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In my heart, I'd like to share, brethren, as a possibility of taking up in our reading, and that is.
The Lord Jesus.
As the man who send it up into heaven.
And uh, from thence united us together as his people on earth, a heavenly man.
I'm thinking about the 1St chapter of Acts, the first part of it, and then possibly going on to the 9th chapter where he revealed himself to Paul as the heavenly man.
Stop.
So you were thinking of the 1St 14 verses of.
Harvard uh, just the 1St 14 verses. Would that be enough for the first meeting?
Acts chapter one and verse one.
The former critiques have I made Oceanophilus of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up. After that He, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them 40 days, and Speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which said he, He had heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but he shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, Wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel?
And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the time for the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me.
Both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as He went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? The same Jesus?
Which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. Then return they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a silent day's journey. And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where bold goes Peter and James, and John, and Andrew Phillips, and Thomas Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelodes.
And Judas, the brother of James, These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
Luke, the writer of this.
Look referred in the first verse of his former treatise which is the book of Luke which gives us the ministry of the Lord Jesus on earth.
But Christianity begins after that. Christianity begins with the Lord Jesus going up into heaven. And there's a lot of confusion and mixing of these things, the things that apply to earth and the things that apply to heaven. And it's good for us to see that in Christianity. That is since the Lord has gone up into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit down.
That we have a relationship with him as a man in heaven, no longer here on earth. His place here on earth has to do more with what he will establish in the future day. A Millennium, a blessing on earth. And we must keep those two things distinct in order to be able to rightly divide the word of God. And I, I think it would, it's nice to notice.
00:05:31
In these verses that we read how clear it becomes that the Lord Jesus went up into heaven and the these verses explain how there is something new going to take place.
OK.
It's difficult for us in 2011 to really put our minds back into what these people to whom we've just read about, what they thought and what they saw, what they knew.
But these were those who had looked for the Messiah.
Their whole history, their whole background was connected with.
Being Jews and what we would call Judaism and a religion established of God for an earthly people, they knew all about Abraham and Moses and their forefathers both their what might be looked at as victories and what might be looked at as failures among them. And now one had come, and they had accepted him as the true Messiah, and throughout the whole of his life right up to his death.
They looked for him to fulfill the promises of the Messiah to Israel.
And they did not understand the over and over again told them he was going to have to die.
In John's gospel we have a number of chapters in the last few hours really, of his life and days which he prepares them for the period of time when he's going to die and be separated from them and return to heaven. In Luke 24 you find the two on the way to Emmaus and they're saying we trust that it had been he which should have restored Israel and so at his death.
There was a feeling of loss.
Because they had believed in Him as the Messiah and all their hopes were connected with Israel and the earth. And it carries right on here into this chapter. He's not only died, He's risen again. He's with them in resurrection. And what do they say? What's on their mind? They pick right up. Oh, it's so wonderful. He's raised from the dead. But they say they asked him the question. Verse 6, Lord.
Wilt thou at this time?
Restore again the Kingdom to Israel. In other words, their minds, their thoughts, their aspirations, their hopes, we're still connected with what they've had all their life. In spite of the fact that he had died and that He had told them clearly and plainly that He was going to leave them and return to heaven, He had said on the resurrection morning to Mary, touch me not. And he begins again to tell them about a new relationship that they were going to have with himself.
And here he is in the last of his 40 days on Earth, and he's leaving them, and they're still needing to learn that their relationship with him is going to be in a totally new and different way. They're no longer people of Earth, but he's going to disappear out of their sight into the cloud. He's going to go back to the glory. He's going to be glorified of the Father and that place. And then as Doug introduced the subject.
They were going to be brought a few days later into a relationship with himself that had nothing anymore to do with the earth except as a witness for him here. But their hope, their aspiration, their life, their object and everything else in their lives is now connected with a man in heaven.
I remember one time at a Bible conference just like this the question was raised what is Christianity and someone said well Christianity can be summed up in one word, Christ. But that needs explanation because it's been already brought out. It's Christ in a relationship that was not known prior to Christianity. It's not Christ the way the disciples knew him on earth.
00:10:17
They knew the Lord Jesus when he was here, they saw with their eyes and their hands had handled of the word of life, but has been brought out. They were going to be brought into a relationship with himself that was not previously known. And so Christianity is really an association with Christ in glory. And it's important to understand that Christianity not only presents to us a risen Christ. That's true.
