The Dispensations, Cont. (07/29/2001)

Good morning everyone.

It's good to be back in, Texas.

Believe it or not. I'm always glad to get back.

And I love living in Mahea because when you live in Mahea anywhere you travel is beautiful.

And you appreciate it north south east or west and We

always love getting back home.

The Lord allowed us to meet or come across the path of a couple of Born -again Christians

on our vacation and that was really nice.

In fact, one of them was a young man that reminded me so much of brother Myron.

It was unbelievable.

In fact after we realized he had that same personality we came to find out he was a pastor of a church over

there and He was working there at the resort taking photos photos of the guests

to make a little extra money on the side because he had just started a brand new church had just a few members but

What a pleasure it was to meet him and It's good when you go places where you

don't really know if they're any born -again people or not.

You got some brothers and sisters and You can trust them.

It's an incredible thing and you got to make sure they're not the kind just saying they're a brother or a sister, but

a Lot of times it's possible for your heart to To discern those things.

Let me give you a verse this morning that came across my mind in Sunday school before we get into the message.

I thought that was a fascinating Conversation going on in the adult Sunday school class.

I tried to just sit back and listen and enjoy it.

Look at Matthew chapter 18 verse 7 most

churches wouldn't even discuss such a thing and certainly couldn't do it in a

Sociable manner.

But It has never occurred to most Christian people that

even sin has good Behind it because God is in control of

all things.

But I liked what brother Jesse said when we look at it the only way we can do it is to look at it from points of view human

point of view versus God's point of view and we're delving in an area that is so

far beyond our understanding That That we need to be thankful.

We can even discuss a part of it.

But Matthew 18 7 says woe unto the world because of offenses.

For it must needs be that offenses come but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.

The part where it says it must needs be that offenses come is the sovereignty of God.

They're going to come.

You Can you could ask the question can you think of any sin that was good?

It's a trick question.

Of course, just say something like that when you're wanting to have fun together but

you know It's interesting to think about Judas, isn't it when he sinned.

Did that work together for good?

We'd all be in hell if Jesus Christ hadn't died on the cross and and.

So we see here how?

Offenses must come but isn't it interesting in the same breath?

He says but woe to that man by whom the offense comes.

There's the responsibility of man.

It's amazing to me how often God puts in the same verse or within the same couple of verses the sovereignty of

God and the Responsibility of man right there side by side.

We'll we'll have a hundred more discussions of it or a thousand more before the Lord comes.

And I guess we creep a little closer to understanding it, but we won't totally get there.

But it is and they're wonderful to be at a place where you can discuss things like that instead of be out fishing on

Sunday morning.

Turn with me.

If you would to Genesis chapter 2

there are several men in history Who have studied

or spent some time dealing with the idea of dispensations?

I?

Guess the earliest that I can find is around the year 1646 now.

I'm not counting The penman of the Bible because as they were

inspired they discussed Dispensations as we've already looked at the Bible verses that contain these

words and concepts.

They fully understood that it was important to rightly divide the word of truth and so forth.

But as you come into the Dark Ages, we lost a lot

the Rise of Roman Catholicism and you have to understand that the Roman Catholic Church did not become the

whore overnight.

Augustine was a great Bible scholar who was a Roman Catholic in the early

years before it was totally Paganized so it happened over time

over a long period of time.

Somewhere in my study.

I have a tract that a former priest Who's now born -again believer wrote a tract that gave the

actual dates when the different things came into practice in the Roman Catholic Church?

Fact.

I know where it is because my son Paul was asking about it I pulled it out the other day, and he's taking a

look at it.

But it's over a long long period of time that these apostasies came in one by one into the church.

In fact Augustine was one of the men that Martin Luther read after.

As God was giving Martin Luther light on grace in the concept of

salvation by grace not by works.

So it didn't all happen overnight, but it did happen and as we went into those dark ages where

truth was covered up by The foolish traditions of men

and the traditions became more important than the Word of God.

