{"id":18475,"date":"2018-03-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-03-18T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/ecclesiology-016\/"},"modified":"2018-03-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-03-18T05:00:00","slug":"ecclesiology-016","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/ecclesiology-016\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecclesiology 016"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[93],"series_event":[484],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18475","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-galatians","series_event-ecclesiology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Ecclesiology 016","sermon_date":"20180318","sermon_month":"3","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":5569,"sermon_slides":5571,"sermon_mp3":5581,"sermon_id":"318181112543","series_or_event":484,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":93,"chapter_and_verse":"6:16","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nEcclesiology 16\n\n3-18-18\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 16\u00a0\u00a0 Galatians 6:16\n\nFather, we\u2019re grateful for this morning, grateful for a new day to serve You and to learn of You, to worship You. We thank You, Lord, for the privilege that You\u2019ve given us to worship You in spirit and truth and I just ask that we would do that freely today, whatever is encumbering us in terms of sin or just the wear and tear of living in a fallen world.\u00a0 We just take those right now, Father, in a moment of silence and deposit those before Your throne of grace.\u00a0 And we ask, Father, that You renew a right spirit in us so that we can be freely taught this morning by Your Spirit from Your Word and we\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name and God\u2019s people said\u2026 Amen.\n\nCome on everybody, the water\u2019s fine!\u00a0 If you need a handout just put your hand up.\u00a0 And if we could open our Bibles to the Book of Galatians, chapter 6 and verse 16.\u00a0 And it\u2019s been two weeks\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I think since I\u2019ve been with you.\u00a0 One of those weeks I was in Idaho, last week of course was Shahram.\u00a0 The only problem I have with Shahram is he doesn\u2019t come out and tell you how he feels about things.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 I don\u2019t like these beat around the bush guys.\u00a0 I\u2019m just kidding, I thought what he said was great and he continued on at the Chafer conference giving more teaching on his expertise, and those are all archives by the way, our sessions here were archived on our SLBC web page and Shahram\u2019s talks over there are archived on Dean Bible Ministries.org.\n\nSo since we had kind of a hiatus you may not remember this but we\u2019ve been studying in this class the Doctrine of the Church, which is a subject called Ecclesiology.\u00a0 Does that ring a bell at all?\u00a0 And here is the big outline we\u2019ve been following on the doctrine of the church.\u00a0 We started with the definition of the church, the distinction between the universal and the local church.\u00a0 We\u2019ve looked at word pictures for the church, the origin of the church, when the church started and we spent a lot of time on the differences between Israel and the church.\n\nThe last time we were together, the last time I was with you we were on Roman numeral VI which is the concept of the intercalation, which is a fancy word, it has a simple definition.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what we\u2019ve covered on the concept of the intercalation, about ten points here.\u00a0 Number one, God\u2019s program for Israel is conditional or unconditional?\u00a0 Unconditional.\u00a0 Number 2, God\u2019s program as revealed in the Old Testament, as of today, remains unfulfilled.\u00a0 Number 3, the promises that God made to Israel that we find in the Old Testament cannot be rewritten or deliteralized.\u00a0 The plain method of interpretation is how those prophecies yet to be fulfilled will be fulfilled.\u00a0 Number 4, those promises are completely truthful.\u00a0 In other words, God has to move heaven and earth to see that those prophecies are fulfilled.\u00a0 Which leads us to number 5, that God has a future program for Israel.\u00a0 That cannot be denied.\u00a0 And no matter how people try to rewrite those prophecies or come up with number 6, some kind of explanation as to why those prophecies are being fulfilled now, none of those explanations work.\u00a0 So the first six points really show you that God is not through with Israel as a nation.\n\nAnd yet, number 7, God is clearly at work today, isn\u2019t He.\u00a0 I mean, we\u2019re sort of evidence of that aren\u2019t we.\u00a0 Here we are in the 21st<\/sup> century saved, we\u2019re on a different continent, the Holy Spirit is inside of us, Christ has been building His church, His body, worldwide for two thousand years.\u00a0 So the big question is well then, how do you explain the present work of God in the age of the church?