will only discover if you know about different dispensations and different distinctions. And I'll try to go through some of these panoramas. Now, one thing about panoramas is that this is one of the alps here. If you look at a panorama, you can't see all the little wonderful flowers and details, but you get an overview. And we'll have to concentrate on one or two overviews. So I'm just skipping over some points to save a little bit of time. This is panorama number one, perhaps a very simple one, and one that will show to you that it's not something scientific, but something that you've done more or less already. If you read the story in Genesis 22 following of Abraham and Isaac, you find, if you just read it as a story, you find that, yes, well, in chapter 22, Abraham demonstrates that he's willing to offer up his son. And then you read on, and you find in chapter 23 that Sarah dies. And then you read on, and you find in chapter 24 that a bride is found for the son. Now, that's a beautiful story. There are practical lessons in there for the life of faith. But I do believe that there is more to it that you can see once you have these dispensational spectacles, if you like, the dispensational framework. You'd all agree that Abraham offering Isaac is a picture of God giving his son, providing, as it says, the Lord will provide, God providing the sacrifice that is needed. Now, that happened at the cross. What's the next thing that happens? Well, chapter 23, Sarah died. Now, Sarah, of course, was the mother of Isaac. Now, the Lord has come out of Israel. Sarah has died, has been set aside. Now, that means Israel has now been set aside. And what's the next thing that happens? Well, a bride is looked for, is searched for the son. And that's exactly the order in which it happened. Once Israel was set aside, well, that was the time for the church for the bride. Now, another sort of story we love from Genesis is the story of Joseph. And normally we sort of concentrate on chapter 37. That tells us how Joseph was loved by his father, how his brothers hated him, how he looked for them, how they threw him into the pit, and how he was sold into Egypt. And perhaps sometimes we read on and we find how actually he then was exalted in Egypt and he ended up being the second man in the country after Pharaoh. What we tend to concentrate a bit less on is what happens afterwards. And you have chapters and chapters and chapters of what happened to his brethren and how in the end they come to Egypt and how Joseph is hard against them and how they go back and then the story with Benjamin and so on. And you kind of ask yourself, well, why are there so many chapters about these details about the brethren of Joseph? Well, if you look at the story dispensationally, and again I have to run through this rather quickly, it all falls into place. You see that Joseph is a picture of the son whom the father loved, how his brethren represent Israel that hated him, how he was sold to the Gentiles, how he went down into the pit, how he was exalted later on. But then there is a story that perhaps for God was more important than it sometimes is to us. And that's his brethren. How Joseph takes care, how he goes slowly to make sure that there is real repentance and that his brethren return to him. And then the moment comes when Joseph actually unveils to them who he is and when the relationship with his brethren is restored. Now, again, having listened to the talks on dispensation, it's not that difficult for us to understand that Christ was the Son of God, he suffered, he was rejected, but a time will come when actually Israel will recognize him. And that gives me an opportunity to mention one verse that is very important also in the context of those that actually say the church is Israel and Israel is the church. If you go to 2 Corinthians 3, Paul talks about Israel. That's the time when the church existed already. And you know what Paul says about Israel. He says, the veil is on their eyes, their understanding is hardened, and that will remain so, and in the future the veil will be taken away. Now let me ask you, who wants to be part of that Israel? I guess nobody. We belong to those who behold the glory of the Lord and who can look into his face and see the glory of God in his face. Now that's what will happen to Israel, and it's beautifully foreshadowed in the story of Joseph and his brethren. And if you don't have the dispensational spectacles, you are very likely to miss that message. Now example number three, the feasts. Leviticus 23. If you just read them without knowing anything about dispensations, what you'll get is an annual calendar that has a number of special days, a number of feasts, and it describes how Israel had to observe these feasts. Now thankfully, in the light of the New Testament, we're not left in the dark. 1 Corinthians 5 says, For Christ our Passover has been slain. So the meaning of the first feast is clear. Now the next thing that happens is the feast of firstfruits, and Christ is called the firstfruits as the one who is risen. And there was a gap of 50 days, 7 weeks, and it was on the day after that Sabbath, the 50th day, that there was a new feast, the feast of weeks. And it says in Acts 2, And when the day of Pentecost was fulfilled. So we're not left in the dark at all, and I'm not speculating as to what the feasts mean. But you have the work of Christ, his resurrection, the formation of the church. Now what is left? The trumpets were there to gather Israel. And we know from the prophets that that's going to happen. The two tribes and the ten tribes will be gathered by the trumpets of God. And then there will be the day of atonement, when they will recognize the one whom they have pierced in repentance. And what will follow is foreshadowed by the feast of tabernacles, the millennium. Now if you are non-dispensationalists, amillennialists, whatever, I don't see how you could see any of these beauties of that chapter. Now, this one perhaps very quickly, Saul, David, Solomon. Again, you get a picture of the man of sin, the Antichrist in Saul. In David, you get a picture of Christ who was rejected, but who then subjects and conquers the enemies. And in Solomon, you get a picture of Christ again, but this time as the king of peace, one who reigns in peace and righteousness and glory and splendor. It's wonderful to read those stories as biographies of these men. You can learn many things. But I believe that this is the real meaning that God had in mind. And again, you need to understand something of the dispensations to see this. Now this one perhaps just very briefly, Daniel, 70 weeks. Well, there are the first 69 weeks, 62 plus 7, but they go together. And then there is the last week, which is kind of separated from the first 69. Now again, if you just had that chapter, Daniel 9, you might wonder why that is. But having learned a bit about dispensations today and yesterday, and perhaps even before that, you will realize that Daniel's last week is the week of tribulation. That is still future. And in between those blocks, first 69 and the very last week, there's a gap, and that is the time of the church in which we live. I need to speed on. I think I've got about 8 or 10 panoramas. The next one is the Gospel of Matthew. Now again, you can read the Gospel of Matthew. You can read it as beautiful stories about what the Lord said, what the Lord did, how he healed, and so on. But I firmly believe that the true meaning of the Gospel of Matthew is that it is the dispensational gospel. And the events in that gospel are arranged in such a way that they help us to learn about dispensations. Now let's run through this very quickly. Chapter 1, you have the genealogy. The king is introduced. Chapter 2, Israel reacts, well, basically by not reacting. It's only the men from the east who do, and the shepherds, as we know from Luke. Now then you find that the king is prepared. He announces his constitution in chapters 5 to 7, the Sermon on the Mount. And then he performs the miracles that actually demonstrate that he was the real Messiah, chapters 8 to 10. And at this point in time, nobody should have doubted that this was actually the one whom God had sent as Messiah. And what happened? They all believed him, yeah? Well, chapters 11 and 12, they reject the Messiah. They say you cast out demons through Belzebub, the highest of the demons. And then what happens when the Lord is rejected? It says he leaves the house and he goes to the sea. He leaves the house of Israel, he goes to the sea of the nations, and he now speaks about the kingdom of heaven, which means the kingdom will be remote-controlled. The king is going to be absent in heaven because he is rejected on this earth. And that actually opens the door to bring in something new, and that's chapter 16, the church. The Lord says, upon this rock will I build my church. Now, one of the questions we had yesterday was, does this mean that God abandons his plans with Israel, the fact that he's brought in the church? Well, just read on to chapter 17. The Lord says, there are those with me here who will not die before they have seen the kingdom. And what happens? He takes them onto the mount of transfiguration, and they see the kingdom, you might say, in miniature form. They get a preview of the kingdom. And you see, it's wonderfully in line with everything we've been taught yesterday and today about the dispensations, that the church is brought in after the rejection and suffering of Christ, and that nonetheless God will fulfill his plans with Israel. Now, thanks to Simon, I think I can skip this one here, except for saying that I still remember how impressed I was as a youngster when a brother spoke for three nights in a neighboring meeting and explained how God had predicted the entire history of the church in advance. And I recommend this to anyone who has not yet seen this. It's impressive how God has foreshadowed the history of the church in Revelation 2 and 3. Now, I need this for the last one, the last panorama. And again, this is one where you can say things fall into place very nicely if you know about dispensations. If you don't, it must be very complicated. Revelation chapter 1, Christ will return. It says that they see him coming with the clouds. Every eye shall see him. And then it says they will lament. Now he comes in judgment, and Christ is presented as judge. Now that's what is called the things that thou hast seen. Then in chapters 2 and 3, as we've just said, the time of the church. Simon mentioned that at the end of that, in chapter 4, verse 1, it says, come up hither, the church is now called to heaven. You find in chapters 4 and 5 that the church is there, actually engaged in worship. And this is the starting point where Christ resumes his ways with the earth, where he starts intervening in judgment. And as has been pointed out often, in those chapters that follow, 6 to 18, you don't read about the church at all. Now why is that? Well, because the church has nothing to do with this world. Simon has just explained this. And that's why before the world is being dealt with, the church is being taken out. And then you have these chapters, 6 to 18, that talk about the tribulation period. Simplifying a little bit, I know that in chapter 11 it is already said that Christ reigns, and then the same period is presented again, starting from chapter 12, under a different angle, focusing on the key players. But on the whole, you have the rapture, the time of the rapture, you have the church in heaven, and then you have the tribulation