It was a mirror as brother Russ has shared with me and Allowed me to understand so much

how it's a mirror of the same thing that the Jews have did in their history.

They started out with the Word of God, but over a period of some 400 years right before the Lord Jesus was born

into this world.

They ceased to study the Word of God and began to study targums and paraphrases.

And things that were not teaching what the Bible actually taught and the Roman Catholics repeated this

and So you lose a lot in those years?

However, during the Enlightenment period a Lot of things were

rediscovered and a lot of the old ways of studying the Bible were found again.

And one of the first was a man named Pierre Poirot which lived from 1646 to

1719 and he Divided the dispensations of the Bible into

these categories.

The first he called creation to the deluge and he put in parentheses

infancy and He likened this to the life of a man and he said this is like the infancy.

The second period of time was the deluge to Moses and he called this childhood and

Then the third dispensation that he listed was Moses to the prophets and he called this adolescence

and then from the prophets to Christ and he called this youth and then

The Church Age he called manhood and then after that he's referring to the Millennial period.

He called it the renovation of all things.

And then you come forward to about the time of the later 1600s

1639 to 1716 marks the life of Jonathan Edwards one of the great men

of God that you read about in history he Divided the dispensations of the Bible into

these terms.

The first was innocency.

We'll discuss in a little bit what some of these are but innocency.

The second was the Adam Adam after the fall up to he called

it the antediluvian period or in other words before the flood and Then the next

dispensation that he noted was called the noical Dispensation and then the next he

called the Abrahamic and then the mosaical and then the Christian and

then you come forward to the mid 1700s Isaac Watts.

He divided them into innocency and then the next one he called the Adamical or

in other words after the fall and then the noical and then the Abrahamical and

Then the mosaical and then the Christian so you can see that they're very similar and there was a man

named JN Darby in the mid 1800s who

called the first one the paradisiacal state and that sounds like pharisaical, but

he's playing it's a play on the word paradise and Then the second one he called Noah the third one

Abraham and then he divided the next one into Israel under the law under the priesthood and under the Kings

and Then what we call the church age he called the Gentiles age of the Gentiles and then

he has divided that also into the age of the Spirit and then he speaks of the Millennium and then you

come forward to the late 1800s James H Brooks had the period of Eden and

then he had one called the antediluvian period and then one called the Patriarchal period and then one

called the Mosaic period and then the Messianic period and and he divided that into the Messianic and the Holy Ghost.

So I'm sure the Messianic is the part where Jesus was on the face of the earth and the Holy Ghost part

was from Pentecost on and then he had the Millennial period and then James M

Gray in the early 1900s published a book in the year 1901 about

Dispensations he divided them into the Edenic Garden of Eden and then

the antediluvian the patriarchal the Mosaic the church age the

millennial age and then he went beyond that into something he called the fullness of times and then he went beyond

that into something he called the eternal and then Coming into the

early 1900s again.

We have CI Schofield probably the most famous many of you have a Schofield study Bible on your lap this morning and

you've probably read the words that he gives the dispensations and his words pretty much stuck

and Most of the scholars today will use his terminology.

He called the first one the age of innocency the second one he called the age of conscience

and the third one he called the age of human government and The next one the promise and the next one the law

and the next one grace and the next one the kingdom those stuck I think because he put them into one word and

pretty descriptive words.

There was another man named Clarence Larkin who in 1920 wrote a book called rightly dividing the word of truth and it's very

interesting it not only speaks of those dispensations, but he also speaks of ages and

times and Dispensations and he takes it even further so you can see that the

history starting in about the year 16

75 somewhere in that time period men began to relearn the methods of

rightly dividing the word of truth and This morning I want us to

start and just take a panoramic view of These and I want you to

notice what God is demonstrating and There's a theme here that I think will become

very clear.

First we go to Genesis chapter 2 in verse 15.

This is called the dispensation of innocency by many one man called it the dispensation

of freedom because this was before the fall before sin and Before man was a

slave to sin and to the enemy and to the world.

So this is called usually the age of innocency.

