Understanding Dispensations (07/01/2001)

Turn with me this morning to Luke chapter 16 and verse 16. Brother Greg, give me just a little bit of light up here.

Not too much, just the right amount. That's good, thanks. Luke chapter 16 verse 16.

And we're not gonna, we won't stay in this passage very long, but we're gonna go through a lot of verses today.

We're still in the midst of our study of Bibliology and we have moved from the preservation of the

Scriptures to proper interpretation of the Scriptures. We've been talking about that for a few times and we'll do so today and at least one more time after today.

This may be the most important thing that we study before we actually get into the great doctrines of the

Bible is how to properly interpret the Scripture. It is important for many reasons, the most important of which is because it's important that you know the truth.

It's important that when we read what God wrote that we understand what God meant by it and the sense of it.

And that we don't bring our own personal doctrinal desires into these things.

That's a very difficult thing to obey, but probably the most likely mistake you'll ever make in interpreting

Scripture is making it fit your favorite beliefs to the expense of what the

Bible is actually saying in a certain portion. It's far better to make it fit what the rest of the

Bible says. That is the proper approach. Let the Bible interpret the Bible. And we've talked about eight different points and I won't go into those again today.

We will touch on them again as we do the conclusion. But today we're kind of moving into the area of Bible interpretation that has to do with understanding dispensations.

And there's a lot of controversy about dispensationalism. And we don't know about it that much in our church because we really don't have that much controversy in our church.

But if you go out into the religious world even among groups that say they're of like faith such as the

Baptists or Bible churches, different groups, they will have differences of opinion on the issue of the dispensations.

And so I want to make us aware of the differences and why they exist. But at the same time

I want to try to kind of dissolve some of them because they're not necessary. Like I say, rather than making a doctrinal issue out of it, let's just see what the

Bible says about it and that'll be good enough for us. And I think it will cause us to not have a problem if someone else someday comes up to you and says, oh, you're a dispensationalist.

Well, you might not have even known what they meant, you know, but they've already got you pegged. And I know that's not fair, but that's how it is.

And they'll get you pegged and just say, well, no, I'm not really a dispensationalist. Say it for me,

Brother Otis. What are we? Biblical. Yeah, there's more to it than that. Give me the whole thing.

That's what we are, okay? So you just tell them that. I can't even say it, but I mean, that's what

I'm going to tell them. But it is important to see that there are in fact dispensations in the

Bible. In fact, it is a Bible word. I mean, we use words like the rapture that are not even in the Bible and we hold to that.

And yet some people will say, yeah, but there's no such thing as dispensations. But it's actually a Bible word.

Well, there are dispensations and it's very important to know something about this because it does come to bear on our interpretation of different passages.

But we're going to cover that in more detail next Sunday. What I want to do today, though, is I want to talk about, once again, the two major dispensations that very few could argue with you about, really.

Usually what I tell people when they tell me, well, I'm not a dispensationalist. You are, and that makes us different. I say, yes, you are.

And they say, no, I'm not one. I say, you are, too. I say, because you believe there's an

Old Testament and a New Testament. And I'll say, surely you believe that the cross made a difference. And that usually kind of just starts seeing eye to eye on some things at that point.

But I want to talk about those two major dispensations for a little bit longer today. And I want to discuss the law and grace.

And there's great controversy among theologians about those issues as well. But let's look at Luke 16 and verse 16 this morning.

This is an amazing verse to me because it's, as is so often true of all doctrinal issues in the

Bible, is, it's, well, I should start to say it's as if, but it's not as if.

God did do this. What God has done is usually, if there's a strong verse on a doctrinal issue, the very next verse will touch on the opposing, the quote opposing issue.

Now only among men do the issues oppose. You have to understand that. With God they fit together in a unity and there are no contradictions.

But the reason we have denominations and groups in 50 different Baptist churches within a 40 mile radius of Corsicana is because we have issues with these things.

