The Pauline Mysteries Continued | Columbus Bible Church Sunday Morning Message

fine to you it's in the name of the lord jesus christ we pray amen all right i told you to turn to colossians one but before we we we go there let's get ephesians chapter two so we were looking last week at the pauline mysteries i want to continue to look at that before we jump into that there are just a couple verses i do want to cover so look with me at ephesians 2 verses 8 and and we're going to to look at some things today that are helpful understanding as you think through your christian life just building blocks of of edification that will be helpful to you i hope so ephesians 2 8 9 for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of god not of works lest any man should boast within the world there is an endless number of different religious or philosophical viewpoints and each different one gives you a different recipe a different checklist of if you do these things and you check all the boxes then god will be pleased with you and of course those checklists differ from religion to religion what the bible tells you is the bible doesn't give you a checklist of works that you are supposed to perform the vast majority of the philosophies and religions of the world do that but what what scripture teaches is that you're saved by grace through faith apart from works there's no work you can do that will cause you to deserve salvation there's no work that you can do that will prevent you from being saved people sometimes have the idea well i've done a or b or c and god can't forgive me it's not true look with we just looked at ephesians 289 just look at it again for by grace grace is an unmerited unmerited favor it's not something that's earned for by grace are ye saved through faith faith is belief faith is trust it's not a work that you do you can have faith without moving a muscle in other words you can literally sit right there in your seat not move but you can exercise faith because it's an internal choice of the will for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it's not your resume it's not your list of accomplishments it is the gift of god well if it's a gift then by definition you don't work for it and then in case there was any doubt verse 9 says not of works so does your salvation have anything to do with works not according to ephesians 2 8 9 lest any man should boast let me give you a practical example of what is concerning when you talk to people if you ask them the simple question if you were to die tonight and god were to say why should i let you into my heaven what would you say the most common responses you get are people telling you things they have done i've been water baptized i've been confirmed in the church i'm basically a good person i keep the commandments of course it's fascinating when someone says i keep the commandments i'm always tempted to say that's wonderful tell me what they are because most people don't know the ten commandments but by the way is the law simply a list of ten commandments does anyone know the specific regulations of the old testament law on how you handle birds nests you realize there's a specific provision of the law that deals with how you handle birds nests does anyone know the section of the law that deals with having garments of diverse threads there's rules on that as well most of the garments you can purchase today have diverse threats right does anyone know the old testament regulations on how you design the roof of your house see it's sort of amazing to me when people say they're keeping the law they i mean it's just surely you've realized this a lot of times people just say things right and they don't necessarily have any understanding of what they're saying but but the point is this if you think that you're pleasing god by your keeping of commandments and by your works you're sort of kidding yourself because read the old testament and then tell me if you're really keeping it spoiler you're not there's there's all sorts of regulations in there that you're not even aware of and do you really think that you're keeping all the regulations you're not aware of do you think that you just sort of magically do god's will without even knowing it you see the point look at me at first corinthians 15. first corinthians 15 verse 1 moreover brethren i declare unto you the gospel the word gospel means good news look at verse three it's going to give us the specific details of the good news for i delivered unto you first of all that which i also received how that christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and then he rose again the third day according to the scriptures the gospel is specifically defined as three facts christ died for our sins was buried and rose again the third day according to the scriptures when you define the gospel as the bible does it's very clear that your works have nothing to do with it is there anything in verses three and four that says anything about your tithing is there anything that says about your confirmation or your righteousness no everything is what christ did for us so if you take ephesians 2 8 9 and first corinthians 15 and you put them together it's clear that the way salvation works is you are saved by grace through faith faith in what faith in the gospel that christ died for our sins was buried and rose again the third day what that tells you then is this salvation is not a process if you were to decide today to get saved how many weeks would it take you well you first have to join the new members class and then you'd have to pass a written test and no no no no no none of that right you can be saved in a moment of time in an instant when what you do is you stop trusting your own works in righteousness and you trust what christ did for you on the cross you're saved in an instant in a moment of time it's not a process let me then fast forward what do you have to do to maintain your salvation so once you believe the gospel what do you need to do next you have to give something join something get water baptized go through a religious ceremony none of that because ephesians 2 8 9 specifically said not of works you are saved in an instant for all of eternity when you trust the gospel that