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Mark chapter 7. Now when the
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Pharisees gathered to him with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.
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For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders.
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And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.
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And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?
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And he said to them, Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, hypocrites, as it is written,
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This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.
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You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. And he said to them,
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You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition. For Moses said,
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Honor your father and your mother, and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die. But you say,
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If a man tells his father or his mother, Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban, that is, given to God, then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down, and many such things you do.
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And he called the people to him again and said to them, Hear me, all of you, and understand. There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.
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And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them,
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Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach and is expelled?
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Thus he declared all foods clean. And he said, What comes out of a person is what defiles him.
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For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.
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All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person. And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
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And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet.
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Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
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And he said to her, Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.
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But she answered him, Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.
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And he said to her, For this statement you may go your way, the demon has left your daughter.
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And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone. Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the
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Sea of Galilee in the region of the Decapolis. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hands on him.
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And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put fingers into his ears, and after spitting, touched his tongue.
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And he looked up to heaven, and he sighed and said to him, Ephathra, that is,
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Be opened. And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. And Jesus charged them to tell no one.
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But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying,
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He has done all things well. He makes even the deaf hear and the mute speak. Let's pray.
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Our gracious Heavenly Father, we read in this text that hypocrisy was a great struggle amongst the people.
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And Lord, that struggle still exists today. Oftentimes, Lord, we honor you with just our lips, and our hearts are far from you.
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In vain do we worship you. Lord, we confess this as sin.
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We confess our pride. We confess our unbelief. We confess our self -reliance.
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And Lord, we thank you that Christ came to deliver us from all these things. And Christ's deliverance wasn't just because we do bad things, it's because we are bad.
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It is out of the heart that all of the wickedness comes. And Lord, we need new hearts, and you delivered us a new heart through Christ.
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And Lord, we thank you that Christ is our Savior, that Christ is Lord, that he is over all things.
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We thank you that you sent him to die in our place as our substitute, absorbing the full wrath of God.
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And Lord, we pray that we would live our lives in Christ, that we would live our lives in the power of your
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Spirit, that we would walk according to your ways and not our own. Lord, we pray that today as we open up the word of God that you would help us hear your words.
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We pray that the Spirit would take those words and put them in our hearts. Give us understanding,
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Lord, and how to best walk after your counsel. Lord, we thank you for this time together.
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In Jesus' name, amen. Well, let's turn in our
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Bibles to John chapter 5 again. You know, most of the time on a
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Sunday morning, things seem to fall into place just fine. Everything works out. Then you have days when it seems like everything falls out of place, and that's this morning.
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First thing I did was spill a cup of water all over everything up here, and somehow I lost my bulletin.
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I don't know where, so we're flying blind up here. I don't know what happened to it, but I was hoping somebody would come forward.
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Thank you, Vida. I appreciate it. So I hope this goes better in these notes.
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We're actually going to deal with some matters here that may be new to some of you. I hope they're not troubling to you.
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I hope they're challenging. This is, of course, the third
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Lord's Day that we're considering this third discourse of Jesus that's recorded for us in John's Gospel.
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Here we have in John 5. Last week we gave attention to John 5, verses 24 through 30.
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But we were really unable to address adequately the last three verses. And today we'll give particular attention to the meaning and implications of verses 28 and 29, in which
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Jesus said, do not marvel at this. You know, marvel that he gives life to dead sinners, but don't marvel at this, that he gives life to physically dead people.
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It's not a hard thing for God to do. Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth.
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Those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation, the resurrection of damnation.
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We would say a simple reading of these words conveys the truth that God is appointed today, in which
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Jesus Christ will summon the entire human race to rise from the dead and then be brought before the tribunal of God to be judged.
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And the outcome of this great judgment will be either eternal life or eternal damnation.
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Two alternatives. And yet this very clear assertion of our
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Lord is not understood in this way by most evangelicals, interestingly.
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They have been taught for the most part that the judgment of Christians and the judgment of the unsaved do not happen at the same event, but rather it will happen on two different occasions, the judgment of Christians and the judgment of non -Christians.
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And that judgment, those two judgments, there will be an interval of at least a thousand years in between them.
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And so as we read this, it appears to be one event, but most people do not believe it to be one event, but two events separated by a thousand years, at least in most cases a thousand and seven years.
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And so these verses, I think, compel us to address issues of eschatology, which is simply the doctrine, biblical doctrine of last things, of events that will transpire at the end of the history of this world, the end of this age.
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And so we'll do so today, we'll address this today, at least in a manner, and we'll have to deal with it more next
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Lord's Day, too, I believe. Here, Jesus was speaking, of course, to certain
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Jewish leaders who desired to kill him. And Jesus had healed a man on the
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Sabbath day, which itself was a capital crime in their minds. But then when speaking about the matter to them,
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Jesus made himself equal with the Father, which they regarded as blasphemous.
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The Father was working in matters of providence, controlling events of every day, of every person, and Jesus himself was working along with the
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Father. He made himself equal with the Father, and therefore he was worthy of death, a second offense.
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Two reasons they thought that he deserved death. Now Jesus had performed, of course, a number of miracles, both in Judea and Galilee, all of which, he said, were works that his
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Father had directed and enabled him to do. But he also declared that his
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Father would yet do greater works, greater miracles through him, in order that people would marvel at the wonder of these works, but also that people would come to honor him, the
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Son of God, as they honor God the Father, to the same degree they would honor
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God the Father. And so what were these greater works that Jesus said the
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Father would enable him to perform? And in verses 21 through 23, he revealed what these further works were.
