Book of Esther - Part 14

All right, we're in Esther chapter 6 today and we're gonna be starting with verse 10, but let me give a little bit of review

Before we go there. We realize that this whole book is a book of the Providence of God let's put it that way

But it's also a book that deals with two very famous theological discussions that have gone on for 2 ,000 years and And so I know sometimes we don't all study theology, but some of us do like to do that because It's like to read something that you totally it's fun to read something.

You totally can't understand sometimes but the thing about it is there's been this debate about whether God is a

Transcendent God or an imminent God and I like to put it in words that mean nothing to us

But let me just tell you what it means transcendent means That there are those who believe that God is

Above it all and outside of it all and is not have not anything to do with this world this sinful world

And then there are those who believe God is that's called the transcendence of God There are those who believe God is imminent

Which means he's in everything and what's interesting is if you take either side of the spectrum and you focus on just that and you leave the other out you become perverted and so the perversion of Hinduism and animism some of the some of the

Traditions in Africa and places like that animism where they believe God is in the tree God is in the rock or God is the tree or the rock and you begin to worship the tree in the rock that is

Because they've overemphasized the eminence of God so much that he's like this is God, you know You can see how they could take that there and that's some of the perversion of it goes there

But then those who believe in and the transcendence of God and really you'd be surprised

But it's a lot of the intellectuals in our country and especially in Germany earlier than that and then came over into our country where they think

God maybe maybe there is a God perhaps and if there is he sort of spun it all out there and then he sits

He says like here and he's watching to see see it crash. He wants to see what's gonna happen Is he gonna crash is it gonna make it?

I don't really care. I'm just watching and That's if he's there and so they took it to that length over on that side

So you can see the two sides and the interesting thing about the God of the universe The true and only

God of the Bible is he is both and you but the only way we could ever understand that is that if we understand he exists as a triune

God and Because it is true. See there are truths in almost any any false religion.

There's truth in it I mean, there's usually 98 % truth and 2 % error and it's that error that'll kill you that poison that's in it

Jesus called it like this He said it's like bread that has Leaven in it or yeast and he said doesn't take but a little bit of yeast and it permeates that whole piece that whole loaf

Of bread that's how sin is and that's how false doctrine is so you put just a little bit of false in with and the whole loaf is false all of a sudden and That is how

Satan works Now the truth is the when we speak of God the Father Like we talked about in Sunday school a lot this morning didn't we

Jesus called God Father and really in the Old Testament They never did maybe once Did you find once I think maybe once or twice, but but I mean really it's pretty much non -existent in the

Old Testament Jesus called him father every time he called him Abba, which literally means daddy That's a totally different relationship than they understood and then on the cross when he had our sins upon him and God looked at him and saw us

Jesus called him God for the first time my god. My god. Why have you forsaken me?

And at that moment Jesus Christ was experiencing separation from hell eternally

And how that happens in moments of time we have trouble understanding but it's not difficult for God to understand

But I mean even we I mean with a point over there bill because he's a mathematician and is true

You take any number doesn't matter how small the number if you multiply it time infinity. The answer is infinity

Right. So if you take Jesus who is an infinite God in the body though but the

Bible said he was all of the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you take God and you put him on the cross and You separate him from the father for how many minutes?

I Don't know an hour. I don't know how long that Those moments took but you multiply that times an infinite

God and so he was infinitely separated from God he was in hell Right there while he was hanging on that cross that he was experiencing what you will never have to experience because he did that for Us and that's the reason he was sweating blood

Before he went it's not because he was afraid to die physically He did not want to be separated from the father and he said

Lord I don't decided I don't want to do this Let this cup pass for me, but he ended his prayer.

Like we should always he said nevertheless Thy will be done. I'm telling you what I want. But really what

I want is your will my Desire is I don't want to do that. I don't want to be separated from you He said but nevertheless really what

I desire is your will and so he went to the cross and he suffered that for us So here's what's amazing about it.

But that father that one that Jesus called father is Transcendent he is outside of this universe.

He is the great I am He cannot come into this universe because if he did all of the particles of fizzy

Physics all of the physical things would flee from him because you cannot bring non time into time without destroying time

And if you destroy time you're gonna destroy the elements and so the father doesn't come into this he's transcendent

But he injects himself where we are through his son Jesus and that's why Jesus was called the word with a capital

W because what is the word what is a word a word is like a truck and It takes information from your mind to my mind through that It's like you flip you fill it up send it from your brain and dump it right here

That's what a word is and Jesus was that one who went to a place where I believe you will never go

Outside of time outside of space where the father dwells and He took all of the mind of God.