It begins in the Garden of Eden in the coolness of the day walking with

God.

Genesis 2 15 and the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to

keep it.

Notice that man had work even before the fall.

It just wasn't toil and The Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the

garden now mayest freely eat.

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof Thou

shalt surely die.

And that was God's first law.

In fact that law has Resonated through the eons of time since that day

you find it in the middle of the Old Testament.

Phrased this way the soul that sinneth it shall die you find it as you come into the New

Testament for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and You find it all the way through the

Bible.

But this is where it all began and he said the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.

The wages of sin is death.

Well The Lord God said it is not good that the man should be alone.

I will make him a help meet and out of the ground the Lord God formed every

beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them into Adam to see what he would call them

and whatsoever Adam called every living creature that was the name thereof and Adam gave names

to all cattle and to the fowl of the air and to every beast of the field.

But for Adam there was not found a help meet for him.

I Don't know how many I guess everybody here's had to study bog biology in school

how would you like to name all the plant plants and the animals didn't necessarily say the plants, but it's kind of

You kind of believe that happened also Adam the first botanist and the first zoologist.

How would you like to do that?

The man had an enormous intellect.

Untainted by the fall no telling how much of that brain capacity he was able to use perhaps

all of it and We obviously don't this side of the fall.

But God looks and says there's still no help meet for him and the Lord God caused a deep sleep

to fall upon Adam and he slept and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof

and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and Brought her

unto the man.

That was his happiest day.

I figured one man at least would say amen.

I think all the men know where we're headed with this story is the problem.

And Adam said this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be

one flesh.

It all began right there and the Age of

Innocency was a beautiful time period.

Man did not have the carnal flesh as one of his enemies.

He did not have what we call the the flesh the carnality.

That we read so much of in the book of Romans chapter 6 7 and 8.

That was not there to pull against Adam or Eve.

They were in a perfect environment.

You know how today the popular thing in the world is like if a young man or woman goes wrong and they end up in the penitentiary.

It's because the social surroundings usually so we can always either blame it on their parents or on the

social Aspect of their surroundings.

Well, Adam and Eve couldn't use that one.

Could they because they lived in the Garden of Eden and If you go to some of the

beautiful places in the world like Charlotte and I just got back from we've got to be on one of the islands about 60

miles off the coast of Florida and You can see a lot

of God's beauty but imagine how it was before the curse.

Imagine how it was before the thorns and the thistles and so forth.

And this is where they lived in this beautiful place and they walked with God in the cool of the day.

How many of you have ever had the thought I wish God would just show up and tell me what to do.

You know, I wish he would tell me the things between the lines.

That the Bible don't seem to be telling me right now.

I'm sure Myron was thinking, you know, which house do I move into.

He's looking in his Bible.

I know Myron he's trying to find a house in that Bible, you know, what block number is it on?

Well, that's good.

You should approach it that way.

But still don't you sometimes wish God would walk up and say well, it's that one right over there.

So you would know you know why we wish that now we wouldn't have to pray.

We're lazy we're lazy Christians, but Adam and Eve walked with

God in the cool of the day.

This is how this dispensation began.

But how did it end turn to Genesis chapter 3 in verse 8 now here?

We have an experiment if you want to call it that from a human viewpoint.

We have an experiment with humans.

We place them in a perfect environment.

We place them in a body that is not carnal in the bad sense of the word.

It is not fleshly.

It is not like what we call the old man.

It is an innocent human being a free will human being

as far as a creature can be in a perfect environment.

No mom and dad to let them down or to blame anything on.

No social ills no taxes.

Hallelujah.

Can we go back there?

Well, look what happens in Genesis 3 8 the next we read of Adam.

To me is probably one of the most somber

sorrowful passages in the whole scripture and they heard the voice of the Lord God

walking in the garden in the cool of the day and Adam and his wife

hid Themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of

the garden and the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him where art thou.

And He said I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid.

Because I was naked and I hid myself.

