God's Plan for the Ages 04 God's Plan — Lawrence Chambers

Creation, Conscience, and the Orderly Development of Redemption

A part, an enlarged part, of the red before, the 6th circle, the one down at the bottom on the right. And many of you have made a copy of that one and now you know what this belongs to, that is it's the 6th circle, and so up in the top here in the yellow, this is just a repetition of those three, of the darkness that surrounded and encompassed the entire creation, separating the atmosphere as we call it, and the heavens, he did it himself and so on, then light, that is he centered over this benefiting this earth, the darkness, every 12 hours, so it's populated in the afternoon of the 6th day, the early way, everything is almost in a military exactness, without cessation of activity, eternity again rests forever, the redemption now, that's what we are considering on the right side of our original chart.

Linus Paulin is being restored, the program, found a pet, from the garden, there's no, in my opinion, of course others disagree, and you have to make your choice as to which you're going to accept as your own idea, but man in the garden of Eden, correspondence which would be thrown out of here, commandments, you are to bless Lord Jesus, as we get the development of the thought in the book of Romans, and in Galatians, and so it's obvious to my mind that it's connected with this same age which is the Israelite age, the age of the people of Israel, and their prominence in the history of the earth.

And so, light now for instance, we go to Genesis 3 .10, 1656 years, from Adam to Noah, the flood of course is the judgment, the night time, so to speak, answers to the night, and the morning and the evening was the first day in creation, so in connection with the change or dealing with man, he has been put under the light first of the consciousness of God.

He gained that consciousness in the garden, directly in the presence of God as they walk together and talk together in the garden of Eden. So they had the consciousness of God, that was light for the soul, that should control their behavior, even after the fall, they should be wiser men, wiser persons, and so they had the knowledge of good and evil, Genesis 3 .22.

Then there's the creation by God, the light of creation, as we remember in Romans 1, 19 and 20, you get these references down, you see, it'll help you in your personal study and you'll have just a marvel of time, it's thrilling to see the orderly development of the model of the believer as a result of God's dealing with us, and what he's given to us that makes us without excuse, Romans tells us, because the invisible things from the creation of the world are clearly seen by the things that are made, even God's eternal power and deity, and so that's what we learn, quoting, as I have, Romans 1, 20, also, that the heavens declare the glory of the Lord and the firmament show it is handiwork, and so on, creation light, the light through a communication from God, knowledge of God's holiness, approachable as by blood sacrificed.

The Darkness of the Wicked and the Judgment of Human Rebellion

Now this isn't complete, you may think there's plenty in it, but it isn't by any means complete, I've been down years ago and broke my foot and I had to go to the hospital and have my leg in a... it isn't complete, that's why these spaces, everything there needs to be done, so I've been busy today putting in some of these parts that I know you'll be very much more interested in just at present, and so now we leave the age of conscience and the start of a new dusk, of early morning, of a new day, and so the Bible, and by the way, if you remember, the Bible does not call this period the evening and the morning, he saw that what he did was good, he doesn't say it was good, and I believe the reason is because of its significance.

If you'll turn with me to the 57th chapter of Isaiah, you'll be aware of it too. Isaiah 57, our subject, why didn't God say it was good? 57th of Isaiah, but the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. Now this is sustained in the New Testament, so we turn to Revelation 17, and the 15th verse, Revelation 17, 15, and he saith unto me, the waters which thou sawest, where the horse shitteth, that's Babylon, all evil religions, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, everything apart from the people of God, the human family that had gone out in distant rebellion and darkness as a result of sin.

The power of Babel, and his wife, of idolatry, and his wife Samaria, back here, introduced by Semiramis as early as this, back here, were directed, and when it was directed in government, under a new policy of human kingship, God said, I've heard people say that's the Ten Commandments, and that's old stuff, therefore we should abandon capital punishment, but it is not in the Ten Commandments, it was a commandment given to Noah, back here, in this dispensation, before anything of the law was ever heard of.

And so, we find that it was one of the rules that God put into the hands of government for the exercise of their authority over man, and for, and create at least, a deterrent against God. There's an evidence of it, it was put to the test under human government, and Noah, he got drunk, you remember, couldn't control his own appetite, he must be a person who can't control himself, is not eligible to be a ruler over us, we want to be ourselves.