He took the heart of God He took the knowledge and he brings that into time where we are and that's why

Jesus was called Emmanuel God with us and so the father can project himself into time without destroying us by existing as a triune

God So you had to have the Sun you had to have that going on that that the Jews didn't like it

When he said he's my father. He said then you're going to be we're gonna stone you because you just said you're God Well, they understood they understood what it meant

That that he was claiming to be God in time is who he was claiming to be. Well, that's exactly who he was and Then there is the

Holy Spirit Is another way that the father can project himself into time or outside of time or anywhere because the

Holy Spirit is omnipresent He's everywhere all the time It's only one place he's not that's in the heart of a lost person in the heart of a goat in the heart of a tear and Isn't that interesting?

So he's I'm not present to the extent of physics physical things, but he's not I'm not present to the extent of spiritual things

He is not in the heart of a tear Aren't you glad he's in your heart this morning and so This book

Esther is about that part of God that those who understand the transcendence

But have perverted it it it is a book that will bring them back and teach them.

No God is imminent. God is here God is with you in fact Those who want to think

God is transcendent like to think that we're just operating everything on our own And the sad thing is that modern

Christianity has moved in that direction Modern Christianity does not like the old Calvinistic Doctrines of the sovereignty of God don't like that at all

They like to think about the Arminian doctrines of oil. We're responsible to do everything and then God will be pleased

They like to to go over on that side more because that elevates man. It makes man more important It makes my ministry more important makes my prayers more important because I can move

God and change his mind all that stuff Well, it can make you feel all great if you want to but the truth is if you and I were in control

We would mess up everything We would ruin everything How would you really really like to take that to its logical end?

How would you like for it to be true? that if you don't go soul winning when you leave here and you got witness that you're gonna be sending people to hell because that's the truth if you're an

Arminian if You leave this place and you go eat lunch or we're gonna have lunch here

So you go somewhere and you eat dessert and you don't witness to everyone in that cafe. You just sent them to hell

Do you understand what I'm saying? That is what's taught nearly every church you've been to in the last 25 years.

They teach that That's why they say we're gonna have we're gonna go visiting on went on Thursday night And you know what's so ironic to me is if they really believe that why wouldn't they say?

Why do they say we're going visiting on Thursday night that that fits more like what we believe maybe I don't know But I mean if you really believe that why wouldn't you say would you please leave and go out witness right now?

Because there's people going to hell right now, and if you don't do your thing They're going to hell if it were up to you.

We would mess everything up. There might not be anyone in heaven Okay, so what

I'm saying is it's up to God Here's what here's what Jesus said

He said I know my sheep and they know me and They will hear my voice and all of them.

I will lose nothing Isn't that comforting? It's in his hands now,

I'll tell you what we learned in Sunday school today a great lesson once again Bill I'm starting to say that every time but only when

I mean it but We learned that the same

God Who is sovereign? has ordained That those who he calls

Will do good works doesn't say they might it says they will and So part of his he's not not only has

God Elected and chosen and predetermined that people will be that some people from this lost human race.

I mean the truth is the race is lost But he has in his love and mercy and kindness chosen to save some from out of that lost race

But he's also determined the means and the means includes you witnessing So It does not give you an excuse to not witness to people to say oh well

God's just gonna save everybody. In fact, no one that's truly born again would think that way unless they were perverted in their doctrinal belief

But what it does tell you is this you don't go witness to everybody Who do you witness to?

you witness to the person that the Holy Spirit leads you to witness to The next one the next one that walks up and the

Holy Spirit leads you to talk to them talk to him But if he does not lead you to talk to him don't because they might kill you

Because Jesus said Jesus never said to witness to everybody what Jesus said was he said

Cast not my pearls before the swine Lest they turn and rend you

Well now how would you know who to witness to you wouldn't? Unless you allow the

Holy Spirit to lead you you see so there's so much falseness taught You could write a book about things that are just thrown out from pulpits today

That have been heard from another preacher who heard it from another preacher and it's not even in the Bible Who knows where it came from?