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For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom he will.
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For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the
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Son, just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the
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Father who sent him. And so the two greater works, basically, he imparts life, will impart life, and secondly, he will judge the world.
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These are the two greater works that he would yet perform. And he explained more fully about these two matters in verses 24 through 30.
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Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has present possession everlasting life, shall not come into condemnation, and that's the meaning of judgment there, shall not come into judgment so as to be condemned, but has passed from death unto life.
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Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is. Here he's talking about a spiritual resurrection, when people are converted to Christ, when the dead, and he's talking about the spiritually dead, will hear the voice of the
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Son of God, and those who hear will live. That's what happened when we became Christians. For as the
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Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself, and has given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the
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Son of Man. And then he moves on to another kind of resurrection.
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Do not marvel at this, we've read these already, for the hour is coming, here he doesn't say and now is, it's a future event, the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth.
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Those who have done good to the resurrection of life, those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation,
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I can of myself do nothing, as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the
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Father who sent me. So in verse 24, first, Jesus declared with assurance that his people, his disciples, have passed from death into life, from a state of spiritual death into spiritual life, eternal life.
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They may be assured they presently have salvation. They do now possess and enjoy the gift of God in Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, and in John's Gospel, that speaks of the quality of our eternal life, new life in Christ.
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And then secondly, in verses 25 through 27, Jesus declared that he had the authority, and therefore the ability, to impart spiritual life to the spiritually dead.
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Jesus is the one who causes people to come forth from spiritual death, that is, without the life that is in him, in order to live in the glory and enjoyment of that life that's in Jesus Christ.
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He is the one that imparts spiritual life. He causes people to be born again. He causes people to become saved, because the
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Father had given him authority to impart life as the Son of God. But he also, the
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Father also gave Jesus authority to execute judgment on those who continue in spiritual death.
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And so God gave this authority because he was the Son of Man, in other words, because he was the promised
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Messiah, the one destined to reign over the kingdom of God on behalf of the Father.
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And then thirdly, we've seen, verses 28 through 30, we read that God gave his
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Son the authority to raise all the physically dead from their graves and to judge them.
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And on that great day of judgment, King Jesus will raise every human being that's ever lived on this earth, and then through judging them, he will separate his people from all the rest, from those who are not his people, sending them to their two different, separate destinies.
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He'll raise his own people onto the resurrection of life, and he will raise all others onto the resurrection of condemnation or damnation.
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And then, of course, lastly, in verse 30, he reveals that everything he does is because he's doing so on behalf of his
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Father and the authority of his Father. I want us to consider two things today.
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First, I think we need to address this matter on doing good, doing evil, what's that all about?
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And then secondly, we'll consider what our Lord said with view to the teachings, the doctrine of the end times, of the matters of eschatology.
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First, our passage and its emphasis on good and evil works. How are we to understand this in verses 28 and 29, the judgment of good and evil works?
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Again, Jesus said, don't marvel at this, the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice, come forth those who have done good to resurrection of life, those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.
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And so the basis of separating the righteous from the unrighteous here are the works or the life of the individual.
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The works are the determining factor. Now, of course, the
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Bible teaches we're justified by God, by faith, through faith alone.
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The presence and reality of our justifying faith, however, will be shown in the righteous works of our life on the day of judgment.
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It's not what you say you believe that would determine the outcome, your eternal destiny, but rather what your life demonstrates you believe.
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And here Jesus described it as doing good in contrast to those who do not know him doing evil.
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This is troubling to some, understandably. How do we understand this judgment of works?
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One might respond, I thought that we're saved by grace, not works. How do we understand this judgment of works?
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And further, one might become troubled at this prospect and ask, how do I know that I've done enough good works?
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That seems to be a legitimate question. Does this not produce uncertainty in the matter of assurance of salvation?
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And according to 1 John, we would say, yes, it can introduce a matter of insecurity and a reason for doubting you have salvation.
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Because one of the ways we know we have salvation is because we live righteous lives. We live lives according to the commandments of God.
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Now, certainly the word of God teaches that we're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, apart from the merit of any works we do.
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But the one who is truly saved by God's grace has been transformed by grace to live a life of good works.
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Bible makes that very clear, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. And then in addition, verse 10.
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For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
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We're not saved by the merit of our works. But then he goes on to write, for we are his workmanship, not by your works, you're his work.
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Created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
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And so God saves sinners by grace through faith, verse 8. Not due to the works they do, verse 9.
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If you're saved, it's because he has made you his work, not because you have worked in order to be accepted by him.
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You are his work, just as in the work of creation, just as he made all things first in the creation, so he created us.
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But he created us with a purpose. And he created us with the purpose that we should be ones whose lives are characterized by good works.
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He foreordained, he decreed that we would walk in these good works that were characterized by these good works.
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And so good works, as the Bible defines them, are the evidence that one's claim to have been saved by grace through faith alone is indeed legitimate.
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And the future judgment of works will validate every true Christian and will expose every hypocrite.
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That would be someone whose maybe lips say they're a Christian, but their life says something completely different.
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And so the future judgment of works will validate every true Christian and will expose every false
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Christian and every infidel, one who is opposed to Christ.
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Consider 1 John 2, 3 and 4. Now by this we know that we know him.