And so we find in the New Testament, the conduct, his appetite, his plans of that time, they've got to be under control, over ourselves. The authority of the Lord's people, authority, of power, is the best source.

Abraham, Moses, and the Promise of Deliverance

God, and his country, and led him into the wilderness, and he lived in a tent, possessing of possession of all the land, and yet he never entered into the inheritance, even by the time he died. It was on these cities, which have foundations, which build and make with God.

Abraham to Moses, that period here, was a period of promise. God appears to Abraham seven times. It's very interesting to recount, or go over, those seven appearances of Abraham. It makes a regular study, and a regular message, for anyone who's interested in studying that line of things.

And every time God appears to Abraham, increase the scope of his benefit, and his blessing. Then after Abraham, or rather after Moses appeared on the scene, you know the story, and the tabernacle, and all the various history, interesting history in connection with Israel, being taken out of bondage in Egypt.

A picture definitely of the grace of God operating in the hearts of men, and from under the blood of the sacrificial lamb in the land of Egypt. This world is a picture of Egypt, or rather Egypt's a picture of this world, and we've got to come under the blood of the Lamb of God before we can escape the slavery of sin and Satan, in which every one of us by nature are born.

We are delivered from that slavery of sin, and willfulness, and rebellion, by the redemptive work of Christ. And that's the only remedy that can be offered to any one of us. God offers that to us tonight.

We can come into the blessed by simply acknowledging our guilt and sin before him, and accept the precious blood of the Lamb of God as the only way in which our sin can be dealt with and put away. It began with the giving of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20.

The Law, Human Failure, and Christ's Substitutionary Death

The Ten Commandments, Israel said repeatedly, that will we do, and we will be obedient. They repeated that on various ways of saying it, different wordings, but whatever God tells us to do, we're going to do it.

Just assure our ability to say, holy God, that man's terrible, that we can do exactly as God commands us. Then God gives us something to do, or gave man something to do, that proves that he couldn't do what God wanted him to do.

The flesh, it was the weakness in the flesh, as we're told. And so, of the inability of man to keep the Ten Commandments, came down into this world to undertake for us, and now the period of test and probation is over.

He's tested us with human government, and he failed. He's tested us with unconditional promises, and we failed. He's tested man with the Ten Commandments, and man has failed. He is absolutely a failure under every faith and policy of God's government.

All right? As a consequence, the Lord Jesus comes into the scene on our behalf, and meets every one of God's commandments, every one of God's demands, and honored God in keeping the Ten Commandments, and then bore the penalty for those who had broken the Ten Commandments, which was dead.

And he died on the cross substitutionally. In these scenes, in Daniel 1, it's presented to us in the multi-metal image. The Babylonian, and then the Roman of iron, and the two legs, the Eastern and Western Roman Empire.

Then the Roman Empire faded out of existence, but, and is still out of its power and authority as under the Caesars, but it's going to be revived again, and it'll go, it'll lead and end in, at the Battle of Armageddon.

Daniel's Visions and the Times of the Gentiles

And on this side, Daniel 7, 1 to 7, the picture is that of these Nebuchadnezzar's dream, himself as a mighty man, mighty person, head of gold, and so on. But when Daniel has a dream given him of God, God's viewpoint of man, God, in God's estimate, is like a beast.

Because he does not have God in his heart, he's not subordinating himself to God, so he's nothing more than a beast. The Babylonian Empire is likened to a lion with eagle wings. The Medo-Persian Empire is likened to a bear.

And then the Grecian Empire is likened to a leopard. And the Roman Empire is likened to all these three combined, a fierce beast, nondescript composite of all the horrible characters of these others, their cruelty, their brutality, their warlike spirit, their murdering progress, all through the lives of men.

The mere man was but a chapel to the hierarchy, and to the king, and so on. By his word, men lived or men died. It's such a difference now, and under our happy situation at the present moment. And so those are the illustrations of man's history, the times of the Gentiles.

Now that also conveys the thought of man in the Holy City, the Gentiles desecrating the Holy City. As long as Israel has been, they are not able to enjoy the citadel of their empire, their country, Jerusalem.

The old of the Lord's day citadel is called the times of the Gentiles, and it starts about in here at 6th of, B .C. 607, and runs right after the rapture of the church. It will continue under the root revived Roman Empire, and on to the day of the great final battle of Armageddon, where the Gentiles will meet their master in that great battle themselves, will deal with them in their proper time.