period. Now what happens after that? Well, chapter 19, and I saw the heavens opened, and then you see that Christ appears, he's followed by his saints. And then he judges the enemies, and he sets up the kingdom. And that's what you find in chapter 20. There are thrones, and it says that Christ reigned for a thousand years, and to those who sat on the thrones it was given to reign with him. Now, you tell me, and perhaps we just go to 21, 22, after that you have the eternal state, and then you have a kind of retrospect of the time of the church during the millennium. But you tell me, how do you want to understand the book of Revelation if you believe what is widely taught, that some think we are already in the tribulation and some think we are already in the kingdom, and some think we are in the tribulation and in the kingdom at the same time. Well, we aren't. We are neither in the tribulation, nor are we in the kingdom and the millennium. We are now during the time of the church. And once you know this framework, then things fall into place, as I hope has been clear from these outlines. I'm conscious this was rather quick, but you'll be pleased that we can finish almost on time for tea. Perhaps this verse again, Open mine eyes, and I shall behold wondrous things out of thy law. I trust that all your eyes will be opened. All our eyes are opened, because there are so many good things to discover in the Bible. Perhaps just as a very quick recap on what we have heard as conclusions, point number one, God has tested man in successive dispensations. Being very patient, he has given man every opportunity, and he has done this to demonstrate, not to find out whether, but to demonstrate how unable man is and how lost man is. Now this test ended at the cross. Even when God had shown the favor to the two tribes of sending a remnant back to the country, and then they were there in the right place, and then God sent them the Messiah, something that was already unmerited. Now what did they do? Well, they rejected him and they nailed him to the cross, and that's what you and I would have done before conversion. Now that's the end of God testing man. At the cross of Christ, man is shown to be completely and utterly hopeless. Now what has God done then? Well, God formed the church and blessed the church more than anyone had blessed before, taking her out of the world, uniting her to Christ. And then what happens after that? What does it mean for God's promises? Will God break them? Will God forget them? Well, no. God does not give up Israel, nor this earth, nor his promises. Israel will receive Christ. This earth will finally know peace and justice in Christ's reign. I come back to that verse from Romans 11, really, where Paul anticipates this objection. He had preached the gospel of grace, and he anticipates that somebody might object, well, you know, if we're all lost, Jews and Gentiles, and there's no difference, how does that fit with the Old Testament promises? And at first sight, it's a big problem. Now Paul examines that in detail, and he says, well, be assured, God will still fulfill his promises. God is faithful. And that leads him to say in the end, O depth of riches, who has been his advisor? It will be rendered to him. God didn't hire any consultants or any advisors. It's almost ironic that Paul says, well, they should be paid their fees then. It was God's counsel. It was in God's heart. And I trust that our eyes will be opened to study these things and to see more of the beauties that are there for us in the word of God. …

… O God, our Father, we come before Thee once again, and we give thanks that Thy word was read to us and explained to us this morning. We give thanks for those things that have occupied us, and we give thanks that our thoughts and our hearts and minds have been directed towards Thy beloved Son, our Lord and our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank Thee, O gracious God, for every precious thought of Himself, and we pray that we may each one here see this day as being something for His glory, as well as for our own help and benefit from day to day. Now, as Thou hast helped us in considering Thy word so far, we look to Thee for Thy help for those who will answer the questions. We thank Thee for the interest shown, and we do pray that Thou will give us subject hearts that we may look for the answer within Thy word as taught by the Holy Spirit. So we just commit ourselves to Thee. We pray, too, for the sessions to take place afterwards. Pray for the speakers this afternoon. Give them their strength, we pray Thee, in and through the worthy and precious name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. Now, we have one, two, three, four lots of questions, and I have successfully delegated them all to the other speakers this morning according to the subject matter. So I wonder if, please, Michael would answer the first question. I'm going to ask each one who's going to answer to come up here and read the question out, and then answer it. Unfortunately, we are, not unfortunately, we are a large company, and to have a conversational discussion of every question, while it might be profitable, would logistically be difficult. So if you'll bear with it, we will have one answer. If anyone else has a burning contribution to make on that topic, then please come to the front and make it after the question has been answered. Otherwise, we will answer the questions one by one as we come to them. So Michael, if you could please bring the first question. Thank you, Hugh. Well, having seen the question, I decided that next year I think I'll allocate them. The question is, would people in previous dispensations have eternal judgment in brackets or blessing as it was not the day of grace? In brackets, not the Jews. Should I read that again? I read it twice as well, at least. Would people in previous dispensations have eternal judgment or blessing as it was not the day of grace? So it's two questions, really. One is, what happens with believers in the Old Testament, in particular in other dispensations than the Jewish one or that of the law? And second question is, what happens to unbelievers in Old Testament times? What will happen to them in eternity? Perhaps I can offer some sort of starting points in attempting a response. In Genesis, you find that God breathes his spirit into man. And what distinguishes man from that point onwards from beast is a living soul. Man has an immortal soul. Now, that applies to man in any dispensation. Perhaps that's already the answer. But I think there are some other indications. Before the time of the church, so in previous dispensations, the Lord Jesus spoke already about hell. And he said it's the place where worm dies not. So it's a place of eternal torment. And that's not linked in any way to the particular dispensation we live in. There's another verse that's interesting in that context with regard to unbelievers from Old Testament times. In Peter's first epistle, I just read from chapter three, verse 19, by which also the spirit, by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison. There are spirits, there are men who are kept in prison for the day of judgment. And when it comes to, I think it's Acts 17, where it speaks about the Lord as judge, it says that God has set a man to judge this world. I can't put my finger on the other verse. There's one Timothy that says the living and the dead. Now, there are two groups. It's not the people from this dispensation and that and the other. It's the living and the dead. And that judgment has been reserved to Christ. And at the great white throne in Revelation 20, the dead, actually it doesn't say they are raised. It says they appear before, they have to stand before the great white throne. And I think we have to leave it as general as that. It's the dead. It's those who did not follow that one way of salvation, faith. Now, with regard to believers, it's clear that Old Testament believers had the hope of resurrection. You can think of Job, incidentally not from the Jewish economy. You can think of Joseph. Again, before the time of the law, they all had the hope of resurrection. Well, that doesn't prove it's eternal. But if you read the book of Revelation, you come to a place in chapter 19 where the marriage supper of the lamb is described. And the bride makes herself ready. Now, that's the church. And then it says in verse 9 or 10, blessed are they that have been called or invited to the marriage supper of the lamb. So, there is another group. In heaven, there is not only the church, but there are all heavenly believers. And when I say heavenly, I mean those who have gone through death. So, again, for Old Testament believers, the answer is yes, there will be eternal blessing. Now, will it be exactly the same blessing? Well, I didn't say that. There are, as Ephesians 3 says, there are different families. Paul says, I bow my knees before the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, before whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. So, there are different families. But every person has an immortal soul. And it is following a principle, really, that this, the time a man spends on this earth is the stage where the question is resolved, where is he going to spend eternity? And as far as I can see, this applies to any dispensation. Thank you, Michael. Could we go on to the next question, please, rather early? The question is, how do we maintain the principle of practicing good works without it ever crossing our minds that these works we do are because we are not trying to fulfil part of the law, but they are the fruit of the Spirit? Second question, how can we avoid feeling pleased that we are fulfilling something? To answer the last question first, with difficulty, but we'll come back to that at the end. You'll have noticed from the programme that tomorrow afternoon we have two sessions on the relation of dispensational truth and daily living, or as we might say, the effect of a proper understanding of dispensational teaching on daily living. And we mustn't encroach on that. That's why we seem to stop short with a statement which is going to be developed in later sessions. But without stealing anyone else's thunder, I will answer what I would like to look at as a negative side and a positive side. And if you look at Romans chapter 6, verse 1, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? The question here is, Paul has made it plain, and we've tried to make it plain, that eternal salvation is the fruit of personal faith in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and the fact that he died for us and rose again. And that there's no contribution you and I could ever make towards our eternal salvation. So, having taught the truth plainly, Paul says, well, does that mean you can do as you like? Of course not. It is God's will, as the scripture says, that we live soberly as to ourselves, righteously as to others, and godly in our relation with the Lord Jesus himself. So, there's no suggestion that we should do as we like. Now, the other verse is chapter 8 and verse 4, which was alluded to in the notes, Romans 8, 4, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. When we were saved, God put his Holy Spirit within us to guide us and to control us. He gave us a new nature that was capable of pleasing him. Now, it would have been easy for you and me if, at the same time, he'd taken the old nature out of us and disposed of that. So, nice and simple, we've got a nature that desires to please God and a Holy Spirit