But God smooths those out if we get into the Bible more. Because what He'll nearly always do is

He'll discuss both of them in the same breath. Now look, this is, this is amazing. Look at Luke 16, 16 and verse 17.

And we'll touch a little bit on what some of the controversy is among those who say they are dispensationalists and those who say they're not.

The truth is we're all, say it again, Brother Otis, Biblinarians or Terrians? Is it an

N or a Narian? Okay, we're Biblinarians. That's what we are. Now let's read this.

The law and the prophets were until John. Now how many times have you been in little debates where they'll be arguing about when the church started?

Raise your hand if you've ever been in such a debate. I have. I mean, it's a common thing. And that argument doesn't ever tend to seem to get real heated to me.

It's not one people live and die for, it seems like. But they have an opinion. Everybody does. And look what this says.

The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time, the kingdom of God is preached and every man presseth into it.

Now this shows a true Biblinarian approach to dispensationalism.

But if we only had verse 16, it would create a problem because those who would claim to be dispensationalists would then get out of balance.

And they would get to the point where they said, well, we're a, quote, New Testament church.

How many of you have ever been involved with a New Testament church? I mean, where they advertise, we're a New Testament church.

You have to be a little careful. If they put that on the side, be a little careful. The greatest

New Testament group that I'm aware of in this country and especially in the

South is called Church of Christ. How many of you are familiar? Do you have kinfolks or friends maybe who are members of the

Church of Christ? Now you have to understand, in the North, the Church of Christ means a different thing. I would say a lot of the churches of Christ up North are kind of like what our

Christian churches are like here. We have one here called First Christian Church, a little bit more like that. But you get to the ones down here in the

South, and if you don't get baptized in their water, in their building, you're not saved. And, of course, you can't use any musical instruments in the church because it's a

New Testament church, and there's nowhere in the New Testament where it says to have musical instruments. And even though it's just through and throughout the

Old Testament, you can't use that because we're a New Testament church. Now that's an ultra -dispensationalist, and that's heresy.

Ultra -dispensationalism is heresy just like hyper -Calvinism is heresy. And yet it doesn't mean that the tenants of Calvinism aren't right, and it doesn't mean that there aren't dispensations.

It's just they're out of balance. Now look how beautifully the Scripture puts it in balance. Let's start and read verse 16 again, but this time let's not stop until we get to the period at the end of verse 17.

It says, Now if you're an ultra -dispensationalist, how do you handle verse 17?

As a matter of fact, how do you handle part of verse 16? Because look what it says. Now you like the first part. It says, If you could just put a period there, it'd be great because you could say, that means it's over now.

They were, and that means they are now not. Isn't that usually what it would mean?

But isn't it interesting that it says, Do you realize that the ultra -dispensationalist will tell you that the kingdom of God starts with the millennial kingdom?

And they'll say that nearly, in fact, some whole books of the New Testament are not even for us, do not even apply to Christians, such as the book of Matthew, and especially

Matthew chapter 13. They'll say this is kingdom material. Well, it is kingdom material. I've said that before, and it is.

But what an ultra -dispensationalist means when he says it's kingdom material is he means it does not apply now because we're not in that dispensation.

And yet this passage clearly shows that if you want to go so far as to say the law and the prophets as a system stopped with John the

Baptist, you also have to say the kingdom started. But that doesn't fit the ultra -dispensationalist because to him you have the grace of the church age.

In fact, some of them even put a little period there during the life of Jesus, and this is a dispensation, and another one starts, you got the church, and then the kingdom.

But the scripture makes it very simple. It shows us here are two major dispensations, the time of the law and the prophets, and then the kingdom.

And many times in the New Testament, Jesus talks about the gospel of the kingdom and so forth.

And it talks about this here in this passage. But look at verse 17. It's easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fail.

Isn't that amazing that that's in the same breath with the verse that says the law and the prophets were?