christ died for your sins was buried rising in the third day it's that simple now people say that wait a minute if what you're saying is correct then what you're saying is i can believe the gospel and subsequently sin and still be saved yes that's exactly what the scriptures are saying let me turn it around on you do you think that you have magically stopped sinning do you think it is possible for you to stop sinning in this flesh see what scripture tells you is even when you get saved what happens when you get saved is your spirit is regenerated but the body of this flesh is just as corrupt as it ever was you're not saved because you continue in performing good works even though you should do that but that's not what saves you you're saved on the basis of what christ did on the cross when he said it is finished the payment for your sins was complete there was nothing for you to do other than trust what he did all right so that's how salvation works let's look at one more thing before we move on look at me at first corinthians chapter 3 verse 10. i would say the most common objection that i receive to the gospel is it can't be that easy and the reason why people say it can't be that easy is that the way the world system works is what have you done for me lately right in other words don't tell me what you did for me in the past what have you done for me lately and people naturally believe that they are under some sort of performance system there's got to be something that i have to do to maintain my salvation it can't be as simple as i believe the gospel once and i'm eternally saying that it can't be that is what people think and so they want to do something and they want to do something even though ephesians 289 specifically tells you that it's not of works so then what happens is here's what they say they say well wait a minute so if it's as simple as grace if that's really what it is then i can believe the gospel and go rob a bank and still be saved the answer to that is yes you you can do that should you do that no it's a very foolish thing to do now by the way there are consequences so let's say you're a saved person and you rob a bank what are some of the consequences well the first thing is they might shoot you right so that would be reason number one not to do that if you're not concerned about reason number one reason number two is they might lock you up right you might have to start a prison ministry from the inside much better to visit so that when you visit and teach you can leave what's reason number three look at me at first corinthians 3 verse 10 according to the grace of god which is given unto me this is paul as a wise master builder i have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon but let every man take heed how he buildeth there upon for other foundation can no man lay them that is laid which is jesus christ now if any man build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones would hay stubble every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is what is first corinthians 3 10-13 saying paul laid the foundation as a wise master builder the foundation is jesus christ you can't build upon any other foundation but you get to choose how you build upon that foundation you can build with gold silver precious stones wood hay or stubble what will your work be tested by be tested by fire so is there a big difference between how wood hay and stubble and gold silver and precious stones perform in fire there is look at verse 14 if any man's work abide which he hath built there upon so that person must have built with gold silver precious stones because those would survive the fire notice what it says he shall receive a reward so there is a reward for building with the right materials verse 15 if any man's work shall be burned so what did that person build with would hay stubble obviously he shall suffer loss the loss in verse 15 is in context loss of reward and not loss of salvation how do we know that because the verse specifically says it watch what it says but he himself shall be saved so here's what this tells us there are two things that are true you get saved in a moment in an instant of time when you believe the gospel when you trust the blood that jesus christ shed for you on the cross and you're trusting that and not your works god saves you instantly forever in that moment people then say well then i can live any old way i want you can live any old way you want and not lose your salvation because your salvation is resolved but what is going to happen well first corinthians 3 says that you will appear at the judgment seat of christ that's immediately after the rapture when you appear at the judgment seat of christ your works will be evaluated and if you built with wood hay and stubble what will happen they'll be consumed there will be loss of reward you'll still be saved so hopefully you have clarity on the gospel that is the issue that you absolutely must resolve in this life second corinthians 6 says behold now is the day of salvation why that matters is this if you're not saved do not get in a car people drive like maniacs right i mean i don't need to tell you that if you've been on the road you've figured this out right so what is the most important thing to do in life you have to resolve the issue of your salvation immediately because you don't know if you're promised another moment so that is the most important thing now with that as a foundation let's turn to colossians one colossians chapter 1. and i told you to turn to colossians 1 but you know go to 2nd timothy 2. we will get to colossians 1 at some point but i just want to sort of be clear about the direction we're going so second timothy chapter 2 15 2nd timothy 2 15 study to show thyself approved unto god a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth we are commanded to study the scriptures and we are commanded to rightly divide the word of truth if we are commanded to divide it then what must scripture have divisions right if we're told to divide it it must have divisions or otherwise it would be a silly command now go to genesis 1 and genesis 9. genesis 1 and genesis 9. so genesis chapter 1 and we'll look at verse 29 genesis 1 verse 29 and god said behold i