that empowers us to live in a way that please God. But God has not worked that way. His desire is that we please him because we choose to please him. And in any situation, any moment of any day, we are in a situation where we have a choice. Either we can allow the old nature to assert itself or we can allow the new nature to assert itself. We've judged the old nature. We've said, well, God brought that to an end in the death of Christ. And I now want to please God, but I realise I haven't any power in myself and the only power available is the Spirit of God. Now, we can see the working out of this in Romans 7 and Romans 8. In Romans 7, about 51 times, I think it is, you get references to me, my, mine, and I. And he finishes up in a proper mess by the end of the chapter. That's because it's full of self. In chapter 8, there's almost no reference to self and certainly not disappointment with self because self is not evident. What is evident is that about 20 times over, you have the result of the power of the Holy Spirit working from within. Works are looking at things from the outside and taking their shape from the character of the world. Christianity is having the Holy Spirit and a life implanted within you, which in the power of the Holy Spirit can express itself in a way that pleases God. Not now working from the outside in, but from the inside out. And that is the way we please God as we read Romans 6, 7 and 8. Now, that's the easy bit because scripture makes it plain. The hard bit is this. How do we maintain the principle of practising good works without it ever crossing our minds that these works we do are because we are trying to fulfil the law, but they are the fruit of the Spirit? I won't try to analyse that sentence. It's working from the inside out, not the outside in. But there's no doubt. There's something in me. The Bible calls it the flesh, the old nature. There's something in me which, if I notice that I'm doing something that's worthwhile and good, oh, I'm very disappointed if nobody notices. Aren't you? Well, that's the flesh. And we know the principle, the doctrine, that it's not what we do that earns our salvation. And we know that it's only by the power of the Spirit that we can do anything that pleases God. But if you say, how do you avoid thinking that at times that, oh, you are good there, you did the right thing. All we can say is, get thou behind me, Satan. We know it's not of the Lord, it's not of the Spirit. And the same with the last question, how can we avoid feeling pleased that we are fulfilling something? Well, it's always a safe solution. One or two of us were talking about this. If you find you're doing something which you know is displeasing to the Lord, you accept the responsibility for that, confess it to the Lord. If by some mischance you find yourself doing something that you know is commendable, don't preen yourself and take the credit for it, give the credit to the Lord. It's always a safe division to make. Thank you. Thank you, Ilana. Brother Nick, you have eight minutes. Do you think you can deal with the questions? Probably not, but it may get me out of a fix. Okay, the first question is, Christ died for the sin of the world. Can you explain the difference between sin and sins from Scripture, please? Well, I suppose I let myself in for this. I did emphasise, as a matter of importance, that we should distinguish between sin and sins. And, of course, I was referring to John the Baptist's exclamation, behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. If you listen, I think it's to Handel's Messiah. If it's sung, I think it's misquoted. It's often misquoted. It's not which takes away the sins of the world. Sin is the thing itself. It's the concept, we might say. It's the fact or the principle that man cannot live up to the holiness and righteousness of God. We're born in sin. And it's basically the principle of the fall. The fall of Adam and Eve has resulted in the fact that every man, woman, boy and girl who's ever lived ever since is born in sin. Sometimes, we may read a verse which sounds like a definition of sin. And there's one verse which says, in one translation, sin is transgression of the law. And that might mislead us into thinking that sin is really disobedience from the law. We might say, well, in that case, sin could only have come in when the law was introduced. But really, it's a mistranslation, I suggest, to you. A better translation is sin is lawlessness. In other words, it's not so much breaking the law, but it's the concept, the principle of self-will. And it's the complete opposite of the character of God. So, there's this big problem. There has been this big problem from the very beginning of the matter of sin. And it's that problem and it's that principle that God dealt with on the cross. The Lord Jesus, He died and He dealt with sin. When Three Hours of Darkness came upon this scene, when the Lord Jesus cried those words, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It was because God as a holy and a righteous God could not have to do with the man who has made sin. And it's a terrible thing to think of the Lord Jesus, the one who was ever in the Father's bosom, the Son, as man being conscious of being forsaken of God. But there it is. We have it in scripture that God himself drew a veil over that scene. But the life of the Lord Jesus proved that here and here alone had been a perfect man. And it wasn't that this took God by surprise, but it was really to establish it as a witness before God and man that Lord Jesus led a perfect life. He was the only one to answer to the demands of a spotless and perfect lamb. So because of the perfection of the Lord Jesus, God fully accepted Christ's death as a matter dealing with sin. We might read a verse in Romans 3. It says of Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. And this matter of propitiation, it deals with the demands of a righteous and holy God. And we can say without any argument, any doubt, that the Lord Jesus, his death on the cross, dealt fully with the matter of sin. It was done away with. We often say God does not forgive sin. He doesn't forgive sin. He cannot forgive sin. He's a holy and a righteous God. Sin was dealt with. The punishment was paid for it. Sin is not forgiven. It's dealt with. It's done away. And that then clears the way for God to come out in blessing. And the Lord Jesus, he dealt with the sin of the world, all of it in its entirety. But now it's a question of practicalities. And the verse goes on to say, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. Now sins are those acts which we commit because we have a sinful nature. And sins were committed even before the law was given. It's a demonstration of a moral separation between God and man. And those sins which we as individuals commit, they can be forgiven if we accept the work of Christ. And there's a verse which escapes me at the moment. Perhaps another brother can help me out. It's quite clear. It says, the Lord Jesus bore the sins of many. And there's this distinction between what he did for all, for the world, or what he did for many. In other words, we know there are sadly many who never believe and accept the work of Christ. And their sins are not forgiven. But if we shelter under the precious blood of the Lord Jesus, then our sins can and are forgiven. So there is this important distinction between sin and sins. I hope that's enough in the time. Now, we have three questions. And I don't think we can deal absolutely with all of the details, but we'll do our best. The starting point for grace. Is not the grace of God evident in the Old Testament, examples of such? Well, that may be a question better addressed to Ernie, who took up the matter of grace and law. But I think, for myself, I would refer us to Adam and Eve again. Adam and Eve sinned. They were disobedient. And they attempted to deal with the matter themselves. They made themselves aprons of fig leaves. But it was God that provided a covering. And you might say, did they deserve to be covered? Did they earn a right to be covered by virtue of their own attempt? And the answer is no. So I think that's an example of grace. Undeserved favor. God didn't have to do it, but he did. In grace, he provided a covering. So I'd say that's probably a very first example of grace. And I'm sure there are many others. So we can say that the grace of God was evident in the Old Testament, certainly from Adam and Eve onwards. Question two. The faith of those in Hebrews 11 is generally in response to a present situation or something future. They believed God. Can't quite read the writing. Please explain what faith was needed for their salvation, i.e., forgiveness of sins. Under law, a sacrifice was offered according to the law. We know that the sacrifice was a type of Christ and his death. They could not know that. What did they have to believe? Surely every offerer was not saved. I think the question here is really making a distinction between saving faith in the list of faith in Hebrews and the examples given. And I wouldn't have a problem with that. But I think the whole tenor of chapter 11 is to demonstrate this principle of faith, that it goes right back to the beginning. And all those individuals and the nation are given as examples of faith. So certainly they didn't necessarily have saving faith in regard to the specific examples given. They were in response to their circumstances. But surely the point is that they had faith in God. And if we take, for example, those in the nation of Israel, in the wilderness, they were given instructions as to offerings. And I'm sure they went through the motions. But in 1 Corinthians 10, we're told that God was not pleased with the most of them and their bodies were strewed in the desert. So again, we can say just because an individual was part of the nation of Israel and went through outwardly the motions of going through obedience to the offerings and sacrifices, it seems that 1 Corinthians 10 tells us that God was not pleased with them. So certainly not every offer was saved. But the fact that they're mentioned in Hebrews 11, the point is that they had faith in God. And in regard to whatever their limitations of their day and dispensation, it's a matter of God's sovereignty. I don't think we can be dogmatic and say, well, this character was saved and this one wasn't. But the scriptures make it clear. Some of them mentioned God considered their faith and counted it to them for righteousness. And for others, we can say the scripture tells us God was not pleased. So there must be a distinction. So I really go back to the point of the address, that it's saving faith is a belief in God, trusting in God for whatever circumstances they were in. And if it's true of temporal circumstances, it's surely true of eternal circumstances also. Yeah, Romans 4 verse 3, for what saith the scripture, Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Yeah. Just on the third question, which also includes some statements, faith is a gift of God. Was the speaker referring to saving faith or simply to the gift in the sense of George Muller? I suppose that's a reference to the very clear gift of faith that that brother had. Just a continuity problem here. Ephesians 2 verse 8 does not support such a contention. The gift is salvation, not of faith. I think I've misread the questioner's question. Please forgive me. I think the point I was trying to make, whether or not that verse supports that contention or not, the point I was making is that it's a matter of God's sovereignty. And if we have faith, it's not something that we can glory in ourselves. But if we read Ephesians 2 verse 1, we're told there, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Well, if we're dead in trespasses and sins, which we are because the scripture states very plainly, then we're dead. There's nothing in us. There's no possibility that we can have faith. There's no possibility that we can believe. So in regard to the power that man has, there isn't any. And the scripture shows us it's a work of God. You hath he quickened. And so it's God's grace, a work that he does in the soul. And there are many verses that we would need to look at, but I think we can conclude, we can just summarize this matter, that whether it's belief or faith, we have to see that it's from God's side. God gave Adam and Eve the skins. They attempted a covering of their own, and it was a complete failure. It couldn't do anything. And it was God's sovereignty and grace that provided a covering of skins. And so it is all through man's history. If we have belief, if we have faith, we have to see from God's side, it's a work of his grace and sovereignty. …