I guess ultimately we know where if it's false, right? But you see my point. So the wonderful thing or the sad thing is and we live in a day where people really unknowingly

Christian people among the Baptists have moved towards a position of looking more

God as a Transcendent God and we're but he does expect us to go and just do all the stuff and we hope it works out, right?

But we're responsible make sure it's right And if it were that way, it would just it would nothing, you know, God's will would never be done

The church today is the weakest it's ever been It's it's weaker than it's ever been and now is the day when it believes this stuff

Back in the days of Spurgeon when the church was predominantly Calvinistic There were more missionaries sent out to the world than there have ever been people like John Carey The great missionary to India who changed an entire continent and he went 20 years before a single soul was saved

In fact all the churches that supported him cut off the money because they said you're not a soul winner Read the book.

It's a fact read about his life. They cut him off because he's not a soul winner Well, why don't you try going into India where everybody's a

Hindu and win souls turn them to Jesus? They're gonna give up their whole life all their friends.

Everybody's gonna hate them. They might even kill them and And you're just gonna go win them. All right Wasn't God's will for people to get saved yet, but you know what he did he spent 20 years

Translating the Bible into about 10 or 15 different Indian dialects

While his wife who lost her children because of malaria or some disease over there that couldn't be controlled went crazy

Literally couldn't deal with the death of her little children. I couldn't have either she went literally crazy She's in the next room screaming all day like a lunatic while he's over there

Translating those Bibles day after day after day after day and no one gets saved and they cut off his money

The church's cut off his money because he's not a soul winner. Is that fascinating? So, you know what he did

He said well, I didn't get called by the church to come over here. God called me over here

God sent me over here Lord Would you teach me some little entrepreneurial thing? I could do to make just enough money to feed my wife and me and he

I don't even remember I'd have to go reread It's been a while since I read his life, but he found a way to do some business and create some income and he supported himself while he translated the

Bible into 10 or 11 different Indian dialects and after the 20th year

He won his first soul and that Indian man followed him and helped him for about a year and then he backslid never came back

Went back to Hinduism How would you would you let me ask you this? Would you still be there? Would you you or I still be there?

Following the Lord thinking God put us there if you went through that I doubt it, you know, we're not that strong the church

Was at its strongest when they were Calvinistic when they understood look no matter what man says

God is in control I'm not that worried about what man says or does or even what I do as long as as long as I pray

Walk with him. He will lead me each day. He's in control. Therefore. I'm at peace You see that that doctrine needs to come back to this country into the world

But it may not because God's will and the word says this that Jesus He says he will not come back again until there's a great apostasy and that means they falling away from the truth

And that's where you live and that's where I live And so I don't know that we can back that up or change that because it's

God's will but you know what? We're supposed to try we were talking about I don't remember who I was with probably somebody right in this room

We were talking about that very issue that even when we know God's will is

To bring apostasy. Are we supposed to just sit back and say well, it's just gonna happen Are we supposed to preach the truth as hard as we can?

What do you think? We're supposed to still preach the truth as hard as we can do the best we can

About it. We are always supposed to be salt and light and Listen it doesn't mean it's gonna change anything because if it's

God's will for apostasy to come and You're being salt and light as hard as you can

They're just not going to listen to you and me or anyone else of our brothers that are out doing they're not going to listen

They're gonna turn from it. And does that mean we quit? Of course not So you can't look at it from the point of view of success like you would say in a business

Activity where you just count the bottom line and it's growing yours, you know, you're successful Church is not that way spirituality is not that way.

You cannot count your success success by the number of souls you baptized If you're John Kerry, you'd have been a total failure and yet there's not a seminary student in the world

It goes through seminary does not read about his life That's how famous he is Because of how he followed the

Lord So The church has moved in a wrong direction towards thinking that God is transcendent when the truth is he is imminent

Jesus said this he said without me you can do this much Nothing So if he were not imminent you would be lost you would be

You would not be infused with light or life or knowledge or power over sin or anything

He's involved in every little detail of your life. You think well, he won't he takes care of the big things

He wants me to handle the little things. You see that's the modern theology. God is not that way There's not anything little to God.

