WEBVTT

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Eschatology is a study of last things.

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It's a study of the end times.

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Classic eschatology includes things like

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the second coming of Jesus Christ.

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When we think eschatology,

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we think of the second coming.

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When we think of eschatology,

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we think of prophecy.

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We think of the new 
heavens and the new earth.

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We think of judgment day.

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We think of eternal punishment.

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Oftentimes, in this category of theology,

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we discuss the nature 
of the Kingdom of God.

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Is the Kingdom of God a thousand years?

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Or what is the Kingdom of God?

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The Kingdom of Heaven?

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The future of the church,

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the future of Israel -

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these are things that are 
discussed under this heading.

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The millennium.

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The rapture.

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The resurrection of the dead.

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The tribulation.

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The antichrist.

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Can you think of anything else?

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Those are the things that are

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commonly included in 
this branch of theology.

NOTE Paragraph

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So, here's the question.

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Why take a number of Lord's Days

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and devote them to this topic?

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Is this necessary?

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My sermon this morning,

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I've entitled this:

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Why a Series on Eschatology?

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Today, an introduction.

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I just want to talk to you about why.

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(incomplete thought)

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I have five reasons.

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There are other reasons,

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but in this message I want to lay down

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five reasons as to why I want to do

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a series concerning eschatology.

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And I hope you leave here today

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believing that at least 
3 or 4 or 5 of these

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are sufficiently important to 
warrant a series like this.

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I think all of them are.

NOTE Paragraph

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So, I think that before we dive into this,

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I feel like I need to say something here.

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I cannot help but that this series

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is going to be polemic.

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Do you know that word?

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What's a good synonym for polemic?

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It's controversial.

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You might even think critical

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or argumentative.

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It's the idea that this series

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is not just going to be 
a setting forth of truth;

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it is going to be a combating error.

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So, I can hardly avoid confronting

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dispensational premillenialism.

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I detest it.

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But I want to show you that there's

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a biblical reason for detesting it.

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(incomplete thought)

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Brethren, look, if you 
don't know that term

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by the end of this, you 
will know that term.

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You will know some of the major tenets

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of dispensational premillenialism.

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Over against what?

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What do you hold to, pastor?

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Over against the biblical position.

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Brethren, look, I say 
that tongue-in-cheek,

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but brethren, I don't want you to believe

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anything unless it can be shown to you

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from Scripture.

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Dispensational premillenialism is

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that eschatology that is 
largely touted by Hollywood,

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by John Hagee,

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and yes, by John MacArthur.

NOTE Paragraph

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Now, I want to say this at the beginning.

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God has used John MacArthur

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instrumentally in my own conversion.

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He's had a profound influence on my life,

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even at a day when I didn't recognize

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that I would a preacher and a pastor.

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He influenced me tremendously.

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And as much as anything,

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it was his example as a preacher

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who was deeply committed 
to the Word of God.

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I appreciated that about him.

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He could convince me of anything,

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just so long as he could 
show me from Scripture.

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I mean, from day one when God saved me,

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he had a powerful influence on my life,

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but God gave me a hunger 
for the Word of God

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that was greater than the 
influence of John MacArthur.

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John could take me anywhere as long as

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he could show me from Scripture

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that I ought to go there.

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And he did. He convinced 
me of many things.

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I mean, the sovereignty of God.

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There it is.

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I would hear him preach it.

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Yep, there it is.

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Election. Yep, I see it right there

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in the Word of God.

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You know, he was big on Lordship.

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I was saved reading 
"The Gospel According to Jesus,"

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which deals with this 
whole Lordship issue.

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Yep, there it is in the Bible.

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He was very convincing.

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Repentance. Yep, there is it.

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The rapture...

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Where is it at?

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Now folks, as a young believer,

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he could have taken me anywhere

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that he could have shown me from Scripture

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that I ought to go.

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The rapture.

NOTE Paragraph

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Let me tell you something 
about the rapture.

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It's not like the Trinity.

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The Trinity is a concept

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that you don't find the 
word "Trinity" in Scripture,

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but you find the concept.

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But with rapture, I don't 
even find the word.

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But I don't find the concept.

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And in the verses that are used

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to reference this supposed rapture,

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I'd get to looking at those things

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and say that's not 
what that's talking about.

NOTE Paragraph

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Brethren, I actually heard,

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I believe it was the time I 
was out there in California,

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I actually heard John MacArthur say

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as he was preaching through Revelation,

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he said now some of you are going to ask

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where the rapture is.

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He said it's in the white 
spaces between verse 3 and 4.

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And I'm not making that up,

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because you found that 
message, didn't you, James.

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I mentioned it and somebody told me here -

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you've heard that Jeff?

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(unintelligible)

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But he used specifically 
"in the white spaces"

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when I heard it.

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And I said "in the white spaces?"

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You're telling me there's a doctrine

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in the white spaces?

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Brethren, there's something wrong

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with that approach to Scripture.

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As a young believer who had been

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so impressed by John's commitment

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to the Word of God, I was baffled

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as to how that commitment seemed to

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disintegrate when it came to eschatology.

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Look, I want to tell you right up front.

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I appreciate John MacArthur,

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but my commitment to God's Word

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is greater; it is foremost.

NOTE Paragraph

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I will follow any preacher

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that I sit before and listen to preach;

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I will follow any preacher as long as

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he can show me from the Word of God

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that I ought to go where 
he wants to take me.

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But God help us, brethren.

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Let no one take you anywhere -

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including me -

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don't ever let me take you,

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or any of the preachers in this church

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on the radio or on the Internet

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take you anywhere they cannot show you

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from the Word of God.

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It is not responsible listening to sermons

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unless you have an open Bible.

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Listening to sermons and 
listening to theology

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and listening to doctrine,

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listening to teachers 
without an open Bible

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is irresponsible on your part.

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Because you have no way of knowing

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whether this guy is 
leading you into error or not.

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And just because somebody 
has a certain reputation

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as being a Bible scholar,

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or being this or being 
that or being reformed

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does not mean that they 
cannot lead you into error.

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And you will not know if they are,

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unless you are checking 
and proving everything.

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Brethren, there is a reason why

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the Bereans show up in Scripture.

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They were more noble.

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And what were they doing?

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There's a nobility in testing everything

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by the Word of God.

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Everything.

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Brethren, the primary thing compelling me

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to do this series is 
that I do not believe -

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for one, I believe that 
there are serious errors

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associated with dispensational 
premillenialism.

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The second thing about that is

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I don't believe that those 
errors are harmless.

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I do not believe that they are harmless

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with regards to sound doctrine

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or the life of the church.

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There's implications in this system

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that I believe are harmful.

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And that's why I want to deal with it.

NOTE Paragraph

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Brethren, I am under a charge

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to preach the Word.

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And I think if we just 
did a survey right now

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of how much these subjects
that are dealt with

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under this heading of eschatology

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are dealt with in our New Testaments -

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well, the whole Bible,

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but the New Testament specifically,

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how much of it actually 
deals (incomplete thought).

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I've gone through the New Testament.

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I believe I can find 
aspects of eschatology

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in every single book 
of the New Testament

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except 3 John.

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I can't find it there.

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But in every other book.

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This is something that the early church

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counted as a doctrine for us to know,

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to embrace - it's important.

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God has given it to us in His Word.

NOTE Paragraph

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And so, ok, I have five reasons

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as to why I believe 
that a series like this

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is justifiable.

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And I think this introduction 
is important.

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I want you all to feel this.

NOTE Paragraph

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So, here's the first.

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This is the first reason why I believe

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we need to look at this.

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See, brethren, the thing is

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this dispensational premillenialism

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is being taught everywhere

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as though it's the truth.

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It's being taught by Hollywood.

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I'll tell you, when Hollywood owns

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a doctrine, you ought to fear.

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I'm not saying that every single thing

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that possibly can come 
across the television screen

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or movie screen is going to be erroneous,

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but when the world gets on board,

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beware.

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Do you remember from 1 John

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who controls the world?

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If Satan controls the world,

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then the world jumps on board this system;

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this eschatology.

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Satan typically does not 
just do thing randomly.

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He does things with intent.

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Deliberately.

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On purpose.

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He means to accomplish his ends,

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and his ends are not favorable to us.

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So, here's the first thing.

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I believe that that system 
of eschatology out there -

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you know what I'm talking about.

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I'm talking about this eschatology

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that basically says this:

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we're going along right now

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and we're going to get raptured.

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And then there's going to be 7 years.

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Now if you're pre-tribulational,

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there's going to be 7 years of tribulation

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and then Jesus Christ is going to come
and set up an earthly kingdom,

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and it's going to last for 1,000 years
and then you're going to have Armageddon

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and then you're going to 
have this judgment day,

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and then the new heavens and new earth

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are going to be ushered in.

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I'm talking about that kind of system.

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I'm talking about the "left behind" thing.

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This is all the charts and everything

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that you see John Hagee set up.

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Now look, I'm not going to say that

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John MacArthur buys into every last iota

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of the "left behind" stuff,

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but by and large, he holds to this same

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type of eschatology.

NOTE Paragraph

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Here's the first reason.

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I believe it commandeers the promises

00:14:13.921 --> 00:14:18.041
that God has given to the church.

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Probably the most defining aspect

00:14:20.094 --> 00:14:21.998
of dispensational premillenialism

00:14:21.998 --> 00:14:24.671
is its insistence that there are

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two people of God.

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Let's just lay that down.

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Fundamental to this eschatological system;

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this dispensationalism:

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two people of God.

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Who are the two people?

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The church and Israel.

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Two distinct people.

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Two distinct purposes for each.

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You need to see this for what it is.

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MacArthur insists that certain promises

00:14:57.921 --> 00:15:01.527
made to Israel are not for you and me.

00:15:01.527 --> 00:15:03.214
That's what's being insisted.

00:15:03.214 --> 00:15:07.158
What's the big deal?
What's the big deal?

NOTE Paragraph

00:15:07.158 --> 00:15:09.118
Brethren, think about it.

00:15:09.118 --> 00:15:12.649
This is what this is like.

00:15:12.649 --> 00:15:15.307
Imagine this.

00:15:15.307 --> 00:15:18.092
You know, we have families in the church

00:15:18.092 --> 00:15:21.251
that are adopting children.

00:15:21.251 --> 00:15:24.952
Imagine this.

00:15:24.952 --> 00:15:31.997
Imagine that you have a son.

00:15:31.997 --> 00:15:33.836
A man and a woman.

00:15:33.836 --> 00:15:36.169
They have a son.

00:15:36.169 --> 00:15:40.923
It's born to them.

00:15:40.923 --> 00:15:45.154
Well, later on, they've got this one son.

00:15:45.154 --> 00:15:48.182
They decide that they're going to adopt

00:15:48.182 --> 00:15:51.522
two sons.

00:15:51.522 --> 00:15:55.013
One is born into the family.

00:15:55.013 --> 00:15:58.437
Two are adopted into the family.

00:15:58.437 --> 00:16:00.511
Imagine this.

00:16:00.511 --> 00:16:07.209
Imagine that these two adopted sons -

00:16:07.209 --> 00:16:10.082
suppose it's my family.

00:16:10.082 --> 00:16:11.685
I have one son.

00:16:11.685 --> 00:16:14.403
Let's suppose I adopt two sons now.

00:16:14.403 --> 00:16:15.978
I bring those two sons home,

00:16:15.978 --> 00:16:17.812
and I sit down at the table with them

00:16:17.812 --> 00:16:19.204
and I look across the table

00:16:19.204 --> 00:16:20.762
and I look in their eyes.

00:16:20.762 --> 00:16:28.865
And I say, "Boys, you 
see Joshua over here?

00:16:28.865 --> 00:16:33.220
He was born into the family.

00:16:33.220 --> 00:16:37.050
My wife gave birth to him.

00:16:37.050 --> 00:16:38.792
He's blood of my blood,

00:16:38.792 --> 00:16:40.162
bone of my bone.

00:16:40.162 --> 00:16:43.199
He's my boy.

00:16:43.199 --> 00:16:47.534
Boys, guess what?

00:16:47.534 --> 00:16:50.619
I want you to know this.

00:16:50.619 --> 00:16:57.824
I am going to treat you as equal to him.

00:16:57.824 --> 00:17:01.490
I am going to be every bit a father to you

00:17:01.490 --> 00:17:03.468
that I am to him.

00:17:03.468 --> 00:17:06.281
I am going to love you like I love him.

00:17:06.281 --> 00:17:09.482
I am going to care for 
you like I care for him.

