Address—Steve Stewart
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Maybe we could start with?
Him #310 to him. We don't too often think so.
That's all of it. Not really what I have on my heart this afternoon, but perhaps a nice opportunity to send this again. 310 we.
Father ho have had so blessed of blessing where my son is transformed.
And.
On the earth when they do shallow rain.
Look to the Lord and ask His help.
Our God and our Father, we look to Thee this afternoon with thankful hearts for what Thou hast given to us from Thy precious word thus far this day. And we pray now that this hour might be a profitable time for our souls. Now loans can make it so for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so we commit this time to Thee might be clearness and taking up Thy precious truth, and that it might be for our prophet and blessing. So we.
Do thank thee as we, uh, have thy word before us.
For the liberties that we enjoy in this way, we thank Thee. For the hope that is ours and the soon return of our Lord Jesus, we thank Thee for the spiritual blessings that are ours in Christ Jesus. And so we commit ourselves to Thee now and the precious and worthy name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
We turn to second Peter.
Chapter 3.
Our purpose is to illustrate, and it will only be in a brief way, 2 parentheses in the Word of God, but two very important parentheses and two parentheses that are early brethren that the Spirit of God used to recover the truth of God lost to the Church for so many years were unfolded to them.
Mr. Darby, the time that he was laid up and I'll after being thrown from a horse.
And reading the word of God, came to that portion in Isaiah, Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and Princess shall rule in judgment. And he said, I saw there was an economy of God that this world had never yet seen.
And that was yet to come. And it was that, uh, opening of the Scripture by the Spirit of God to him that led him to see, uh, prophetic truth in the way that we enjoy and know it today.
And that coming dispensation administration is a millennial Kingdom. It's yet to come. It's literal, it's real, it's not figurative, it's not something to spiritualize away from the Word of God into the church's blessings, but it's Israel's fortune in the coming day and our Lord Jesus Christ. Portion 4. The Scripture says in First Corinthians 15, he.
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Must.
Ring.
He must re.
Our brethren came out of a time where they felt the Scriptures that spoke of the Millennium and the Kingdom were present application to the, uh, uh, authority of Christ in our hearts. We know we do belong to the Kingdom of God in that way, but they did not see any more than that.
And what an unfolding of the Word of God came from our early brethren in this way. Well, I want to see these two parentheses to help us get a little outline of things that are being fast given up among our dear brethren in the camp, sad to say. And I'd like to start with second Peter 3, Second Peter three. There are three worlds that are given to us. And on the chart here we see the three, one on each end and one down at the bottom. And let's look at those verses.
Second Peter 3.
Verse 6, Whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. That's one world, the world before the flood. But the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word, are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
Then dropping down to verse 13, nevertheless we according to his promise.
Look for a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
There are two worlds, one that is yet to come, or two words, if we could put it that way. One that is passed off this scene, it was wiped out by a flood.
The dispensations, the great administrations of God unfold in the present world that we're in today. Sometimes we refer to, uh, Adam and Eve and innocence in the garden as a dispensation. Our man left to his own conscience as a dispensation, and we know what we're talking about. We see the distinction in those two things.
But a dispensation, very properly speaking, is an ordered dealing of God with man and this earth. And man left to himself his own conscience is hardly an order dealing of God with man on the earth.
And so the dispensation, that order dealing of God with man on the earth really began on the other side of the flood.
But conventionally speaking, we speak of innocence and conscience as a dispensation. That's fine. I think we understand what we mean when we see those distinctions.
Dispensation comes from a Greek word. 2 Greek words combined together oikos nomia, and I don't know how to pronounce it properly. I'm not a Greek scholar. One means house.
Know me at law, The laws of a house, The reordering of a household oysters. No Mia comes across an English economy.
Economy or administration?
As the ordering of a of a house and God's first order dealing with man on our chart was the institution of government in this present world, let's turn back to Genesis.
We're going to just very briefly go through.
Umm, a few of these.
Let's look at what the Lord said to Noah when he exited the ark.
I've stepped on to that new earth.
Chapter 8.
Verse 21 This is in connection with Noah's offerings. And the Lord smelled his sweet savour, 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.
God states of principle upon which He is going to take up man now in this present world, He.
Is evil pharmaceutical?
Now we come to Chapter 9.
And let's drop down to.
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Verse 6.
USO shedeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, For in the image of God made ye man.
NOAA, you are responsible to restrain man because he's only evil from his youth. And I'm not going to just let him go like I did before the flood. I'm not going to allow the world to descend into violence and corruption in the way it did before the flood. And he institutes a principle based on the fact that man is evil from his youth. He says he needs to be restrained.
And Paul says of government in this world, they bear not the sword in vain.
And man's evil is restrained through that dispensation, that administration of government in this world, first given in principle to Noah.
Now we know in the chapters that follow what happens. God tells Noah to spread out in the earth and families to be fruitful and multiply. And we come to the 11Th chapter of Genesis, and in defiance of God, man says, lest we be scattered, let's build a tower. Let's make us a name, a tower to reach right up to heaven. And don't think that they were trying to reach into heaven where God is.
These are intelligent men and think they could build a stack of bricks that got so high they could step into heaven. They didn't want anything to do with God. That was the tower of their own pride, to reach as high as they could to make themselves a name. And that is where the idolatries of this world began, with that tower. And I believe that tower had significance in its steps higher and higher of ascending, trying to get back.