… El Shaddai, Elohim, Jehovah, etc. are all words used for God in the Old Testament. Is it ever appropriate to use these in worship or prayer in this dispensation, considering He is now fully revealed unto us? We'll answer that tomorrow. Now, could I ask Mark, please, to bring us the first question, to stand here, read it out and answer it. We have approximately six minutes for each question. Each question needs a proper answer, but there are four questions to be dealt with. Thank you. The first question for this evening is, how can we be sure that the Bible which we have is divinely put together and that there are no books missing, for example, the Apocrypha? So, just again, how can we be sure that the Bible that we have is divinely put together? I think it seems to be implicit in this question, and I think we'd all attest that this is correct, that the Bible which we have is inspired, and we covered that earlier, that the words are inspired. The question doesn't seem to relate to that, but to the composition of this book. How can we be sure, in particular, that we have all of the divinely inspired Word of God? Perhaps as a starting point, we might note that the New Testament writers, when they quoted from the Old Testament, quoted from the Greek version of the Old Testament and a particular document whose name I can't remember, but it was an established document. And the fact that the New Testament writers used that particular document is, I think, an attestation that it was not only divinely inspired, but divinely put together as well. The document that they referred to didn't contain any of the Apocrypha books. The Apocrypha, I must confess I'm far from being an expert on it, and will happily defer to anyone who knows more about it than I do, but I understand that it wasn't put together until some time after the New Testament. So it post-dates the document which the New Testament writers referred to authoritatively as being the divinely inspired Old Testament. My understanding also is that the Apocrypha never purports to be a divinely inspired document. It doesn't contain the phrases that we see elsewhere in the Bible, thus said the Lord, things like that. There's no similar attempt to claim divine authority within those books. Although this isn't conclusive, we might also think of the things which are mentioned in the Apocrypha and also think of the religious system which relies upon the Apocrypha. And both the things in those books and that religious system, that's Roman Catholicism, are entirely abhorrent to what we know as the true word of God. So that should also be, I think, an indication that those books do not form part of the Bible at all. Perhaps more generally, we might also note that the Bible is a complete book in and of itself, that we have a sufficient revelation of God and his will and his dealings with us in the Bible. There's a few pages at the beginning of the Schofield version of the King James Bible which talk about the completeness of the Bible and those pages illustrate how the 66 books that we have do form one complete book in and of themselves and that they are entirely sufficient. Perhaps just one thought to finish on before handing over to anyone else who may have something to add. The subject of all scriptures is the Lord Jesus and the Lord himself said that in Luke 24 when he was speaking to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, how he explained to them all things concerning himself from the scriptures. So that's perhaps another test that we should apply and again these books, the Apocrypha, fail that test entirely. Their subject certainly isn't the Lord Jesus but the subject of what we have, of all of the scriptures that we have, is our Lord. But please, any further comments would be welcome. …

… There is an expression that's often used, the canon of scripture. In other words, one part of scripture reflects upon another. And I think if you read some of the Apocrypha, you won't find very much in it that really would reflect on anything else. That's all. Brother Ernie, would you like to bring your question? The question, or rather two questions, there seems to be two types of Jew. One which is inward, one which is outward. One in the spirit and not in the letter. Romans 2, 28 and 29. What implication does this have of Israel being one entity? Is Israel's future for those Jews in the spirit or in the letter? And then an optional extra, if the future of Israel is for one of these people, what should happen to the remaining body of Jews? I think here we have to apply what we've heard about previously that examining any question or any statement in scripture must be done first of all in relation to its own immediate context and then in the context of scripture as a whole. Now, I'll read these two verses and then tell you the context. Romans 2, 28, 29. He is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and the circumcision is that of the heart. In the spirit and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God. Now here we have to examine it first of all in its own context. Romans chapter 1 tells us in a fundamental way who God is, what he stands for and what he does. And then that is related first of all to the brute pagans, then it's related to sophisticated Gentiles, and then it's related to Jews. That's at the time that Paul was speaking, which is in the Christian context. Now, if you want to check that up and take it away, Romans chapter 1 from verse 19 through to 32, it's about the brute pagan who only has the witness of creation available to him. Chapter 2, verses 1 to 16, it considers the case of the sophisticated Greek with all his intellect and culture. And then from verses 17 of chapter 2, right through to verse, well you can certainly say verse 8 or perhaps through to verse 20 of chapter 3, you have the position of the religious Jew. Now, Paul is building up to his statement in Revelation 3, verse 19, all the world is guilty before God, none missed out. Whether you're a rough pagan, whether you're a sophisticated Gentile, or whether you're a religious Jew, that's not, you're all condemned before God. But wonder of wonders, the Christian gospel is available to all. Instead of now saying, are you a brute pagan, are you a sophisticated Greek, or are you a religious Jew, the question now is, do you accept that God is just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus? And in one point of climax, in we get it, we get to the point where we read at the end of verse 4, Jesus our Lord was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification. So, to the Jews, he says, well he condemns the pagan on their own ground, he judges the Greeks on their own ground, and he judges the Jews on their ground. And he says to the Jews, within that context, you pride yourself on being religious, and having the law, and keeping to an outward set of rules and regulations. He said, on that ground, you're condemned already. And the true, the true way to please God is to please God spiritually, not materially or naturally. But, whether to the pagan, Greek, or Jew, the gospel of the grace of God is now available as he develops from chapter 3 and verse 20. Now, that's my answer to that. It's not really considering what will be true of the Jews. You cannot, at the moment, choose to be a Jew, in the sense of the millennial Jew. It's not open to you. You're a sinner, and you can either be a saved, believing sinner, or you can be an unbelieving, unsaved sinner. And that's what he takes up from chapter 3, verse 20. But, his argument building up to the whosoever will availability of the gospel is to say these three sections of mankind, he says, whichever one you belong to, that you're under the judgment of God. Matthew 24, please. Again, we need the context. Matthew 24, verse 1, Jesus went out, departed from the temple, the disciples came to him. Verse 3, the disciples came to him privately and asked him three questions. When shall these things be? What shall be the sign of thy coming? And of the sign of the end of the world? Now, the Lord answers the question, but not necessarily in the order in which they asked the question. But, again, he deals with three situations, as we've heard from 1 Corinthians 10, under God's eye in Christianity, yes, there's the nation of Jews, there is the Gentiles, who are not Jews, all the other nations, and there is the church of God. Now, in answering the disciples' question, if we look carefully, we can find that, first of all, up to verse 42 of Matthew 24, he gives an answer about the Jews. In verse 43 of 24, right through to chapter 25, verse 30, he takes up the position of the church, telling you and me, members of the Church of Christ, what's going to happen to Jews in the future affects the way that we live now. And chapter 24, verse 43 to 25, verse 30, talks about the challenge to present-day Christians having been enlightened about what God has in mind for the future of the Jews. And then, from verse 31 of 25 to the end of the chapter, verse 46, he talks about the final result for the Gentile nations. Now, the verse I want to talk about is within the reference to the Jews, and it's verse 41. Two women shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken and the other left. Now, this causes a lot of people a lot of trouble, because when they read about one being taken and one left, not judging within its context, but saying, ah, the rapture, after rapture, some will be taken and some will be left, and they get the wrong idea about this verse, because it's within the scope of the paragraphs which deal with the future for the Jews. And the distinction to be drawn is this. At the rapture, those that are taken are taken for blessing, those that are left behind are potentially left for judgment. At the appearing. And those who are taken for blessing are taken for heavenly blessing. At the appearing, it will be different. Those who are taken are taken for judgment, and those who are left behind, who have not been taken in judgment, are left for earthly blessing. So I think that, together with Romans 1, 2 and 3, gives me, anyway, a satisfactory answer. We have to consider each statement, each question that arises in the context of its immediate setting, and then in the setting of Scripture as a whole. The first question I have here asks, do the covenants shed light on developments in the Middle East? For example, the foundation of an Israeli state