Because if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain and ye are still in your sins. But it also presents to us an ascended Christ, a Christ who is not here on earth the way he was physically in the days of his public ministry and the work that he took up and the work of atonement. And he's not associated with his own in the way he was. And as you say with Mary, it's, it's shown very, very clearly.
And so the resurrection and the ascension and glorification of Christ were God's Amen to the work of Calvary. And now the Spirit of God, as we're going to notice, has associated us with Christ in different ways. Henceforth know we know man after the flesh, though we knew Christ after the flesh, henceforth know we him no more. So it's not just Christ in resurrection, but it's Christ in ascension. And that's why our hopes and our goals in Christianity.
Are not connected with this world in any way. We have been detached from this world in every way except the fact that we're still here physically. That's the only thing that connects us still to this planet Earth, is that we're here physically. But in every other way we are associated with the heavenly man. And that's why we refer to ourselves as a heavenly people with a heavenly calling.
It's good to notice, too, that this book of Acts is a book of transition from Judaism to Christianity, and that the Spirit of God is very prominent throughout the whole book. And so in the second verse you have the Holy Ghost. He, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments.
Under the apostles whom he had chosen, and so, in very real patience, the blessed Savior.
Had with his people Israel. It wasn't until the very last chapter of this book that the apostle Paul could speak and he says in verse 28, chapter 28 and verse 28 of the book of the Acts. He said be it known therefore unto you.
That the salvation of God is centered in the Gentiles and that they will hear it. And so when patience, the Spirit of God has been striving even to this day with those Jews. I would just mention that there's other one other thing that's very prominent that you'll find at the beginning, particularly the book of Acts, and that is the large upper room. And it is mentioned here, I believe in verse 13. When they were come in, they went up into the upper room. It should read where both Peter and John, James and John and so on.
And so the Lord had arranged that they would be together. And when the church was formed in chapter 2, I believe perhaps this is in the upper room as well in chapter 2 and verse one. And you'll see this little phrase that fused throughout the beginning chapters of this book.
They were all with one accord in one place, and so unity was one of the things that the Spirit of God had striven for, and is formed of God in connection with the Christian testimony.
In verse two it says after that He through the Holy Ghost had given commandments under the apostles whom he had chosen.
Well, that's.
I was thinking of Luke chapter 24.
Verse 48 He uh.
For verse 46.
And said unto them, Thus it is written, And thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you.
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But Terry, in the city of Jerusalem until you be endowed with power among high.
I think it's sweet to see there the promise of my father.
And then in John chapter.
14 and verse 26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things.
And bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.
Not, as the world giveth, give I unto you.
The.
16th chapter.
There's 13, albeit when either spirit of truth is come.
He will guide you into all truth, for He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify me, for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you all things that the Father hath our mind therefore said I, that He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.
I think it's sweet to see here that it's through the Holy Ghost that he gives those commandments.
And it's.
It's they're waiting, isn't it, those 10 more days?
And then you get real Christianity. Yeah.
That's probably why he doesn't answer all their questions in this chapter, because the Holy Spirit hadn't come down yet. That was needful for the believers to be able to lay hold of these things. The whole that's the what the when the Lord Jesus went up into heaven.
Then it was needful for the Spirit of God to come down and to link us with the man in heaven and to bring us into that relationship.
The Spirit of God is the power and the link between US and Christ. When we believe on, on the Lord, we receive the Spirit of God. We are indwelt by the Spirit of God. We are capacitated to enjoy that relationship. We have that unction, that power, the, the known relationship with him. And uh, then we can understand and enter into these things. So it, it separates us as a people unto him.
Yes, I was thinking of that, because sometimes we read the Gospels and, or even this chapter and we shake our heads and say, well, they ought to have known better because there'd been no lack of instruction as to what was going to take place. You pointed out some things in the Upper Room ministry, Lemoyne, and we find there that the Lord Jesus very, very carefully went over many things in the Upper Room with them.
Why did he do that? Because the hour was come that he should depart out of the world under the Father.
He had come from God and He was going to return to God, and in preparation He brings many things before them. But the Lord Jesus knew Himself that while they were listening to His words, they did not have the capacity at that time to understand the true significance of what He was saying to them. He says it to them, but then, as you pointed out, He remarks Himself that when the Spirit of God would come, it would bring these things to their remembrance.
What he had spoken and really confirm and give them understanding as to what he was saying. And so we shake our heads sometimes that the disciples and say, well, they should have known the things the Lord was Speaking of. They should have known that he wasn't going to establish the Kingdom and at this time and so on. But brethren, what about us? We have far, far greater capacity and responsibility than the disciples had before the day of Pentecost or.