Perhaps the most awesome passage of scripture dealing with human beings

and the nature of human beings and.

From this very point we see that this dispensation ends in tragedy from the human viewpoint.

Not too long after this.

One of their sons murders another one and they get to see death for the first time.

Can you ever ever tried to picture that?

Here you have two people that don't know death yet God told them in the day that you eat the fruit thereof you shall

surely die, but they didn't die physically.

But you know what?

They did die spiritually, didn't they because death simply means separation.

They were separated from God and they hid themselves.

They were aware of this separation and Yet they got to see physical death

from close hand not too many days hence as they went out and Their

son was laying in a pool of blood on the ground and the ground was drinking up the blood.

How do you think that must have been now?

We see it every TV show we turn on every movie has at least 15 murders in it.

We read it in the newspapers.

We hear it on the radio.

Makes me wonder how we can obey God when he says think on things that are lovely.

If we watch the news, I try not to watch it very much or hear it.

I never watch it.

I try not to hear it too much but You know, we we walk up upon

death and we can handle it.

But how do you think it was for two humans that had never even heard of it never even seen it never experienced it and it's Their

child lying there.

This is how this dispensation ends.

Total failure.

Perfect environment no flesh pulling them down.

But it ends thusly the next dispensation is often called the age of

conscience.

Some have called it self -determination.

If you want to look at a New Testament verse that describes it very very well.

It's Romans chapter 2 verse 15 as it looks back and it says which show the work of the

law written in their hearts.

It's talking about even Gentiles even people that Have not known God.

It says that they have the law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness.

It's called the law of the conscience and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one

another and Romans chapter 1 says therefore they are without excuse.

So we've all been given a conscience and this dispensation is marked by the fact that God

had it so that men walked predominantly according to their conscience and

Genesis 3 15 is Sort of the beginning and it begins with a promise

turn to that verse.

This is a famous verse among theologians.

Because it is the first promise of the Messiah what a way to

begin a dispensation and I will put enmity between thee and the woman and

between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and now shall bruise his

heel.

And this dispensation Includes the first murder even though it was a

result of the what happened at the end of the first dispensation.

It includes the first murder.

Genesis 4 9 and The Lord said to Cain where is Abel thy brother?

And he said I know not am I my brother's keeper?

Well, that's a that's a modern attitude, isn't it?

Yes, sir.

It is.

And he said what hast thou done?

The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.

It also includes moral corruption.

Genesis chapter 6 verse 2 says the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair and they took

them wives of all which they chose and this was Immoral from the point of view of the fact that

it broke God's rule of being unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

And so once the Children of God began to marry the lost

of the world and that were influenced by them it created all sorts of problems and look how it ends in

chapter 6 verse 3 and The Lord said

my spirit shall not always strive with man for that He also is flesh yet.

His days shall be numbered 120 years there were giants in the earth in those days

and also after that when the sons of God came in and to the daughters of Men and they bear children of them the

same became mighty men which were of old men of renown when they say mighty.

They're talking about warriors and hunters.

And so forth and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that

every Imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

This is how this dispensation of conscience ends.

It is a test of man's ability in and of himself To do right because God has placed within

him that which knows the difference between right and wrong.

And even in the face of this beautiful gift that God has given mankind the ability to have a conscience

man fails.

He not only fails he gets to the place where that conscience is covered over with such sin.

That he only thinks thoughts that are evil and he thinks them continually.

At that point it said it can Repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart.

And the Lord said I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth.

Both man and beast and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air for it repented me that I have made

them.

But the next verse Has a beautiful word.

But Noah found race.

You mean that words in the Old Testament Grace in the eyes of the Lord.

So this dispensation of human conscience Begins with man having a

conscience knowing the difference between right and wrong.

It begins with a group of men who knew the Lord because they were the children of God.

They disobeyed him even though their conscience told them not to and they began to let their children marry lost people.

We need to be aware of that problem even today.

As we raise our children, we need to fight against that even today.

And it came to the place where all they could do was have evil thoughts and God came to the place where he

destroyed man.