It's all important to him or he wouldn't have made it He's so interested in the blades of grass that you passed on the way here that he made them blow exactly like he wanted

Them to and he enjoys that and you limit him thinking well, you could never manage that much

So you limit him to think well, he doesn't take care of those little thing I'm gonna tell you something. Well, we're not gonna get to it probably because my introduction was so long

We're about to begin the sermon but When we get into this passage in a minute, you're going to see in the scriptures especially in the

Greek part of the of the New Testament language, you're gonna look at that he Literally has his finger on every molecule of everything.

He's that imminent and So Esther brings this out so much now think about the stuff that's already happened that we've studied

First of all Esther's mother and dad were killed probably killed in a war Perhaps I'm not doesn't say how they were killed but we do know that the

Nation of Israel was destroyed by the Babylonians and the Persians and the Medes and the

Persians at this particular time in history and that they would Just put hooks through their chest tied to a chain and put a hook in the back of the next person put a hook in his chest and put the one in The back of the necks and they made them walk all the way to Babylon that way

That's how they brought the Jews when they took him captive. That's how they brought him over there Did they knew how to do it where it wouldn't kill you it just hurt but you couldn't run away either

Could you so they got you to transport from Jerusalem all the way over to approximately where I guess

Iraq is In parts of Persia and then they turned him into slaves

Well, so a lot of things that look bad happened to get Mordecai Which is the man who raised

Esther after her parents died is actually Charlotte told me it's actually her cousin But he was older so he raised her and she looked at him as her dad and he raised her very well

By the way, there's many wonderful child rearing Concepts in the book of Esther about how to properly raise children

But anyway, so they find themselves at the right place in the right time Because of all the things both good and bad that happened in their lives and that's true of you and me so when the bad thing comes

You know you need to recognize that that really is meant for good for you to make you be who you're ultimately gonna be when

You meet Jesus and it's also gonna put you in the right place to accomplish your mission here And so that bad stuff is part of it

And see an Arminian cannot look at it that way and Arminian has to look at it this way Well, how bad stuff happens?

It's just because we're in we humans are in control and we're sinners and we just you know, that's why That's not why it's because God's in control and he knows you need he you need some chastisement

Sometimes you need some tribulation. I need some trouble because that's what makes me grow, correct

So God's behind it all now and understand he'll delegate some things to Satan won't he? So when we look at things that are truly bad, it's not

God's hand directly doing it. It's Satan but who does Satan work for unknowingly and Unjoyfully, who do you think he really serves?

God he's a pawn on the chessboard And God moves him right where he wants him and he does exactly what

God wants him to do When God wants him to do it, but he doesn't believe that because he is the greatest Arminian there ever was

He thinks he controls everything. In fact, he says I will be like the Most High God. That's the ultimate of Arminianism You see that's how far you can take that if you want to believe that doctrine the

Baptist really have never believed that but they Do now but they don't understand it They don't understand the end that it will take you to and if they would go back and reread some of Spurgeon sermons

They get back in the right place. They call him their Prince of preachers, but they will not read his sermons One man asked him.

Well Mr. Spurgeon How do you reconcile the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man and he said my dear friend

I don't have to reconcile friends. Isn't that a great answer? What he meant by that was they both work together somehow and it's not a problem for God He he can see that we're just not dimension high enough dimension to understand how it works well so we see that Mordecai and Esther in the right place and all of a sudden this man

Haman who Satan has inspired to destroy the entire nation of Israel by talking the king in to killing them all and thinking it was good for him to do that and But before that happened

God had brought Esther into place where the king saw her and delighted in her and married her and she was his wife

He didn't know she was a Jew Her father I call him her father Mordecai told her don't tell them you're a

Jew so she obeyed him and she didn't tell him and there she is his blessed wife and she she didn't even know this had happened, but Haman had talked him into passing a law to kill all the

Jews So Mordecai slips that information into her so that she knows it says look if you don't go talk to him

He's gonna kill us all including you because he doesn't know you're a Jew yet But by the time he's killed all the

Jews and they tell him you're wondering he'll have to do it because of his laws He'll just have to do it. So you better go intercede

She said well, I can't because dad there's a law that says if I go before the king without him requesting me

It's a death penalty He said well, you know, you may die but I'll promise you this if you don't try to go you will die

Because and then God will raise up another means to save the nation because he's gonna save the Jews But it might be you.

How do you know Esther? Here's what is that? Here's what the dad said How do you know Esther that you weren't raised up for this very hour and placed in the kingdom for this very hour and that?