Even in the early days of the church, because not only do we have the Spirit of God with us and in US to make these things good to our souls, but we have the completed word of God. They couldn't go to the epistle. They couldn't see the the see Christianity explained and the fruition of what was really in the heart of God as a result of the work of Christ and the ascension and so on. They didn't have that.
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That's why in the early Acts you often find that Peter and different ones, they drew on Old Testament portions and gave almost what seemed strange applications, but they had nothing else to go on. And so I simply say we're far more responsible. We have all things that pertain unto life and godliness and to to. I'm going to use the word to regress from what has been given to us as to the.
Position and blessing of Christianity and the relationship it's brought us into, brethren, is a very serious thing. It was one thing for them. They were moving towards things as the light was being given, the Spirit of God was given and then further light. And as you say, Robert, it was a transitional period. They were moving toward the light and Christianity and full revelation. But brethren, as we see many Christians moving away.
Regressing from what has been given and going to back and looking for the Kingdom and so on and not understanding true Christian position. We're we're going to be held very, very responsible. We need to tenaciously cling to and go over these precious truths that associate us with Christ in Christianity.
Just like to briefly turn to Ephesians chapter one.
It was specifically given the revelation of what we're talking about. We've not really given to Peter or some of the other apostles, but after.
And chapter 8, if you will, anticipating what Doug said about chapter 8, we come to the apostle Paul. He is the one that is given of God to explain or to make known to us what was happening in Acts where we have the facts of the transition. But in Ephesians chapter one.
That he says to it and not to try to go over the whole chapter but just verse 5.
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, He and then verse six, accepted in the beloved, and then the work of redemption, and so on. And then He brings before us, umm, verse 13, In whom after he trusted, after that He heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and whom also after you believed you were sealed.
This is the Holy Spirit with the Holy Spirit of promise.
Umm, then he says, and he has a prayer for them, that they'll understand what he's saying to them. And so here in verse 18, it says the eyes of your understanding, being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints. Verse 20 which he rotting Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand.
In the heavenly places, that's His glorification that we've referred to far above all principality and power and might and dominion, in every name that is named, not only in this world, but in that which is to come and put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of him that filleth All in all. Or to briefly summarize this.
God purpose.
From the past eternity, that His Son in becoming a man would honor him on the earth and glorify him here as a man on earth. But then God was going to after his work was done, which cost him his life, and he died, raised him from the dead as one who had so honored him on earth among men and glorified him in the matter of sin. He said, Now, son, if you will Christ, he takes him out of the state of death, and he puts him at his own right hand.
In a place of honor and a place of glory. And at that point he can begin to act with people on earth and say, I have a calling for people on earth. I want them to be associated with my Son in this place in which he now is this place of glory and this place of honor. I want him to have a heavenly bride that is associated with him in his place of honor and glory.
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And it's then in order to have such that He sends the Holy Spirit down on earth to form such people with a heavenly calling, to be associated with a glorified ascended Christ. And from that point on, God's work by the Spirit is to gather out of the nations of the earth people who will be associated forever.
With His Son in that place of honor and glory. And to me, a wonderful just extra thought about it.
When the Lord Jesus Christ came to earth and John's gospel, it was to make the God of heaven known, the Father known to man on earth. But now that the Son who made the Father known as a man to us on earth and brought God, if you will, down in the person of the sun to manifest him among men, now, as it were, he turns it around and he says, but I'm going to open heaven up to you and I'm going to declare what's in heaven.
And so I want you to know my Son as he now is in the place I have given him in heaven. And so the sun sits at the Father's right hand in heaven, and he sends the Spirit of God down on earth to work and us to make us know and enjoy and understand the what's going on in our home, in heaven, in the Father's house. And so a divine.
Just as the Lord Jesus, God was on earth the Son of God.
So God, the Spirit is on earth today for the, a purpose that connects us with heaven. It's wonderful, brethren, to see the provision of God for us to accomplish his purposes. Isn't that a beautiful answer to their question? Will thou restore again to Israel, the Kingdom? Uh, and the two of that are on the way to Emmaus and being sad and, and thinking all things were out of control and.
And and God and God's Son have been crucified. It just looked like every purpose had been frustrated when man rejected the Lord Jesus on earth. God says I got one better for you. I want to raise man up into heaven and glorify him there. And what we're discussing is the development of this. These verses in Ephesians are the full development of it that was purposed in the past eternity.
That God is now accomplishing in US and taking us, the people from earth to heaven.