have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed to you it shall be for meat. in genesis 1 29 god has clearly given giving to man a vegetarian diet get genesis 9 verse 3. genesis 9 verse 3 every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you even as the green herb have i given you all things now genesis 1 29 and genesis 9 3 did not say the same thing it's more than obvious right genesis 1 was a vegetarian a vegan diet genesis 9 verse 3 was an omnivore diet right every moving thing that liveth so how do you resolve that the reason why some have difficulty resolving that is that they view the scriptures as this book everything in it is for me and i can just open anywhere and put my finger down and it applies to me well the whole bible is written for our understanding for our instruction for our edification you can learn something from all of it but if you just turn anywhere and you think that that instruc that that verse is a command for you to perform that doesn't make any sense did god tell you to build an ark he didn't he told noah to build an ark but he didn't tell you to build an ark did god tell you to offer an animal sacrifice no did god tell moses to offer animal sacrifice yes so you always have to ask yourself the question am i someone that is in the context of this passage that i should obey it when ii timothy 2 15 commanded us to rightly divide the word of truth that command exists because the bible says different things in different places the resolution to the inconsistency between genesis 1 and genesis 9 is to first realize that those commands were given 1600 years removed in time genesis 1 god says to adam eat a vegetarian diet sixteen hundred years later now i realize on the chart it's a little bit of space but chronologically it was sixteen hundred years later you can check that out noah was commanded to eat all things in other words he could eat meat what would we see if we turn to leviticus there's clean animals and there's unclean animals so ponder that if you just read the first three books of the bible there's three different instructions as to what you're supposed to eat how do you decide what to do do you just pick what is your truth you find one that resonates with you well the answer is if you read first timothy 4 you realize paul says for every creature of god is good and nothing to be refused if it would be received with thanksgiving different instructions at different imp points in time which is why you have to rightly divide the word of truth and so then what you have to do is you have to figure out on this timeline where am i do i just pick the part that i like well you can't do that you have to understand where you are in time now we happen to be right here we live during what scripture calls the dispensation of grace the part of the scriptures that is written directly to us today that we are commanded to obey is the pauline epistles romans 2 philemon let me let me show you an example let's get galatians chapter 2. now i don't know about you when i was when i was first saved i was under the impression well there's the old testament and there's the new testament and so the old testament that's for the past the new testament that's for today and i had that sort of simple understanding and then i realized well wait a minute not everything in the new testament is the same i sort of naively thought it was at first galatians 2 verse 7 but contrary wise when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me that's paul as the gospel of the circumcision was unto peter now let's not change what the verses say let's just accept what the verses say on the basis that the god that created the universe knows how to write his own book right i mean is that a fair assumption i mean if you can literally speak the universe into existence are you capable of writing a book i'm going to say yes so now what does galatians 2 7 say the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me paul the gospel of the circumcision was under peter what is commonly thought is peter and paul preach the exact same gospel paul comes along a little later because he's stubborn but peter and paul preach the exact same thing what does that verse say though they had different gospels one of them was called the gospel of the uncircumcision one of them was called the gospel of the circumcision now here's the hardest question of the day so are you ready just just you're prepared you focus give it your best shot are circumcision and uncircumcision the same how can you tell so the prefix on what does it mean not right if something is unusual it's not usual if something is unnatural it's not natural so uncircumcision is the opposite of circumcision can you be both at the same time you really can't it's opposites so just pause there scripture itself explicitly says there's more than one gospel and it says it in one verse right people have the idea they've been taught i believe this at one point well there's only one gospel throughout the new testament everyone believes the same thing it's just not so one of the things that we all have to realize is as you as you matriculate through life there's things that you learn there's things that you hear and what happens is when you hear them you don't know that they're wrong and so you sort of store them in your memory bank and we have all these things that are stored up when you actually consult the scriptures you start to realize wait a minute there's a bunch of things that i thought were the case that as i now read the verses i realize can't possibly be true so what do you do you have a choice then i can either believe what i've always believed because i've believed it and surely i'm right or you can believe the book is correct because that's what god wrote which is safer well it's better of course to let god be true and every man a liar is what what romans 3 4 says okay finally let's go to colossians 1 it's time colossians chapter 1. now paul tells us in first corinthians chapter 2 that the word mystery means hidden wisdom as you read through paul's writings you'll see that there are a number of mysteries that he describes that he reveals their hidden wisdom in other words their wisdom but it was hidden for a period of time until god