Inspired that young girl and she said I'll tell you what then you go tell all your friends to fast and pray for me

I'm gonna get all my girls in here to Pat Fast and pray and I will do it and she walks in before that King the next day

Now the way it worked is if he rose if he raised his scepter And you walk over and touch he lets you touch it then you don't have to be killed

She walks in she feared all night and she's gonna be killed by this man because he hadn't called her in there for 30 days

And she comes in that's getting too busy gentlemen if you're working so hard, you don't call your wife in for 30 days But anyway, that's a different sermon

But so she comes in he holds the scepter up that lets me know I don't want to be king, you know,

I'm saying so Holds the scepter up. She comes over and touches it and she now knows she's okay

And you know what he does he looks at her with I can just almost picture this with love and a big old smile

He's having one of these happy days and he says Well Esther good to see you my queen.

Why'd you come in here? She said he said I'll tell you what I'll give you anything you want up to half my kingdom. What do you want? And you think she expected that she thought he's gonna kill her

He loved her who put that love in his heart Do you think?

He's a lost man. He doesn't know God who did but who do you think put the love for her in his heart? Go ahead speak out.

Let's make this God did There was never a chance he wasn't gonna smile at her and say that but she didn't know it

But he did and it's kind of humorous to read So now she's starting to feel a bit better because she didn't want half his kingdom

All she wanted she had already had a plan devised To get rid of this evil Haman and he said well, she said well

King look I I don't want half, you know half your kingdom He said she's all I want is I want to have a banquet and fix a meal for you and Haman a special guest

Over in my part of the palace. Would you come he said, of course I will and he sent orders to him and said you better Be there on time, buddy.

You've been invited so that happened and then they come back and you know They have that one and the king asked her again that night at dinner said well, what do you want?

I'm gonna give you half the kingdom. What do you want? She said all I want you to come back tomorrow night I'm gonna fix a different meal.

It's gonna be Mexican food tomorrow night And he said, oh, I love that. Is it Tex -Mex and she said yeah, and so That's in the

King James in case you don't read that King James a lot of it is written in Texan You know, it talks about vittles and things like that.

It does check it out do a word search on vittles so anyway

They come to the to the next one now. Here's what here's the funny part There's lots of funny parts But Haman goes back to his wife and gets all brings all of his buddies in when he gets home from work at the palace

That night he starts telling him how rich he is how much the king loves him He's elevating to the number one position in the whole kingdom and he says get this

Guess who? Esther invited to dinner The king yeah, but guess who gets to go with him?

Yes, you get like go ahead try to guess So they start guessing everybody know me. He said just me.

I'm the only one not even you wife Not even you friend. Just me. I get to go. That's how awesome

I am And so it turns out now When you want to talk about the eminence of God now

Haman has this plan to kill Mordecai and all the Jews and He's he's really upset though because he's so excited about this party and Then he turns and says his wife but you know what it's hard to really be happy as long as I know

Mordecai is alive and his evil Overrode even the joy, isn't that sick?

That's how much Satan had put that hatred in his heart. So the wife said don't worry about that Just instruct your man to go build some gallows

And when you go to that dinner tonight Just remind the king that what you said just say I'm gonna go ahead and hang him and the king will say okay

Then you can be happy at the banquet because he'll be dead. So he has the gallows built

Well that very night before the next banquet The king just couldn't sleep now, who do you think arranged that who's in control?

The king couldn't sleep you've had nights like that. There's always a purpose in that by the way

You should just start praying when that happens because God's wanting you to pray for somebody And so he gets up and calls his men in wakes them up How would you love to be the king's servant where you just got it?

Like, oh man, what do you want? And they said he said bring the Chronicles in here because my kingdom is so huge I can't hardly keep up what's going on.

I'm not gonna waste my time I can't sleep read the history tell me what's happened the last few days and in the

Chronicles of the Kings book of The Medes and the Persians it was recorded that a while just a few days back there were two men that were dormant that kept the door of the palace area that had plotted to kill the king because they they hated him and they wanted power and Mordecai had overheard it and told

Esther and she told the king the king had them killed But he never knew who it was that made that known to him where it saved his life

He didn't know so they're reading the Chronicles to him in the middle of the night and they said this guy named Mordecai He said really he said well, what great thing did you guys do for him?