And so if man will not have Christ on earth as a king here and to set the world right, then God says then I will have him in glory. And moreover, I'm going to give him a people to be with him there. And that's what's taking place now.
The Spirit of God is gathering together a people to gather them there. And when heaven is full, the Lord will take us all there. That is when the last one is saved. I mean, so when you see this, the development of it is just beautiful. The acts that we're reading are the beginning of how this is all working out.
And I'd like to say, too, to apply it to ourselves today, brethren, we see them. We see the end of that age in which he was working with Israel for a time. We see. And they saw it as total disorder. Everything was out of kilter. The Messiah had been put as they believed him to be, had been put to death, and everything was in total disorder.
And they were perplexed by what was going on. We're at the end of the next phase, if you will, of the ways of God with man. We're down at the end of it. We can look at it and be, oh, you know, the mess that's taking place in this world today. What's the financial situation going to do? And what's gonna, what's the end of the economy and how's the United States gonna be affected? And what about me and my job?
And what it's going to be like with me tomorrow or next week or next year. And we see this country morally going down every generation and every year and so on. And we can be perplexed, we can have anxiety, we can be frustrated even by it all.
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But what's God's side of it?
He's finishing up a work.
The end result. What's the end result of all that's taking place right now? A completed bribe for his son. There's not a single thing happening in the world today that God isn't over all working out His purposes, which will have a perfect end result that to us, we might be frustrated because if we're not occupied with Him and what He's doing, then we're concerned about.
The way life is going, good or bad or elsewhere in our personal lives and so on. But if you were in heaven, if we could be in heaven this afternoon and we could say, oh, God is perfectly finishing this wonderful work that he is doing to create, uh, the, the, the bride in all that. And when all that work is done, then he'll bring to a close this period of time.
And the end result will be perfect according to God. And then he will start on. There's a transition going on perhaps right at this moment on the earth. And transition, that's what's coming after we're gone. And so he's lining things and preparing things, just like Axe was a transition period. The dispensations of God overlap and they have transitions between them. We may be this afternoon in the transition.
Period between the end of what we call the day of grace and the beginning of what's going to be known when it half starts is the tribulation, and we're in that overlap period between the two. Is everything going according to schedule and according to God's control? Yes, it is, and we ought to sit with thankful hearts and confidence spirits in that. Any moment it's going to come to its close and we might be just as surprised as the disciples were.
If we are in the same.
Lack of but we we shouldn't be, as Jim said, we have by the Spirit of God every reason to have an understanding that they could not and did not have on the when the acts one was taking place. And so we should be aware of what's going on around us in the world. As we said earlier in these meetings, we're not isolationists, but there's a difference between being aware and overwhelmed. And if we keep in mind what Brother Dawn has said.
We can be aware without being overwhelmed. And you talk to Christians today, they love the Lord and they're going to, we're going to share eternity together, but through Miss Teaching and so on, they're looking for brighter days down here in the establishment of the Kingdom. And we're a moral force to change the world and all these kinds of things you hear, but talk to them a while. You'll find that they're often overwhelmed because brethren, if we're looking for better things down here.
We've got to admit it's not getting any better things as far as outwardly, yes, God is in control, but outwardly things are not getting better in this world. They're getting more unstable all the time as far as the kingdoms of men and governments and social, political things and the morals and all that kind of thing. And if we're looking to build better days down here and prepare for the Kingdom now.
It's going to, like the disciples, overwhelm and discourage us. And not only were the two on the way to Emmaus sad when they thought of the Lord, the Kingdom and the restoration of it, and then it didn't seem like it was going to happen and so on. But even in the upper room, the disciples hearts were troubled and afraid. The Lord said to them, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Why did he say that? Because he knew what their hearts were like.
And he knew how they were feeling on that occasion.
And they were thinking about the Lord he was preparing to leave them and they must have thought, well now what are we going to do? We thought things were going to get better and we were going to be delivered and we'd be sit on his right hand and left hand in the Kingdom and we'd have a part in the administration and we'd be out from under Roman suppression and so on. And now it it's all falling apart. He's going back to heaven. But he gives them a number of things for their comfort there. In fact, if you just.
I know we've noticed it before, but just take a moment because it goes right along with what brother Dawn was saying.
00:35:06
Right at the beginning of that 14th chapter, he gives them really three things for their comfort.
He says, let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God. I'll stop there man. You know they had believed in God whom they'd never seen. Now he says, believe all, swing me. In other words, what he's saying is you believed in God whom you've never seen.