decided to reveal it that's why when you read genesis to malachi matthew mark luke and john and so on you won't see the mysteries there because god hadn't yet decided to reveal them he revealed them to the apostle paul so colossians 1 verse 25 whereof i am made a minister according to the dispensation of god which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of god verse 26 even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and generations well it specifically tells you in verse 26 that the mystery was hid from ages and generations so could those ages and generations have known it no because it was hid from them but now is made manifest to the saints in other words from here to here not possible to know it because it was hid from ages and generations but now it's made manifest to the saints there are some things we can know today that it was not possible to know in time past because it was hidden verse 27 to whom god would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the gentiles which is christ in you the hope of glory there's a glorious thing that happens today when you believe the gospel you are indwelt by the holy spirit before that you weren't but when you believe the gospel you're indwelt by the holy spirit at that time now look at me at colossians chapter 2 it will start in verse 1. for i would that ye knew what great conflict i have for you and for them at laodicea and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh that their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding so let me pause there what colossians 2-2 is saying is that it's possible to have the full assurance of understanding have you ever had a project or a job and let's just let's do a little candor here where you were supposed to do something and you didn't know what you were doing so you sort of had to bluff your way through if you you don't have to raise your hand but this has happened to all of us hasn't it where you didn't understand the instructions or they were unclear and you were expected to do something but you had no idea what you were doing well maybe you got the thing done adequately maybe no one ever figured out maybe they did but you didn't have any assurance during that project did you because you didn't know what you were doing and so while you were fumbling through and bluffing and hoping no one would notice you didn't have comfort or peace in it because you realized you didn't really understand what was going on colossians 2 2 tells us that god's desire for the believer is to have the full assurance of understanding in other words you can know what god is doing today and that will be a comfort to you now notice what the rest of verse 2 says to the acknowledgment when you acknowledge something you admit it to be true and here's here's the example i'll give you have you ever been in a room and there was someone you didn't want to talk to so what you did is as long as you don't make eye contact with the person you can pretend they're not there they can pretend you're not there and you know you just be patiently get through it and then you leave and you know but when you don't acknowledge them what's really going on is this you are aware of their presence but you're choosing not to acknowledge it what colossians 2 2 is saying here is that one of the things that we need to do to have the full assurance of understanding is to acknowledge to admit to be true to recognize some particular things in verse 2. now here's what it says to the acknowledgement of the mystery of god and of the father and of christ we're going to spend the rest of our time looking at those three mysteries there's a mystery of god there's a mystery of the father and there's a mystery of christ they are specifically recorded in the scripture they're there but most of the body of christ does not acknowledge them they don't acknowledge these truths and because they don't acknowledge these truths they do not have the full assurance of understanding see in other words the truth is right there in the scriptures but if you don't study it and understand it and acknowledge it it doesn't do you much good i'll give you an example when we were talking earlier about the gospel it's very clear you have eternal security today for for many reasons but just for the sake of time if salvation is not of works so that you don't have to work to get it then there's nothing no work you could perform to lose it right you didn't have to work to get it to begin with what what many people live under is they live under the tyranny and the fear of i'm going to do something that will cause me to lose my salvation well you don't need to live under that confusion under that uncertainty once you understand what the scriptures say about how the gospel works so our purpose in learning these doctrines is not so we can have arguments with other believers and win those arguments the purpose is to understand the truth so that it gives us a solid foundation upon which to operate that we then have the assurance of knowing what's true so let's look at these three mysteries the first mystery that's described there is the mystery of god so get with me revelation chapter 10. revelation chapter 10. and we'll look at verse 7. revelation chapter 10 verse 7. but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel when he shall begin to sound the mystery of god so this is the exact mystery of god we were looking at in colossians 2 the mystery of god should be finished as he hath declared to his servants the prophets so we know what the mystery of god is the mystery of god is what god has declared to whom his servants the prophets and of course you know some of the prophets isaiah and jeremiah and so on and daniel there's multiple prophets mentioned in the old testament scriptures now let me just pause here make sure we understand something we live today during the dispensation of grace what god has done during the dispensation of grace is he has put the prophetic program on hold so for example during the lord's earthly ministry the lord says this generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled when the lord right before the cross says that and he says this generation the the folks he was speaking to at that time this generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled and what he was talking about when he was those all things is he's talking about the events right over here now think about that for a moment this generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled did the lord lie was he confused what happened well what happened is this right after the lord said that in acts chapter 2 peter stands up on the day of pentecost and says this is that which was spoken by the what the prophet joel just as we looked at in revelation 10 verse 7 the mystery of god is is all that god hath declared to whom the prophets right so in acts 2 peter teaches something very consistent with what the lord teaches because joel 2 is about this same time period so from here to here nothing has changed the prophetic clock has just ticked forward a couple years but what happens with the apostle paul what god does is this he makes a conscious decision to say the prophetic calendar i'm putting on hold for a period of time it's not that i'm not going to fulfill it everything we will be fulfilled in its time but i'm not going to fulfill it right now because i'm going to give the earth a period of amnesty and forgiveness and that's what happened to the prophetic calendar it was put on hold for a period of time now get with me ephesians chapter 1. ephesians chapter 1. so when we look at the mystery of god that mystery pertains to the fulfillment of the prophetic program that's what that is we're now going to look at the mystery of the father ephesians 1 verse 3. blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in christ according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by jesus christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will so this is the father's will now look with me at verse 9 having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in christ both which are in heaven and which are in earth even in him now that's the mystery of the father it talks about the dispensation of the fullness of times where all things are gathered together in one whether they be in heaven or on the earth get with me ephesians 3 and we're going to come back to the mystery of the father but i want to talk about the mystery of christ just for a minute ephesians chapter 3 verse 4. whereby when ye read ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of christ so this section is going to explain to us what the mystery of christ is verse 5 which in other ages was not made known under the sons of men as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit so pause here and make sure we get this the first of the three mysteries we looked at was the mystery of god and the mystery of god referred to what god had declared to the old testament prophets so clearly that one had been revealed as we look at the mystery of christ what it specifically says here is which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men so the mystery of god was revealed back here the mystery of christ was not based on what ephesians 3 5 just told us now look with me at verse 6 that the gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promised in christ by the gospel so the mystery of christ in ephesians 3 is that jews and gentiles are fellow heirs and of the same body so let's start right here for a minute in the old testament was there a distinction between jews and gentiles clearly there was israel was god's chosen people gentiles were not ephesians 2 describes gentiles in time past as without hope if you're a gentile in time past and you wanted to have a relationship with jehovah what should you do join yourself to israel right become a jew as esther 8 verse 17 says if you're a gentile in time past and you say nope i want to stay a gentile ephesians 2 described you as without hope without god in the world is that true today it's not true today because what did god do in the middle of the book of acts see right here before the cross the jews remain god's chosen people when it when a gentile woman in matthew 15 comes to the lord to seek blessing what does he say to her it is not meat to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs and what he's saying is the children are israel gentiles are what dogs that's what matthew 15 is specifically saying you can look it up matthew 15 22 to 27 but what ephesians 3 said is jews and gentiles are fellow heirs and of the same body this is different from this because what has happened is during the dispensation of grace israel has fallen from its previous position so what does that tell us what that tells us is this in scripture there are two different programs designed to accomplish different purposes there is the nation of israel and by the way what was the big promise that god made to abraham he was going to give him a specific specific land right abraham fully expects to be on the new earth right because god told him that he would inherit the earth what is god doing today with the body of christ do you expect to inherit the earth no because you've been blessed with all spiritual blessings ephesians 1 3 in heavenly places second corinthians 5 verse 1 says you have a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens so back up just for a minute if we go to the very beginning of scripture genesis 1 1 in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth after god creates the heaven and the earth what does satan do first thing he does is he leads the rebellion in heaven and gets many of the principalities and powers to follow him in his rebellion after he does that what's the next thing he does he goes down to earth and starts a rebellion on earth right talks to eve gets eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge good and evil she gets adam to do so and so now in short order satan has created a rebellion in heaven and a rebellion on earth and the rest of scripture the rest of time is about the issue of what does god do to deal with these two different rebellions well with the rebellion on earth what he decides to do is he's going to form the nation of israel and the nation of israel will be his people that ultimately inherit and reign in the new jerusalem on the new earth but what's he going to do in the heavens amazingly you can read genesis 1 