Except for Noah who had found grace in his eyes.

So it ends in a deluge, but it also ends with grace.

But it was an experiment from a human viewpoint that failed man could not

operate according to his conscience and Succeed.

The next dispensation is commonly called the dispensation of human government.

It begins with the Noahic Covenant in Genesis 8 20 it begins with the promise

and Noah builded an altar into the Lord and took of every clean beast and of every clean foul and offered

burnt offerings on the altar.

And the Lord smelled a sweet savor.

There's grace and mercy right there.

Praise be to God that he smelled that sweet savor because he smelled that same savor when Jesus Christ was on the

cross and as he was elevated above the earth and

Nails through his hands and his feet.

And he looks up and he says my God my God.

Why hast thou forsaken me.

And he has all of the sins of you and me in him.

God smelled a sweet savor that day and the Lord said in his heart I will not again curse the

ground anymore for man's sake.

For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.

Neither will I again smite anymore every living thing as I have done.

Isn't it interesting that this dispensation?

The one the previous one that just ended the dispensation of conscience Demonstrated to man that the

imagination of his heart is evil even from youth and so therefore he cannot walk based upon his heart.

Do you hear that?

That's what America and the whole world believes.

The false doctrine of today is that you just do what you feel like doing you follow your heart.

This demonstrated that that would not work with men and women or boys and girls or teenagers.

While the earth remaineth seed time and harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter and day and night shall not

cease so he starts with a promise in chapter 9 verse 6 Gives the law that creates

the reasoning behind why most scholars call this the age of human government.

Genesis 9 6 says whosoever shed at the man's blood by man shall his blood be shed.

Or in the image of God made he him and so it is the first ancient resemblance

resemblance of human law and Of the law taking care of a

problem and it was in fact the death penalty.

So he told them then to be fruitful and to multiply and bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply

Therein.

Now this is the age of human government.

Let's look forward and see how it ends.

Look at Genesis chapter 11 in verse 1.

It ends in pride and As you look out at the human governments today, what do you

see predominantly among politicians?

You have politicians that are so arrogant that they can take the human life of a Barely

budding young girl in her early 20s and just snuff it out as a play thing perhaps.

Now, I don't know if that's happened recently, but I know it's happened before and there's a great possibility.

It has just happened again in the last weeks.

They're so arrogant.

They're so prideful and.

And Even Henry Kissinger some of you can bring up an image of his face

remember him.

He wasn't the most beautiful thing to look at.

Was he that he made the statement that power is the strongest

aphrodisiac in the world.

And these politicians are so lifted up with pride that they just use Humans as

playthings and it all began back here and look how God rebuked it and how this dispensation

ended.

Chapter 11 verse 1 of Genesis and the whole earth was of one language in one speech and it

came to pass as they journeyed from East from the East that they found a plane in the land of Shinar

and They dwelt there and they said one to another go to let us make a brick make brick and burn them

thoroughly.

And they had brick of stone and slime.

Had they from mortar and they said go to let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach

into the heavens.

Let us make us a name.

Lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

Isn't it interesting that?

God dealt with that pride problem by creating the nations of the world and the races.

I don't mean he created the races at that point.

But he divided the people and put different races of people in different geographical areas of the world and they

were given different languages.

Isn't it interesting that the end times?

Mindset is to mix that back together and we have many many interracial

marriages all over the world.

Which was not really a common thing a hundred years ago even but now it's taking place

everywhere and we have the re Merging of the nations and the languages.

Nearly everybody speaks English now in the whole world and Everyone can communicate with

the Internet.

And so man is now in these last days built back up in pride thinking that he can build a stairway to heaven

through technology.

They're bringing together everyone that God separated and I don't believe it'll work.

There was a rock group in my younger days called Led Zeppelin that wrote a pretty famous song called stairway to heaven.

Some of you are humming it in your head, so I shouldn't have mentioned it, but That's what the world thinks.

We can build a stairway to heaven.