00:17:09.482 --> 00:17:13.719
All that it means for him to be a child

00:17:13.719 --> 00:17:19.220
in this family, it's going to mean to you.

00:17:19.220 --> 00:17:20.891
I'm going to give you everything.

00:17:20.891 --> 00:17:24.285
You are mine.

00:17:24.285 --> 00:17:26.515
I'm your father.

00:17:26.515 --> 00:17:30.244
You are full heirs.

00:17:30.244 --> 00:17:34.554
Every privilege he has, you have.

00:17:34.554 --> 00:17:36.451
You bear my name.

00:17:36.451 --> 00:17:38.858
You're going to bear the name 'Conway,'

00:17:38.858 --> 00:17:40.637
and everything that it means

00:17:40.637 --> 00:17:49.157
to be a Conway child is yours.

00:17:49.157 --> 00:17:50.692
No difference.

00:17:50.692 --> 00:17:52.654
No difference between you at all."

NOTE Paragraph

00:17:52.654 --> 00:17:55.906
Now look, if I go upstairs

00:17:55.906 --> 00:17:58.448
and I'm listening down the stairway

00:17:58.448 --> 00:18:03.134
because I want to hear if they really

00:18:03.134 --> 00:18:05.453
appreciate what I just told them.

00:18:05.453 --> 00:18:11.836
One of those adopted sons 
says to the other one,

00:18:11.836 --> 00:18:14.389
"that's not true.

00:18:14.389 --> 00:18:18.738
We're really inferior to Joshua.

00:18:18.738 --> 00:18:23.256
Our father - he's really not 
going to treat us the same.

00:18:23.256 --> 00:18:29.425
He is going to play 
favorites with Joshua."

00:18:29.425 --> 00:18:34.589
(incomplete thought)

00:18:34.589 --> 00:18:36.449
You see, this is what's happening.

00:18:36.449 --> 00:18:39.207
You've got the adopted brother - you.

00:18:39.207 --> 00:18:41.964
The adopted brother - 
somebody like John MacArthur.

00:18:41.964 --> 00:18:43.527
And he's saying in your ear,

00:18:43.527 --> 00:18:45.340
"it's not true. It's not true.

00:18:45.340 --> 00:18:47.845
Don't believe that the Father is going to

00:18:47.845 --> 00:18:52.748
give us everything that
He's giving to Israel."

00:18:52.748 --> 00:18:55.014
That's what he's saying.

00:18:55.014 --> 00:18:56.686
And he will admit he's saying that.

00:18:56.686 --> 00:18:59.921
He doesn't deny that.

00:18:59.921 --> 00:19:04.567
But Scripture simply does not teach that.

00:19:04.567 --> 00:19:06.655
I am going to prove that to you

00:19:06.655 --> 00:19:07.929
in the weeks ahead

00:19:07.929 --> 00:19:10.510
beyond any shadow of a doubt.

00:19:10.510 --> 00:19:13.603
It does not teach that, brethren.

00:19:13.603 --> 00:19:16.881
Not at all.

00:19:16.881 --> 00:19:18.898
Guys that hold to that system

00:19:18.898 --> 00:19:21.451
would take certain promises away from us.

00:19:21.451 --> 00:19:23.613
And I don't believe 
this is any small matter.

NOTE Paragraph

00:19:23.613 --> 00:19:25.332
I want you to turn in your Bibles

00:19:25.332 --> 00:19:32.994
to 1 Peter 1:13.

00:19:32.994 --> 00:19:35.274
There's undoubtedly many places

00:19:35.274 --> 00:19:37.127
that I could go here,

00:19:37.127 --> 00:19:46.756
but brethren, 1 Peter 1:13.

00:19:46.756 --> 00:19:50.726
Notice how this reads.

00:19:50.726 --> 00:19:55.925
1 Peter 1:13

00:19:55.925 --> 00:20:01.087
"Therefore, preparing 
your minds for action."

00:20:01.087 --> 00:20:05.684
See, what Peter is speaking about here

00:20:05.684 --> 00:20:11.432
is living life now being ready for action;

00:20:11.432 --> 00:20:14.233
being sober-minded.

00:20:14.233 --> 00:20:17.538
He wants us to set our hope -

00:20:17.538 --> 00:20:19.394
what is hope?

00:20:19.394 --> 00:20:21.437
Hope is faith in things that happen

00:20:21.437 --> 00:20:23.026
in the future.

00:20:23.026 --> 00:20:24.396
That's what it is.

00:20:24.396 --> 00:20:28.305
Like Piper talks about "future grace."

00:20:28.305 --> 00:20:30.207
It's faith in future things.

00:20:30.207 --> 00:20:31.560
That's what hope is.

00:20:31.560 --> 00:20:35.186
I hope for things to yet come.

00:20:35.186 --> 00:20:39.020
He says set your hope; your expectation;

00:20:39.020 --> 00:20:41.362
your faith in the future things,

00:20:41.362 --> 00:20:45.085
"fully on the grace that 
will be brought to you

00:20:45.085 --> 00:20:47.378
at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

00:20:47.378 --> 00:20:49.808
What I want you to see is Peter believes

00:20:49.808 --> 00:20:55.404
that you living now with 
minds set for action;

00:20:55.404 --> 00:20:57.513
prepared for action, being sober-minded.

00:20:57.513 --> 00:20:58.715
How are we to live?

00:20:58.715 --> 00:21:01.418
We're to live with our minds set

00:21:01.418 --> 00:21:03.845
on that hope that is going 
to be revealed to us

00:21:03.845 --> 00:21:04.929
when Christ comes.

00:21:04.929 --> 00:21:05.893
You know what?

00:21:05.893 --> 00:21:07.569
You know what we get when He comes?

00:21:07.569 --> 00:21:09.157
Everything that's been promised.

00:21:09.157 --> 00:21:11.288
We get the inheritance.

00:21:11.288 --> 00:21:13.704
You see, it's like having 
the two adopted boys.

00:21:13.704 --> 00:21:16.993
When does this all come really to fruition

00:21:16.993 --> 00:21:18.364
about being even?

00:21:18.364 --> 00:21:19.815
Well, it's when I die

00:21:19.815 --> 00:21:21.630
and the will is read.

00:21:21.630 --> 00:21:24.482
Are they truly heirs?

00:21:24.482 --> 00:21:27.031
Are they going to receive everything

00:21:27.031 --> 00:21:30.224
that the family-born son

00:21:30.224 --> 00:21:31.739
is going to receive.

00:21:31.739 --> 00:21:33.139
And you see what he wants?

00:21:33.139 --> 00:21:34.683
What Peter wants us to do

00:21:34.683 --> 00:21:38.243
is he wants us to look at what is coming;

00:21:38.243 --> 00:21:40.427
what God has promised,

00:21:40.427 --> 00:21:42.553
and he wants us to set our hope there.

00:21:42.553 --> 00:21:44.666
Brethren, I'll tell you,

00:21:44.666 --> 00:21:47.028
does that not keep people going?

00:21:47.028 --> 00:21:50.068
Look, people can endure 
very difficult things today

00:21:50.068 --> 00:21:51.665
if there's a promise of something

00:21:51.665 --> 00:21:54.488
absolutely altogether glorious tomorrow.

00:21:54.488 --> 00:21:57.359
Right? That's just a reality about life.

00:21:57.359 --> 00:21:58.957
We can endure hardship now.

00:21:58.957 --> 00:22:01.484
Look, if some of the things 
we have to endure now

00:22:01.484 --> 00:22:04.206
are forever, then that's not good.

00:22:04.206 --> 00:22:06.128
That's not very encouraging.

00:22:06.128 --> 00:22:07.940
But when you know that these things,

00:22:07.940 --> 00:22:09.113
like Paul says,

00:22:09.113 --> 00:22:12.195
only momentary, only light affliction,

00:22:12.195 --> 00:22:14.742
to be followed by an 
eternal weight of glory.

00:22:14.742 --> 00:22:16.751
Well, that keeps us going!

00:22:16.751 --> 00:22:21.372
I can suffer today if I 
know paradise tomorrow.

00:22:21.372 --> 00:22:23.710
And this is the idea here.

00:22:23.710 --> 00:22:27.454
It matters what's been promised to us.

00:22:27.454 --> 00:22:29.596
Am I a full heir?

00:22:29.596 --> 00:22:31.582
Or am I really just going to be regarded

00:22:31.582 --> 00:22:33.666
as a step-child when the inheritance

00:22:33.666 --> 00:22:37.668
is being handed out?

00:22:37.668 --> 00:22:39.579
That's not a small thing.

NOTE Paragraph

00:22:39.579 --> 00:22:43.099
If I believe ethnic Jews have somehow

00:22:43.099 --> 00:22:45.414
been afforded a greater privilege,

00:22:45.414 --> 00:22:48.763
or somehow they are greater benefactors

00:22:48.763 --> 00:22:52.625
in the Abrahamic covenant - somehow -

00:22:52.625 --> 00:22:55.146
than us believing Gentiles,

00:22:55.146 --> 00:22:57.017
it makes a difference.

00:22:57.017 --> 00:22:59.111
Am I even?

00:22:59.111 --> 00:23:04.640
Or am I inferior?

00:23:04.640 --> 00:23:07.753
Brethren, don't you love the thought

00:23:07.753 --> 00:23:13.532
that anything - anything - 
a believing Jew,

00:23:13.532 --> 00:23:17.067
not just any Jew, but a believing Jew -

00:23:17.067 --> 00:23:20.522
anything a believing Jew can come to

00:23:20.522 --> 00:23:22.362
and look in Scripture and say,

00:23:22.362 --> 00:23:24.171
that is mine -

00:23:24.171 --> 00:23:26.714
I as a believing Gentile can 
look over his shoulder

00:23:26.714 --> 00:23:30.345
and say that's mine too.

00:23:30.345 --> 00:23:31.593
That matters.

00:23:31.593 --> 00:23:34.664
That matters to me.

00:23:34.664 --> 00:23:44.099
Brethren, to me that makes 
my salvation glorious.

00:23:44.099 --> 00:23:47.205
Now, it would be glorious if I was

00:23:47.205 --> 00:23:49.693
just delivered from hell,

00:23:49.693 --> 00:23:51.163
cast out on to an island,

00:23:51.163 --> 00:23:55.533
never got to see God face-to-face.

00:23:55.533 --> 00:23:57.135
But the very fact that I've been

00:23:57.135 --> 00:23:58.731
brought into the family;

00:23:58.731 --> 00:24:01.657
into the citizenship of the same

00:24:01.657 --> 00:24:03.593
commonwealth of Israel;

00:24:03.593 --> 00:24:06.409
into the same family;

00:24:06.409 --> 00:24:09.092
grafted into the same tree

00:24:09.092 --> 00:24:12.356
and all those promises that were given

00:24:12.356 --> 00:24:15.671
to the believing Jew are 
"yes and amen" in Christ.

00:24:15.671 --> 00:24:22.209
That brings our salvation 
to a level of glory.

00:24:22.209 --> 00:24:23.923
It ought to stagger us

00:24:23.923 --> 00:24:27.202
what God has done for us.

00:24:27.202 --> 00:24:29.403
It really ought to.

NOTE Paragraph

00:24:29.403 --> 00:24:32.075
Dispensationalists constantly

00:24:32.075 --> 00:24:35.843
want to stress that Israel gets

00:24:35.843 --> 00:24:39.180
an earthly kingdom and land

00:24:39.180 --> 00:24:41.823
and all manner of territorial promises

00:24:41.823 --> 00:24:43.783
while the church doesn't.

00:24:43.783 --> 00:24:46.101
The church is going to be somewhere else.

00:24:46.101 --> 00:24:47.895
But listen, our Lord comes

00:24:47.895 --> 00:24:51.152
and does He make any distinction?

00:24:51.152 --> 00:24:53.704
When our Lord talks about who gets

00:24:53.704 --> 00:24:55.864
the kingdom of God,

00:24:55.864 --> 00:25:00.417
or who inherits the earth -

00:25:00.417 --> 00:25:01.898
you think about right when He

00:25:01.898 --> 00:25:04.009
starts out His ministry in Matthew

00:25:04.009 --> 00:25:06.317
and He gives the Sermon on the Mount

00:25:06.317 --> 00:25:10.194
and those so well known Beatitudes.

00:25:10.194 --> 00:25:11.933
Does He make any distinction between

00:25:11.933 --> 00:25:16.385
believing Gentiles and believing Jews?

00:25:16.385 --> 00:25:20.798
Who does He promise the kingdom to?

00:25:20.798 --> 00:25:21.669
Do you remember?