to the end of malachi you can read matthew mark luke and john you can read acts one through eight and there's not one clue as to what god is going to do to deal with the rebellion in the heavens and then when you start to read what paul wrote you realize wait a minute what god is doing during this mystery period that was hidden that no one knew about including satan is he's going to form the body of christ and the body of christ will have a heavenly inheritance and will operate in the heavenly places in eternity future so let's put this together the mystery of god is what god is doing with the prophets the mystery of christ is what god is doing during the dispensation of grace with the body of christ and the mystery of the father is how in the dispensation of the fullness of times both what he's doing in heaven and earth are gathered together in one in christ now the reason that's relevant as to the full assurance of understanding is you need to understand your role in that you need to understand what god is doing he has a purpose for this earth he has a purpose for the heavens you need to understand what those are i'll give you one for instance because people have failed to appreciate those different mysteries what they will often say is israel crucified the messiah and so what god decided is i'm done with israel and so the body of christ has replaced israel now that's just not true the first problem with that thinking is if you say that god is fully done with israel and the body of christ has taken its place then you make god a liar as to everything he said in time past because he has all these promises as to what he's going to accomplish with israel and you just say well he just he switched it up they don't get it now the body of christ gets it do you see how that makes god a liar that's an enormous problem but the second thing that does if you say that the body of christ is the replacement for israel then where does the body of christ have to end up for all eternity on the earth and then the problem in the heavens is unresolved it's fundamentally different people that are part of different programs that have different inheritances and you have to keep those things separate to understand what's being done get with me first corinthians 15. first corinthians 15. now there's a couple more mysteries that paul mentions which we're going to look at just very briefly here first corinthians 15 51 behold i show you a mystery we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptable and we shall be changed so the mystery in first corinthians 15 of us all being changed is a reference to what is commonly known as the rapture in scripture it's also called the adoption it's described as being caught up in 1st thessalonians chapter 4. now many folks will say well you can read about the rapture in matthew 24 but you really can't first corinthians 15 told you it was a mystery that it was hidden now just think through this with me how do you know that the rapture is not in matthew 24 because this whole time period itself was still a secret in matthew 24 wasn't it it hadn't been revealed the body of christ hadn't been revealed and the rapture which is an event solely for the body of christ hadn't been revealed so the catching up is a mystery get second thessalonians chapter 2 2 thessalonians chapter 2 verse 7 2 thessalonians 2 verse 7. for the mystery of iniquity doth already work only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way so scripture says there's a mystery of iniquity i want you to think through this with me just for a moment when the lord says this generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled how long is a generation in the scriptures 40 years so when he stands right here and says this this generation shall not pass away to all these things be fulfilled what he's really saying is the second coming is going to happen within your lifetime it'll be within 40 years that's exactly what he's saying well when he says this in a.d 32 33 decide whatever year you think it was did it actually happen it didn't and it didn't because god interrupted time to insert the dispensation of grace now when god did that he didn't say these things are never going to happen but what he did effectively say is they're not going to happen now they're going to be pushed off into the future when he did that you know what satan said i have more time to prepare and that's what the mystery of iniquity is so think with me about this just for a minute when god tells abram i'm going to bring you into the promised land does he bring him into the promised land immediately no where does israel spend a couple hundred years in egypt right when god brings israel out of egypt at the exodus what happens when they send spies into the land the spies come back and they say this is not a good idea what's in the land giants fortified cities is actually the term that's used here's what happened god tells abraham he's going to give him the land in the future not right now in the future who was paying attention satan says oh good to know well if you want to give them the land and you're not giving it to them right now guess what i can do i can put my people in the land and if they're going to spend a couple hundred years in egypt you know what we can do we can have fortified cities we can have giants so when you jehovah god want to bring your people into the land there'll be an argument about it isn't that what happened that's exactly what happened in other words because satan knows god's word is true and god says i'm going to do something satan knows that's what's going to happen and so what he does between the time of learning it and when it's going to happen is he says i'll prepare so i can oppose what you're doing so now ponder this the lord says this generation shall not pass away to all these things be fulfilled satan knows there's only 40 years till this happens right and by the way what happens in the middle of the 70th week does anyone remember according to revelation 12 there's war in heaven and who loses satan and his angels are cast out of heaven do you think he likes that he doesn't like that so satan knows this event is coming at this point he thought it was 40 years when the dispensation of