Through the paradise that man had lost, through the fall. It was an occult heaven that he was trying to reach into, and idolatry spread out from there. God came down and he saw what man was doing, and he divided them through their languages. Now let's just hold our place there and turn to a verse in Deuteronomy.
Because though sin was the occasion for the dividing of man.
In this world, God had a purpose.
In it.
Uh, Deuteronomy 32.
And verse 8.
When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance. When he separated the sons of Adam at the Tower of Babel.
Through language.
We separated the sons of Adam. Intonations, really.
He set the bounds of the people, those sons of Adam, that he divided according to the number of the children of Israel.
God, even though similar to the occasion purpose to divide man into nations.
With one nation particularly in mind, and that was Israel. And he set the place in this world for every one of those divided peoples.
Mr. Darby says some of those nations overran their bounds in the Canaanite families of the earth seized the jewel of the Orient land of Canaan. It belonged to Israel. Eventually they were driven out. So God had a purpose in mind when he divided into those nations. Now God had instituted families.
We know marriage is from him, and we see that he instituted nations as well, even though sin was the occasion.
And he takes up that principle given to no end government now and nations.
And nations.
I always come to Genesis 12.
Now the Lord has said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house into a land, that I will show thee, and.
I will make the great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great. Thou shalt be a blessing. A new principle is introduced.
Into this world.
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Because those institutions of God, both family, kindred and nation.
Have become affected by idolatry and sin. And if a new principle was not introduced, man would be bound to what God had instituted. God instituted it. I'm bound to stay with, stick with my family. It's of God, even though evil has come in, but he introduces a higher principle calling and he calls Abram the 1St man who's called out of family, kindred, father's house and nation.
Because.
Without that higher principle introduced a greater claim upon his soul, he would have been bound to go on with those institutions of God that had fallen into evil. But what about you and I?
Let's look over.
At first, Peter. Excuse me. Second Peter again.
Second Peter, chapter one.
And verse three, according as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us not to, but by glory and virtue. And Stephen said, in the 7th of Acts, the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was yet in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt inherent, and said, Get thee out.
And the God of glory.
As appeared to YouTube and he's called you and he said get out, get out.
They're the higher claim on your soul and mind than the very institutions of God in this world of family.
And nation.
The call of God.
And attended upon that call are promises.
Whereby are given unto us exceeding or the best.
And precious products and promises were given to Abram to.
Promises are given to you, so a new principle is introduced, calling the call of God.
Now let's turn to a verse in Jose. We're going rapidly through these to get to where I'd like to.
Come pardon me if it seems a little quick. Hosea. Let's turn to Hosea.
Any one of these things could be so profitably dwelt upon.
Cevea 11.
First one.
When Israel was a child.
Then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt.
Now these two principles are going to be brought together, and the first one we see here is calling. Now it's not an individual, it's not Abram, nor is it his immediate family. Abraham dwelled in tents with the heirs of promise, Jacob and Isaac. But it extends to a whole nation, Israel, out of the Egypt Have I called my son? Now let's turn over to a very remarkable verse. These verses are on our chart, but First Chronicles.
Very last chapter 29.
A very remarkable.
First First Chronicles 29, verse 23.
God having established the Kingdom in David's hands, it's given to Solomon a picture of Christ in his millennial reign, and it says that Solomon here in verse 23. Then Solomon said on the throne of Jehovah or the Lord, as we agreed in King James the throne of Jehovah. And where was that thrown? It was in Jerusalem doesn't say the throne of David.
His father says the throne of the Lord.
And so combined in this called nation, in this nation, are the principle of calling.
And government and this called nation became God's center of government in this world.
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And they will be again.
In this time of the administration of the fullness of times.
What's the difference?
Here.
It was government and calling under the testing of the law.
Here it is, government and calling, headed up and taken up in Christ.
Thanks a lot.
Well, what happened to this favored nation?
Turn over to the next book, Second Chronicles, the last chapter.
Verse 14, Chapter 36. Moreover, all the chief of the priests of the people transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen, and polluted the House of the Lord, which He had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up the times and sending, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people.
Till there was no remedy. And he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with a sword in the House of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on the young man or maiden, old man or him that's due for age, and gave them all into it.
Let's turn over now to Isaiah.
And let's look at chapters at six, I believe.
As well.
Excuse me? Chapter 5.
Our time is going.
Now I will sing to my well beloved song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My beloved has the vineyard and a very fruitful hilly fenced it. He gathered out the stones thereof. He planted it with the choice of mine, built a tower in the midst of it, also made a winepress there. And he looked that it should bring forth grapes and have brought forth wild grapes.
And he says in the next verse of verse six, I will lay it waste. Verse 7, the vineyard of the Lord, of hosts of the House of Israel, and the men of Judah, His pleasant plant. He looked for judgment, but behold oppression for righteousness, but behold a cry.
This is the key that we didn't read all the verses through the Old Testament. This is the key in a song.
To understanding the ways of God in the Old Testament, He took a sample of mankind, Israel. He gave them the very best they were that vineyard. He planted them in a fruitful hill, the jewel of the Orient. He drove out their enemies. He gave them His law. He gave them a perfect worship for for the first man.
And they, as we read in the end of Chronicles, transgressed to the point where he had to cast them out of that land.
In the world that was before the flood, he said the end of all flesh has come before me. And then type there at least we get the end of the first man, and he says I will destroy man whom I have made. But here in the world it now is man is tested. And really the cross was the culmination of that test. And though they were cast out of that land, in time God brought back a remnant according to his prophetic word.
That when the promised king came.
There would be those there to receive them. A promise king. Oh yes.