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This is one of the ways of assurance of salvation. By this we know that we are Christians, that we know
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God, if we keep his commandments. Not perfectly, nobody can, but it characterizes our lives.
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We order our lives according to God's law, his commandments. He who says
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I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar. And the truth is not in him.
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That's the definition of a hypocrite. They claim one thing, they live another. 1
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John 2, 29. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him.
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How do you know you're born again? Well, you practice righteousness, and by definition righteousness is living according to God's laws.
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And then 1 John 3, 7, 10. Little children, let no one deceive you.
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And many people are deceived about this, even though you have this warning. He who practices righteousness, that is lives, again according to God's law, the commandments of God governs his thinking, his living, is righteous.
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Here it's basically saying that the proof of being righteous, that is justified before God, is by living righteous.
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He's saying that the proof of being justified is that you're being sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
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And that was really at the heart of the message of the Puritans. You're not justified simply because you claim to believe on Jesus.
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You know you're justified because you exhibit righteousness in your life. That's how you know that you're justified before God.
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And then in verse 10 he says something very similar. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest.
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In other words, this is how you distinguish them. You can, not infallibly, that's not possible, we can't see into the heart, but you can look at a person's life and you can say basically as you stand back and as you watch and if you can see everything about him, there's a
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Christian, I can tell how he lives, how he speaks, how he walks. There's a
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Christian and there's not a Christian. Because although he says he's a Christian, I see how he walks, I see how he talks, hear how he talks, and there's testimony of everybody about him that betrays his true reality.
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And so in this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.
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There he throws in another test aside from the test of righteousness. And that is true
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Christians love true Christians. Because we're born, you know, we've experienced the same birth.
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We love the Father who caused us to be born again, so we love our brothers and sisters in Christ.
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God taught us when we were converted to love Christian brethren because they're
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Christian, not because, you know, they're our same age, same sex, same hobbies, those kinds of things, but because we're
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Christians, we love Christians. Even if they may differ with us significantly in what we believe and how we, you know, believe we ought to order our lives, if we sense that they're
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Christian and they give evidence to that, there's an attraction there. And we value them and desire to know them and encourage them.
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This is just the nature of being a true Christian. It should be noted that this is not so much a matter of doing enough works.
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He who does good will be resurrected on the resurrection of life.
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Rather, it's the nature and the quality of the works that we do after having come to faith in Christ that will validate that we are
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Christians on the Day of Judgment. It's the nature of those works. They can be classified as good in comparison or contrast to those works that can be classified as evil.
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By the way, this should not instill within us a sense of terror about the Day of Judgment. I wonder how it's going to fall out for me.
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We shouldn't think that way. We're not to fear the coming judgment, for we will stand in Christ unashamed, standing in His righteousness alone, not our own.
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John wrote, And now little children abide in Him that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.
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How is that going to happen? If all of our works are going to be assessed and judged and scrutinized and everything comes out, how can that be?
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I don't know, but I know it's going to happen that way. So again, one might ask,
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How do I know if the works I've done are good enough? After all, the Apostle Paul could write of himself,
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I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. Why, even the good things we do, there's evil mixed up in it, isn't there?
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Everything that we do is tarnished. How could that stand the scrutiny of judgment?
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And besides, I know some non -Christians who seem to outstrip me in the good works they do. How will
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I pass the bar of God considering them? And so in order to answer these legitimate questions and confirm our hearts, it's important that we specify what the
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Bible means and defines as good works, that our Lord will be scrutinizing in our lives to determine whether our lives characterize these good works.
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What does the Bible say about this matter? Well, we could spend a great deal of time in addressing this, but really, we could do no better than recalling the statement of this matter in our own confession of faith.
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The Baptist back in 1689 devoted an entire article, one article out of, what, 32,
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I believe, in the confession, and is devoted to this matter of good works. And so I've repeated that here.
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I've recounted it here in your notes. And there's, what, seven paragraphs that speak about what good works are and what good works are not.
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And so let's look through these. And I think by the time we get through it, you'll see that this is biblical, and it's quite clear how good works can be distinguished from evil works, and that the good works must characterize us and will characterize us if we truly have salvation.
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First, good works are only such as God hath commanded in his holy word, and not such as without the warrant thereof are devised by men out of blind zeal or upon any pretense of good intentions.
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Well, that immediately limits good works. It's only what the word of God commands us and tells us to do.
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There are people that think they do good works by going to a church every day and lighting a candle, or going to confession repeated times a week.
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They think they're doing good works, and that somehow that's going to enable them to stand on the day of judgment.
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According to the Bible, and we don't have time to look at these proof verses, proof texts, but according to the
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Bible, since it's nowhere commanded in the Bible that Christians do these things, they are not good works.
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They will not count for a thing on the day of judgment. Secondarily, these good works done in obedience to God's commandments are the fruits and evidence of a true and lively, that is, living faith.
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And by them, believers manifest their thankfulness, strengthen their assurance, edify their brethren, adorn or beautify their profession of the gospel, stop the mouths of adversaries, glorify
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God, whose workmanship they are, clearly from Ephesians 2 .10, they are created in Christ Jesus thereunto, that is, unto those works, that having their fruit unto holiness, they may have the end or the outcome of that life, eternal life.
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And so these good works are the evidence of and the outworking of true, saving faith.