00:25:21.669 --> 00:25:25.375
Blessed are the poor in spirit,

00:25:25.375 --> 00:25:30.156
for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

00:25:30.156 --> 00:25:33.951
And blessed are the meek,

00:25:33.951 --> 00:25:36.572
for what?

00:25:36.572 --> 00:25:39.414
They shall inherit the earth.

00:25:39.414 --> 00:25:47.154
Not the believing Israelites.

00:25:47.154 --> 00:25:50.922
The meek. The meek.

00:25:50.922 --> 00:25:53.675
The distinctions are gone.

00:25:53.675 --> 00:25:56.082
That's what we find in Scripture.

NOTE Paragraph

00:25:56.082 --> 00:25:57.817
I would say to John MacArthur

00:25:57.817 --> 00:26:01.351
and to all the other dispensational 
premillenialists out there,

00:26:01.351 --> 00:26:06.467
we will not surrender one 
blood-bought promise to you.

00:26:06.467 --> 00:26:08.910
Not one.

00:26:08.910 --> 00:26:11.334
The beauty is John's going to get them

00:26:11.334 --> 00:26:15.609
even though he doesn't believe 
he's going to get them.

00:26:15.609 --> 00:26:19.044
But still, if you've got the 
two adopted kids downstairs

00:26:19.044 --> 00:26:21.088
and the father hears that,

00:26:21.088 --> 00:26:23.070
he doesn't like it.

00:26:23.070 --> 00:26:25.409
He doesn't like it, because you know what?

00:26:25.409 --> 00:26:27.958
He really wants to comfort them

00:26:27.958 --> 00:26:31.843
and to cause them rejoicing

00:26:31.843 --> 00:26:34.031
in the reality of that.

00:26:34.031 --> 00:26:37.009
He wants us to live in 
light of that right now.

00:26:37.009 --> 00:26:39.782
He really does.

NOTE Paragraph

00:26:39.782 --> 00:26:42.616
And listen, I am not saying -

00:26:42.616 --> 00:26:48.275
I will not say that the 
church replaces Israel.

00:26:48.275 --> 00:26:50.501
Or displaces Israel.

00:26:50.501 --> 00:26:53.616
What I'm saying is this,

00:26:53.616 --> 00:26:59.078
God's true people

00:26:59.078 --> 00:27:00.531
even in the Old Testament,

00:27:00.531 --> 00:27:02.162
God's true people -

00:27:02.162 --> 00:27:04.168
not all ethnic Israel.

00:27:04.168 --> 00:27:07.977
It was a remnant.

00:27:07.977 --> 00:27:10.607
And what God has done

00:27:10.607 --> 00:27:13.608
is He's determined to take

00:27:13.608 --> 00:27:20.939
from Gentile stock and make 
true Jews out of them.

00:27:20.939 --> 00:27:24.426
All Israel is not Israel.

00:27:24.426 --> 00:27:28.983
And now, some Gentiles are.

00:27:28.983 --> 00:27:31.212
They're grafted in.

00:27:31.212 --> 00:27:33.319
That's the truth.

00:27:33.319 --> 00:27:35.397
Every promise.

00:27:35.397 --> 00:27:39.652
Every covenant ever given

00:27:39.652 --> 00:27:42.938
to those true Israelites.

00:27:42.938 --> 00:27:47.017
Yes and amen, they are mine in Christ.

00:27:47.017 --> 00:27:50.316
And that's exactly what the New 
Testament would have us teach.

00:27:50.316 --> 00:27:53.293
We're going to look at this a lot more.

00:27:53.293 --> 00:27:56.119
But I believe that that eschatology

00:27:56.119 --> 00:28:00.407
commandeers the promises 
given to the church.

00:28:00.407 --> 00:28:02.297
Here's a second thing.

NOTE Paragraph

00:28:02.297 --> 00:28:05.927
The church's urgency is dulled

00:28:05.927 --> 00:28:08.788
by that form of eschatology.

00:28:08.788 --> 00:28:14.390
Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 24.

00:28:14.390 --> 00:28:40.360
Matthew 24:42

00:28:40.360 --> 00:28:48.078
"Therefore, stay awake..."

00:28:48.078 --> 00:28:51.857
This is concerning His coming.

00:28:51.857 --> 00:28:57.664
"Stay awake, for you do not know

00:28:57.664 --> 00:29:01.288
on what day your Lord is coming.

00:29:01.288 --> 00:29:04.706
But know this, that if 
the master of the house

00:29:04.706 --> 00:29:07.020
had known in what part of the night

00:29:07.020 --> 00:29:08.710
the thief was coming,

00:29:08.710 --> 00:29:10.490
he would have stayed awake

00:29:10.490 --> 00:29:13.819
and would not have let 
his house be broken into.

00:29:13.819 --> 00:29:18.434
Therefore, you also must be ready,

00:29:18.434 --> 00:29:20.920
for the Son of Man is coming at an hour

00:29:20.920 --> 00:29:25.049
you do not expect."

00:29:25.049 --> 00:29:28.149
Our Lord left His disciples

00:29:28.149 --> 00:29:30.651
with a sense of urgency.

00:29:30.651 --> 00:29:34.507
Be ready.

00:29:34.507 --> 00:29:41.823
His words to them were words:

00:29:41.823 --> 00:29:43.289
you want to be ready,

00:29:43.289 --> 00:29:46.207
because I'm going to come 
like a thief in the night.

00:29:46.207 --> 00:29:49.200
And I'm going to come quickly.

00:29:49.200 --> 00:29:51.687
You want to be ready.

00:29:51.687 --> 00:29:53.343
Be ready.

00:29:53.343 --> 00:29:55.270
And you know what you find in Scripture?

00:29:55.270 --> 00:29:56.685
There's a sense that we're to

00:29:56.685 --> 00:29:58.782
pass that urgency on to the lost.

00:29:58.782 --> 00:30:01.105
Today is the day of salvation.

00:30:01.105 --> 00:30:03.180
Today, if you hear His voice,

00:30:03.180 --> 00:30:06.821
do not harden your heart. Why?

00:30:06.821 --> 00:30:09.680
Because there's an urgency.

00:30:09.680 --> 00:30:11.526
Christ may return at any time

00:30:11.526 --> 00:30:13.199
or death may take you at anytime.

00:30:13.199 --> 00:30:15.110
There is no guarantee of any future

00:30:15.110 --> 00:30:16.134
beyond right now.

00:30:16.134 --> 00:30:18.899
You want to settle matters 
with Christ immediately.

00:30:18.899 --> 00:30:20.446
Be watchful. Be ready.

00:30:20.446 --> 00:30:22.310
That is the urgency of Scripture.

00:30:22.310 --> 00:30:24.289
Let me ask you something.

00:30:24.289 --> 00:30:27.069
Is there the real possibility

00:30:27.069 --> 00:30:30.796
that Jesus Christ might come today?

00:30:30.796 --> 00:30:32.688
That's what you need to ask yourself.

00:30:32.688 --> 00:30:33.686
Could He come today?

00:30:33.686 --> 00:30:36.256
And bang! It's all over. 
All over. All done.

00:30:36.256 --> 00:30:38.058
Time as we know it is over.

00:30:38.058 --> 00:30:39.585
The world comes to an end.

00:30:39.585 --> 00:30:42.029
The trumpet of the archangel sounds.

00:30:42.029 --> 00:30:44.483
And there is the Lord Jesus Christ

00:30:44.483 --> 00:30:46.746
come as a thief in the night.

00:30:46.746 --> 00:30:48.983
Suddenly revealed from heaven

00:30:48.983 --> 00:30:51.744
with His mighty angels in flaming fire,

00:30:51.744 --> 00:30:53.729
and He's bringing vengeance upon those

00:30:53.729 --> 00:30:55.935
who did not obey the Gospel;

00:30:55.935 --> 00:30:57.961
those who would not surrender to Him.

00:30:57.961 --> 00:30:59.692
Couldn't that happen today?

00:30:59.692 --> 00:31:01.652
Is it possible?

00:31:01.652 --> 00:31:04.905
That's how Jesus Christ left His church

00:31:04.905 --> 00:31:07.398
with that mindset of that urgency

00:31:07.398 --> 00:31:09.378
that that can happen.

00:31:09.378 --> 00:31:10.739
It makes everything urgent.

00:31:10.739 --> 00:31:13.248
When you think that that sky out there

00:31:13.248 --> 00:31:16.472
might split open today and He may come

00:31:16.472 --> 00:31:20.160
and there is nothing keeping Him back;

00:31:20.160 --> 00:31:22.253
that is not what all this "left behind"

00:31:22.253 --> 00:31:23.986
dispensationalists believe.

00:31:23.986 --> 00:31:26.788
And this is not what 
John MacArthur believes.

NOTE Paragraph

00:31:26.788 --> 00:31:29.122
Listen.

00:31:29.122 --> 00:31:31.632
All you have to do is watch

00:31:31.632 --> 00:31:39.167
one of these "Left Behind" movies.

00:31:39.167 --> 00:31:41.394
Inevitably, you know what you get?

00:31:41.394 --> 00:31:43.254
The rapture takes place.

00:31:43.254 --> 00:31:44.975
And then somebody who is cold,

00:31:44.975 --> 00:31:46.948
hard-hearted unbeliever,

00:31:46.948 --> 00:31:48.745
when the rapture takes place,

00:31:48.745 --> 00:31:50.525
well now they see.

00:31:50.525 --> 00:31:56.708
Oh, it's all real.

00:31:56.708 --> 00:32:00.987
Now I get a second chance to believe.

00:32:00.987 --> 00:32:03.530
Well, and if I'm not 
convinced by the rapture,

00:32:03.530 --> 00:32:05.770
then I go through seven 
years of tribulation.

00:32:05.770 --> 00:32:08.666
Oh! Ok, now I can believe.

00:32:08.666 --> 00:32:10.370
And if I don't believe after that,

00:32:10.370 --> 00:32:12.058
well, now, Jesus comes and sets up

00:32:12.058 --> 00:32:13.098
a 1,000 year kingdom.

00:32:13.098 --> 00:32:16.119
Oh, now, I get to believe.

00:32:16.119 --> 00:32:20.891
That's basically the mindset behind this.

NOTE Paragraph

00:32:20.891 --> 00:32:24.484
If you believe that that is garbage,

00:32:24.484 --> 00:32:27.795
and that when He comes, it's going 
to be like a thief in the night,

00:32:27.795 --> 00:32:29.814
and it's going to be like the days of Noah

00:32:29.814 --> 00:32:31.883
when nobody's saying, well, you know,

00:32:31.883 --> 00:32:34.045
it's been 7 years since the rapture

00:32:34.045 --> 00:32:35.871
and this probably is going to happen.

00:32:35.871 --> 00:32:37.623
It's been 1,007 years

00:32:37.623 --> 00:32:41.755
and so we're probably due for Armageddon.

00:32:41.755 --> 00:32:44.002
Brethren, that's not what Scripture says.

00:32:44.002 --> 00:32:47.591
It says in an hour when you do not think

00:32:47.591 --> 00:32:49.236
He's coming.

00:32:49.236 --> 00:32:52.358
It is going to be as in the days of Noah.

00:32:52.358 --> 00:32:55.295
They are going to be going 
about their business

00:32:55.295 --> 00:32:57.132
and marrying and giving in marriage

00:32:57.132 --> 00:32:58.965
and nobody's keeping the calendar

00:32:58.965 --> 00:33:00.251
and marking it.

00:33:00.251 --> 00:33:03.847
He says not even the Son knows that time.

00:33:03.847 --> 00:33:05.260
It is going to happen swift.

00:33:05.260 --> 00:33:06.694
It is going to happen quickly.

00:33:06.694 --> 00:33:08.943
It is going to take men 
and women by surprise.

00:33:08.943 --> 00:33:10.233
And Jesus knows it.

00:33:10.233 --> 00:33:12.141
And as He's leaving, He's saying

00:33:12.141 --> 00:33:14.061
to His disciples: Watch!

00:33:14.061 --> 00:33:15.573
Watch! Watch!

00:33:15.573 --> 00:33:19.733
Be ready!

NOTE Paragraph

00:33:19.733 --> 00:33:24.191
Brethren, ask a dispensational 
premillenialist

00:33:24.191 --> 00:33:27.238
if it's possible for Jesus Christ

00:33:27.238 --> 00:33:29.962
to return this very day

00:33:29.962 --> 00:33:32.873
and judge all the nations as described

00:33:32.873 --> 00:33:36.893
in Matthew 25 where Jesus gathers

00:33:36.893 --> 00:33:39.586
all the nations before 
Him and divides them.