They were. So how do we reconcile all of this together? Well, this is a good study in Bible interpretation in and of itself because you can find several groups, whole groups of denominations that have been built on not reading those two verses together or not caring to hear what

God says when He says those things because it doesn't fit their little system. Turn to Acts 28 -23 with me if you would.

And this is going to be one of those kind of sermons where you can't go to sleep because you're going to be turning the pages. There's lots of verses in this sermon.

You will work up a good hunger and thirst by the time this is over. You'll be ready for lunch.

You'll be tired and wore out. Your arm will be nothing but a nub. No fingers will be left.

Okay, Acts 28 -23. And when they had appointed him a day...

Now, who's the him there? Since we don't have time to read the context. The important thing is

I did. I did read the context. You need to when you get home. This is

Paul in Rome, and he's going to meet with the chief of the Jews. And the

Roman guards are being kind to him. He's in prison, but they're letting him stay in a house. And he's not bound.

He has a meeting with the chief of the Jews in the city of Rome, and that's the context. And when they had appointed him a day, they came many to him unto his lodging, to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God.

Now, how is it that if the kingdom doesn't start until the millennial period that he's preaching the kingdom? That's not for the church age, is it?

Well, that's what many would teach. You'll even hear some of our most beloved commentators that we love the most get a little far out there in this area.

They'll get out there and say, well, this is kingdom material. But it's interesting if that's true.

Paul's preaching kingdom material right here. And he says he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them, that's the

Jews, who he would call of the law. He would call these who were of the law. Persuading them concerning Jesus.

Now, you start to see a great summary in this verse of how the law, and there are different ways, this gets confusing too, different ways you can use the word law.

What does law mean? Does that mean the whole Old Testament? Sometimes it does when we use it, depending on the context. Does it mean just the

Ten Commandments? Sometimes it can mean that. Sometimes we divide the law into three different parts, and sometimes

I feel that that may be unnecessary. I think that may be kind of like the gap theory.

It was proposed as a means to try to make everything fit together smoothly. We divide it into the moral law, some do, and I suppose that would be the

Ten Commandments. But sometimes that's not even all the Ten Commandments. We'll leave a couple of them out. And then there is the, let's see, you've got the law, you've got the ordinances.

What's the third one? Should have put it in my notes. Law, the ordinances. Tell me, Brother Russ. I just drew a blank on it.

I know what I'm thinking. The Bible word is the judgments. So some divide it into the law, the ordinances, and the judgments.

And they'll say that the law is the moral law, and that the ordinances have to do with the religious laws of the people of Israel, and the judgments have to do with like their social law, and actually would be their law that when we today would say we're breaking the law.

It's like their laws to run their nation by. And so we see these kinds of divisions that are often made in the books we can read about the law.

What's interesting, many times when Paul talks about it, he's kind of taking the whole thing in, and he just calls it the law.

It's almost as if sometimes it means all three of those. But look what he says here.

He says, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets.

Now, certainly he wants to make clear here that he's not just talking about, say, the moral law.

He's not just talking about the Ten Commandments. He's not only merely speaking of the ordinances and the judgments and the law.

He's including even the prophets. So it's more like the Old Testament. It's like he's saying, let's just go back, everything that we have.

And he says he persuades them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets, from morning till evening.

Do you know what he was doing? He was not a, quote, New Testament church. He was taking the

Old Testament, which is what they had, and he was preaching Jesus out of it.

He was going through and showing them Jesus on every page. In the law, in the prophets, in the

Abrahamic promise, in the Mosaic law. He would go back to what some call the time of innocence.

He can go back in the garden. He'd go back to the first portions of Genesis, all the way up to Genesis 3 .15.

The great Evangelium verse that many say is the first time the gospel was given in the whole

Bible. He went through it all, and guess what he preached? He preached Jesus in it.

And this is, in a nutshell, the greatest summary of how it is that verse 17 can fit with verse 16 in Luke chapter 16.