And they're thinking? Oh my goodness, we should have done something great for that dude. Do it now. You're gonna kill us and they said nothing and you know, they probably were in fear and Trepidation and so here's what he said.

Well who's in the palace area and they said well, well, it's funny But Haman is hanging around here. Well Haman was hanging around because he wanted to come ask the king.

Can I hang? Mordecai that's what he was there for he went there and hung around to get to talk to him So I can say

I built the gallows. Can I go ahead and do this? That's why he was there late at night And so he said, oh, we'll bring him in and before Haman could say anything the

King said Hey, if I had a man who I love more than anybody else in the world What do you think

I ought to do for him? Well, who do you think Haman thought he's talking about? He thought he's talking about him. So he told him everything he would want

So he said I would take the Kings best horse and I would take some of the Kings clothing that he no longer wears because he gets new clothes every day and take the perfect like Yesterday's clothes and put that on that man put him on that horse and I would have like one of the

Kings top guys Lead that horse around town and every five minutes yell out.

This is what the king does for people. He loves That's what I would do and the

King said All right We'll make that be done then because it's Mordecai that I want and you're the man that's gonna lead the horse Now you tell me that's not funny

God is imminent. God was involved with the horse being ready the clothes being there

Haman had come over there In the middle of the night when he never usually does and the King couldn't sleep

Do you think they would normally come in and read him out of the chronicles of? What's going on in the nation in the middle of the night, of course, not

God arranged all that. He's imminent He's part of every little detail. It's just that somehow we miss a lot of that and we think he's not

Especially what we think are the little things. We just think he's not there and then when something big happens you think oh

I'm so glad you're here. Help me now as if he left and came back Isn't that funny how we think and so this is a great lesson now.

Let me drop down now We've got five minutes to work on this sermon now, let's go down to verse 10 Then the

King said to Haman make haste and take the apparel and the horse as thou has said

He's saying you do just what you told me only go do it for Mordecai And do this for Mordecai the

Jew that sitteth in the king's gate Let nothing fail of all that you gave me this wonderful idea to do so then took

Haman the apparel and the horse and he put the clothes on Mordecai and he brought him on horseback through the

Street of the city and he shouted out This is what God does for people he loves all over the city all day long until his job was finished that night and now he

Goes home to mama and guess what this time. He's not bragging This time he's not bragging

Mordecai came again to the king's gate, but Haman hasted to his house mourning and Having his head covered

No different whole different Attitude than the night before and Haman told Zeresh his wife and all of his friends everything that had befallen him

Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife and to him now look at this.

Here's how bold and Truthful his wife was if Mordecai be this if Mordecai is a

Jew This man you were gonna kill and now he's the one that the king favor favors before whom thou has begun to fall

His wife's telling him guess what Haman your rise to power and love with his king is falling now

You're diminishing and this other man is rising man Don't know if I want my wife to be quite that truthful

But it was the truth Thou shalt not prevail against him She said but shalt surely fall before this man and then next verse and while they were yet Talking while she was telling her husband that the king's men came and hasted to bring

Haman to the banquet that Esther had Prepared gonna go the second banquet and some interesting stuff is gonna happen there now

Let me take you to some interesting places here just in a few minutes We have left and let's talk about this idea of the eminence of God for just a moment

Look at Ephesians chapter 4 with me in verse 3 And like I like the way

Bill put it he took his he's teaching verse by verse through first Peter and he says this verse right here is our

Diving board to dive off into the doctrines that are taught in this verse Well, we do that all the time as you know

So we're we're going to spring off of this board out of Esther and talk about a few verses

About the eminence of God and we're just gonna touch on it this morning So so but next Sunday when well next

Sunday brother brother bill will be bringing the message but Sunday after that We're gonna Lord willing come back into this and go in a little more detail into the biblical

Doctrine of the eminence of God, but let's just do a couple this morning Ephesians 4 3 Endeavoring to keep the unity of the

Spirit in the bond of peace There is one body and one spirit even as you are called in one hope of your calling

One Lord one faith one baptism, you know, what's interesting now? This is a rabbit trail, but they're really my favorite parts of sermons.

So Do you know this there's this doctrine out there that's been very popular for many years and I call it hyper

Dispensationalism they take there. It is true that there are dispensations But they take that so far that then they pervert other scriptures scriptures

Let me point out this that the scripture says after the cross and after Pentecost That there is and that means now in this age right now.