Now from now on you're going to have to believe in me in the same way you're no longer going to see me with the physical eye. And so after he had remained on earth long enough to give confirmation to his own that he had bodily risen from the dead, the cloud received him out of their sight, and they saw him no more with the physical eye. And Peter says in his epistle, Whom not having seen ye love, though now you see him not yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. He says, I'm associating you now with me.
Not on earth in a physical way, but you're going to have to put your confidence and trust in me in the same way you have believed in God, whom you've never seen. And then he gives in the second verse, the Father's house. This isn't your abiding place. This isn't your home. And brethren, this sad world that's getting worse is not our home. And then the third thing is the promise that He's going to come himself and take them to that home. But you see, again, He sought to detach them in every way.
From the hopes and aspirations that they had as Jewish men looking for the Kingdom at that time, yes, they didn't understand it. But we go back and we see it and we take it up and understand the significance of it. One other thing in connection with the the glorification of Christ in the 7th of John, it says that the Spirit was not yet given. Why? Because Jesus was not yet glorified.
The Spirit of God could not be given in the way it was on the day of Pentecost till the Lord Jesus had accomplished the work of redemption, risen from the dead, and gone back as a glorified man to be seated by God at God's right hand. And that's why the Lord again said to the disciples, It's expedient that I go away. If I don't go away, you'll never be brought into the relationship that I have, that God has for you that I have in mind.
Brethren, what we enjoy in as to relationship with the Father and the Son today.
Is a far deeper and more intimate relationship that anyone previous to Christianity ever enjoyed. Abraham was the friend of God. Moses spoke with with God as a friend speaks face to face, but they never enjoyed the disciples who walked in intimacy with the Lord. They never enjoyed until the coming of the Spirit of God on the day of Pentecost and the dawn of Christianity. The relationship and the blessings that were he had in store for them and everything that we have today and enjoy is a result.
Of the glorification of Christ, and then, and only then, the descent of the Spirit of God.
First aid is a nutshell. In a nutshell, the very last words that the Lord Jesus spoke to his disciples here and he told them what he was going to do as brother Dawn is brought before us in a very orderly way throughout the entire book of the book of Acts. And so it says you shall receive power. That's really chapter 2, the first few verses after that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me.
Both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And so we need to recognize that the there are a couple of divisions in this book. In the first approximately 11 Chapters. Really. Peter is very prominent in those chapters. And the Lord in very gracious way allows the gospel to go forth first in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and then in Samaria and then in connection with Cornelia.
Cornelius is safe and umm, the Gentiles begin to come into blessing. And then you have in Chapter 11, I'm just going to point this out in Chapter 11 and verse 19, it says now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen traveled as far as finesse and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word to none, but unto the Jews only, and some of them that were men of Cyprus and Cyrene.
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Which when they were come to Antioch, spake under the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus, and the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned under the Lord. Then tidings of these things came under the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem, and they sent forth Barnabas that he should go as far as Antioch. And then in verse 25 then departed Barnabas to Tarsus for to seek Saul. That was approximately 5 years after Saul was saved.
And he had been in the school of God now for five years, and the Lord was ready to use him, and he came down. And they were first called Christians in Antioch. But I think it's very nice, lovely to see in the book of Acts the order and the consistency of God with himself and in a holy character that he brings the gospel forth before those rebellious Jews. But in grace he does it in kindness.
So I wondered if that's why he didn't answer the question. Verse seven of our chapter with the guest or no, He says it is not for you to know the times of the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power.
Luke mentions in his gospel the 13th chapter in verse six about the fig tree which usually we attach to the nation of Israel. A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, came and sought fruit thereon and found none. Then said he, under the dresser of his vineyard, behold these three years that his ministry on earth I come seeking fruit on the fig tree, and find none. Cut it down like cumber hit the ground.
Any answering said unto him, Lord, Let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it and dung it, and if it bear fruit, well, and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down. So it seems to me anyway, that He is giving space there for a continued work in the gospel to Israel in the beginning of Acts, because.
That's pretty much who the gospel was given to in the first, uh, 7 chapters. And then they stoned Stephen, who spoke to them with words that were spirit moved and they rejected that message. So in chapter eight of our book, we get the salvation of the Ethiopian unit, and that's from the family of Ham. Then in Chapter 9, we get the salvation of the Apostle Paul.