How is it that he can say the law and the prophets were until John, as if to clearly imply that they stopped at John as a system or an economy?

Well, that's what we call a dispensation. And then he comes in and says, since that time we have a different economy or system or way that God deals with mankind, because he's given them additional revelation that they did not previously have, and now he holds them responsible for that additional revelation.

And he says, since that time the kingdom of God is preached as if it's a different thing. And in a sense it is, because more information has been added by God and given to man.

And every man presseth into it. Do you see what all that says? That means there's neither Jew nor Gentile now.

Every man presses into it. Everyone comes to God by Jesus Christ on this side of the cross.

And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fail.

How can that be? He just said the law and the prophets were. How can we say that it cannot fail?

Well, the passage in Acts explains a great deal of it because as we go and realize that the law, if you want to take the strictest definition of it, the law of Moses, if that is passed away, it is only passed away in the sense that the

Jew believed he could keep it by the letter in his body and that that would please

God. In the sense of him being able to be saved by it. Now, a true

Jew that really understood these things and knew God, I think, even in the Old Testament, knew he couldn't be saved by it because why do you think they kept the sacrifices?

Why did the sacrificial system go on? Because he knew he couldn't be saved by the law. But a lot of the

Pharisaical Jews, in fact all the Pharisaical Jews by definition in Jesus' day, believed they could be saved by the law.

And so much of what Jesus taught and what Paul taught was teaching this mindset.

The mindset that I please God by taking my feet, my hands, and my body, my physical, the physical, and focusing on the physical and if I make it walk in such a way that I meet the letter that God is pleased with me.

And Jesus and the Apostles and especially Paul fought this and fought this and fought this and taught against it and taught against it.

He used the Old Testament, the Law of Moses, and the Prophets and said, it's

Jesus, folks. It's Jesus. It is not an it. It is a relationship.

It is the person of God. It is meaning what it means when Jesus told

Nicodemus, you must be born again. There must be a vital union between your spirit, that spirit that is you, the man, the spirit that is you, and the

Spirit of God must come together in one and become one spirit. And when that happens, you see

Jesus on every page of the Law. And the opposite, which is wrong, is to look for the

Law in Jesus or in what people would call New Testament Christianity.

Well, let's find the Law and stick it back in there and that's what the whole book of Galatians was written against. At Sunday school we talked this morning, we're in Galatians, is that Paul was rebuking the

Church of Galatia because they had been listening to people that said, well, let's bring the letter of the Law back into this.

You need that to make it a whole thing. And Paul said, no, that's not true. You don't get saved by it. And he says, neither do you walk in it.

You walk by faith. So, while it is true that Jesus is in every page of the

Law, it is not conversely true that you then bring the Law and bring it back in to the relationship that you have with Him.

It doesn't work backwards. And we'll see that as we go on through these scriptures. Turn to Romans chapter 7, right at the first part.

Romans 6, of course, dealt with the dominion that sin and the Law had over the flesh, over the earthy, that which is earthy.

And you go into chapter 7, look at verse 1. Know ye not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the

Law. Now, Paul is speaking to those who had been under the Law, to the

Jewish brothers of his. How that the

Law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth. Now, folks, this gets so deep, this passage, and I'm not preaching on this passage, so it makes it hard on me.

Makes it hard on me to go on. But just this one little passage, you see that as long as you're alive in the flesh, you are, in fact, under the

Law and bound by it and held to the Law. But only as long as you live.

Now, what happened to you the day that Jesus died on the cross, if you were His today? What happened to you that day, 2 ,000 years ago, almost?

Who can tell me? Excuse me? We died. We died in Christ.

And that's what this whole passage deals with. He starts off and says, Now, you understand the Law. I'm speaking to those of you who know the

Law. And he says, We will all agree that how the Law has dominion over a man as long as that man lives.

For the woman which has a husband is bound by the Law to her husband so long as he liveth.