in 1948. And did dispensational teachers foresee this? From the Word of God, from dispensational teachers, from the covenants, could we deduce events that would take place in the Middle East? I think that the general answer to that, I would say, is yes, that coming events cast their shadow before them. And we'll turn to Matthew 24, the chapter that our brother was in. But we have been making a distinction between the rapture and the appearing, between the Lord's coming to the air and His coming to the earth, between the coming of the Lord and the day of the Lord, His coming in grace before His coming in judgment. They're both aspects of the presence or coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's not two separate comings. We have our Lord's first coming in humiliation, and we have His second coming in preparation to His public manifestation, the appearing of His coming, the manifestation in glory. He'll take us on to be with Himself according to 1 Thessalonians 4. And also in Colossians, we're clearly told when He appears, not before, not after, but when He appears, then we also, that is the believers, will appear with Him in glory. So that when He comes out of heaven, He'll be accompanied by others, and we will appear with Him. Now, it necessarily follows that if we're going to have part in these coming events to which the question addresses itself, it's therefore necessary that the Lord should take the assembly, the church, and the believing company and the Old Testament saints to be with Himself. And there are no signs or indications that we should expect from the Word of God in regard to that event. The Thessalonians turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven. They were in expectation. Paul was in expectation. There was nothing then in Paul's life. He had that hope in his heart that the Lord should come, and it quickened his spiritual affections and it regulated his daily practical life and his service for the Lord. And we're in exactly that position tonight. The Lord may come at any moment. We don't know when, and therefore it's important that each soul here should be ready. Be ye also ready, the Lord Jesus says. And it also says in some of the parabolic languages in Luke 12, it talks about the servant who's waiting and watching and working for Christ. But it also tells us we don't know. If a thief were to come and break into a house, we don't know when. If we knew when, we'd be watching out. So the question for each one here tonight is are you watching? And are you ready? Because when once the master of the house is risen up and shut to the door, there's not going to be another opportunity. I believe the parables of the 10 virgins in Matthew 25 would make that clear. That when the bridegroom came, there were those that were ready, and they went in. But there were those that were shut out. And if you're shut out from God's mercy and from God's grace, you're shut out to a miserable eternity under God's judgment. So the matters that we're talking about, we're discussing the general prophetic framework. And it's nice, you know. It's fine for the intellect, you know. But what about the heart? What about your heart? Would you welcome the Lord Jesus if he were to come tonight? If he were to empty this room of the believers? Even if your mother or father, those nearest and dearest to you, are Christians, would you go with them? Would you be ready? Or would you be left behind for judgment? So the first thing I want to say in looking at events, if we look at events on earth, the events have to do with the public manifestation and appearing of the Lord. As to the rapture, as to the Lord's coming to the air, as to the Lord's coming for us all. There's no sign predicated in the word of God. It's something, it's what's called the any moment coming of Christ. May Christ come at any moment. Scriptures would tend to indicate that he would. So then, turning then to Matthew 24 to put this question in the context. It says, learn a parable of the fig tree. It's speaking of Israel there. It says, when his branches yet tender and put forth leaves, you know that summer is nigh. So likewise ye, when you shall see all these things, know that it is very near, even at the doors. And then it says, verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. Speaking there in Matthew of the fig tree, it elaborates somewhat in Luke's gospel 21 in the parallel passage in verse 29, where he says, behold the fig tree and all the trees, the nation of Israel and the other nations. And you know, speaking here about dispensational teachers, when these godly men started to study the word of God and look into these things, Germany didn't even exist as a nation. Hard to take that in. It was before Bismarck. It was before the reunification of Germany. It was before Garibaldi marched across Italy with his red shirts. It was before Italy was reunified. It was a time of the Austro-Hungarian, the Habsburg Empire, the old Holy Roman Empire. The political map of Europe has changed and changed tremendously and it's changed in the direction of unification and in a way that is consistent with the events that we have in the book of Daniel and in the book of Revelation. So we can look at all the trees and we can look at the situation in Europe. We can look at other signs and considerations but preeminently we can look at Israel. The question is specifically do the covenants shed light on developments? That's rather narrow really because the covenants, the Palestinian covenant, the Deuteronomic covenant, might be one of the cases in point where centuries before the event it is predicted that the nation of Israel would be scattered and would be carried into captivity and it says when all these things are come to pass it says and then you call to mind you call to mind among the nations where the Lord thy God has driven you. It's true of the Jewish people. And it says and you shall return unto the Lord thy God and shall obey his voice. He says I'll turn your captivity. Their various promises are given. They'll be delivered from their enemies. They're not going to have any trouble with Hamas then or with Syria or Iraq or any of the surrounding nations or the Syrian. All these things are going to be sorted out. Now I would make this proviso that the covenants contemplate a work of God in the remnant in those who seek after God in those whom God has begun to work and we know that God cannot it's absolutely impossible that God can have two distinct peoples on earth at any one time because the very principle in which God is dealing at the present time is that Jews are taken from their Jewish standing those who are nigh those who are far off Gentiles are taken from their Gentile standing they're both brought together and they're made to be one body in Christ. So in the assembly and at this present time there's no separate category of a Jewish believer or a Jewish church and a Gentile church. God is made of the two. He's made one new man. He's joined them together. He's baptized all into one body and there's this tremendous unity amongst the believers. But when the church is removed there's a different principle of household management as we've been saying and then in the book of Revelation strange or interesting thing after the church conditions in chapter 2 and 3 there's no more mention of the assembly or church in Revelation. And then the scriptures that have been before us take into consideration Jews and Gentiles believers from amongst Jews and believers from amongst Gentiles and it's clear that God then is taking up his dealings with the Jewish people. Well that is a work amongst the Jewish remnant when the gospel of the kingdom will be preached and the everlasting gospel and so on. That's something which will commence once the church is removed from that scene. So we have Israel is back in the land and on belief and the covenants in the way in which it contemplates them as being subject to the work of God which is at a later stage. But I think we can say that the jigsaw pieces are slotting into place. Never mind Germany never mind Italy never mind the state of Europe 150 years ago Palestine was a wasteland and you know with the Turks and barren land no agriculture no nothing really heaps of ruins the only things really people went to pilgrimages to Bethlehem and Jerusalem those places where Christ was just in the same way as they went to Rome or Canterbury or Santiago to Compostela that was why people went and the very idea even the Jews even Jews themselves when they were said oh you're going to go back to your land they laughed at it they could not even take that in and those who began working to take an interest in a future of the Jewish people people like Louis Way and others who studied the scriptures and because of what they saw was said about the Jews and their future and the word of God then began to take an interest in the Jewish people and had interaction with them I mean some of the suggestions for a homeland for the Jews was not even in Palestine or in Israel it was to have Romania was it Romania or somewhere you know Uganda thank you Uganda set up a separate homeland for them I'm not really competent I'm not prepared to give a history of the political events in the late 19th century and early 20th century culminating in the culminating in the Balfour Declaration and the Jewish Mandate the British Mandate of Palestine and the way in which the Jews have returned we do have Dr. Paul Wilkinson here Paul can you just make yourself known to the people you may have seen a book flashed up on the screen earlier for science sake Christian Zionism and the role of J.N. Darby and it goes into some of the historical background to these events so I'll not go further than saying that God is setting the stage at this stage and that the way in which things are shaping up is in accord with what the word of God presents and it is laying the basis on which God will work in a future day with the Jewish remnant so yes dispensational teachers did see it when there wasn't anything to be seen on the horizon not even remotely on the horizon you couldn't go to rapture ready and look up all the signs of the and all the events that are taking place in the world all around us a lot of which incidentally I take just to be speculation because we know in this age in which we live political events can change overnight but still from what we see we can learn a lot about the way in which God is working out his purposes. God moves behind the scenes but he moves all those scenes which he is behind. I think possibly I may have strayed over my time on this question. Is that question one? Should I continue with the next question? Unless you'd rather carry on. I'd rather not do anything probably but no I think we should proceed. The next question is it's in two parts really is the everlasting covenant of Genesis 9.16 different to the eternal covenant of Hebrews 13.20? So the covenant in Genesis 9.16 is referred to the everlasting covenant this afternoon I read from Hebrews 13.20 about the blood of the everlasting covenant. It's asking is it different? And then it asks about what is meant in Isaiah 24.5 in regard to man having broken the everlasting covenant. A short answer if that's possible with me. I think they are different. I think what brother Ernie said about Daniel chapter 2 in the days of those kings shall God of heaven set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed and the kingdom shall not be left to other people but it shall stand forever. That kingdom, Messiah's kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom. We know it will come to an end because it says in 1 Corinthians 15 then comes the end when he delivers up the kingdom at the end of the thousand year reign and then we move into a new heaven and earth and eternal conditions. So this word everlasting it's been explained. Sometimes it has the significance of age lasting or something which will never be superseded. And that's how I see it. The new covenant the blood of the everlasting covenant I take in Hebrews 13 to be the new covenant and it will not be superseded. The Noahic covenant is the one in view in Genesis 9 verse 16 and I said you know that the earth will continue seed time and harvest cold and heat, summer and winter and night shall not cease. God's covenant with the earth that the earthly order of things I think will be everlasting and it will carry right through with the kingdom to the end. Everlasting covenant is used also in regard to the Abrahamic covenant which we know again is different from the earlier covenant. In Genesis 17 verse 7 we have a reference to it. I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee and their generations for a never lasting covenant. Again that's carrying right through to its culmination and fulfillment in Christ and it will be that age lasting covenant. In connection with priesthood in Levi we have the same thing in Leviticus 25 13. Once that priesthood is restored and the descendants of Phinehas it will never be superseded also. We can say the same in Ezekiel 37 verse 6 in regard to the covenant of peace and in 2 Samuel 23 verse 5 we have it in regard to the Davidic covenant or the covenant with David in regard to his seed where he says although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure. David was passing off this seed. He could say that things weren't perfect in his house but he could look on to Christ and say that everything was sure everlasting and established. In regard to the second part of the question Isaiah 24 verse 5 says the earth also is defiled and the inhabitants thereof because they've transgressed the laws changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant therefore the curse devoured the earth and so on. This to me is somewhat more difficult and well I have the grace to say that I'll be glad of help from others It may be a reference to the land has been left desolate and its judgment has come upon the land and it's really essentially because Israel did not keep its sabbaths in the past and of course we know that the sabbath dated from God rested on the sabbath day in Genesis chapter 2 right at the beginning of the creation and in the giving of the law in Exodus 20 when they're told to remember the sabbath day and keep it holy the reason they were not to do any work goes right back to the creation. Six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is and rest at the seventh day. So we're going back there to the creatorial order and the sabbath which may link with the everlasting covenant in Isaiah 24 just as another expression is used in the book of Revelation the everlasting gospel and it seems to link with the truth that had its origin even at the time of the creation and the fall. …

… I ask the Lord for his help for this closing session. Gracious God, our Father, we give thanks for what we have heard and what we have seen, what has been shown to us from thy precious Word. We give thanks for yesterday, we give thanks for this afternoon, and we pray that we may yet retain those things that we have taken in from thy precious Word. Help us to look them up when we get home, help us to enter into them and to make them our own, that we may have the better appreciation of not only our own position, but of what thou wouldst have for thy beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who was rejected in this world, but the one who one day is going to return and his feet will stand upon the Mount of Olives, that point from which he arose. And we pray that thou will impress us more with thy plans concerning his glory. So help us now as we deal with these questions, give wisdom, give direction, we pray, and give us all to be subject to the words that the Holy Spirit teaches. We ask these things and give thanks. In the precious name of the Lord Jesus, Amen. We have, in fact, about ten questions to deal with tonight. And as Brother David has just said, different brothers have been asked to answer them. However, there were two that didn't fall into any particular session that we've had, and against my better judgment, they've persuaded me to deal with them. So let's do those first. Before you go on, may I just emphasize what you have already said, and remind the brethren that there's an awful lot of clearing up to do after this meeting. First question. Literal interpretation of the Bible depends on believing the whole is inspired. What of doubtful passages like 1 John 5 verse 7 and the end of Mark's gospel? Doubtful passages. Let me separate those two scriptures immediately. 1 John 5 7 is believed not to have been in the original text of the scriptures. And if you read the chapter, you will see that that verse speaks about bearing witness in heaven. How can witness be born in heaven? The scripture should just refer to what it says in 1 John 5 8, there are three that bear witness, not on earth, there are three that bear witness, the spirit, the water, and the blood. Doubtful verse indeed. And the end of Mark's gospel. Dear friends, there is nothing spurious about the end of Mark's gospel. I know that many would have it end after verse 8, but if you just turn very quickly to Mark 16 and verse 8, you will see that it leaves the disciples going away trembling and afraid. Do you really think that the Holy Spirit would cause a gospel, one of the four that speak of the Lord Jesus, to end like that? The rest of the chapter brings in things which are wholly necessary. We said yesterday something about the canon of scripture, how one part of scripture corresponds with another. And in the latter part of Mark's gospel, there is the appearance of the Lord to his own. Now that's important, isn't it? There is his commission to his disciples to go out and preach the gospel to every creature, and he speaks of baptizing. But finally, there is a remarkable verse that we don't get anywhere else, but it corresponds with the start of the gospel. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God. The servant's gospel ends with Christ seated at the right hand of God. And how did it begin? The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. So the end corresponds with the beginning. Very few spurious passages in here. They are the exceptions. 1 John 5, 7 is one. There are very, very few spurious passages in the Bible that we have in our hands. I trust that suffices for that. Now the second question is a little longer, but it's very real. There have been Christians who have by no choice of their own thrust into positions of authority in their work, I think, and in the past and in the present day, e.g. Joseph Esther. In this present day and age, are there positions of authority to be only interpreted in the light of 1 Corinthians 6, verses 14 to 16? That passage speaks of being united with harlots, and undoubtedly the answer must be yes. But let's go on to the third part. In this present day and age, is it possible for a Christian to remain in such a position of authority in that having fellowship, communion, concord, have part or to be in agreement with the unbelievers under his or her authority? This is a very real question, but let me deal with the first bit first. The examples, Joseph and Esther, were not living in the Christian dispensation. So leave aside how they came to those positions. They were not living in the day of grace. Now what does the Apostle Paul say? For those things that were gained for me, I counted loss for Christ. Now Paul was brought up with every advantage. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, brought up at the feet of Gamaliel. If there was a position of high authority to be had in the Jewish world, and bear in mind that the religious world and the political world in those days were very closely united, it could have been his. It could have been his. But meeting the Lord of Glory changed his life for him. And you know, he's our example. We heard about that this afternoon. The Apostle Paul is a wonderful example for us. So he did not seek worldly authority. And that should be our attitude too. But whatever our attitude to positions of power and authority, sooner or later in life, we may find ourselves in such a position. Whether we've sought it, whether we haven't, and this is part of life. I know, again, he wasn't exactly living in a Christian era, but there was a centurion, wasn't there, who met the Lord, and he said to the Lord, I also am a man under authority, and I have people under me, and I say to one, go, and he goeth, and to another, come, and he cometh, and so on. This is part of life, and it is a very real question. What do we do if we find ourselves in such a position? Well, isn't the answer that we do our work for the Lord? We do it unto Him. If we find ourselves working for an employer who requires us to do things that we really cannot do, well, then we need to carefully consider our position. I'm not going to pick specifics, because I'm not going to be tempted into saying some jobs are in that position and some are not. But as to having communion or concord with those beneath you or indeed above you, that's not required. What is required is that you do the job that you're there to do. It does not mean having concord with them in what they do in their spare time. You have to be very careful about that, I know. What do we do at five o'clock, where do we go? These are practical problems, and each one has to answer them for himself or for herself. It is a fact of life that we may find ourselves in positions of authority, but the circumstances in each case, we need to be aware of them and to pray to the Lord to direct us in whatever circumstance we're in. Now, I don't doubt a great deal more could be said on that, but I trust I've given you the gist of what I believe the Scriptures would teach us. Now, can I ask Brother Andrew, please, to come and deal with his three questions? All these questions have to do with the subject of prayer, so perhaps I could make a suggestion to the conveners. I think I can speak for all of them. I say that we've profited and enjoyed our time together, and we wish to thank all involved who speak and who organize behind the scenes for the encouragement we have enjoyed. All these four questions, what leads me to say that is that all these four questions are about prayer, and they are intelligent questions, and it shows that thought has been given to the subject. So my answers are only going to be suggestive because they cannot be exhaustive because of time constraints, but I think it's good that they might be suggestive in another point of view because it may lead you back to the Scriptures to search and to look into these things for yourself. The first question is, would it be right for a non-believer to address God as Father? Please explain. In Psalm 147 and verse 9, it says that God hears the ravens that call. Other Scriptures speak of God as a faithful creator. He's going to hear the voice of his creature. In fact, Hebrews 11 tells us as much, where there's faith, he that cometh to God in verse 6 of Hebrews 11, he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them or those that diligently seek him. There's