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And then thirdly, their ability to do good works is not at all from themselves, but wholly from the
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Spirit of Christ, and that they may be enabled thereunto. And so the
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Spirit moves us, and the Spirit enables us to do these good works. And besides the graces they have already received, there is a necessary actual influence of the same
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Holy Spirit to work in them to will and to do of His good pleasure. In other words, throughout the
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Christian life, the Holy Spirit must always move us and enable us to perform these good works, to work in them to will and to do of His good pleasure.
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And yet they are not hereupon to grow negligent. In other words, it's not let go, let
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God, let the Holy Spirit do this. No, you're not passive, but rather you're active. To work in them to will and to do of His good pleasure, yet they are not hereupon to grow negligent as if they were not bound to perform any duty unless upon a special motion of the
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Spirit. I'm not going to do it unless the Spirit moves me to do it. No, you do it because it's right to do it.
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They ought to be diligent in stirring up the grace of God that is in them. And so this is not a passivity.
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We are to be active doing these good works. And then fourth, they who in their obedience attain to the greatest height, which is possible in this life, are so far from being able to supererogate and to do more than God requires as they fall short of much which in duty they are bound to do.
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That statement is a slap to Roman Catholicism and it repudiates their view of good works.
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By definition, you know, in Roman Catholicism and Greek Orthodoxy, a saint is someone who lived a life so obedient of God's Word, so filled with good works, they have done more in their life than what's required of a normal person like you and me.
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They've done all this extra good and so it can be put by the church into a treasury of merit and the church can dispense some of their meritorious good to you when you do homage to the saints, burn a candle to them, pray to them, that kind of stuff.
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And this statement here basically says, you can be the most obedient Christian in this world, but you'll never get to the point you've done everything that commanded you.
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And even if you did, you're only doing what you should have done and so there's no merit in being obedient to God whatsoever.
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And then paragraph five, we cannot by our best works merit pardon of sin or eternal life at the hand of God by reason of the great disproportion that's between them and the glory to come and the infinite distance that's between us and God whom by them, that is works, we can neither profit nor satisfy for the debt of our former sins, but when we've done all we can, we've done but our duty and our unprofitable servants and because as they are good, they proceed from his spirit, since it's the spirit that does them anyway, we don't have any merit in them.
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And as they're wrought by us, that are defiled and mixed with so much weakness and imperfection that they cannot endure the severity of God's punishment.
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The best that you can do in life is not what it should be. It's not what the, you know, the degree of sincerity you should have, the motivation of love you should have for God and for your neighbor.
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It's not done with the fullness of zeal that you should have. The best that we do is flawed and so in no way can it merit anything for us.
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And then we read paragraph seven, works done by unregenerate men.
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These are people who are not Christian. Although for the matter of them, that is the works themselves, they may be things which
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God commands. They don't lie. They don't steal. They don't cheat on their spouses.
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They keep the commandments of God and of good use, both to themselves and others.
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It's good that they live that way. Yet because they proceed, not from a heart purified by faith, nor are done in a right manner according to the word.
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In other words, they're not doing it exactly or as the word of God instructs them, nor to a right end.
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They're not doing it to the glory of God, but they're doing it because maybe they love someone or they're doing it to keep a clear conscience or to feel good about themselves and be praised by others.
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And that is not to the right end, the glory of God. They, therefore the good works of these unregenerate people are therefore sinful.
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And cannot please God, nor make a man meet that is fit or qualified to receive grace from God.
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And yet their neglect of them is more sinful and displeasing to God. The one who goes through life and lies and steals and cheats on his spouse, he's more guilty and he'll receive a greater punishment.
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And so it's better that unconverted people live lies to the degree they do according to the law of God, but it merits nothing for them.
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And so here we see, you know, and again, if we had time, we could reason through the scriptures and show where all of these statements and these paragraphs are biblical.
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And so you see how the good works emerge in the Christian's life and the evil works emerge in the non -Christian's life and on the day of judgment, everything is going to be brought forth by King Jesus and the
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Christian will stand out because of the way he lived. And the non -Christian will stand out because of the way he lived and they'll be separated based upon a judgment of their works.
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All that are in the grace will come forth and he that has done good unto the resurrection of life, he that has done evil onto the resurrection of judgment.
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But the point is that these works are important. The common belief today amongst so many is,
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I'm saved by grace through faith alone and not of work so it doesn't matter how I live. You live that any old way you please and see how that comes out on the day of judgment.
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You're not going to fare well as the Lord Jesus made it very clear. And so yes, these good works are what we are to do and we're to put forth effort to know what it is we're to do and seek the
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Lord's grace to do them. But on the other hand, these good works flow forth from the new life that God has given us in Christ.
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We couldn't live any differently, could we? We want to do these things. These good works are natural and common to the true
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Christian. God has given us a nature that desires these things, thinks in accordance with these things, in purpose to do these things because we love the
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Lord and his word and we love righteousness. It's impossible for an unregenerate person to perform these good works as defined by the
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Bible. But it's also impossible for a regenerate person not to perform these good works.
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It's who he made us to be. We're new creatures in Christ Jesus. And so let's take heart in the words of the
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Apostle Paul. This is a faithful saying. These things I want to affirm constantly that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works.
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These things are good and profitable to men. Amen? Judgment of works.
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And again we would argue in John 5, 28 and 29 the
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Lord Jesus was declaring that there would be a future day. The hour is coming in which not some in the graves will come forth and a thousand years later another group will hear his voice and come forth.
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But an hour is coming when all are in the graves will come forth and they will be then consigned to their separate destinies.