Now, he goes into a human illustration to help us understand how the Law has a binding effect on a man as long as he lives.

And he uses the Law of Marriage here. And he says, But if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the

Law of her husband. So then, if while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress.

But if her husband be dead, she is free from the Law so that she is no adulteress though she be married to another man.

Now, he says, Wherefore, he says, Now, I'm going to bring this together. I've given you the physical. Now, I'm going to teach you the spiritual. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the

Law by the Body of Christ. You were in Him when He died.

You were baptized into Him. Go back to chapter 6 of Romans and you'll find that in the first two or three verses.

You were in Him when He died that you should be married to another.

So now, you are dead to the Law. You are no longer bound by the Law. You're not married to the

Law. You are dead. You died. You're married to another now. Even to Him who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto

God. Now, that little phrase, Bring forth fruit unto God is so very important because it ties in with verse 17 of Luke chapter 16.

And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the

Law to fail so that we should bring forth fruit unto

God. This doesn't match anything in modern Christianity. Modern Christianity, you pray a little prayer, you bow your head, you say,

Dear Jesus, come into my heart and save me. Amen. And you go out and you live for the devil the very best you can.

And most of our youth groups in this entire nation are nothing but little devils. Most of them not even saved.

Most of our church members are not and most of the predominantly in the churches in this country. And the youth groups are pathetic and the most horrible place you could ever place your teenager.

Because if you don't believe it, I grew up in such a youth group, so I speak by experience. It seems like just yesterday that I was my daughter

Jenny's age and involved in a big southern Baptist youth group.

I'm not knocking them. I mean, it's universal. Independent Baptist. It's everywhere. And the reason is because people are not getting born again.

I mean, they're not born again. And there are a few, probably far less than we think.

There's probably a whole lot less carnal Christians than we think because most of them are lost probably. But there are a few carnal

Christians. And what is a carnal? It's a bad phrase to use because it's misused in the books you would read about it.

They talk about carnal Christians. Let me just tell you what I mean. There are few Christians who are not walking in unity with the

Holy Spirit. They're still married. You know, marriage is used as a picture of salvation. They're still married, but it's like a man and a wife.

They're in the same house, but they're not in the same bed together. I mean, they're not. The guy's on the couch. And they're out of fellowship.

But they're still married. And there are a lot of Christians living that way. They are no longer in unity with Jesus Christ than anyone because they are walking in the flesh.

Now, there's no way in the world that you can look at such a Christian as that and make Luke 16, 16, 17 make any sense at all because the law has in fact failed from their life because they're not keeping it.

They're living like the devil and like the devil's people. And so, those who then start to write books about these issues say, well, or if you go back into Paul's day, they were preaching these issues.

They said, well, you need to get circumcised then because you're living like the devil. I mean, you're claiming to be a

Christian. And so, we better make sure you get circumcised and make sure you keep the days and the feasts and everything exactly right along with the gospel.

And Paul rebuked him and said, that's not where it is. It won't help you one bit to do that because you're still trying to live it in the flesh.

And the flesh can't hack it. And the law is weak in the flesh. So, what do we do?

We have to establish that union that is supposed to be there in a healthy, normal Christian.

Just like in a healthy, normal marriage, the man is not sleeping on the couch. And that unity that's there.

And then all of a sudden, look what happens. I'm back in Romans 7, verse 4. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ.

Not so that the law can go away. Not so that the law can be seen as a bad thing.

Not so that the law can be seen as merely that which causes me and you to sin. That's not the purpose that we want this law to be dead to us and us to it.

The purpose is that you may be married to another. Now we have a higher law.

Now we have the laws of the heavenlies. The law that we call the law is of the earth. And it's predominantly of the people, of his people of the earth, which is the nation of Israel.

And we're going to see that in the millennial kingdom. It's going to be an earthly kingdom. There's going to be a spiritual aspect of it too.

And that's going to be me and you. That's really interesting to read and we can try to figure some of that out.