And that's from the family of Shem. And then in chapter 10, we get the salvation of Cornelius the Roman centurion, and that is from the family of Japheth. So that when he says in the Gospel of John, if I and I, if I be lifted up, shall draw all men unto me, that's all without distinction. It's not all without exception. It's all without distinction. And so.
We see this dispensationally worked out in these first ten chapters of the Book of Acts.
In that connection, it's nice to notice the very end of Acts, the third, the 3rd to the last verse, just to, to finish the circle, uh, how the book of Acts, this transition time, umm, ends up is uh, Paul is a prisoner in Rome.
The Roman Empire was ruling at that time and he says in verse 28.
Uh, Vietnam, therefore unto you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.
So that was kind of the end of the outreach charge. The Jews and now the Gentiles are.
Are the ones that got specifically sends his message out too to the whole world. The Jews were the chosen people to receive the Old Testament ordinances and everything, but when they rejected it, they had first chance. But when they rejected it, God was free to bless anybody and everybody indiscriminately according to His grace and still be.
Just in doing it. And so in Christianity, all blessing comes to us because of Jesus Christ, the man who died and went into heaven.
00:45:13
Along these lines, to another thought of go to.
Romans, not Romans. Where do they want to go?
And 1St Thessalonians chapter one.
Here's the preaching of the Gospel to the Thessalonians. They are accepting it.
He summarizes to them what has happened.
Verse nine of chapter one of First Thessalonians. They themselves show unto us what manner of entering in we had unto you, how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven.
Whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus. And I'm going to read the new translation, Our Deliverer from the coming raft and then over in Revelation chapter 6.
For commenting on that verse.
In Revelation chapter 6.
And verse 15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the captains, and the mighty men, and every bondsman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath has come, and who shall be able to stand?
We might think the world is in a mess today, and it is.
But.
It's nothing compared to what's coming very shortly. And what happened is that when the Lord Jesus Christ was on earth 2000 years ago and he was rejected and cast out, we will not have this man said the world. And they cast him out of the world. God at that point in time at the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus and the Lord himself said it now is the judgment of this world.
That is God at that point in time judged the world as a whole and said, you world stand responsible for having cast out my son. And there's going to be wrath, there's going to be judgment for it. And so God chose not to bring upon the world at that time the wrath.
Of His judgment for having crucified His Son, but rather He has withheld the time and seasons of what He is going to do. Is He going to do it? Yes, He is. But in His great love toward mankind, He said, no, I'm not going to bring my wrath yet. I'm going to have a period of time that you didn't know about, that you couldn't find in the Old Testament that none of your prophet knew about.
I'm gonna have a period of time which we today call the day of grace because it's a time when God's grace to mankind as a whole is going out to man in what we call the gospel of his grace. And it's to this we've had that transition. It's it's first to the Jew and now to the Gentile as well, and also to the man that has returned to the glory and sits at the right hand. And as the glorified man in the grace of God, he says, I have something better for those that will accept my grace.
And I'm going to carry them up and give them that place with him as his bride and the one who will be with him in his days of glory in the coming future of what we call the Millennium. But.
If I if I could put it this way, brethren, we live in a pretty good day. We live in a pretty good day compared to what's right around the corner.
The days of that, of what's going on, we think of as difficult and bad. They're good days by comparison to what's ahead and maybe just around the corner ahead. Because as he said to the Thessalonians, you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven.
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What is the end, if you will, of this period of time? The sun from heaven, delivering all of His own that are still to have this wonderful place and glory with Himself, our deliverer from the coming wrath. And as soon as we who may this afternoon be delivered from the coming wrath, then the bad days are coming, and they're gonna be awful days. And we read just the beginning of the bad days found in Revelation 6.
When they start to come, the people of the world, do you think they're just they're a bit worried about the economy and and a war here and a war there and the the weather and so on? Yes, they are. But what will their attention be then? Will it be on the economy? Will it be on the weather? Will it be on what's happening in this country or that? No, it won't. It'll say who can deliver us from the wrath of the Lamb? Who can deliver us from the wrath of God?
And then?
That's the worst days this world will ever know fall upon it. And so God wants us not to be worried or anxious, but to be thankful to have His promise that we have to deliver from what's just ahead.
Well, thank you. We I think we covered what I had on my heart.
Shall we sing 44 in the appendix?
The second verse says, deep in unfathomable minds of never failing skill, he treasures up his bright designs, and works his sovereign will. 44 in the appendix.
Wandering.
In there all the same predator.
Is taking.
The plow against all my stress.
Our Penguin.
Burger King and shall pray.
And glad to see you love your head.
I'm breathing out.