God demonstrated in this dispensation that that would not happen.

Look what God did.

It says that he in verse Seven well

verse six and the Lord said behold the people is one and they have all one language and this

they began to do and Now nothing will be constrained or restrained from them, which they

have imagined to do.

Go to let us go down now.

Why would God say us if God is one God?

In that peculiar.

Remember when he made man, he said let us make man in our image so even from the earliest portions of

the Bible we see the idea of The Godhead.

Go to let us go down and there confound their language.

That they may not understand one another speech.

So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth and they left off to build

the city.

Therefore is the name of it called Babel because the Lord did there confound the language

of all the earth and from hence Did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

So here we have a dispensation of human government the be -all to end -all.

We'll get together our government and we'll govern the whole thing and everything will work out just fine.

Did it work?

It ended in failure.

Once again.

Once again, it is demonstrated to man by God in time that man will

fail.

Under these circumstances, so innocency didn't work a perfect environment didn't work.

Conscience did not help the heart did not lead in the right direction.

And now we see that even government did not cause the perfect world.

In fact, it ended in judgment and God punished and scattered to end this dispensation.

That brings us to the next one, which is called the promise.

The dispensation of the promise some call it the Abrahamic time.

It begins with the Abrahamic Covenant a Couple of New Testament verses speak of this.

Hebrew 615 says.

And so after he had patiently endured He obtained the promise.

That's talking about Abraham in Hebrews 11 9 by faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise

as in a strange country.

Dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob the heirs with him of the same promise.

Do you see this sojourning characteristic?

You see this separation of Abraham from the world as God pulled him out of the world system

and sent him out into the wilderness.

Into a new land and this is a very much so a picture of the way it's supposed to be for

Christians.

Because we are the you remember how we studied last time I was here time before last that Abraham

had a veil over his face and the Bible says it was so that they might not See the end.

The end is where we are as far as the end of the promise we are the part of the

promise.

The promise was made to the seed and we are in Christ and therefore we're partakers of the promise and

the partakers of this promise ought to be just like the founder of this time period way back

in the Dispensation of the promise.

He was a sojourner.

He did not count this world to be his home.

He had a home in a different place and he kept that in his mind all the time.

In fact, all of Hebrews chapter 11 talks about people throughout the ages that had that mindset.

That's the mindset that we should have anything that we do in this world.

Any money that the Lord brings our way any any type of position that the Lord would bring our way.

We should view it merely as a tool.

Merely as a tool that God might accomplish his will to get the gospel out and for his kingdom growth and

so forth.

And it is not ours.

It is on loan.

Even the homes we live in we're just sojourners here.

We keep that attitude.

It'll go a long way towards keeping us away from the pride that the people from the human government

dispensation had.

However, we see that this Abrahamic time period this promise ends and With the

rejection of a relationship now, I I count this period to end at a different date than

most do.

I think most would consider that it ends with with at the

beginning of the time of Moses or some would say that it

ended with the captivity in Egypt and As they turned into slaves in Egypt that it ended at

that place.

But I don't really believe that dispensation ended until they got all the way to Exodus chapter 33 and

verse 8 and They began to say such things as we will do everything that you

say.

But we don't want to come and talk to you face to face.

Remember we talked about that Sunday before last.

It said that Moses built a tabernacle for them to go out and worship and only two men went out there and that was Moses.

And Joshua and the rest of them stayed back at their tents.

But they got down on their knees and played like they were worshiping.

But they weren't where God was and they weren't doing it God's way and that truly is a great picture

of religion modern religion today.

And so what happened was God offered them a relationship very similar to what we have in

this Dispensation.

In fact, he offered them to be priests and kings and they rejected it and said no we don't want to come near you

Moses you go up there and you do all the talking and the face -to -face stuff and have the Relationship and you

come back and just tell us what to do and we will do it.

So do was emphasized rather than be the doing of it was the emphasis not the

being not the having of the Relationship and that carried all the way to the time of Jesus when we had the

Pharisees who thought they could Build another stairway to heaven by keeping the law.