Where you have this thing that looks like a satellite, a four square city. And the different things where Jesus says we will rule and reign with him.

And we're already in our spiritual bodies. And yet there are people living and breathing on this earth in physical bodies and predominantly will be a

Jewish kingdom at that time. And yet he says that we should bring forth fruit unto

God being married to another. Jesus Christ. That union that you have with him because of the indwelling of the

Holy Spirit which is Christ's spirit is in union with your spirit.

Do you realize that the book of 1 John says you cannot sin when you're in that state? Now let me ask you this.

If you cannot sin any more than you will be able to when you are actually in heaven. Do you know that Paul teaches us in Ephesians that we are now seated in the heavenlies?

Can you sin then? Depends on who you think you is. If you get into the rest of Romans 7 you may find out that you can't sin.

Because the real you is the new man. The new man is already seated in the heavenlies positionally.

In fact in reality. Spiritually you are. And if we could visualize ourselves as in Christ seated in the heavenlies with the

Father and this body that you're looking at preaching to you and the bodies I'm looking at sitting in the pew are nothing more than instruments that belong to you and me to get

God's work done in a physical world. But what Satan does he lies to us and says no no this body is alive in the sense that it is going to make you the instrument to accomplish the dirty things of the devil.

That's all it is. Satan says it's alive in the sense that it can tell you what to do and it can make you be the instrument of uncleanliness.

And God said it is dead. Ye are crucified.

Who do you believe? It's all fake. Paul rebuked these Galatians because they're trying to get back in the law.

You don't need the law. You do not need the law. Not in that sense.

You need by faith to be seated in the heavenlies and now you're above the law. You're in the new

Jerusalem now. The law pertains to the old Jerusalem. The scriptures say that. Paul taught that.

The law pertains to Jerusalem the Bible says. But grace and salvation in Christ and connected to Christ and being in Christ has to do with the new

Jerusalem which is the real thing. The one down here is the pattern. Do you understand? The whole law is a pattern.

It's a pattern of the real thing. So lest we go back to that pattern and be caught up in that Paul would rebuke us soundly.

That's not the whole point here. But on the other hand lest we become ultra -dispensationalist and say well we don't even need to read the

Old Testament. Well if that's the pattern and the type and all of these little beautiful pictures

I'll tell you this in the New Testament it's such a short book you don't get the details. Isn't that an amazing not a contradiction but what are you my mind is really really

I'm on too many drugs that's the problem. Double horn dilemma.

I don't know what it is. Isn't it peculiar that the New Testament oxymoron that's what it's looking for.

Yes. We know who the moron is. Me. Anyway the New Testament is the little book where this whole thing of grace is revealed to us.

But it's only about that thick. Do you think you can get all of the details and the colors and the facets and the depths that God has given us in that?

No. Where do you get all the colors and the details and the facets and the truths that you haven't even thought of?

You get them back in the Old Testament. You get them from the feasts. You get them from the law.

You get them from you go on the back every how many dispensations you want to put between the garden we're going to talk about that next

Sunday by the way between the garden and John the Baptist put 15 in there if you want to but in every single one of them all you're getting is the colors and the details and the beauty of grace.

Now an ultra -dispensationalist can't deal with that because that's not grace that's law over there. Well the

Bible simply doesn't teach it that way. When Paul wanted to give you the greatest understanding of salvation by faith who did he use?

Did he use my friend Peter over here? Let me show you his life. It's the perfect illustration of salvation by grace.

No. He used Abraham. That's Old Testament. I thought we were a New Testament church.

Well we're not. Don't ever tell anybody you're a member of a New Testament church. Because you're not.

You're a member of a Bible church. But it's Jesus Christ as born out in Moses and the prophets.

That's exactly what Paul told these Jews. It's what he told the Gentiles. It's what he told everybody.