00:33:39.586 --> 00:33:42.539
Some on His right hand to eternal life.

00:33:42.539 --> 00:33:47.524
Some on His left hand 
to eternal punishment.

00:33:47.524 --> 00:33:51.518
And it's over.

00:33:51.518 --> 00:33:53.685
Just ask your dispensational friend

00:33:53.685 --> 00:33:57.125
if he believes that could happen today.

00:33:57.125 --> 00:33:59.919
You know what his answer's going to be?

00:33:59.919 --> 00:34:03.973
I don't expect so.

00:34:03.973 --> 00:34:06.265
Look at verse 44.

00:34:06.265 --> 00:34:09.975
"Therefore, you also must be ready.

00:34:09.975 --> 00:34:12.016
For the Son of Man is coming at an hour

00:34:12.016 --> 00:34:17.164
you do not expect."

NOTE Paragraph

00:34:17.164 --> 00:34:18.912
Brethren, just think about how this

00:34:18.912 --> 00:34:21.491
appeals to the unbeliever.

00:34:21.491 --> 00:34:23.180
Because I used to think this way

00:34:23.180 --> 00:34:24.171
when I was lost.

00:34:24.171 --> 00:34:26.658
I would hear this stuff about 
there being a rapture

00:34:26.658 --> 00:34:28.420
and about 7 year tribulation

00:34:28.420 --> 00:34:29.936
and about a 1,000 year kingdom,

00:34:29.936 --> 00:34:31.870
and I thought, well, I'm going to go on

00:34:31.870 --> 00:34:33.927
with my life and if the rapture happens,

00:34:33.927 --> 00:34:36.643
well, then I'll get my act together.

00:34:36.643 --> 00:34:42.392
That just appeals to the unbeliever.

00:34:42.392 --> 00:34:45.402
That is not what Scripture says.

00:34:45.402 --> 00:34:48.724
That is not a hope that the Scriptures

00:34:48.724 --> 00:34:53.192
give to the unconverted.

00:34:53.192 --> 00:34:54.427
Not at all.

00:34:54.427 --> 00:35:00.068
It leaves us with a 
second-chance theology.

00:35:00.068 --> 00:35:02.743
And I think it's dangerous.

00:35:02.743 --> 00:35:07.111
This sort of eschatology 
puts men to sleep.

00:35:07.111 --> 00:35:10.433
Just check out the "Left Behind"
mentality that's out there

00:35:10.433 --> 00:35:12.514
regularly portraying unbelievers

00:35:12.514 --> 00:35:16.057
who they begin to see all these things

00:35:16.057 --> 00:35:20.442
come to pass and then they believe.

NOTE Paragraph

00:35:20.442 --> 00:35:28.545
Brethren, let's be honest with Scripture.

00:35:28.545 --> 00:35:30.815
Do you know that shortly after Jesus

00:35:30.815 --> 00:35:33.721
said to His disciples,

00:35:33.721 --> 00:35:37.798
you better be ready,

00:35:37.798 --> 00:35:41.836
He says let me tell you 
what it's going to be like.

00:35:41.836 --> 00:35:45.607
It's going to be like 10 virgins.

00:35:45.607 --> 00:35:54.905
Five are wise. Five are foolish.

00:35:54.905 --> 00:35:57.395
They all look the same.

00:35:57.395 --> 00:35:59.587
It's people in the church.

00:35:59.587 --> 00:36:01.498
It's religious people.

00:36:01.498 --> 00:36:04.019
It's professing Christianity.

00:36:04.019 --> 00:36:06.811
Five are ready. Five are not ready.

00:36:06.811 --> 00:36:10.273
It's portrayed by not having oil

00:36:10.273 --> 00:36:13.289
in their lamps among the five foolish.

00:36:13.289 --> 00:36:14.822
The five wise - they have oil.

00:36:14.822 --> 00:36:17.015
The five foolish - they do not have oil.

00:36:17.015 --> 00:36:17.986
What happens?

00:36:17.986 --> 00:36:21.733
They're waiting. They're waiting. They're 
waiting. Like we're waiting today.

00:36:21.733 --> 00:36:23.981
They're waiting, but 
what is the whole point

00:36:23.981 --> 00:36:25.328
of the parable?

00:36:25.328 --> 00:36:26.665
Be ready! Be ready!

00:36:26.665 --> 00:36:29.420
The five that are ready - what happens?

00:36:29.420 --> 00:36:31.868
Bang! Christ comes!

00:36:31.868 --> 00:36:33.190
And it's over!

00:36:33.190 --> 00:36:34.550
There is no rapture.

00:36:34.550 --> 00:36:36.752
There is no 7 year tribulation.

00:36:36.752 --> 00:36:38.881
There is no 1,000 year kingdom.

00:36:38.881 --> 00:36:40.080
It's over!

00:36:40.080 --> 00:36:42.738
And if you're not ready, the door is shut.

00:36:42.738 --> 00:36:44.074
And if you don't believe me,

00:36:44.074 --> 00:36:54.449
read in the 25th chapter of Matthew

00:36:54.449 --> 00:36:57.739
about the parable of the 10 virgins.

00:36:57.739 --> 00:37:01.260
When Christ comes, if you are not ready,

00:37:01.260 --> 00:37:04.236
the door is shut.

00:37:04.236 --> 00:37:06.395
And when the door is shut,

00:37:06.395 --> 00:37:12.195
they cry out, "Lord, Lord, open to us!"

00:37:12.195 --> 00:37:16.029
And He says, "truly, I say to 
you, I do not know you."

00:37:16.029 --> 00:37:17.826
"Watch therefore, for you know

00:37:17.826 --> 00:37:22.277
neither the day nor the hour."

00:37:22.277 --> 00:37:24.582
Brethren, there is an urgency

00:37:24.582 --> 00:37:27.540
that Scripture puts upon the church

00:37:27.540 --> 00:37:31.370
and upon the evangelization of this world

00:37:31.370 --> 00:37:33.975
because of the possible imminent return

00:37:33.975 --> 00:37:35.655
of Christ at any single moment.

00:37:35.655 --> 00:37:37.434
And when He comes, the door is shut.

00:37:37.434 --> 00:37:39.865
And if you're not ready, it's all over.

00:37:39.865 --> 00:37:43.112
That is what Jesus is teaching.

NOTE Paragraph

00:37:43.112 --> 00:37:45.988
How can so many be wrong?
How can so many be wrong?

00:37:45.988 --> 00:37:48.877
How can they come up with 
this convoluted system?

00:37:48.877 --> 00:37:50.873
Which, by the way, does not have

00:37:50.873 --> 00:37:58.451
very good historical weight behind it;

00:37:58.451 --> 00:38:02.346
not the dispensational type 
of premillenialism,

00:38:02.346 --> 00:38:05.842
propounded by Scofield, Darby,

00:38:05.842 --> 00:38:07.289
but really not much history

00:38:07.289 --> 00:38:10.660
beyond the early 1800's.

00:38:10.660 --> 00:38:13.023
Brethren, when you go 
to Scripture, you tell me.

00:38:13.023 --> 00:38:16.248
You've got 10 virgins.

00:38:16.248 --> 00:38:18.673
Five wise. Five foolish.

00:38:18.673 --> 00:38:20.998
It doesn't say the rapture takes place

00:38:20.998 --> 00:38:23.175
and the five wise get zapped out

00:38:23.175 --> 00:38:24.758
and the five foolish are left

00:38:24.758 --> 00:38:28.129
and now have an opportunity to believe.

00:38:28.129 --> 00:38:35.629
What you are told is the door is shut.

00:38:35.629 --> 00:38:39.490
While they were going to buy,

00:38:39.490 --> 00:38:42.836
the Bridegroom came and 
those who were ready

00:38:42.836 --> 00:38:47.779
went in with Him to the marriage feast

00:38:47.779 --> 00:38:52.367
and that door was shut.

00:38:52.367 --> 00:38:54.944
That's it.

00:38:54.944 --> 00:39:03.631
If you're not ready, it's over.

00:39:03.631 --> 00:39:08.193
It's over.

NOTE Paragraph

00:39:08.193 --> 00:39:09.913
Third.

00:39:09.913 --> 00:39:16.825
The first: that system commandeers
the church's promises.

00:39:16.825 --> 00:39:22.352
That system commandeers 
the church's urgency.

00:39:22.352 --> 00:39:28.156
Third, that system commandeers

00:39:28.156 --> 00:39:33.376
one of our basic hermeneutics;

00:39:33.376 --> 00:39:41.980
one of our basic Bible 
interpretation methods.

00:39:41.980 --> 00:39:43.405
Let me tell you what I mean.

00:39:43.405 --> 00:39:45.129
I believe that dispensationalism

00:39:45.129 --> 00:39:47.710
is founded on an unsound method

00:39:47.710 --> 00:39:49.376
of Bible interpretation.

00:39:49.376 --> 00:39:51.918
You know what we have here?

00:39:51.918 --> 00:39:53.263
We have a Bible.

00:39:53.263 --> 00:39:54.793
Sixty-six books.

00:39:54.793 --> 00:39:57.806
Was it all given to us just like that? No.

00:39:57.806 --> 00:40:00.944
It was given to us over a 
matter of thousands of years.

00:40:00.944 --> 00:40:02.253
What happened?

00:40:02.253 --> 00:40:05.298
Well, what happens is we have

00:40:05.298 --> 00:40:08.298
progressive revelation.

00:40:08.298 --> 00:40:11.580
God begins to tell us 
about the coming of Christ

00:40:11.580 --> 00:40:14.516
back in Genesis 3.

00:40:14.516 --> 00:40:17.452
And as you go through your Bibles,

00:40:17.452 --> 00:40:19.084
what happens?

00:40:19.084 --> 00:40:23.960
More and more and more light.

00:40:23.960 --> 00:40:25.336
More revelation.

00:40:25.336 --> 00:40:27.374
More information.

00:40:27.374 --> 00:40:30.487
It builds.

00:40:30.487 --> 00:40:34.403
It keeps building upon itself.

00:40:34.403 --> 00:40:38.514
Progressively God reveals more and more.

00:40:38.514 --> 00:40:40.192
The further you go in God's Word,

00:40:40.192 --> 00:40:42.053
the more light we have,

00:40:42.053 --> 00:40:43.870
because the more knowledge we have;

00:40:43.870 --> 00:40:47.515
the more God is revealing to us.

00:40:47.515 --> 00:40:52.781
And it was given to us progressively.

00:40:52.781 --> 00:40:59.651
Over quite a few years.

00:40:59.651 --> 00:41:04.212
And you know where we especially see

00:41:04.212 --> 00:41:07.352
progression made is when you go

00:41:07.352 --> 00:41:10.768
from the Old Testament 
to the New Testament.

00:41:10.768 --> 00:41:13.566
Why?

00:41:13.566 --> 00:41:17.317
Because suddenly, Christ has come.

00:41:17.317 --> 00:41:19.740
The Spirit of God is given to the church

00:41:19.740 --> 00:41:23.663
which leads the church into all truth;

00:41:23.663 --> 00:41:25.968
led those apostles into all truth

00:41:25.968 --> 00:41:28.144
that could write the New Testament.

00:41:28.144 --> 00:41:32.140
Jesus Christ is the fulfillment.

00:41:32.140 --> 00:41:34.135
You know what the Old Testament is?

00:41:34.135 --> 00:41:35.978
Do you know what the New Testament

00:41:35.978 --> 00:41:38.791
tells us about the 
Old Testament repeatedly?

00:41:38.791 --> 00:41:43.575
It's types and shadows.

00:41:43.575 --> 00:41:48.358
Christ is the fulfillment.

00:41:48.358 --> 00:41:54.744
Look, we don't say that 
a shadow is darkness.

00:41:54.744 --> 00:41:56.701
Shadows aren't darkness.

00:41:56.701 --> 00:41:58.432
They're just not as bright as being

00:41:58.432 --> 00:41:59.781
in the full sunlight.

00:41:59.781 --> 00:42:01.040
Right?

00:42:01.040 --> 00:42:03.170
I mean, you go out in the full noonday sun

00:42:03.170 --> 00:42:04.310
and you cast a shadow.

00:42:04.310 --> 00:42:06.928
You don't look and say, oh, that's black.

00:42:06.928 --> 00:42:08.781
That's darkness.

00:42:08.781 --> 00:42:11.455
No, it's not darkness.

00:42:11.455 --> 00:42:15.489
I can see lots of things in my shadow.

00:42:15.489 --> 00:42:18.819
But if I step away and I let 
the full light shine down there,

00:42:18.819 --> 00:42:21.907
well, yes, it's brighter now.