grace is interposed he realizes wait a minute i have more time to prepare and that's why he has what scripture calls the mystery of iniquity he knows this time is coming but he has more time to make preparation for it and that's what's going on during the dispensation of grace look with me at first timothy 4 and uh we're close to done first timothy chapter 4 verse 1. now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times shem some shall depart from the faith giving he to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils a very helpful verse people think that what devils do today is they haunt houses they possess people they cause objects to fly around the room they do this that and the other what does scripture tell us that devils do they have false doctrines if you don't know how your enemy is going to attack you will not be prepared to defend against it if your enemy can get you to think that they're going to attack in a different direction from what they actually attack you'll be vulnerable won't you but isn't that i mean you already know this but isn't that essentially what happened at d-day who was the greatest american general not involved in d-day patton right the germans were absolutely utterly convinced that patton was america america's best general and that he would be instrumental in any attack on the german interest so what america did is they put patent hundreds of miles from where they were actually attacking because they wanted to distract the germans they wanted them to commit forces the invasion of europe was going to be exceedingly costly so what they wanted to do is they wanted to split the german defenses and not have the german heavily fortified at the point of attack so i'm not going to go lengthy into the lengthy history lesson but the whole point of it was we need to deceive the enemy as to the nature of where we're going to attack because if they understand exactly where we're going to attack they will be prepared they will be fortified and the cost will be horrendous that was exactly the concern well guess what here's how satan operates today he wants the church the body of christ to be unaware to not understand where he will attack so that our focus is elsewhere and he can blindside us from a direction that we are not looking for the attack what first timothy 4 tells us is that the nature of his attack today is through doctrines of devils which means that what we need to do is we need to be so established in the truth of god's word we can identify those attacks from where they're coming get with me first corinthians 4. so this is the last verse we'll look at first corinthians chapter 4 verse 1. this is a verse about stewardship first corinthians 4 verse 1 let a man sow account of us as of the ministers of christ notice and stewards of the mysteries of god when people think of the word stewardship the first thing they always think of is what money right and stewardship is just a way of talking about giving in most church circles if people talk about it other than that they talk about it as to time you only have so many moments in the day you have only so many moments in your life how do you choose to invest those moments when paul talks about stewardship he specifically calls out stewardship of the mysteries here is what's happened as you think about proverbs buy the truth and sell it not with all thy getting get understanding in other words the most important thing you can do is to get wisdom from god's word there's nothing that compares to that the reason he talks about stewardship of the mysteries is during the dispensation of grace the church as a whole is completely unaware of what the mysteries are for example we talked today about the mystery of god we talked about the mystery of the father the mystery of christ what would happen if you go out and christendom and you just say hey tell me what the mystery of the father is tell me what the mystery of god is what would you get blank stares right tell me the difference between what god is accomplishing with his earthly people israel and his heavenly people the body of christ tell me the different programs tell me the different aims that they are trying to accomplish what would you get silence see what what's happening just just the reality of it is the vast majority the vast majority of the church has no idea what's going on they have no idea of the unique purpose of the body of christ they have no idea of the distinction between the body of christ and israel and hence they can't really know what god is doing today and how they fit into god's purpose today that's why paul makes it such a point in first corinthians four verse one you need to be stewards of the mysteries those truths those mysteries that were revealed to paul are critically important for your spiritual life today so that's why we're spending a little time looking at that so thank you thanks for your attention uh we'll uh we'll close there let me close this in a word of prayer and then we'll we'll stand and sing father god thank you for this time we can meet we thank you for the revelations that you have included in the scriptures we thank you that those truths can can edify and and establish our souls so that we're not easily moved so that we have the understanding that you want us to have and that we can be comforted by it we pray that no one would would leave here without a clear understanding of the gospel a clear understanding of their salvation and we just rejoice lord in all that you have done it's in the name of the lord jesus christ we pray amen all right let's stand if if you would and we'll sing there should be a little sheet there and it's the song so [Music] [Music] do [Applause] so [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Columbus Bible Church

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Keywords: grace, dispensation, dispensational, dispensationalism, rightdivide, rightlydivide, biblestudy, kingjames, kingjamesbible, apostlepaul, bible, rightdivision, midacts, paulinetruth, mid-acts, pauline, mystery, rightly divide, bible study, king james, king james bible, apostle paul, pauline truth

Id: qoPnSEY7dz8

Length: 62min 55sec (3775 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 18 2021