They focused on the law so much that they didn't even know the lawgiver.

That's a great problem.

And that's where I believe that the dispensation of the promise ended was when they rejected the relationship and said no.

We would rather do things and so God gives them the law and it begins.

We then see the next dispensation begin and we call it the dispensation of the law.

Coming right after the dispensation of promise.

It begins with Moses at Mount Sinai.

And it ends with John the Baptist it includes the time of the prophets and so forth and many many

things and we're just.

We're fairly familiar with that dispensation.

So I won't give a lot of time to it and we've spent a lot of time already talking about the time of the law

now the sixth dispensation is commonly called the age of grace and

The last dispensation that most scholars will talk about is the kingdom age or the Millennium.

Isn't it interesting?

I'm gonna come back to grace as we finish here in a minute, but let me jump forward to kingdom.

Do you think that?

Law ended favorably.

If that dispensation was a an experiment in time to Show man his

ability to do exactly what God said to do.

How did it end?

Miserably.

It ended miserably.

It ended with the pharisaical spirit.

I dare say that that's the most destructive spirit in the church today the pharisaical spirit.

Where we like to set up laws for each other to keep that we don't even keep ourselves.

Run from that one that one will not work.

It's been proven very beautifully and very perfectly by the Lord that man fails under the system of

law and It ended in failure with John the Baptist having his head severed from

his body.

And then with Jesus being crucified and so forth and would go then into the age of grace.

But before we do that, let's jump forward into the kingdom age a thousand years.

Now.

You think the Millennial Kingdom was perfect?

I'm sorry, the paradise was perfect.

Where they walked with God?

Imagine a thousand years on this earth with Jesus Christ himself reigning in

person with a rod of iron from Jerusalem.

Can you imagine a better?

Political scenario than that.

Can you imagine a better religious scenario than that?

In many ways the Old Testament prophets pictured this Millennial Kingdom as a restoration of the

Garden of Eden where the lion lays down with the lamb and the children can play with the with

the snakes and Everything's fine and back very much like paradise.

You Have a place where as in the Garden of Eden man was given a time to

live where he didn't have a problem with the flesh.

During the Millennial Kingdom man will be given a thousand years to live when he doesn't have a problem with the world.

The world system and the philosophy of the world is gone and destroyed and only Jesus Christ rules and it's

exactly as it should be and.

Yet, how does it end?

How does this dispensation end in Revelation chapter 20 in verse 7 it ends with

Satan being released and Finding out that there was a group of

people Living during that perfect time that were not God's children that rebelled against God

and rose up to try to destroy Jerusalem at the end of that perfect age.

So man can't do well in the period of innocence where the flesh is not a burdensome thing.

Man can't do well in a period of perfect world system ruled by God himself.

Man has failed in all six of these dispensations now.

Let's stop today and give some thought before we finish with the age that we live in.

We live in the age called the age of grace.

We live in the only age so far in human history anyway where God himself

dwells within our bodies.

Our bodies are the temples of the living God.

Where at the point of salvation the Holy Spirit is sealed within us until the day of redemption where we can

be filled with the Holy Spirit and in that sense literally seated and Positioned at the right hand of

God in Christ above and beyond the law above and beyond the flesh.

Above and beyond the world.

Yet, what will this?

Period demonstrate about man.

Failure again, we're looking at each other.

We're looking at failure.

You're looking at one.

I'm looking at several.

You know how I know that.

Because in this age the ultimate law goes like this Galatians 5 6

for in Christ your position in Christ.

Neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision.

But faith which worketh by what?

Love.

That's called the law of Christ.

We have that law written in our hearts.

God gives his definition of love as we look at our relationship with one another in this church and in our families.

Love is patient towards the other.

Love is always kind towards the other.

Love never envies the other and is happy that the other has the thing that they have.

There is no pride in love.

These are all in 1st Corinthians 13 just exactly the definition of what love is.

Love is always appropriate never behaves unseemly.