Daniel's Seventy Weeks and the Tribulation

We have also the 70 weeks of Daniel, in Daniel 9, if you read it, Daniel 9, verses 24 to 27, you read about the vision that God gave Daniel, the revelation of God dealing the people of Israel, that their history would be composed of a 70 week period, that is weeks of years.

After the week, an established worship in the temple again. At that restoration of the city of Jerusalem, that's when this period began, and then the speech lasted until the Messiah was cut off. But you carry on through here, and there you see it start again after the rapture, when God takes off his dealings with the nation of Israel again, and then there'll be a period of one week, or at least seven years, called the tribulation period.

The period following this one, in which you will have the honor and privilege to live, the day of grace. But after the rapture of the church, when all the Lord's people, all the saved souls in the world today, will be caught up to be with the Lord, all that have not accepted his grace, and being born again in this period of time, will be left behind, and they'll be left for judgment.

And that period, the whole chart of each of these sections in here, just take a whole piece on one page, and then take another one and put that one on it. And so study and break up the whole. So here, in this place here, is the period of time where the lights, where the lights in the world have gathered.

The Feasts of Jehovah and Prophetic Fulfillment

And then back here you see, I mean up in here you see the word, the letter seven. There are seven feasts of Jehovah in their yearly calendar, but also they portray typically Jehovah, the death of Christ, the newness of life of a Christian who's just judged sin, the resurrection from the dead.

That is, we share the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit of God upon the church, is followed by a space, this period of the tribulation. Halfway are we not sure when, there's the feast, the blowing of trumpets fulfilled in its anti-typical sense, when Israel will respond to the proclamation of the many, many, many thousands, four thousand, twelve thousand of every one of the twelve tribes, great and clarion call, the blowing of the trumpets of salvation.

It's called that through the chapter of Isaiah, the, and other parts of the scripture. We have it portrayed in the tabernacle with the priest blowing the trumpets there. All that is about somewhere in or during the period of tribulation, cover that period.

And then at the end of that period, the day of atonement will take place. And God will have to die again. It's the antitype of the scapegoat in the 16th chapter of Leviticus. You remember how the sacrifice, that one that was sacrificed was called the Lord's goat.

A picture of the death of Christ, and then the other goat was kept alive by a fifth person and confessed upon his head. He was taken by a fifth person into a land uninhabited, where his blood was not shed.

And it indicates that Christ will cleanse Israel in a coming day without having to die for them again. It's, shall we say, the Calvary's cross, the day of atonement. Then after that, in the, just at the very beginning of the millennial age, there'll be this period of, of the Feast of Tabernacles.

When, under the law, they could sit down and enjoy a lot of holidays, and enjoy the comforts and benefits of God's own provision without having to work for them in, for a period of time. Well that's going to carry, be carried out in fullness during that last, that sixth period.

The Millennium and the Final Judgment

Which is, of course, the result of it, is the millennial age. When all will be in perfect order, all the way through that thousand years. Christ will be the son of his father David. Israel will be the head nation on the earth, and the Gentiles the tail instead of the reverse now.

The result of a thousand years of righteousness. A thousand years unless they sin, and then they'll be dealt with at once in death. There'll be no quarter. The Lord Jesus will be the righteous judge. He'll be the dictator.

There's not going to be any opportunity for sin to crop up until the end time. At the end of that period, or rather, first of all I should say, Satan, at the beginning of the period, is put into the bottomless pit.

Chained, we read that in the 19th of Revelation. And there, Satan is put into the bottomless pit, and there was a chain about him, and he can't get out. And it's going to put this whole era to the test.

What will be the result of Satan being out of the way? Will man be good? Will man be able, he won't be able to say that it's the devil's fault, that the devil tempted him, the devil did this, the devil did that, or that man has gone to the devil.

It's not true now, but it's going to be true then. Satan will be absolutely incarcerated and unable to influence any. And yet, at the end of that period of one thousand happy marvels in unspeakably beautiful words, a year, the devil will be released from prison, and he'll come back on the earth, and go about all over the earth, and he'll gather an innumerable company of people, rebellious, challenge, and go and fight, try to fight the Lamb and his redeemed throng.

And God will blast him with the breath of his nostrils, and then the great white throng, and the dead sinners, sinners who were dead in, well they'll be in the grave, God will call them back, and then will be made new, all department will be just a damaging effect upon all in the face.