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And so we want to consider next our passage and the biblical doctrine of the end times.
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The passage, you know, I think presses upon us our responsibility to do this.
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And so as we were concluding last week I stated this when verses 28 and 29 are understood rightly in my opinion it renders unbiblical the popular view of the end times that of dispensational pre -millennialism.
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Now we can stop right there and spend the rest of the time we have identifying, describing what that's all about.
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We don't have time. But you'll get a sense of it as we move through this matter.
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Again, here are the verses. Do not marvel at this for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth.
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Those who have done good to the resurrection of life, those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.
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The Lord Jesus spoke of a singular hour, a singular event, if you will.
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When Jesus will cry out from heaven issuing a command for all people everywhere, all people who have ever lived and died throughout history to rise out of their graves.
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And then they come before him to be judged for how they lived in this world. We take it simply.
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We take it literally. We see that all the human race is divided into two groups.
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There are those that are raised from the dead unto the resurrection of life. And all others will be judged and they will be raised unto a resurrection of condemnation.
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Their destinies are pronounced by King Jesus through his judgment that he'll execute on that day even as he performs the will of the
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Father in judging the world. We would argue that this is a single event that takes place at the end of history upon the second coming of Christ.
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When Jesus returns the second time he'll cause a general resurrection of all the human race.
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He'll judge everyone individually. The outcome, I don't know how he's going to do that, but it's going to happen.
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And the outcome of that judgment of works will either be eternal life or eternal damnation.
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The understanding of an end time general resurrection of the dead and a general judgment of all mankind is a position that's unique to the understanding of eschatology, that is last things, of amillennialism.
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And that's a dirty word in the minds of a lot of evangelicals today. This understanding does not fit into the scenario presented and promoted by most evangelicals for the last 100 years since the early 20th century actually is when things changed significantly.
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And by the way, I did put a chart together that I drew up yesterday.
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It's not very detailed because all the charts I saw on the internet were so detailed you wouldn't be able to make sense out of them if you looked at them.
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I drew them up just to give you a picture of what each position holds as to the end times.
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And so in order for us to understand this subject, it's important to review a few matters. And as we address these matters somewhat last spring when we were working through our study of first and second
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Thessalonians, it bears repeating we need to repeat a few of these things this morning. And again,
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I think the text dictates that we do so. What are the historical
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Christian views of the millennium? This is the issue at hand, the millennium. Well, there are three major views.
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These include pre -millennialism, post -millennialism, and amillennialism.
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What is dispensational pre -millennialism? This is the belief that the second coming of Jesus Christ will occur just before a future thousand year earthly millennium.
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Actually, they believe that the second coming of Christ will occur in two stages, not all pre -millennialists.
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The historic pre -millennialists like John Gill and Charles Spurgeon didn't believe in two stages of the second coming of Christ, but most do today.
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Jesus will first descend from heaven to take up in the rapture both the dead and living that belong to the church, which they define as only believers from Pentecost until the time of the rapture.
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Jesus will return to heaven. However, he doesn't come to the earth. He comes down in the air, picks them up, and takes them back to heaven, and then a period of seven year tribulation transpires in the world.
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And at the end of the seven year tribulation, Jesus will perform the second stage of his second coming, coming to the earth visibly and physically, conquering all his foes at the battle of Armageddon.
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At that time, the Lord will resurrect the dead. Pre -millennialists, however, that is dispensational pre -millennialists, believe that only true believers who had died during the end time tribulation will be raised at that time when
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Jesus comes back because they argue that everybody in the church has already been resurrected seven years before.
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They also believe that all believers from the Old Testament will be resurrected at this time at the end of the tribulation.
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And they teach that when Jesus returns, then he will establish the kingdom of David, and for 1 ,000 years there will be a kingdom on earth characterized by peace and righteousness with King Jesus ruling from a literal
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Davidic throne in Jerusalem. All unbelievers, however, who have died in history, will not be resurrected and brought to final judgment until the end of the 1 ,000 years at the great white throne judgment, which they regard only as a judgment of unbelievers.
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Dispensational pre -millennialism is the predominant position held today by most evangelicals.
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It's the view of the future that is promoted, of course, primarily by the
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Left Behind series that was penned by Tim LaHaye.
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This is pronounced in Jerry Jenkins. Most pre -millennialists are only familiar with their position, by the way.
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I'd never heard of such a thing until about seven or eight years after I had become a
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Christian. And when I first heard the other position, I thought it was bizarre and heresy because I had only been taught that one view, this dispensational pre -millennial view.
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I believe, however, that many of the staunch advocates of this pre -millennial view are mistaken.
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And one of the most godly and wonderful servants of the Lord that promotes this view is
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John MacArthur. And I hold him up as probably one of the best servants of Christ in this country for who he is and what he does.
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But I believe he's wrong in this matter. And he's one of the major proponents of it. Last year,
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I read through a study Bible every year and all the study notes. And last year, I read from cover to cover
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MacArthur's study Bible with all of his notes throughout the entire Bible.
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And I read every note that he makes on every verse that he comments in that study Bible. I made notes in my margin, question marks, where I differed from his position.
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And I was thumbing through it yesterday as I was going through this. And I mean, there are hundreds and hundreds of question marks.
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Because he has a different view of the end times that he imposes upon all of the
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Bible. And we would take issue with it. But again, we affirm he's a good and godly man.
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But because I have his statements so readily available to me, I make mention of them rather frequently in the remaining notes that we have.