00:42:21.907 --> 00:42:26.326
Shadows are not darkness.

00:42:26.326 --> 00:42:30.527
They're just not as bright.

00:42:30.527 --> 00:42:34.184
The thing is God reveals 
in the New Testament

00:42:34.184 --> 00:42:37.109
this full blazing light of Jesus Christ.

00:42:37.109 --> 00:42:39.038
The full sunlight's there.

00:42:39.038 --> 00:42:42.543
This blazing revelation of Christ.

00:42:42.543 --> 00:42:44.841
Since the New Testament explains

00:42:44.841 --> 00:42:47.373
so many of the types and shadows

00:42:47.373 --> 00:42:49.174
and concepts of the Old Testament,

00:42:49.174 --> 00:42:52.096
we definitely need 
to constantly be looking

00:42:52.096 --> 00:42:53.493
at our New Testament

00:42:53.493 --> 00:42:55.883
in order to figure out what this means

00:42:55.883 --> 00:42:58.521
back here in the Old Testament.

00:42:58.521 --> 00:43:00.736
I'm not making that up.

00:43:00.736 --> 00:43:03.740
That's exactly what 
happened when Jesus came.

00:43:03.740 --> 00:43:06.161
That's exactly what happened 
when the apostles

00:43:06.161 --> 00:43:07.383
walked this earth.

00:43:07.383 --> 00:43:08.815
What did they do?

00:43:08.815 --> 00:43:12.717
They explained what was going on

00:43:12.717 --> 00:43:15.908
in the Old Testament that 
was not understood

00:43:15.908 --> 00:43:19.379
when they just had the Old Testament.

NOTE Paragraph

00:43:19.379 --> 00:43:22.071
You say, is that true?

00:43:22.071 --> 00:43:28.357
Brethren, look at Malachi 4.

00:43:28.357 --> 00:43:32.827
This is no small thing.

00:43:32.827 --> 00:43:36.133
Malachi 4:5

00:43:36.133 --> 00:43:42.494
I'm just going to show you 
a few examples of this.

00:43:42.494 --> 00:43:45.930
Remember, I'm talking about the fact

00:43:45.930 --> 00:43:48.945
that this dispensationalism commandeers

00:43:48.945 --> 00:43:53.885
one of the church's 
most basic hermeneutics;

00:43:53.885 --> 00:43:59.449
one of the basic biblical 
interpretive methods.

00:43:59.449 --> 00:44:02.003
You know, we want to be 
able to interpret Scripture.

00:44:02.003 --> 00:44:03.766
We want to come to Scripture,

00:44:03.766 --> 00:44:05.964
and we want to figure 
out what things mean.

00:44:05.964 --> 00:44:08.223
There's some basic rules that we apply

00:44:08.223 --> 00:44:11.912
to interpreting Scripture.

00:44:11.912 --> 00:44:15.907
You want to look at context.

00:44:15.907 --> 00:44:19.756
You want to compare what this author

00:44:19.756 --> 00:44:24.762
has to say about the same 
thing in other places.

00:44:24.762 --> 00:44:28.734
You compare Scripture with Scripture.

00:44:28.734 --> 00:44:30.637
One of the most fundamental

00:44:30.637 --> 00:44:34.629
biblical hermeneutics is that you examine

00:44:34.629 --> 00:44:38.749
the Old Testament in light of the New.

00:44:38.749 --> 00:44:40.986
Let me show you why.

00:44:40.986 --> 00:44:45.419
Let me show you Jesus 
doing this exact thing.

00:44:45.419 --> 00:44:48.493
Here we have Malachi 4:5-6.

00:44:48.493 --> 00:44:53.559
"Behold, I will send 
you Elijah the prophet

00:44:53.559 --> 00:44:56.216
before the great and awesome 
day of the Lord comes,

00:44:56.216 --> 00:44:58.994
and he will turn the hearts 
of fathers to their children

00:44:58.994 --> 00:45:01.183
and the hearts of 
children to their fathers,

00:45:01.183 --> 00:45:02.884
lest I come and strike the land

00:45:02.884 --> 00:45:05.444
with a decree of utter destruction."

NOTE Paragraph

00:45:05.444 --> 00:45:07.522
Now look, here's the thing,

00:45:07.522 --> 00:45:13.064
the Old Testament has shadows or types.

00:45:13.064 --> 00:45:15.160
Do you know what that is?

00:45:15.160 --> 00:45:24.056
That's where the shadow is real,

00:45:24.056 --> 00:45:26.170
it's physical,

00:45:26.170 --> 00:45:29.938
but it points to a 
greater spiritual reality.

00:45:29.938 --> 00:45:31.613
But you know what else you have?

00:45:31.613 --> 00:45:33.427
You have metaphors.

00:45:33.427 --> 00:45:37.568
Guess what's true about a metaphor?

00:45:37.568 --> 00:45:40.802
If I say, you know, you and I were 
talking about this afterwards

00:45:40.802 --> 00:45:43.042
and we locked horns.

00:45:43.042 --> 00:45:46.373
That's a metaphor.

00:45:46.373 --> 00:45:48.438
Here's the thing about a metaphor.

00:45:48.438 --> 00:45:50.535
If you take a metaphor literally,

00:45:50.535 --> 00:45:53.263
is it true or not true?

00:45:53.263 --> 00:45:55.100
It's not true.

00:45:55.100 --> 00:45:57.763
You see, when you look at a shadow,

00:45:57.763 --> 00:46:01.380
there's reality to it.

00:46:01.380 --> 00:46:03.697
The fulfillment - there's greater reality.

00:46:03.697 --> 00:46:05.525
There's spiritual reality.

00:46:05.525 --> 00:46:07.000
One points to the other.

00:46:07.000 --> 00:46:09.946
But when you're dealing with metaphor,

00:46:09.946 --> 00:46:16.445
to literally take the metaphor is error.

00:46:16.445 --> 00:46:19.374
That's key, because if you mix up

00:46:19.374 --> 00:46:21.569
a metaphor for that which you believe

00:46:21.569 --> 00:46:23.230
ought to be taken literally,

00:46:23.230 --> 00:46:28.986
you are going to end up in error.

NOTE Paragraph

00:46:28.988 --> 00:46:30.994
Here's what happens.

00:46:30.994 --> 00:46:33.268
We look at Malachi.

00:46:33.268 --> 00:46:35.341
Elijah the prophet is going to come.

00:46:35.341 --> 00:46:41.042
Now look, if I take this 
at literal face value,

00:46:41.042 --> 00:46:43.404
you know what this says?

00:46:43.404 --> 00:46:46.627
It says Elijah the Tishbite.

00:46:46.627 --> 00:46:49.341
Remember Elijah?

00:46:49.341 --> 00:46:51.914
Predecessor to Elisha.

00:46:51.914 --> 00:46:53.505
Elijah.

00:46:53.505 --> 00:46:54.628
Remember Mt. Carmel?

00:46:54.628 --> 00:46:56.586
Called down fire from heaven?

00:46:56.586 --> 00:46:59.055
That Elijah. Elijah the Tishbite.

00:46:59.055 --> 00:47:02.263
That Elijah. Called down 
fire from heaven Elijah

00:47:02.263 --> 00:47:08.072
is going to be sent,

00:47:08.072 --> 00:47:09.556
presumably from the dead

00:47:09.556 --> 00:47:11.736
if you're going to take it literally.

00:47:11.736 --> 00:47:16.368
He's going to come back from the dead.

00:47:16.368 --> 00:47:18.092
"Before the day of the Lord."

00:47:18.092 --> 00:47:19.793
But you know what happens when you

00:47:19.793 --> 00:47:22.578
come over to the New Testament?

00:47:22.578 --> 00:47:26.092
The New Testament gives us light.

00:47:26.092 --> 00:47:30.879
How so? Matthew 11:12.

00:47:30.879 --> 00:47:41.523
Jump over there. Matthew 11:12.

00:47:41.523 --> 00:47:44.484
"From the days of John 
the Baptist until now,

00:47:44.484 --> 00:47:46.773
the kingdom of heaven 
has suffered violence,

00:47:46.773 --> 00:47:49.582
and the violent take it by force.

00:47:49.582 --> 00:47:51.381
For all the prophets and the law

00:47:51.381 --> 00:47:55.344
prophesied until John.

00:47:55.344 --> 00:47:59.901
And if you are willing to accept it,

00:47:59.901 --> 00:48:05.925
he is Elijah who is to come.

00:48:05.925 --> 00:48:13.031
He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

00:48:13.031 --> 00:48:17.142
You see, you need ears like that to hear,

00:48:17.142 --> 00:48:19.147
to process.

00:48:19.147 --> 00:48:24.863
Or how about this. Go over to Matthew 17.

00:48:24.863 --> 00:48:28.961
You see, it is a metaphor.

00:48:28.961 --> 00:48:32.568
It is a metaphor when you portray

00:48:32.568 --> 00:48:37.086
someone as being someone 
else who they are not.

00:48:37.086 --> 00:48:38.874
It is a metaphor when you portray

00:48:38.874 --> 00:48:40.691
someone as being someone else

00:48:40.691 --> 00:48:43.719
even though they are not 
actually that someone else,

00:48:43.719 --> 00:48:45.235
but you portray them that way

00:48:45.235 --> 00:48:47.487
because of certain similarities.

00:48:47.487 --> 00:48:49.980
That is metaphor.

00:48:49.980 --> 00:48:53.768
But to take that literally is to come away

00:48:53.768 --> 00:48:58.899
with an erroneous conclusion.

00:48:58.899 --> 00:49:03.127
Jesus says John the Baptist,

00:49:03.127 --> 00:49:05.604
he is Elijah who is to come.

00:49:05.604 --> 00:49:07.427
He is the one.

00:49:07.427 --> 00:49:09.056
It wasn't meant to say that it was

00:49:09.056 --> 00:49:12.579
Elijah exactly the Tishbite,

00:49:12.579 --> 00:49:17.301
but one who is like him.

00:49:17.301 --> 00:49:20.087
Matthew 17:10-12

00:49:20.087 --> 00:49:21.551
"The disciples asked Him,

00:49:21.551 --> 00:49:23.695
'Then why do the scribes say

00:49:23.695 --> 00:49:25.310
that first Elijah must come?'

00:49:25.310 --> 00:49:27.633
He answered, 'Elijah does come,

00:49:27.633 --> 00:49:29.203
and he will restore all things,

00:49:29.203 --> 00:49:33.446
but I tell you that Elijah 
has already come,

00:49:33.446 --> 00:49:35.870
and they did not recognize him,

00:49:35.870 --> 00:49:37.645
but did to him whatever the pleased.

00:49:37.645 --> 00:49:40.128
So also the Son of Man 
will certainly suffer

00:49:40.128 --> 00:49:42.851
at their hands.'"

00:49:42.851 --> 00:49:45.123
To take such a metaphor as literal

00:49:45.123 --> 00:49:47.134
is to end up with a falsehood.

00:49:47.134 --> 00:49:48.756
One of the most fundamental rules

00:49:48.756 --> 00:49:50.476
of Bible interpretation that can be

00:49:50.476 --> 00:49:52.505
deduced from passages like these

00:49:52.505 --> 00:49:54.910
is that we need Jesus and His apostles

00:49:54.910 --> 00:49:58.659
to correctly interpret the Old Testament.

00:49:58.659 --> 00:50:00.397
Can you see it there?

00:50:00.397 --> 00:50:05.019
If you don't have the New Testament,

00:50:05.019 --> 00:50:06.437
then you're left without

00:50:06.437 --> 00:50:10.117
some pretty important information.

NOTE Paragraph

00:50:10.117 --> 00:50:11.805
Dispensational premillenialism,

00:50:11.805 --> 00:50:13.245
like that of John MacArthur's

00:50:13.245 --> 00:50:17.362
denies - denies the 
fundamental hermeneutic

00:50:17.362 --> 00:50:19.666
or Bible interpretation method.

00:50:19.666 --> 00:50:21.142
Listen to John MacArthur.

00:50:21.142 --> 00:50:22.945
These are his words.

00:50:22.945 --> 00:50:25.885
He did a message called:

00:50:25.885 --> 00:50:28.843
"Why Every Calvinist 
Should be a Premillenial."

00:50:28.843 --> 00:50:29.951
Something like that,

00:50:29.951 --> 00:50:34.081
back at his Shepherd's Conference

00:50:34.081 --> 00:50:36.042
back in 2007.

00:50:36.042 --> 00:50:37.848
These are his words.