So in Romans 7 as he discusses it in more detail he says look I'm speaking to those of you who understand the law see in certain other places he speaks to the

Gentiles. They don't have a clue much about the law. And he doesn't always teach them exactly the same. Because they don't have an understanding of the types and the feasts and all those things very well.

But here in Romans and he's talking to it's kind of interesting you might think that the book of Romans is written to the

Gentiles but when you get up into this passage in Acts 28 you start to understand that he was speaking to the chief of the

Jews there at Rome and it said many of them were saved. It said some believed and some didn't. So that church in Rome I hate to tell you

Gentile friends of mine and brothers and sisters it started out like a Jewish church. And then some of the

Gentiles began to be saved and Paul taught them it's neither Jew nor Gentile they became a church which is the way it should be.

But now he says but I'm going to speak to you as those who know the law. Let me let you understand that when a man dies he's not under that law anymore.

And he said but you're under another. The law of Jesus Christ you will be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead.

Do you see that that is a resurrection religion? It has nothing to do with the law which kills.

You've already gone through that stage you've already died you've already entered heaven and you're now in heaven.

Does the law bind you at all in heaven? Not in the sense that the

Old Testament person thought he had to keep the law. Why? Because by nature you just keep it. Can you sin in heaven?

Is it possible? Some of you are kind of going maybe it's a trick question.

It is not a trick question. You can't. It's impossible. Could Jesus sin? Are you in Christ?

In heaven will you be in Christ? Can you sin? The law is not an issue.

It's absolutely not. You're not going to break it. You're not even thinking of breaking it. You're not thinking of keeping it. You just are.

Now I'm going to show you that in a scripture in a minute but it will blow your mind. But you see we're supposed to dwell in that realm day to day as we walk as New Testament Christians.

The whole New Testament is all about keeping everything God has by nature. Did he not say

I've not you know it's not like I'm going to write this in stones. I'm going to write this in your hearts. Romans 10 .1

he said Brethren my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. And he goes on to explain how they missed it.

For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge. He's just talking about himself isn't he?

How does he know this? Because this was Paul. You go back into Romans 7 as we continue into the end of this very chapter.

I mean the chapter several chapters before we're in chapter 10 but you go just back to chapter 7 he was still struggling.

He said I find that I don't keep the law that my mind agrees with but I find in my body another law that my body battles against it.

Against my mind that's in Christ Jesus. He says for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge.

For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

There are many people who call themselves Christians today that do this. They wouldn't call themselves

Jewish. They wouldn't even call themselves legalists. And yet they're trying to please

God every day by getting their body to walk in a certain way or to dress in a certain way or to act a certain way or to speak a certain way.

They have set up a bunch of rules. The independent Baptists call them standards. Nothing more than than Judizers.

Paul you wait to see the whipping. You wait to see the whipping that Paul himself if the

Lord delegates that to him gives these independent Baptists when they get there.

I'm not saying they're not going to be saved. I don't know. I mean they're awful close to walking in the law but I think they're just Galatian churches.

And you know being ignorant of God's righteousness what is God's righteousness? In Christ in the heavenlies.

God's righteousness is the righteousness of God. If you are in Christ that's righteousness.

But they're ignorant of this righteousness so what do they do? They try to establish it by being or I shouldn't say by being but by doing.

And Lord willing next Sunday we'll get in the Old Testament and look and we'll see the point where the children of Israel chose to do rather than to be.

It's right there. You just read over it sometimes. It is right there. I believe with all my heart

I'm going to look at it from a human viewpoint for a moment not the sovereignty of God viewpoint because what is, is.

But let's look at it from the human viewpoint for a moment. I believe that when God gave his covenant to Abraham I believe he offered that to the

Jewish people. I believe it was offered to them again at Mount Sinai and they rejected it.

And they said no rather than to have we will do. Rather than to have a relationship where we can talk to God face to face we would rather not go near him

Moses. You do that for us and we will do everything that he says.

That's where the law came from. From a human viewpoint. I know God ordained it. It was supposed to happen and everything.