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Now that's the first view, premillennialism, Christ will return before a future thousand year millennium.
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There are also, however, postmillennialists. They used to be the predominant. They used to be the predominant position in the 19th century.
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Most Baptists were premillennial, or postmillennialists. Most of the Puritans were postmillennial in their day.
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I think Jonathan Edwards was postmillennial, by the way. This is the belief that the second coming of Jesus Christ will occur not before, but rather after the one thousand year millennium.
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The proponents of this view teach that the world at some point in the future will be so greatly transformed by the gospel, by the working of God in history, bringing salvation to the world, that it will usher in the kingdom of God on earth before the second coming.
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And this was the belief, again, in the 19th century. And when you stand back and look what happened in the 19th century, at the opening of the 19th century, you know,
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Christianity was largely, you know, in England, Britain, America, and places in Western Europe.
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But throughout the 19th century, it went worldwide. The mission movement, and Christians were optimistic.
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They thought that the millennium was about to begin through the conversion of the world to Christ.
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And what brought an end to the predominance of that position was World War I. And then many of them became premillennialists instead of postmillennialists due to that event that so destroyed their optimism about a changing world for the better.
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But postmillennialism, you know, believes that Christ will come after the thousand years. And I'm not going to go into great detail about that other than to say there are still some postmillennialists around.
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There were more of them around the turning of the century, some of the major proponents have died now, but there are still a few.
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But it's not a very popular position. And then thirdly, there is amillennialism. And this is certainly a minority view, but many reformed people hold to this amillennial view as I have done since about 1980, 82, thereabouts.
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This is the view reflected in our church's confession of faith, by the way. This position holds that there is no literal 1 ,000 year kingdom on earth taught in the scriptures.
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And the A in front of millennial, amillennial, is the transliteration of the
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Latin letter A, which negates, you know, it's like a non -millennium, non -literal thousand years.
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It's not that we don't believe that there's a millennium, we just believe that the millennium is not a literal thousand years, and the millennium is basically what we have enjoyed in this church age from the enthronement of Jesus upon his ascension until his second coming.
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This is the promised kingdom age of the Old Testament, we would argue, this gospel age.
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Now, we'll talk, I decided last night that next week we have to address the teaching of Revelation 20, which is the pivotal passage on which all of these arguments are based, and so we'll do that in some detail next week,
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Lord willing, at least that's the current plan. Amillennialism became the predominant position of the
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Christian era beginning with Augustine in the 5th century A .D. Roman Catholicism is amillennial, that's one of the few things
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I agree with on Roman Catholicism, their belief in the Trinity, other things like that. Most of the reformers were amillennial, including
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Martin Luther, John Calvin. It's a position that has been held in this recently by J .I.
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Packer, he's still alive, R .C. Sproul, who's with the Lord, D. Martin Lloyd -Jones was amillennial in their understanding.
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And the amillennial position is held mainly today by Protestants who are Presbyterian and Reformed Baptists.
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Now, although I believed in a premillennial return of Christ for years after being a
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Christian, that's what I'd been taught, I've held to this view since about the early 1980s.
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Holding the position has not been easy. There are numbers of people that will not come to this church because they know that I hold this position and I make it known on the radio.
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Many people that this is an issue that they hold as a test of fellowship, and that's sad.
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And I would argue that most premillennialists can be quite intolerant of views of the end times that are not their own.
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Views of the end times should not be viewed as tests of fellowship. Good Christians can differ significantly on their understanding of the end times, and people are not to sever their
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Christian relationships with one another over issues of the end times because these different positions have become dominant at different periods in church history.
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We should not divide the brethren over this. The point we should make is this, although the issue of the millennium is a controversial one, it is not to be held as a test of fellowship.
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Yes, it's an important teaching we would argue, but it's not an essential doctrine. Good Christians can differ on this matter, and I suspect that we differ on this matter some of us.
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That's okay. It doesn't bother me a bit. But with respect to John 5, 28, and 29,
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I want to make an appeal that you consider this amillennial view of the kingdom and of the millennium.
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Here we would argue that Jesus was speaking about a single event in which all humanity erased from the dead are brought before King Jesus to be judged, and the outcome of that judgment will be the gift of eternal life for those whom
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Christ redeemed, and eternal damnation for all those who refuse to repent of sin and believe the gospel.
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But a single end time general resurrection and general judgment of mankind is not believed by dispensational premillennialists.
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There's no single event when there is a division of all Christians from all non -Christians.
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Rather, they put a thousand years between those two events. And in fact, if I were to translate verses 28 and 29 to fit their view of the end times, it would have to read like this.
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Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth.
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Those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and a thousand years later, those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.
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This is what they believe. And I believe that you have to misconstrue or put another interpretation on these verses to come up with that conclusion.
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Let's consider the differences of belief regarding specific future events between the various views of the end times.
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And here, we're just going to summarize amillennialism and dispensational premillennialists, not the postmillennial view.
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What about the major tenets of amillennialism? Here, they're simple and they're few.
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First, there is one body of the redeemed of all history.
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His church. All who are saved by the atoning death of Jesus Christ who were saved from sin by God's grace through faith.
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The church of Jesus Christ is comprised of all true believers of both the Old and New Testaments.
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Paul said, Abraham is your father if you're a Gentile believer in Christ, because you have the same faith as he did.