00:50:37.848 --> 00:50:40.838
"It is not legitimate to 
interpret the Old Testament

00:50:40.838 --> 00:50:44.941
as secondary and the 
New Testament as primary.

00:50:44.941 --> 00:50:47.249
Otherwise, the Old Testament was

00:50:47.249 --> 00:50:52.143
literally darkness, not light."

00:50:52.143 --> 00:50:53.734
No, it's not.

00:50:53.734 --> 00:50:56.802
It's shadow.

00:50:56.802 --> 00:50:58.901
Not full light.

00:50:58.901 --> 00:51:02.280
But shadow isn't darkness.

00:51:02.280 --> 00:51:04.161
These are his words.

00:51:04.161 --> 00:51:06.291
"If you say the Old Testament cannot be

00:51:06.291 --> 00:51:09.743
rightly interpreted apart 
from the New Testament,

00:51:09.743 --> 00:51:12.352
then you have denied the perspicuity

00:51:12.352 --> 00:51:13.944
of the Old Testament."

00:51:13.944 --> 00:51:17.012
Who knows what the word perspicuity means?

00:51:17.012 --> 00:51:21.469
Clarity.

00:51:21.469 --> 00:51:23.775
How can he say that?

00:51:23.775 --> 00:51:27.592
When Jesus comes along and says,

00:51:27.592 --> 00:51:32.174
let Me tell you about Malachi's Elijah.

00:51:32.174 --> 00:51:36.770
It's John.

00:51:36.770 --> 00:51:42.115
I don't know how he (John 
MacArthur) comes to this.

00:51:42.115 --> 00:51:48.755
Brethren, does it deny the 
clarity of the New Testament

00:51:48.755 --> 00:51:51.468
when Scripture says,

00:51:51.468 --> 00:51:56.314
"don't muzzle the ox?"

00:51:56.314 --> 00:52:02.618
Well, in its physical reality,

00:52:02.618 --> 00:52:05.261
that doesn't deny any perspicuity.

00:52:05.261 --> 00:52:07.161
That's pretty clear.

00:52:07.161 --> 00:52:08.738
Don't muzzle the ox.

00:52:08.738 --> 00:52:10.594
You've got an ox

00:52:10.594 --> 00:52:13.701
pulling the grinding wheel.

00:52:13.701 --> 00:52:16.163
Don't put a muzzle on it so it can't eat.

00:52:16.163 --> 00:52:18.552
Let it eat.

00:52:18.552 --> 00:52:21.420
But is that the end of the story?

00:52:21.420 --> 00:52:23.991
You see, if I take John 
MacArthur's approach

00:52:23.991 --> 00:52:26.611
and say, nope, the Old 
Testament's got to stand alone.

00:52:26.611 --> 00:52:28.623
If you can't interpret it all by itself,

00:52:28.623 --> 00:52:30.682
it's darkness. You're denying perspicuity.

00:52:30.682 --> 00:52:35.345
The Apostle Paul did not believe that.

00:52:35.345 --> 00:52:37.267
Brethren, when the Apostle Paul

00:52:37.267 --> 00:52:42.288
begins to teach Gentile believers -

00:52:42.288 --> 00:52:45.711
Corinthians, Timothy who was

00:52:45.711 --> 00:52:47.617
with the Ephesians,

00:52:47.617 --> 00:52:50.059
you know what he says?

00:52:50.059 --> 00:52:52.288
He says muzzling the ox -

00:52:52.288 --> 00:52:57.857
God didn't give that because 
He was concerned about oxen.

00:52:57.857 --> 00:53:01.391
He says God gave that

00:53:01.391 --> 00:53:03.614
because He wants those who render to you

00:53:03.614 --> 00:53:06.509
spiritual things not to be muzzled.

00:53:06.509 --> 00:53:07.576
Take care of them.

00:53:07.576 --> 00:53:10.423
Take care of your preachers.

00:53:10.423 --> 00:53:12.487
He says that's what it's for.

00:53:12.487 --> 00:53:14.555
Do you get that out of the Old Testament?

00:53:14.555 --> 00:53:16.133
You can read your Old Testament

00:53:16.133 --> 00:53:17.858
till you're blue in the face,

00:53:17.858 --> 00:53:21.830
and you are not going to find that said.

00:53:21.830 --> 00:53:26.018
You see how you rob the text?

00:53:26.018 --> 00:53:31.068
Do you see how it's 
just massively incomplete?

NOTE Paragraph

00:53:31.068 --> 00:53:34.747
Brethren, have you ever read

00:53:34.747 --> 00:53:37.991
there in the Sermon on the Mount

00:53:37.991 --> 00:53:39.334
that your righteousness;

00:53:39.334 --> 00:53:41.818
your righteousness if 
you're in the kingdom,

00:53:41.818 --> 00:53:46.055
it better exceed that of 
the Scribes and Pharisees.

00:53:46.055 --> 00:53:47.948
And you know right before that,

00:53:47.948 --> 00:53:51.150
He talks about what that 
righteousness looks like.

00:53:51.150 --> 00:53:53.622
It looks like you not relaxing

00:53:53.622 --> 00:53:55.958
even one of the least commandments

00:53:55.958 --> 00:53:57.852
given in the Old Testament,

00:53:57.852 --> 00:53:59.472
which would include commandments

00:53:59.472 --> 00:54:01.263
just like this.

00:54:01.263 --> 00:54:04.932
But you see, if I'm not gong to relax

00:54:04.932 --> 00:54:07.838
commandments like muzzling the ox,

00:54:07.838 --> 00:54:11.216
I better have some New Testament manner

00:54:11.216 --> 00:54:13.263
of interpreting it, or you're going to be

00:54:13.263 --> 00:54:17.516
running your oxen out there all muzzled.

00:54:17.516 --> 00:54:18.539
I mean, right?

00:54:18.539 --> 00:54:20.642
If you're going to 
take all this literally,

00:54:20.642 --> 00:54:22.685
what I'm being told by Christ

00:54:22.685 --> 00:54:24.634
is I better not relax one of the least

00:54:24.634 --> 00:54:27.123
of the commandments that was given.

00:54:27.123 --> 00:54:29.788
But what I find in the New Testament

00:54:29.788 --> 00:54:35.288
is all those commandments 
had moral realities.

00:54:35.288 --> 00:54:38.360
They had practical realities

00:54:38.360 --> 00:54:41.969
that pointed to living my life in this age

00:54:41.969 --> 00:54:43.795
as a Christian.

00:54:43.795 --> 00:54:45.804
But knowing how to apply those things

00:54:45.804 --> 00:54:48.713
and how to interpret those things...

00:54:48.713 --> 00:54:51.998
Brethren, when I come 
into the New Testament,

00:54:51.998 --> 00:54:56.936
I find Christ is the Passover Lamb.

00:54:56.936 --> 00:54:59.224
It's in the New Testament that I find

00:54:59.224 --> 00:55:01.629
that Christ is the fulfillment

00:55:01.629 --> 00:55:04.630
of the Old Testament priesthood.

00:55:04.630 --> 00:55:07.503
It's in the New Testament that I find

00:55:07.503 --> 00:55:09.338
that all the festivals, the new moons,

00:55:09.338 --> 00:55:13.219
the Sabbath days were all shadows,

00:55:13.219 --> 00:55:15.225
but Christ is the substance.

00:55:15.225 --> 00:55:17.773
Can I tell you something?

00:55:17.773 --> 00:55:19.381
Whether it's dispensationalism

00:55:19.381 --> 00:55:22.341
or whether it's covenant theology,

00:55:22.341 --> 00:55:28.976
any time you start in the Old Testament,

00:55:28.976 --> 00:55:30.971
you are going to end up going somewhere

00:55:30.971 --> 00:55:33.111
God never intended you to go.

00:55:33.111 --> 00:55:34.672
If you start there.

00:55:34.672 --> 00:55:36.300
It's inspired.

00:55:36.300 --> 00:55:37.347
We need it.

00:55:37.347 --> 00:55:43.654
But what we see is that we never

00:55:43.654 --> 00:55:45.853
want to deal with the Old Testament

00:55:45.853 --> 00:55:47.480
as though Jesus Christ never came

00:55:47.480 --> 00:55:49.052
and as though the apostles never

00:55:49.052 --> 00:55:51.220
wrote the New Testament.

00:55:51.220 --> 00:55:54.286
Clearly, brethren, clearly they show us

00:55:54.286 --> 00:55:57.367
repeatedly that that is how we are

00:55:57.367 --> 00:55:59.661
to deal with Scripture.

00:55:59.661 --> 00:56:05.517
If we embrace John 
MacArthur's hermeneutic,

00:56:05.517 --> 00:56:07.418
(incomplete thought).

00:56:07.418 --> 00:56:09.846
You know what he said?

00:56:09.846 --> 00:56:16.161
He said nobody ends up an amillenialist

00:56:16.161 --> 00:56:18.770
unless they read the New Testament

00:56:18.770 --> 00:56:20.409
back into the Old.

00:56:20.409 --> 00:56:25.157
I just say: exactly!

00:56:25.157 --> 00:56:32.928
That's what I'm supposed to do!

NOTE Paragraph

00:56:32.928 --> 00:56:37.217
Brethren, reading what 
the Old Testament says

00:56:37.217 --> 00:56:42.419
concerning Israel, the 
covenants made to Israel,

00:56:42.419 --> 00:56:45.482
promises made to Israel,

00:56:45.482 --> 00:56:49.723
and coming to all manner 
of dogmatic conclusions

00:56:49.723 --> 00:56:51.724
without first reading the New Testament

00:56:51.724 --> 00:56:54.542
to see how the 
Holy Spirit inspired apostles,

00:56:54.542 --> 00:56:57.056
teach us to interpret those things

00:56:57.056 --> 00:56:58.175
in the Old Testament

00:56:58.175 --> 00:57:00.840
is a very irresponsible way

00:57:00.840 --> 00:57:03.039
to approach Scripture.

00:57:03.039 --> 00:57:04.094
It is.

00:57:04.094 --> 00:57:06.650
That is irresponsible.

00:57:06.650 --> 00:57:09.996
You let the New Testament light

00:57:09.996 --> 00:57:12.558
shine on that Old Testament,

00:57:12.558 --> 00:57:15.776
and it will come to life.

00:57:15.776 --> 00:57:18.589
That's what Jesus did.

00:57:18.589 --> 00:57:22.721
Brethren, He came along and He just

00:57:22.721 --> 00:57:24.721
started throwing all this stuff out,

00:57:24.721 --> 00:57:29.574
and it just blew everybody away.

00:57:29.574 --> 00:57:32.741
He starts explaining things in ways

00:57:32.741 --> 00:57:38.265
that He just let the light in.

00:57:38.265 --> 00:57:40.417
Never read the Old Testament promises;

00:57:40.417 --> 00:57:42.479
never read anything from the Old Testament

00:57:42.479 --> 00:57:45.414
as if Jesus had not come;

00:57:45.414 --> 00:57:51.526
as if the New Testament 
had not been written.

00:57:51.526 --> 00:57:54.365
That's the third.

00:57:54.365 --> 00:58:00.287
This basic hermeneutic of 
interpreting the Old by the New.

NOTE Paragraph

00:58:00.287 --> 00:58:03.046
They would wrest it from our hands.

00:58:03.046 --> 00:58:04.643
Because I would say this.

00:58:04.643 --> 00:58:07.329
Nobody ever ends up becoming

00:58:07.329 --> 00:58:09.276
a dispensational premillenialist

00:58:09.276 --> 00:58:12.940
unless they refuse to 
read the New Testament

00:58:12.940 --> 00:58:16.193
back into the Old.

00:58:16.193 --> 00:58:18.095
I understand how they come up with

00:58:18.095 --> 00:58:19.317
what they come up with,

00:58:19.317 --> 00:58:21.252
because they don't let the New Testament

00:58:21.252 --> 00:58:25.811
guide them in their interpretations.

NOTE Paragraph

00:58:25.811 --> 00:58:28.992
Here's a fourth thing.

00:58:28.992 --> 00:58:35.376
The church's missionary 
hope is commandeered.

00:58:35.376 --> 00:58:36.614
For the sake of time,

00:58:36.614 --> 00:58:38.534
I'm going to shoot right through this.

00:58:38.534 --> 00:58:42.593
Brethren, in Revelation 20,

00:58:42.593 --> 00:58:45.850
it says that during the millenium,

00:58:45.850 --> 00:58:51.058
the devil is bound

00:58:51.058 --> 00:58:56.668
from deceiving the nations.

00:58:56.668 --> 00:59:03.056
If that is indeed a way of 
describing this current time,

00:59:03.056 --> 00:59:05.885
then the missionary hope is this:

00:59:05.885 --> 00:59:08.031
the devil is bound.