There is only one body. There's only one spirit There's only one Lord and there's really only one faith and one baptism.

What that means is there's neither June or Gentile and The hyper dispensationalist won't you think that everything to do with the tribulation period is about the

Jew. It ain't that way anymore. I Mean Rocky Freeman my mentor was a

Jew, but he was a baptized into the body of Christ Jew And that's how salvation works now and always will you're not going to ever go back to a pre -cross style of salvation

So the people the hundreds of thousands of people that get saved in the tribulation period are saved the same way and they are baptized

Into the body the church rather they're Jew or Gentile Good rabbit trail.

I'll leave that for you to think about there's only one faith now. There's only one spirit There's only one body and then we'll never revert to where there are two

One God and Father of all now, here's the part about the eminence Look at this one God and Father of all who is above all

He is through all and he is in you all Now, let's look at this word above in the

Greek language It is the word Epi and it means super in position rather in time or place or order it is a

Word in the Greek that talks about distribution It can be translated over upon to rest in something or at something it has to do with direction towards something and upon something and probably

The word above in English is not adequate to express that aspect of this verse, but it's pretty good

It starts off saying that yes God is above all that would tend to be making us think of transcendence wouldn't it?

He's above like he's he's above all this He is not in the presence of sin

There it establishes that truth and you're gonna find out the truth About God is always balanced.

So when you have these theologians way over here way over here The truth is somewhere in in between somewhere.

There's some germ of truth probably in both But if you if you hang out exclusively in one area you can get to be perverted if you get into if you believe in dispensationalism and it's it gets the point where you

Make you make that so cut with a knife even more than the scripture does you can get a little bit off if you believe

In Calvinism and you get the place where you say well Somebody over in Africa or India or somewhere and they never even hear the gospel if they're elect they'll be saved

Well, you just took it too far because the Bible doesn't say that the Bible says they have to hear the gospel Which means you have to send a missionary so you then became a hyper

Calvinist So you have to be you have to be in the balance of everything God says and on this particular issue

It does say God is above all but then it says he's through all The word through in the

Greek is dia and it is a the channel through through which something happens

Think of it as a pipeline. I'm in the oil business I think it pipelines a lot oil flows through the pipeline and goes from one place to another and God is through all in fact

Jesus Christ The word through is used of him and the Holy Spirit all the time where it says it's the way that the good

God comes through Them in to us Isn't that amazing? It's like the it's like the channel through which something happens

So God is not just transcendent. There is a aspect of God, which is we call him the father

But also God is through all which means that God can come through that channel into time and space

Through Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit and be right there with us

Through the things involved in the things and so forth Then it says

He is above all through all and in you all the Greek word for in there is a ne and it means very similar to the

English word in But the word all is a little bit broader word in the

Greek It's the word POS and it means the whole of something and I know all sort of means that but it doesn't carry that strength

So what this when it says that he is in you all it says he is in the whole of everything

Little stronger don't you think he is in the whole of everything?

There's nothing that he's not in so there is the eminence of God and So he is above all through all and in you all

And we just closed with this thought that we talked about Earlier in the book of John Jesus said this he said without me

You can do nothing that brings it down to or maybe the other verse was in the molecular level.

I don't know Or smaller than that the atomic level or smaller than that The glue on level and the other odds that he knows about that I don't keep up with anymore way all the way down to the smallest whatever we think he's in it.

He is through it but John brings it to the personal level in your personal walk without me.

You can do nothing. I Am the vine you're the branch Imagine what happens if you cut the branch off of the vine, what can it do?

Die He's imminent. He's involved in everything. We do little thing big things.

Let's remember that let's stand and pray together father we thank you so much for your word and the power of it and the way it invigorates us and Encourages us and exhorts us to be salt and light in this world for you

And Lord help us to be conscious of the doors You open the ones you close the way you lead us is with each step by step into your perfect Will help us to be equipped to deal with the end times that we are in and to fulfill the very mission

You sent us to do help us to remember we are in a mission and Lord We thank you for the joy that you give us even in a cursed world

You give us each other you give us your spirit who connects us and the fact that you we're connected to you

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, and we thank you for that. We ask you to go with us into our time of fellowship