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He's our father. We, as Gentiles, are part of the
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Israel of God. Formally, we were alienated from the household of faith, but through Christ, we've been brought into this household of faith.
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There's one people of God throughout all of history. Secondly, we would argue there is one promised kingdom of God in the
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Old Testament which currently exists over which Jesus is Lord. And yet, this kingdom will be more fully manifested at his second coming.
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The kingdom over which Jesus is king was promised in the Old Testament, realized spiritually in this church age, and will be realized physically at the second coming of Christ.
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We would argue, and this would give some people conniption fits, Jesus Christ is presently reigning on the throne of David, his father, according to the flesh.
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This is what Peter declared on the day of Pentecost. In his sermon in Acts 2, this promised
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Davidic kingdom was inaugurated when Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to the throne of God.
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And this kingdom will exist on into eternity, not just for a thousand years. And thirdly, there is one future resurrection of all humanity at the second coming of Christ.
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The Lord will raise both the saved and the unsaved when he returns. And fourth, there is a general judgment of all mankind who will be judged according to their works, the outcome of which is eternal damnation for the lost and eternal life for the righteous who are saved by Jesus Christ.
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And again, if you see that chart on the last page, you see the simplicity of this understanding of the
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Bible. What are the major tenets of dispensational premillennialism? What do they hold?
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What do they believe? First, God has two different and separate peoples,
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Israel and the church. Israel are ethnic Jews through history. The church includes all believers from Pentecost to the rapture of the church at the beginning of a future seven -year tribulation.
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And when the Lord comes to rapture his church, which is the first stage of the second coming, he will again regard, after that, ethnic and national
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Israel here on earth during the tribulation as his chosen people. And then seven years later at the second stage of the second coming of Christ, the nation of Israel, that is, ethnic believing
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Jews, will become the preeminent nation over the Gentile nations on into a future earthly thousand -year kingdom, which they claim to be the kingdom of David.
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And that brings us down to the second tenet. God has two separate kingdoms, not just two separate peoples, but two separate kingdoms.
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The kingdom of God, which is the spiritual kingdom, spiritual in nature, and they argue this kingdom in this church age, this spiritual kingdom, was never foretold in the
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Old Testament. It's a parenthesis. And then the kingdom of David, which is a future earthly kingdom of Israel, which is a thousand -year millennium.
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The dispensationalists do not believe that this church age was foretold in the Old Testament. It may be seen in most of their writings.
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John MacArthur, and here we quote him, who does not like to be identified as a dispensationalist.
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He's a progressive dispensationalist. He has thankfully abandoned some of the more extreme views of the earlier dispensationalists, but he's still a dispensationalist because he holds to its basic teachings.
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He wrote of the kingdom of God inaugurated by Jesus Christ in this age. Old Testament prophets didn't see the great time period between the two comings.
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They didn't see it. The church age was a mystery hidden from them.
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And then he gives verses that he thinks substantiates this statement. And we would argue, no.
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The mystery that was unknown by the Old Testament prophets was the equal place that Gentiles have alongside the
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Jews in the present kingdom age. The church is spiritual Israel. MacArthur would deny that outright.
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The church is spiritual Israel comprised of all who have faith as had Abraham. But that the
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Old Testament prophets foresaw and even prophesied of this church age is clear.
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Peter declared in Acts 3 .24, Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have foretold these days.
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And Peter was talking about the days of the church. And he said they all foretold these days.
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Dispensational, pre -millennialists say none of the prophets foretold these days. And then in 1
01:00:21
Peter, we could also read, Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully who prophesied of the grace that would come to you,
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Peter's writing to Christians, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ was in them, was indicating when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.
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Now look at verse 12. To them, that is the prophets, Old Testament prophets, it was revealed that not to themselves but to us, that's
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New Testament Christians, they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the
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Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things which angels desire to look into. The New Testament says all the
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Old Testament prophets foretold this church age. Dispensational, pre -millennialists say none of the prophets foretold this church age.
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It's a parenthesis. They foretold the earthly millennium and that was postponed because the
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Jews rejected Jesus as their king. Thirdly, the dispensational pre -millennialists argues that Jesus' second coming is in two stages.
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The secret rapture of the church of all believers since Pentecost will take place before our future seven year tribulation on earth.
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The visible literal return of Christ to the earth will occur seven years later after the tribulation at which time he will establish national
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Israel as the leading favored nation in the inaugurated 1 ,000 year millennium. Israel would rule over the
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Gentile nations for 1 ,000 years. The second coming of Christ is in two stages we would argue, no, there's just one second coming not two second comings.
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Four, there will be at least three major physical resurrections according to the dispensational pre -millennialists and actually a lot of minor resurrections too in the future.
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Again, John 5, 28 and 29, there's one resurrection. The hour is coming in which all are in the graves, shall hear his voice and come forth.
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They that have done good, they that have done evil. But according to dispensational pre -millennialists, there's three major physical resurrections.
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The resurrection of the church which is believers from Pentecost to the rapture and then seven years later, secondly, there will occur the resurrection of all the
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Old Testament saints, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all them, plus Jews who died during the
01:02:54
Tribulation. Only they will be raised at the end of the Tribulation. And then thirdly, the resurrection of the unsaved at the end of the 1 ,000 year millennium, that's the third resurrection, but in addition to this position, they must allow for people who were born and lived during the 1 ,000 year millennium who become believers, they die, they're immediately resurrected.
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And so there's resurrections taking place throughout the entire 1 ,000 year millennium. We would argue there's one resurrection.