God says even the heavens are unclean in his sight, and certainly man is doing his best to make them unclean. And therefore, we'll find that God will change everything. This earth is going to be consumed, everything is going to be burned up, the earth completely, there'll be no more sea, marvelous, and then God will rest in his eternal love.

The people of God will be in heaven with him, of this dispensation, 144 ,000, and all those who will be blessed through their ministry will share the earth's beauty, to excel even that of the Garden of Eden.

The Church Age, Dispensational Study, and the Day of Christ

Will the Lord himself add a question? If you have any question you'd have to speak out loud on a half step, and on the other, and quite step on the other. It has not been covered, I won't quote that. And then the seven parables of Matthew 13, they all fit into this period in which we now live, the period of the church, the church age.

The seven parables of Matthew 13 and the seven letters to the churches of Revelation 2 and 3, all those fit into this period here. So that's why this chart is so teaching into this phase, because it's on a reduced scale, it's small printing, and really get something that you can look at and love, because you yourself drawn it, you made it up for yourself, and you've covered, you're covering the word of God.

It's an amazing thing, you can just put what you're reading, where it really belongs, dispensationally. Nobody can understand the scriptures unless they understand the dispensational division of the word of God.

You see, each day is definitely sectioned. The morning of the man put out of the garden, the darkness of the judgment of the flood, the morning after the first earth that mend all resting on, and that period ending with the Tower of Babel and the confusion of Christ.

The morning after that, and the new start with promises to Abraham, going on through to the moral judgment of the rebel, proved beyond a shadow of doubt that Peter would take their son and murder him.

It shows what a terrible thing it is in your attitude. But if your attitude is that of unbelief and rejection, you'll go to hell with your good old Herod. The necessity of the picture here. In creation, we had a fruit tree, which is a fruit.

He speaks of it in that way. In the cult of John, except the grain of wheat is alone, unfruitful, suffering is for much fruit. It is that of a tree yielding fruit after his time. We find that that's the picture of the redemptive picture.

In the creation picture, you would call the fruit an officially subsequent to the death of Christ. That arrow really should be in that side. Put it exactly in the spot. You know better than to know that it didn't happen in the Old Testament place.

However, it began. The Lord Jesus, in the 17th and 16th of Matthew, tells us that upon the rock of Jesus Christ, he would build his church. And so, during that period of time, the Israelites caught in a parasitic period, because there's nothing done by God on the earth.

Nothing. And therefore, Israel's history ceases here at the death of Christ. Jesus said that he called their feasts of Jehovah. And then, period, Israel is not God's chosen people, in the official sense of the gospel.

We turn to the Gentiles. And now, the Gentiles are the old God's people of this. And so, it begins with the descent of the Holy Spirit, period of the apostles, the completing of the scripture, the light of the truth bearing down upon our hearts as we study it, and we become.

And thus, in this period, God seems to be dead. He seems to be unoperative as far as the earth is concerned. He's letting men do as they like. Because this is man's day. You see, there are several days spoken of in scripture.

There's a pre-moral icon to God. He can accept Christ as his Saviour. And at once, when the Lord Jesus is at sea, when he comes into mid-air, there will be the blast of the trumpet, the angel of God, and we'll go up to meet him in the air, and we'll go with him into heaven.

And during that period, the church will meet the Lord. That one is known as the Judgment, or the Day of Christ, the first day of the week. But, the Day of Christ is not Sunday. The Day of Christ is the Judgment, the supper of Christ.

The Lamb of God and the people of the church period will be united in that holy, happy, married supper of the Lamb. Well, that's the Day of Christ also. Then there's the Day of the Lord. After that, the Day of Christ has ended.

The Day of the Lord will be when he comes down, because all this will happen during this period of the tribulation, this Judgment Seat of Christ, and the married supper of the Lamb. He's coming back to the earth then.

He's going to come back with him, in honor and majesty. And we're going to be, with his beauty put upon us. We reflect, we will reflect his glory. He, in places of judgment, raises even a cup of cold water, ever in his name.

Sacrifice, every little thing that Christians do for the name and the glory of the Lord Jesus. Now, we'll find a full reward in the coming days. In our giving, we only say what we give to him. The rest will come down to us.

He'll tread the winepress. He'll turn his enemies under his feet to follow. If there's no questions...