00:59:08.031 --> 00:59:09.942
Not totally.

00:59:09.942 --> 00:59:13.464
He's bound from doing one thing:

00:59:13.464 --> 00:59:18.113
deceiving the nations; the Gentiles.

00:59:18.113 --> 00:59:20.922
Listen, that's what Scripture says.

00:59:20.922 --> 00:59:22.410
Jesus Himself said,

00:59:22.410 --> 00:59:27.009
"How can somebody enter 
the strongman's house

00:59:27.009 --> 00:59:29.968
and plunder his goods?"

00:59:29.968 --> 00:59:32.057
Unless what?

00:59:32.057 --> 00:59:34.280
"Unless he first binds the strongman.

00:59:34.280 --> 00:59:37.065
Then indeed, he may plunder the house."

00:59:37.065 --> 00:59:38.453
Remember what happened?

00:59:38.453 --> 00:59:40.427
He sends 72 out.

00:59:40.427 --> 00:59:43.117
72. They go out preaching the Gospel.

00:59:43.117 --> 00:59:44.895
And when they came back, they said,

00:59:44.895 --> 00:59:50.678
Lord, the demons - they obeyed us!

00:59:50.678 --> 00:59:51.817
He says, "I saw...

00:59:51.817 --> 00:59:54.288
I saw Satan fall."

00:59:54.288 --> 00:59:56.912
You see, Satan does not 
have power before the Gospel.

00:59:56.912 --> 00:59:58.411
That's what this is all about.

00:59:58.411 --> 01:00:00.371
That's what we're talking about here.

01:00:00.371 --> 01:00:01.518
He said to them,

01:00:01.518 --> 01:00:03.725
"I saw Satan fall like 
lightning from heaven.

01:00:03.725 --> 01:00:05.348
Behold, I have given you authority

01:00:05.348 --> 01:00:07.033
to tread on serpents, scorpions,

01:00:07.033 --> 01:00:08.779
and over all the power of the enemy,

01:00:08.779 --> 01:00:10.325
and nothing shall hurt you."

01:00:10.325 --> 01:00:13.238
You know in John 12, He says this:

01:00:13.238 --> 01:00:16.645
Think of this. Jesus is 
going to the cross.

01:00:16.645 --> 01:00:19.544
John 12.

01:00:19.544 --> 01:00:21.141
He says this:

01:00:21.141 --> 01:00:26.152
"Now is the judgment of this world."

01:00:26.152 --> 01:00:28.849
"Now is the judgment of this world.

01:00:28.849 --> 01:00:32.600
Now the ruler of this 
world will be cast out."

01:00:32.600 --> 01:00:35.480
What? The ruler of this world

01:00:35.480 --> 01:00:39.319
is going to be cast out when?

01:00:39.319 --> 01:00:42.240
In John 12.

01:00:42.240 --> 01:00:49.425
See how perfectly that correlates

01:00:49.425 --> 01:00:54.232
with taking that millenium to be

01:00:54.232 --> 01:00:56.697
this long period of time

01:00:56.697 --> 01:01:00.004
between Christ's comings -

01:01:00.004 --> 01:01:02.628
His first coming and His second coming.

01:01:02.628 --> 01:01:04.686
This is the missionary age.

01:01:04.686 --> 01:01:07.449
This is the age of the ingathering

01:01:07.449 --> 01:01:09.043
of the Gentiles.

01:01:09.043 --> 01:01:12.187
This is the time of the Gentiles.

01:01:12.187 --> 01:01:16.071
This is a time when Satan cannot keep

01:01:16.071 --> 01:01:17.742
the nations in darkness

01:01:17.742 --> 01:01:20.972
as he did before the cross.

01:01:20.972 --> 01:01:22.141
And I'll tell you this.

01:01:22.141 --> 01:01:24.287
Jesus said this.

01:01:24.287 --> 01:01:27.519
He said now - now - I'm 
going to the cross.

01:01:27.519 --> 01:01:30.443
Now is the ruler of this world cast out.

01:01:30.443 --> 01:01:33.766
And you know what He says next?

01:01:33.766 --> 01:01:36.297
And if you lift Me up,

01:01:36.297 --> 01:01:39.730
I'm going to draw all men -

01:01:39.730 --> 01:01:41.241
not just Jews.

01:01:41.241 --> 01:01:45.746
I'm going to draw all men unto Me.

01:01:45.746 --> 01:01:47.926
Brethren, the hope of the church

01:01:47.926 --> 01:01:50.423
is that we live in an age

01:01:50.423 --> 01:01:52.428
when Satan is bound,

01:01:52.428 --> 01:01:54.372
when we can go out among the nations,

01:01:54.372 --> 01:01:56.749
and by the power of Christ -

01:01:56.749 --> 01:01:57.775
Him going with us,

01:01:57.775 --> 01:02:01.376
"Lo, I am with you to the 
end of the world."

01:02:01.376 --> 01:02:04.255
All authority - and we can go out there,

01:02:04.255 --> 01:02:09.563
and we're going to come 
back with a harvest.

01:02:09.563 --> 01:02:11.254
They would commandeer that from us.

01:02:11.254 --> 01:02:14.126
John MacArthur mocks at that.

01:02:14.126 --> 01:02:16.806
Yeah, the devil, he goes 
around like a roaring lion

01:02:16.806 --> 01:02:18.179
seeking whom he may devour.

01:02:18.179 --> 01:02:20.047
Doesn't sound like he's chained to me.

01:02:20.047 --> 01:02:24.500
John, that is just shoddy, 
shoddy Bible interpretation.

01:02:24.500 --> 01:02:27.249
Again. Because if you go to Revelation 20,

01:02:27.249 --> 01:02:29.414
it does not say that he's bound

01:02:29.414 --> 01:02:31.255
from seeking whom he may devour.

01:02:31.255 --> 01:02:33.310
It doesn't say that he's not going around

01:02:33.310 --> 01:02:34.461
like a roaring lion.

01:02:34.461 --> 01:02:41.589
It says he's bound from 
deceiving the nations.

01:02:41.589 --> 01:02:43.986
That's what it says.

01:02:43.986 --> 01:02:46.375
That's what Jesus said.

01:02:46.375 --> 01:02:47.908
The ruler of this world -

01:02:47.908 --> 01:02:50.215
at the cross - the ruler of this world

01:02:50.215 --> 01:02:51.495
is cast out.

01:02:51.495 --> 01:02:53.458
You say, what does that mean?

01:02:53.458 --> 01:02:57.194
It means something.

01:02:57.194 --> 01:03:00.120
And what He follows it with

01:03:00.120 --> 01:03:04.957
is I will gather all men unto Myself.

01:03:04.957 --> 01:03:06.249
That's what it means.


01:03:06.249 --> 01:03:08.286
The devil will not be able to resist that

01:03:08.286 --> 01:03:10.413
from taking place.

01:03:10.413 --> 01:03:11.940
So that's the fourth thing.

NOTE Paragraph

01:03:11.940 --> 01:03:14.071
The fifth thing is this.

01:03:14.071 --> 01:03:18.327
That system commandeers 
the church's glory.

01:03:18.327 --> 01:03:20.025
You say, what do you mean by that?

01:03:20.025 --> 01:03:22.616
Brethren, brethren, a faithful examination

01:03:22.616 --> 01:03:25.044
of the Scriptures is going to reveal this:

01:03:25.044 --> 01:03:27.399
Brethren, brethren!

01:03:27.399 --> 01:03:29.007
This is the pinnacle.

01:03:29.007 --> 01:03:31.206
This is the top of the mountain.

01:03:31.206 --> 01:03:34.029
Everything in this book

01:03:34.029 --> 01:03:37.155
is pointing somewhere.

01:03:37.155 --> 01:03:38.986
It is pointing to Christ.

01:03:38.986 --> 01:03:40.937
And when you come to the New Testament,

01:03:40.937 --> 01:03:43.979
what you find is all this was shadow,

01:03:43.979 --> 01:03:45.793
and it's all pointing to Him.

01:03:45.793 --> 01:03:47.557
And you come to the New Testament,

01:03:47.557 --> 01:03:49.532
and the four Gospels are all about Him,

01:03:49.532 --> 01:03:51.810
and the epistles are all about

01:03:51.810 --> 01:03:54.215
interpreting what happened in His teaching

01:03:54.215 --> 01:03:55.236
and in His life.

01:03:55.236 --> 01:03:56.991
And it's all about Him.

01:03:56.991 --> 01:03:58.162
It's about Him.

01:03:58.162 --> 01:03:59.118
It pointed.

01:03:59.118 --> 01:04:03.630
The Gospel was all in types and shadows

01:04:03.630 --> 01:04:05.333
found in the Old Testament.

01:04:05.333 --> 01:04:07.142
It's pointing to Christ.

01:04:07.142 --> 01:04:09.429
And it's pointing to the church.

01:04:09.429 --> 01:04:11.597
You come to the New Testament,

01:04:11.597 --> 01:04:13.371
the church...

01:04:13.371 --> 01:04:22.303
the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

01:04:22.303 --> 01:04:24.770
Christ and the church

01:04:24.770 --> 01:04:29.425
is the focal point.

01:04:29.425 --> 01:04:31.824
Everything looks there.

01:04:31.824 --> 01:04:33.596
It is on the mountain top.

01:04:33.596 --> 01:04:37.069
It is the culmination of all prophecy.

01:04:37.069 --> 01:04:44.485
Do you realize what this 
dispensationalism teaches?

01:04:44.485 --> 01:04:46.988
We've got to build a temple again.

01:04:46.988 --> 01:04:48.557
We actually have to have priests

01:04:48.557 --> 01:04:51.713
offering sacrifices again.

01:04:51.713 --> 01:04:55.717
Brethren, let me tell you something.

01:04:55.717 --> 01:05:02.766
Types and shadows always look

01:05:02.766 --> 01:05:05.059
to the fulfillment.

01:05:05.059 --> 01:05:11.028
They look to that which is far better.

01:05:11.028 --> 01:05:12.558
Think of the type and shadow

01:05:12.558 --> 01:05:14.605
that we have been given in this age

01:05:14.605 --> 01:05:18.075
when most types and shadows 
have been put away.

01:05:18.075 --> 01:05:23.205
The Lord's Supper is a type and shadow

01:05:23.205 --> 01:05:25.625
of what?

01:05:25.625 --> 01:05:30.078
Of sitting with Christ face-to-face.

01:05:30.078 --> 01:05:35.554
Of having Him forever.

01:05:35.554 --> 01:05:38.166
Do you recognize what it says

01:05:38.166 --> 01:05:41.603
if we get to Christ and the church,

01:05:41.603 --> 01:05:44.809
and then we allow this

01:05:44.809 --> 01:05:49.400
redemptive retrograde, regression -

01:05:49.400 --> 01:05:52.481
we go back down the mountain.

01:05:52.481 --> 01:05:54.946
And we set up sacrifices again.

01:05:54.946 --> 01:05:56.433
Do you know what happens?

01:05:56.433 --> 01:05:59.381
Do you know what it communicates

01:05:59.381 --> 01:06:04.679
if when Christ comes,

01:06:04.679 --> 01:06:07.044
you revert back to shadow?

01:06:07.044 --> 01:06:10.353
Do you realize what that communicates?

01:06:10.353 --> 01:06:15.832
Do you realize what shadows 
always communicate?

01:06:15.832 --> 01:06:19.703
Something better is yet to come.

01:06:19.703 --> 01:06:24.421
Do you recognize that if Christ comes

01:06:24.421 --> 01:06:28.532
and we go back to shadow,

01:06:28.532 --> 01:06:33.674
it says Christ is not it.

01:06:33.674 --> 01:06:39.025
There's something better.

01:06:39.025 --> 01:06:41.469
Do you know what Jesus did?

01:06:41.469 --> 01:06:43.297
He came.

01:06:43.297 --> 01:06:47.270
He's on the road to Emmaus.

01:06:47.270 --> 01:06:50.823
He says, boys, I can take you through

01:06:50.823 --> 01:06:53.445
this whole book.

01:06:53.445 --> 01:06:56.317
And it's about Me.

01:06:56.317 --> 01:06:59.762
It's pointing to Me.

01:06:59.762 --> 01:07:01.613
Do you realize when He died

01:07:01.613 --> 01:07:05.412
that veil tore from the top to the bottom?

01:07:05.412 --> 01:07:07.998
Saying it's done!

01:07:07.998 --> 01:07:11.345
All done with the shadows

01:07:11.345 --> 01:07:17.759
because the reality has come.