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They argue there's multiple resurrections. And then they believe there will also be, you know, at least three future judgments, as well as many others.
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There's a judgment of the church that is believers since Pentecost after the rapture, but the outcome of this is not salvation, only rewards.
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And I've met Christians who are not living as Christians in this world, and they say, well, works, we're not saved by works, and oh,
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I know, works will be examined one day for rewards, but I'm willing to forego a few rewards then for a little fun now.
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I've been told that by people. That's scary. And secondly, then you have the judgment of Gentile nations and Jewish people at the end of the seven year tribulation to determine which
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Gentile nations and Jews will continue to live on in the 1 ,000 year millennium. And then thirdly, you have the judgment of all and only unbelievers at the end of the 1 ,000 year millennium, the outcome of which is the lake of fire.
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But in addition, again, they have to make allowance for many judgments to take place of believers who die during the millennium.
01:04:34
When they die, they're judged. And unbelievers, of course, they wait until the end of the 1 ,000 years, according to the dispensationalists.
01:04:42
To show the complexity of all these events in the dispensational understanding, here again is a note from John MacArthur, where he throws all these together.
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I'm not making these things up. Because of his resurrection, those who are Christ will be raised and enter the heavenly state in three stages at Christ's coming.
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First, those who have come to saving faith from Pentecost to the rapture to meet the
01:05:07
Lord in the air and ascend to heaven. Secondly, those who come to faith during the tribulation with the
01:05:13
Old Testament saints as well will be raised up to reign with Him during the millennium. And third, those who die during the millennial kingdom may well be instantly transformed at death into their eternal bodies and spirits.
01:05:26
The only people left to be raised will be the ungodly, and that will occur at the end of the millennium, at the great white throne judgment, which will be followed by eternal hell.
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He mentions three resurrections, but then he includes a fourth, and that being the unsaved at the end of the 1 ,000 years.
01:05:43
And we will simply ask of our premillennial proponents, friends, by the way, is this complex scenario a suitable position when considering the simplicity and straightforward words of our
01:05:56
Lord? Do not marvel at this, the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear
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His voice and come forth, those that have done good under the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil under the resurrection of condemnation.
01:06:10
There is no place in the premillennial scenario that allows for this event, general resurrection, general judgment to take place.
01:06:24
The statement of our confession, we're going to stop there. I really wanted to get this done today and out of the way, because there's a certain benefit
01:06:35
I think of accumulating, laying down the evidence, but I don't want to overwhelm anybody.
01:06:42
I hope that we consider these things, and I know that there are some people who have such a fixed view of the end times in their mind that they view it almost like gospel.
01:06:55
To hear any other proposal is strange to their ears, especially when they know that men whom they love and hold in the highest regard espouse these positions.
01:07:10
After all, who am I? Nobody in a little church up in New England. I understand these things, but I remember in the early 80s, 1980 -81, the way
01:07:25
I came about, Mary and I started a church in Folsom, California, a suburb of Sacramento, and people were joining the church, and I remember,
01:07:35
God bless them, Don and Barbara Myers, faithful older couple, and they came, and they wanted to join the church, and they said,
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Lars, we are not dispensational premillennial. We're amillennial.
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Does that bar you from accepting us as members in your church? And I remember the thoughts going through my mind.
01:08:01
The Thessalonians were really messed up on the Second Coming, and they were legitimate church. And I said, no, a view of eschatology will not bar you.
01:08:09
And it was largely through their influence, him asking questions that would challenge me and my current thinking, feeding me books.
01:08:18
He's the one who put Ralph Woodrow's books in my hand originally in the early 80s. By 1982,
01:08:25
I came to set aside that view. I was saved in a little church in Fort Bragg, California, northern
01:08:33
California, halfway between San Francisco and Oregon, right on the coast, small town, small general association of regular
01:08:41
Baptists, smaller Baptist denomination. And in 1958, they modified the
01:08:50
New Hampshire Baptist Confession and made a very detailed paragraph in there on dispensational eschatology.
01:08:58
And they made it a tenant of their denomination. You cannot be a member of one of our churches unless you agree to this view of the end times.
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I was converted in that church. The Lord called me to the pastoral ministry through the ministry of that church.
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God bless my first pastor, Floyd Anderson, who died in the first couple years of our
01:09:22
Christian lives, is with the Lord and he mentored me. But they would not permit me today to join their church.
01:09:32
Because that view of eschatology is a test of fellowship. And I find that very unfortunate.
01:09:40
Especially when you look at the New Hampshire Confession that was written in 1833 that they adopted, had the view of eschatology that we've set forward today.
01:09:49
They were the ones that changed it. And besides, in 1833, they did not make it a test of fellowship.
01:09:56
They just had a, in the simplest of terms, Jesus Christ is coming back. There's going to be a general resurrection and a general judgment and the destinies of the two peoples is fixed by Jesus on that day.
01:10:10
And that is no longer an acceptable view of the end times. But I would argue that it's very simple, very straightforward, and it fits the facts.
01:10:21
And I would also argue that it fits Revelation chapter 20. And so we'll look at that next week,
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Lord willing. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word. We pray you give us understanding in these matters.
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Many of them are complex. We are limited in our experience, our understanding.
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May your word, Lord, prevail. May Christ be honored and help us,
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Lord, to live in the light of your coming and the judgment that will occur on that day. We pray in Jesus' name.