some very unintelligent prayers go up to God. Like someone said, the prayers went up all wrong, but they came down right. And some people in their extremity even are praying almost to an unknown God. You know, when people's conversion stories, they say, God, if you're there, please answer me. Please show me your reality. And they'll be led through the Scriptures or through believers or through, even the creation bears the impress of God showing his eternal power and divinity. So if there's faith that really reaches out to God, God will take account of it. He is spoken of in Hebrews 12, 9 as the father of spirits. So spiritual beings, there's a sense in which we generally speak of the fatherhood of God in relation to believers and that is a specific and special idea in connection with it and that which Scripture gives most emphasis to. But there is a sense in which in a creatorial way, God is father as the originator. For instance, in Luke 20, verse 38, the Lord is speaking about the intermediate state, what happens to men after death and before resurrection. And he uses the words, all live unto God. Well, all live unto God in a creatorial sense. As Paul says elsewhere, preaching, in whom we live and move and have our being. And in Ephesians chapter 4, we have three circles, three widening concentric circles. We start with the circle of reality where it says there's one body and one spirit, even as we're called in one hope of our calling. That's what Simon brought before us, that baptized by one spirit into one body. One body, the reality, those who have faith, those who have been sealed by the Holy Spirit, one body and one spirit, one hope of our calling, the hope of being with Christ and like Christ in glory. And then there's a widening circle, it's the circle of profession, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. It's those believers or unbelievers, whoever, it's those who publicly acknowledge and confess Christ as Lord. And we know that is true of many in Christendom who do not have the reality in their hearts. There's one Lord, there's one faith, there's the Christian faith and there's one baptism. That's Christian baptism in water. Christian baptism is introductory. It says one baptism, it doesn't say two baptisms. You don't need to be baptized twice. So you've got the circle of reality, you've got the circle of profession, and then you've got the wider circle because it widens out into one God and Father of all, who's above all and through all and in you all. Well, I think that takes in any rational being. So God hears and thank God he does hear and he has heard us in our unconverted days and he's a gracious God who's given his son for our salvation. So it doesn't perhaps matter what terms somebody uses if there's faith in their approach to God. We know Paul says to Timothy, there's one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, and it's through Christ we have the link with God and that's prominent in the preaching to whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So in the first instance, a non-believer should call upon the Lord and if he speaks to God as Father, God's not going to refuse to listen to him if motivated by genuine faith, but he's certainly not in a relationship at that point as a son with a father because sonship supposes, the intelligence of sonships supposes the gift of the Holy Spirit. Paul says, because ye are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts whereby we cry, Abba, Father. So that's the first question. Since God has now been revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is it proper to address each in prayer and worship? Three persons in the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Is it proper to address each? Well, the first thing I would say here is that there's no evidence, there's no indication, there's no example of direct address to the Holy Spirit in Scripture. And that would follow from what I've last said. If God has sent the Holy Spirit forth into our hearts whereby we cry, Abba, Father, it's the spirit of God in us that is producing the prayer or the worship or the link up to God. In a sense, if we were to turn in upon our, if we were to seek to address the Holy Spirit, we would be turning in upon ourselves. And I don't just say going so far as to be praying to ourselves, but that we would be looking in the wrong direction. Of course, there are doxologies to God. God bless it forever. And in the Scripture that we've had before us in Romans 4, it says God is a spirit. And God in his fullness is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And there are times when, in speaking of God, we may be thinking of God in the plurality, God in the trinity of being, God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But there is a Scripture which has helped me on this subject, and that is 1 Corinthians 8, verses 5 and 6. And it's contrasting Christian worship, Christian belief with heathenism. And it says in verse 5, there are gods many and lords many. Behind idolatry, an idol is nothing in the world. There's no God but one. But then it says there are in the world gods many and lords many. The demons are behind these beings. And you just need to go to a country like India and see the way that people are bowing down and worshiping idols and opening themselves to evil spirits and even demon possession. In contrast to that, in verse 6 it says, there's one God, the Father. This is the way in the mediatorial system. This is how God has been revealed to us in Christianity. There's but one God, the Father, of whom are all things. That's the verse I already mentioned in passing. But there's one God, the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ. And the implication there is just as the idolaters and heathen go to their lords many and their gods many, what do we as Christians do? We come to one God who's made known to us as the Father, and we come to the one Lord Jesus Christ. So I think it's clear from this verse and clear from examples in the scripture that it's fitting and proper that we address God as Father, as the Father, and we address the Lord Jesus Christ in prayer and worship. And there's no indication or no example of direct address in prayer to the Holy Spirit, though we know that the Holy Spirit is God. And when we think of God in his full being, we think of the Holy Spirit also. So that then brings us to the next question, which is in the book of Acts, the apostles pray, praise, and give thanks to God, or the Lord our God. Why didn't they ever address God as Father? Well, we could not go through the book of Acts and look at all the prayers, but when it says that the Christians addressed God, for instance, when Peter was in prison, it says prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. It doesn't say how they addressed God. They prayed unto God. But they may have prayed unto him, O God, or they may have prayed unto him, O God, our Father. It's not specifically recorded. There is one instance where in Acts 4.24, there was a special prayer meeting. When the apostles were let go and reported to their own country, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord. Now, this is a special word here. If you have an accurate literal translation that gives footnotes, you may be able to see here something of this significance. It's as a master to slaves, as one having sovereign power. It's used in Jude also and in 2 Peter. And it's the idea of sovereign Lord. And it was to do with the way really the religious authorities, even the political authorities were arranging themselves. Quotes from Sam 2 and the heathen rage and so on and what is going on. Now, Lord, behold their threatenings. And God then intervenes in power. Now, that's something that we might consider that God is our sovereign Lord. And if we pray to him about some of these political events, sometimes it might be more effectual than casting a vote. I remember hearing of a brother somewhere and they needed something from a local authority and he went along to one of the counselors and said, why should I do anything for you? You never vote for us. And the man said, oh, but we pray for you. I think the man never even realized anyone ever prayed for him in his life before. And not only was it in accordance with the word of God, but it was a testimony that caused this man to reflect. So there are various ways in which God is addressed in the book of Acts. And Peter, when the sheet was left down, he spoke to the Lord about it. Not so Lord, that was the Lord Jesus. And when Stephen was stoned, he said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. So there are prayers to God. There are prayers to the Lord Jesus in the Acts. I would propose that Acts is a history book. If you read Acts, you think Paul spent all this time preaching. If you read Paul's epistles, you think he spends all this time praying. And the book of Acts is also a transitional book, leading out of Judaism into Christianity. First the Jews, then the Samaritans, the house of Cornelius, then the disciples of John the Baptist. And the center of testimony is moving away from Jerusalem. It's moving west. It's moving to eventually to Rome. It finds Paul in prison in Rome. So the place to look into how God should be addressed in prayer would be perhaps the epistles. And we have two prayers in Ephesians chapter one and chapter three. In Ephesians chapter one, Paul in his address to God, he says, let the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory. He's praying to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory. And then in chapter three, verse 14, he says, for this cause I bow on the knees unto the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we need to search the scriptures and we need to look into Paul's epistles, particularly as the one who was preeminently the apostle of the assembly to find how we might be intelligent in our address to God. And there's a lot of instructions from it. For instance, in the book of Hebrews, the father isn't mentioned. In Hebrews, it's God. It's approach to God. And our access and our ability to draw near. But that doesn't mean that we set aside the idea that we approach God as father and address him as father. So we have to take the balance of the scriptures in regard to that. How are we doing for time? One minute. I think that's going to be impossible, but we'll try to be very brief. When should we pray to God our father and when shall we pray to the Lord Jesus? Simple answer. It's a matter of spiritual intelligence. Search the scriptures. Christopher Willis was in a prison camp, in the Japanese internment camp, and the food supply ran out. And he was the man in Hong Kong who made all these colorful illuminated texts. And he got some scrolls and he got a pen and he inscribed one, Give us this day our daily bread. The Roman Catholic priest didn't want it, but the Jewish rabbi said it's in keeping with the Old Testament. They were allowed to put it up. And mysteriously, miraculously, all of a sudden the food supply started again. That was an acknowledgment of God, a public acknowledgment of God. God answered it. Then the theater company wanted to put on a stage play and they didn't think that having a text above the stage was very appropriate for their production. They took this text down and threw it in a corner. The food supply ran out again. And there was no more food. And the Japanese weren't very kind in what they did to their prisoners until there was so much consternation and murmuring in the camp that they said put the text up again. The