Love is selfless.

Love is not provoked by the other person.

I always remember that little story when dr Freeman was preaching and he got through and this woman ran up the aisle and

met him at the front said you made me mad.

And he looked at her and said dear lady.

I can't make you mad.

Anger comes from within your heart.

Love is not provoked.

Love thinketh no evil of the other.

Love never thinks evil of the object of the love.

Now think of that with us in our relationship here in this church and ask yourself the question.

Are we succeeding or failing in this dispensation?

Do you ever think evil of anyone else in this church or think that they got something up their sleeve or they're up to no?

Good or you get these negative thoughts and you get this bitterness going and that's not love.

What about this one love?

Rejoices not in iniquity boy.

God got them.

That's not love.

Love rejoices in the truth.

How often do we have times when we take the favor of people rather than the word and

We'll believe things because it makes people happy rather than believe in what God said.

Shouldn't go there.

That's not love.

Do you think it's love to love men or women more than you love the one who wrote the word and To change your

beliefs just to please people.

That's not love in the church.

What about this love bears all things?

Did you know that there's not anything you can do to me?

That should cause me to To not be able to bear up under and just have to just let everything go.

And there shouldn't be anything I can do to you.

They will cause you to have to flee from this place.

Because if you love you bear things you bear the good and you bear the bad.

Now that's the test of the age of grace.

Can you do that?

What about this love.

Believeth all things.

What about if you heard a story?

About verge.

And you heard a bad story about verge if you love him, do you believe the bad story

or do you believe verges story?

You can't live that way.

You have to be in Christ.

Which means filled with the Holy Spirit?

We have to be vitally Conjoined with him by the Holy Spirit and in that

time period we're seated in the heavenlies far above all things.

Nobody can offend you.

Nobody can cause you to believe evil things.

You don't even want to hear negative things.

You want to think on good things if there be any good report if there be any virtue you think on these things.

It's all easy when you're in that place.

But the difficulty of this dispensation is staying in that place because we have the choice like we

spoke of in Sunday school to come down from the heavenlies and Sit on the throne of our own life.

That's called being in the flesh, but we never realize it immediately but the more we grow to love him and know

him and the more we stay in the word and the more we speak of Him when we're together.

The easier it is to know about our own selves when we're seated on the throne of our own life.

Rather than seated in Christ in the heavenlies so we can have the greatest success of all the people

of all the dispensations because we have been given the greatest dispensation the Dispensation of the

law of Jesus Christ and we've been given him dwelling in our hearts.

But we can also have the most miserable failures.

Because when we choose not to love and exhibit love to one another We have

shown the inability of human beings even to succeed in the age of grace.

Let's stand and have prayer together when you have a

brother or sister that's hurting even if they've hurt you.

I Think love says you go to him.

And you work it out.

Yes,

no, we do we I think brother Jesse Wayne did that you just didn't hear him.

So Jesse Wayne did that?

So you're you're off the hot seat any other confessions.

Let's let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Father.

We thank you so much for letting us be born in this time period for it is truly the greatest

we can experience a Relationship with you that is far above

any of the other Dispensational activities far above even the law because you've written a law in our

hearts.

And father help us to yearn to stay in the heavenlies and to control this earthly body for your

purposes that it might truly be a bond servant to both us and you and

That the new man which is us connected with you would be in complete control of this Earthly

body that it might be a servant of righteousness and in that way and in that way only may we succeed.

We see for the most part that the church at large has failed even in this greatest of all ages

we ourselves fail when we lack the love of Christ for one another and we let our flesh come in

and Cause imaginations and thoughts and bitterness and we let it stay there.

So father give us victory over these things by being in Christ.

And Lord, we ask you as we are seated in the heavenlies that your Holy Spirit would teach us deep things of the

mind of God.

And the father that we might rejoice even in this pilgrimage.

Because we have that awesome relationship.

Go with us into our fellowship together bless our meal together and the remainder of our worship time today.

And we ask it in Jesus name.

Amen.