NOTE Paragraph

01:07:17.759 --> 01:07:21.962
Brethren, the church -

01:07:21.962 --> 01:07:24.978
the church is His body.

01:07:24.978 --> 01:07:29.044
It's the fullness of Him 
who fills all in all.

01:07:29.044 --> 01:07:30.670
He can look at the church -

01:07:30.670 --> 01:07:34.500
this is the highest point of redemption.

01:07:34.500 --> 01:07:37.930
This is the highest point of blessing

01:07:37.930 --> 01:07:39.700
bestowed upon man

01:07:39.700 --> 01:07:42.265
that we actually are His bride.

01:07:42.265 --> 01:07:44.094
We actually are His body.

01:07:44.094 --> 01:07:49.145
We actually are the fullness of Him.

01:07:49.145 --> 01:07:53.198
Have you ever just stopped?

01:07:53.198 --> 01:07:57.453
We are the fullness of Him

01:07:57.453 --> 01:08:02.936
who fills all in all?

01:08:02.936 --> 01:08:06.836
This is it. This is it.

01:08:06.836 --> 01:08:13.061
This whole perversion

01:08:13.061 --> 01:08:15.493
for you to tell me that in God's plan

01:08:15.493 --> 01:08:17.989
there's going to be a 
reconstruction of a temple,

01:08:17.989 --> 01:08:22.474
there's going to be a re-institution 
of the Levitical priesthood.

01:08:22.474 --> 01:08:24.803
Does Hebrews not just 
blow that whole thing

01:08:24.803 --> 01:08:27.033
right out of the water?

01:08:27.033 --> 01:08:30.253
Hebrews is all about the 
Levitical priesthood

01:08:30.253 --> 01:08:32.706
[no more].

01:08:32.706 --> 01:08:35.756
It needed a better priest.

01:08:35.756 --> 01:08:38.802
Brethren, Hebrews 10:1,

01:08:38.802 --> 01:08:41.391
"Since the law has but a shadow

01:08:41.391 --> 01:08:42.873
of the good things to come,

01:08:42.873 --> 01:08:45.049
instead of the true 
form of these realities,

01:08:45.049 --> 01:08:47.074
it can never by the same sacrifices

01:08:47.074 --> 01:08:49.060
that are continually offered every year

01:08:49.060 --> 01:08:50.779
make perfect those who draw near."

01:08:50.779 --> 01:08:52.334
It never made anything perfect.

01:08:52.334 --> 01:08:53.713
Never made anything perfect.

01:08:53.713 --> 01:08:58.182
But He has come now who does make perfect.

01:08:58.182 --> 01:09:00.825
Will we reinstitute shadows that mean

01:09:00.825 --> 01:09:04.010
we now need to look for something else?

01:09:04.010 --> 01:09:06.460
That's what a shadow is.

01:09:06.460 --> 01:09:08.502
If you just look at the basic intent

01:09:08.502 --> 01:09:10.340
and definition of a shadow,

01:09:10.340 --> 01:09:14.549
it should dispel.

01:09:14.549 --> 01:09:17.040
I can remember as a new believer

01:09:17.040 --> 01:09:20.635
even hearing that somebody

01:09:20.635 --> 01:09:21.892
like J. Vernon McGee

01:09:21.892 --> 01:09:24.086
or one of these Scofield-ites

01:09:24.086 --> 01:09:26.480
was saying that they were going to

01:09:26.480 --> 01:09:29.643
reestablish the Old Testament worship.

01:09:29.643 --> 01:09:35.113
I didn't know a lot, but it made me

01:09:35.113 --> 01:09:38.986
recoil with horror at such a thought.

01:09:38.986 --> 01:09:41.377
Because I could see it even 
as a young believer.

01:09:41.377 --> 01:09:45.674
That dishonors Christ.

01:09:45.674 --> 01:09:48.776
Brethren, if that is not sufficient reason

01:09:48.776 --> 01:09:52.997
to go to Scripture and to seek the truth

01:09:52.997 --> 01:09:56.492
on this matter, I don't know 
what sufficient matters.

01:09:56.492 --> 01:09:58.427
How we handle the Word,

01:09:58.427 --> 01:10:03.408
not being disarmed of one 
of the basic hermeneutics,

01:10:03.408 --> 01:10:08.979
owning every promise 
that God has given to us,

01:10:08.979 --> 01:10:12.747
not losing the glory of 
Christ and the church.

01:10:12.747 --> 01:10:14.121
We do not want to back down

01:10:14.121 --> 01:10:17.038
to some shadows again.

01:10:17.038 --> 01:10:19.042
Losing that missionary hope

01:10:19.042 --> 01:10:22.092
of the binding of the devil.

01:10:22.092 --> 01:10:24.780
Brethren, harmful errors.

01:10:24.780 --> 01:10:26.625
I believe harmful.

01:10:26.625 --> 01:10:29.135
The church's urgency is dulled.

01:10:29.135 --> 01:10:31.478
We don't want that.

01:10:31.478 --> 01:10:33.080
I want to set forth before you

01:10:33.080 --> 01:10:34.269
in these weeks ahead

01:10:34.269 --> 01:10:38.554
the biblical view of end times.

01:10:38.554 --> 01:10:42.359
And I think you will find this.

01:10:42.359 --> 01:10:49.268
It gives all the promises to us in Christ.

01:10:49.268 --> 01:10:55.015
It demands urgency.

01:10:55.015 --> 01:10:57.004
It will show us we need to interpret

01:10:57.004 --> 01:10:59.729
everything in the Old by the New.

01:10:59.729 --> 01:11:02.376
It will show us this 
is the missionary time.

01:11:02.376 --> 01:11:05.119
This is the time of 
ingathering of the Gentiles.

01:11:05.119 --> 01:11:07.783
It will show us that Jesus Christ

01:11:07.783 --> 01:11:13.395
and the church is the fulfillment;

01:11:13.395 --> 01:11:17.454
it is the culmination.

01:11:17.454 --> 01:11:20.254
There's nothing higher.

01:11:20.254 --> 01:11:33.789
Christ is all the glory 
of Immanuel's land.

01:11:33.789 --> 01:11:38.224
I could just imagine a true 
Christian shedding tears.

01:11:38.224 --> 01:11:46.578
Even if Israel at some point

01:11:46.578 --> 01:11:51.192
rebuilds the temple,

01:11:51.192 --> 01:11:53.607
the true Christian would lay those bricks

01:11:53.607 --> 01:12:03.607
with tears as an affront to Christ.

01:12:03.607 --> 01:12:06.080
They may do that,

01:12:06.080 --> 01:12:07.691
but don't believe for a second

01:12:07.691 --> 01:12:10.286
that it's got anything 
to do with God's plan -

01:12:10.286 --> 01:12:11.863
not His redemptive plan.

01:12:11.863 --> 01:12:14.097
It does not have to 
do with the fulfillment

01:12:14.097 --> 01:12:16.545
of what these guys are talking about.

01:12:16.545 --> 01:12:18.100
We're going to look at this.

01:12:18.100 --> 01:12:19.467
We're going to look at this

01:12:19.467 --> 01:12:22.334
because Scripture is not 
silent on these things.

01:12:22.334 --> 01:12:29.367
Scripture has an enormous amount to say.

NOTE Paragraph

01:12:29.367 --> 01:12:35.936
Father, I know that those 
of us here in this church

01:12:35.936 --> 01:12:41.907
do not have a corner on the truth.

01:12:41.907 --> 01:12:45.001
And I know that my brother John MacArthur

01:12:45.001 --> 01:12:47.142
has been so instrumental in leading me

01:12:47.142 --> 01:12:53.410
into so much truth.

01:12:53.410 --> 01:12:57.861
Lord, we know that many that hold

01:12:57.861 --> 01:12:59.391
to that way of thinking,

01:12:59.391 --> 01:13:07.739
that mindset, they're Your children.

01:13:07.739 --> 01:13:11.906
But Father, we pray for them.

01:13:11.906 --> 01:13:14.246
We pray that You would 
lead them into truth.

01:13:14.246 --> 01:13:17.617
We pray that You would lead us into truth.

01:13:17.617 --> 01:13:19.725
Lord, may Your Word be a lamp

01:13:19.725 --> 01:13:23.809
unto our feet in these days all our life;

01:13:23.809 --> 01:13:26.639
in the days ahead and 
all the way to the end.

01:13:26.639 --> 01:13:28.359
May You lead us in truth.

01:13:28.359 --> 01:13:30.598
The Spirit who was sent

01:13:30.598 --> 01:13:32.983
to guide us into all truth,

01:13:32.983 --> 01:13:35.837
we pray that He would lead us into truth;

01:13:35.837 --> 01:13:37.163
lead us into understanding,

01:13:37.163 --> 01:13:40.016
rightly comprehending in the weeks ahead.

01:13:40.016 --> 01:13:46.378
Lord, oh, if there's 
anything I can pray for,

01:13:46.378 --> 01:13:51.540
I pray that this church 
would live and teach

01:13:51.540 --> 01:13:54.339
unto the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

01:13:54.339 --> 01:13:56.841
And whatever we look at in the weeks ahead

01:13:56.841 --> 01:13:58.425
we want it to be for His glory.

01:13:58.425 --> 01:14:05.489
We want it to be for His sake.

01:14:05.489 --> 01:14:08.365
Lord, in humility, we 
want to handle the Word.

01:14:08.365 --> 01:14:14.654
We want to believe what the Word says.

01:14:14.654 --> 01:14:17.199
Lord, we thank You that that One

01:14:17.199 --> 01:14:20.704
who fulfills all the shadows has come.

01:14:20.704 --> 01:14:22.858
Oh, we thank You that 
we don't have to live

01:14:22.858 --> 01:14:25.043
under that Old Testament law.

01:14:25.043 --> 01:14:27.080
That was a yoke about their neck

01:14:27.080 --> 01:14:28.548
that none of them could bear.

01:14:28.548 --> 01:14:31.080
Oh, Lord, we thank You we're not under

01:14:31.080 --> 01:14:32.377
that dispensation.

01:14:32.377 --> 01:14:34.492
We thank You that our Lord has come.

01:14:34.492 --> 01:14:36.142
We thank You we've been set free.

01:14:36.142 --> 01:14:37.916
We thank You that we have the light

01:14:37.916 --> 01:14:39.350
of the New Testament now.

01:14:39.350 --> 01:14:42.181
Lord, thank You that we 
live in such a time as this.

01:14:42.181 --> 01:14:44.988
In such a time that You 
are harvesting the Gentiles,

01:14:44.988 --> 01:14:46.414
and many of us in this room -

01:14:46.414 --> 01:14:48.600
we are the Gentiles that Satan

01:14:48.600 --> 01:14:50.821
has not been able to deceive.

01:14:50.821 --> 01:14:55.439
His hand was held back 
and we were rescued.

01:14:55.439 --> 01:14:58.474
And we have come to find rest and trust

01:14:58.474 --> 01:15:00.920
in the bosom of Jesus Christ.

01:15:00.920 --> 01:15:02.222
Oh Lord, thank You!

01:15:02.222 --> 01:15:03.786
Thank You for this salvation.

01:15:03.786 --> 01:15:05.402
Thank You for choosing us.

01:15:05.402 --> 01:15:07.049
Thank You for rescuing us.

01:15:07.049 --> 01:15:09.462
Thank You for all the glorious hope

01:15:09.462 --> 01:15:11.953
and the promises that 
we have in Jesus Christ.

01:15:11.953 --> 01:15:14.834
Thank You that You've 
made us full inclusion,

01:15:14.834 --> 01:15:24.253
full sons, grafted in to 
the tree of Your people.

01:15:24.253 --> 01:15:27.449
Made fellow citizens with the saints.

01:15:27.449 --> 01:15:30.908
Members of the household of God.

01:15:30.908 --> 01:15:34.365
In all ways, partakers of the covenants.

01:15:34.365 --> 01:15:38.091
The covenants, the promises 
have become ours.

01:15:38.091 --> 01:15:41.116
True offspring of Abraham.

01:15:41.116 --> 01:15:46.730
All because of Christ. 
All because of Christ.

01:15:46.730 --> 01:15:48.990
Lord, thank You our salvation

01:15:48.990 --> 01:15:53.075
is abundantly great, abundantly glorious.

01:15:53.075 --> 01:15:56.193
Salvation which is to the uttermost.

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Thank You, Lord.

01:15:57.791 --> 01:15:58.977
Thank You.

01:15:58.977 --> 01:16:00.866
In Christ's name we thank You.

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Amen.