text went up again. The food supply started again. So that's a wonderful testimony to God's goodness and to Christopher Willis' faith. You can read about it in his book, I Was Amongst the Captives. But the Lord's Prayer, it's given in its context to the disciples. You can learn many, many practical things from it. In Matthew 6, verse 31, take no thought saying what shall we eat, what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed. All these things the Gentiles seek. Your heavenly Father knoweth that you've need of these things. In regard to the detail of daily life, in regard to food, in regard to drink, in regard to everyday things, we can go to the Father because he cares about us in regard to such matters. That we have in the presentation of God the Father in the Synoptic Gospels. There are things, therefore, that we can go to the Father about. I can remember being in a home in Jamaica and we were visiting a widow and obviously in the principles of headship she asked a young brother who was also present to give thanks for the food. This widow, she said to me afterwards, will you please speak to him, please try to say something to him because in actual fact he addressed the Lord Jesus in giving thanks for the food and not God the Father, which was something that this sister, and she was an intelligent and well-taught sister, she thought it was in the realm of the Father's care. So there are suggestions like that in regard to things that concern specifically the assembly. The Lord is the head of the assembly and we speak to him about it. He's the Lord of the harvest. In regard to serving the Lord, we go to the Lord of the harvest. When we come together on a Lord's Day morning, the Lord has said, do this in remembrance of me. We sing hymns to the Lord Jesus. We've come together to remember him. He's prominently before our minds and hearts. Surely it's an appropriate occasion that we should directly address the Lord Jesus Christ. There are many instances in the New Testament where believers individually and in a collective capacity bow before the Lord Jesus. There are other occasions where they speak to the Father, such as in regard to daily needs. In the Synoptic Gospels, that's the presentation of the Father. In John's Gospel and in Paul's teaching, we're entering the realm of spiritual privilege. And there, in regard to heavenly things and spiritual privilege, it's appropriate to approach the Father and speak to the Father. Rise our hearts and bless the Father. And the Lord Jesus takes his place in the midst of the company. He says, in the midst of the assembly will I sing praise unto thee. That surely is to God the Father. So I say these questions are matters for spiritual intelligence. There's no specific, there's no easy answer, but they're good questions. Search the Scriptures. Not listen to what I say, but what the Word of God says. And even Paul himself, he said, consider what I say. That's the Scriptures, apostolic teaching. Consider what I say. We can consider it. And we've been doing a lot of considering here. But we need to get one step further. He says, consider what I say, and the Lord give, and the Lord, if you read it literally, and it's not so much a petition that he might, but it's a conclusion that he will, and the Lord will give you understanding in all things. As we consider divine teaching, apostolic teaching, the Lord will then give us the understanding, the necessary understanding. …

… ... about the scripture which says, bear ye one another's burdens, and I've given one to Simon. The first question, well there's two actually, because I was given another one. If the Psalms are from the previous dispensation, why is our hymn book called Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, and why does it contain a psalm? Well actually, the new hymn book is just Spiritual Songs, and the old hymn book is Hymns. Has that one settled? We do read, of course, in Galatians and Ephesians, we read in Ephesians and Colossians, speak unto yourselves in Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs. And you will notice that in both occasions, the Psalms is with a small p. What we generally will say is that Psalms are that which are experimental. And we can think of David, when he wrote some of those Psalms, they were what he went through, they're what he experienced in his life down here. And Psalms are experimental. The suggestion is then put that hymns are particularly praising the name of God. Hymns are praising God, the Lord Jesus. And Spiritual Songs are singing of doctrinal truths. So although we do not use the Psalms as, I think the correct statement I made, as worshipping the Father, because the Father was not revealed when those Psalms were written, there are certain Psalms which we can enjoy, and which we can no doubt sing, and of course they speak of our experience as Christians. And particularly we think of the Lord is my shepherd, a wonderful Psalm that many of us will know off by heart and sing, because it is very relevant to our Christian experience. I hope that answers it. That's the same one. The next one is in Matthew 13, a reference is made to the Kingdom of Heaven, and speaks of the assembly, a.g. in the pearl and the treasure. Who is the kingdom and can a kingdom be without a king? Can we have a kingdom without a king? Now there was a statement made this afternoon in relation to Matthew 13, that it's the Kingdom of Heaven. And the statement was that it has been ruled by remote control. The king is not on earth, the king is in heaven. And in that relation, at this present moment, the kingdom is a moral thought. It is not an official kingdom. We don't see it. It is only a moral thought. And therefore, as a moral kingdom, it is the Lordship of Christ that we would see. When there is an official kingdom, when there is the official king is here, he will be owned as king. So this is what I gleaned from a brother in the kingdom, as the Kingdom of Heaven is a moral thought, the king is in heaven, and is ruling this earth, and we would therefore address him as Lord. Simon. Wake up. I can't read it. Right. Okay, this is the question. Can we say that although the Lord is not yet sitting on David's throne, he is king in as much as he is sitting on the father's throne? Well, my mind went to Psalm 110, which says, and I'll use a more literal translation, verse one, Jehovah said unto my Lord, sit at my right hand, until I put thine enemies as footstool of thy feet, which does refer to where the Lord Jesus is at present, sitting at the right hand of God. And yet in this psalm, it says that Jehovah said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand. So I would take it from that verse, simply because the Lord is sitting on the father's throne, sitting at the right hand of God, doesn't necessarily mean that because of that, we must think of him as king. Really, for the same reasons as Rusty's just given us, but also because in this psalm, it actually says that he's sitting there as Lord, my Lord. And I think, again, we go back to the thought that it's a moral situation we're in at the moment. The kingdom's in mystery form, if you like. It's not seen in public display at the moment, and we are living as subjects of the kingdom in a moral way. And that means that we are subject to the Lord in a practical way in our lives day by day. We regard him as our Lord, as our director in our lives. And the thought of king is more a public and official thought. And until the Lord Jesus comes in his glory, he won't be seen as king until then. But, of course, we shall never then call him king, because we will be by his side as his consul. And we shall always, in that sense, know him as Lord. If there's anything that we've said that isn't right, a brother will happily correct us from the floor, I'm sure. Thank you very much, Simon. Is there another... Is this another one? No. …

… Right. Two questions. The first one is about Acts 7, verse 38. The question is, who were the church in the wilderness? My answer to that is, who were the church in Ephesus? Maybe I need to expand on that briefly. Acts 7, verse 38. This is he, Moses, that was in the church in the wilderness, with the angel which spake to him, and so on. So, I suppose the intelligent questioner asked that question in order to bring out an argument that is sometimes used by those who say actually Israel was the church in the Old Testament. Because, Stephen says in Acts 7, he speaks about the church that was in the wilderness. So, there you go. Israel was the church then. Well, let's go to Acts 19 and look at the church in Ephesus, which is their translated assembly. Now, this is the same word. In Acts 7, it's Ecclesia, church, and in Acts 19, it's the same word, Ecclesia. Now, it says there, Acts 19, 32, Some therefore cried one thing and some another, for the assembly was confused. Now, that's the assembly of angry Ephesians who sit in that theater and who cry for hours. Great is the Diana of the Ephesians. So, basically, the argument is simple. The word Ecclesia normally refers to the church, but it also means congregation. It means a crowd of people. And it talks about, in Acts 7, it talks about Moses who was with that crowd of people in the wilderness. And in Acts 19, it talks about a crowd of people who had no insight at all who were in a theater. So, we need to be careful. To put it simply, one word does not always have the same meaning. Right. Question number two. Leviticus 32, seven feasts, seven dispensations, question mark. What of the Sabbath? In the opening verses, where does it fit? I agree that there are seven feasts, but I didn't speak of seven dispensations in Leviticus 23. I don't think the Passover is a dispensation. I don't think the resurrection is a dispensation. What I was trying to bring out is that in Leviticus 23, you have a summary of God's, you might say, plan of salvation with his people. And the summary of this plan is only understood if you know dispensational teaching. Because you have the work of Christ, Passover, his resurrection. You have Pentecost, Feast of Weeks. Then you have the Feast of Trumpets, the gathering of Israel together. You have the Atonement Day. And then you have the Feast of Tabernacles, i.e., the Millennium. So, I never said that. I didn't say there are seven dispensations in Leviticus 23. The other question is, where does the Sabbath fit in? That would be an interesting lecture. God rested on the Sabbath day. Israel was meant to observe the Sabbath day. By the time Christ was on earth, God could no longer rest. And basically, there was no basis anymore for the Sabbath, for the rest. But based on the work of Christ, the promise that there will be a rest for man will still come true. That's true for us spiritually. But Hebrews 4 says that when Joshua led Israel into Canaan, this was not bringing Israel into the final Sabbath rest. And the writer concludes that there is a Sabbath rest reserved for Israel in the Millennium. So, really, the point that the Sabbath is there, it's a good additional point, which, again, is best understood with the dispensational framework. Thank you. There is actually, since we apportioned out the questions, another question has arrived in the box. But because time has run out on us, I'm proposing not to deal with it. But if the questioner would like to speak to either David or Michael or myself, we'll endeavor to answer it. Could we sing a hymn? It's not quite quartered weight yet. We'll sing 170. We often love to sing of the rapture, the Lord coming for his church. But this looks on to the... …