But from the human viewpoint they chose it. They said we don't want the relationship.

That is, I mean that would be overwhelming. That would totally engulf our entire lives. That would mean that every moment that I walk

I am in Christ and his will will be done. That would mean that my will takes the lower shelf.

That would mean that the throne that's in my life I'm not seated on it anymore. Jesus is.

He's on my throne. I'm up there on his. We don't want that.

We want to still be us. So let us just do what you tell us to do. And God said okay. We'll do that.

That became a dispensation. And I'm going to show you how if the dispensations are there All they are is they show you the different ways that man can fail.

That's what they're for. And boy did they ever fail sorely under the law.

How are we doing under grace? I'm going to leave you with that thought this morning.

We're using it as an excuse not to have to please the Lord. But to do our own thing.

If we do we're really in the law. We're under the law of the flesh. Are we have so much grace in our lives that it allows us to do just what the

Jews did and say I'm going to keep myself on the throne. I'll just do what I want to because I'm covered man. Brother I'm covered.

I'm seated in the heaven. You are but are you experiencing it?

Are you practicing it? Because I'm going to tell you what. Jesus said the law says

Thou shall not kill. Thou shall not murder. He said but I say if you hate your brother you've killed him.

The law says thou shall not commit adultery but I say to you if you look and I don't quote this perfect Brother Russ but you'll know what

I mean. If I look at a woman to lust after her you've committed adultery already.

He said you want to keep the law? Try that one. And you know what?

We in the grace age we say well I'm covered from all that. So I don't have to do any of it.

I don't have to worry. And what we do when we live with that attitude is we place ourselves right back on the throne of our own life and it becomes the self life and Jesus said you just die.

He said but if you'll die you shall live. What did he mean? He said if we would just do the most beautiful thing that God ever gave humans in any dispensation.

We don't know what's coming in the next one but I know up till now. Is a connection.

A relationship of unity where you are attached to Jesus Christ by his spirit who lives in your body somewhere and he attaches with your spirit and you become one in spirit.

And you are now above the law. You're above everything earthly and you walk in the law because by nature you keep the law because you can't break the law.

And so every jot and tittle is fulfilled in your life because who's on the throne? Jesus.

Did not he preach unto them Jesus both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets from morning till evening?

Jesus. You don't need to get involved in discussions or arguments about the law or not the law or grace or not grace or dispensation or no dispensation.

It's a matter of who are you and where do you dwell? You either dwell in the heavenlies or you dwell on the earth.

And if you're going to dwell on the earth you might want to put yourself under the law because you sure need it. I mean you'd be better to go ahead and keep it than to be dwelling in the flesh totally without anything.

But Paul said you don't have to live that way. That's beggarly. It's a beggarly way to live. He said you are seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus and your body is an instrument unto righteousness.

Let's stand and pray together. Father we thank you so much for we seem selfish when we say this

Lord but we thank you that you let us be born now so that we have a hindsight of so many things.

We thank you that you let us be born after the life of the apostle Paul and after those three years he spent with you and we thank you for the things that you taught him in that desert and the way that you entrusted these mysteries to this servant of yours that he might share them with the whole world,

Jew and Gentile. And it went so far beyond what any of the religious world of his day had ever seen or heard or spoken of.

And we can see why they would have hated this man because he totally undermined their systems.

Father may we be willing to yield up our systems and to simply go above and beyond all that and be in fellowship with you.

We know that when we do that we've given up self. We have not given up our personalities but we've given up the self -life.

And yet if we would do that we could look around and see the beauty of the very heavenlies.

We can live eternal life right now. We can walk with you in a better way than even

Adam walked with you in the garden. We can walk with you in a closer way than even the apostles could walk with the

Lord Jesus when he was physically on this earth. Father we have that so cause us to choose that each day this week.

Father we ask you to bless our fellowship time together and our meal and we ask it in Jesus name.