\u00a0 And a lot of people will simply say well, we\u2019re the continuation of Israel.\u00a0 Or we are Israel, or we are the new Israel, or something like that.\u00a0 And so when you get into this subject of ecclesiology, the doctrine of the church\u2026 and I\u2019ll be showing you some citations from some sources where people say this all the time, people think that we are the new Israel.\u00a0 And yet to reach that conclusion you have to deliteralize Israel\u2019s promises, as we\u2019ve tried to explain.\n\nSo since the current age of the church, that\u2019s been going on for the last two thousand years is not Israel what explanation do you give it?\u00a0 Well in ecclesiology we have to define the identity of the church and so we have defined it as follows:\u00a0 The present work of God is an interruption, or an interval, or a parenthesis, or a hiatus, these are all synonyms, different words, same meaning, or (here\u2019s the fancy \u201ci\u201d word, intercalation which means an interruption in God\u2019s work with Israel.\n\nAnd this becomes so critical because you can\u2019t really live out your identity unless you know what that identity is.\u00a0 And because so much of the church feels that they are the new Israel in what\u2019s called replacement theology, they\u2019re confused as to what their task is.\u00a0 They put upon their own shoulders national functions, or Israel type functions.\u00a0 So that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to deal with there in number 8, we\u2019re trying to explain the identity of the church and the best explanation I\u2019ve ever heard of it that doesn\u2019t rewrite Israel\u2019s promises is to call the church an intercalation which means an interruption.\u00a0 Now this term intercalation, now I\u2019ve added a few slides last night so some of these\u00a0 you may not have on your handout, but they\u2019re there in the prior handout that we gave to you a couple of weeks ago and all of this stuff is of course on the SLBC website under Sermon Archives.\n\nThis concept of an intercalation is not a word that I came up with; it\u2019s a word that Lewis Sperry Chafer used in his systematic theology published all the way back around 1947-1948.\u00a0 Let me just read you this quote real fast.\u00a0 He says: In face, the new unrevealed purpose of God in the out calling of a heavenly people from Jews and Gentiles is so divergent with respect to the divine purpose toward Israel, which purpose preceded it and will yet follow it, that the term parenthetical<\/em>, commonly employed to describe the new age purpose,\u201d but Chafer doesn\u2019t even like the word parenthetical, he says, \u201cA parenthetical portion sustains some direct and indirect relation to that which goes before or that which follows: but the present age purpose is thus related and therefore is more properly termed an\u201d here\u2019s the \u201ci\u201d word, I\u2019ve got it embolden there, and italicized, an\u00a0 intercalation.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 The appropriateness of this word will be seen in the fact that as an interpolation is formed by inserting a word or a phrase into a context so when the intercalation is formed by introducing a day or a period of time into the calendar.\u00a0 The present age of the church is an intercalation into the revealed calendar or program of God as that program was foreseen by the prophets of old.\u00a0 Such indeed is the precise character of the present age.\u201d\u00a0 [vol. 4, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1993), 41.\n\nAnd I love reading these old guys because I like their vocabulary, I enjoy the complex sentence structure that they used in that day compared to the little tweets we send out today, with little abbreviations and things like that.\u00a0 And it\u2019s almost like the further in time\u00a0 you go from the present the smarter people get.\u00a0 Have you noticed that?\u00a0 And we think we\u2019re the smartest generation that\u2019s ever lived because we have Twitter and Facebook. I would argue that Twitter and Facebook have made us really stupid because we don\u2019t even know how to communicate with each other any more except in these little soundbites because Twitter only gives you a certain number of characters to get your ideas across.\n\nThink about Lewis Sperry Chafer on Twitter, could he have communicated this in a tweet?\u00a0 And he has to fill up a little space on this because this is a complex idea and what he\u2019s trying to say here is that the work of God that began on the day of Pentecost and will continue up until the rapture, this unrevealed program which had never been disclosed in the Old Testament, is so unique and the differences between Israel and the church are so profound that you just can\u2019t call it the new Israel or some kind of extension of Israel.\u00a0 The uniqueness is so profound and the only description that applies would be this age is an interruption in God\u2019s program with Israel.\u00a0 We know that God is going to execute His program with Israel because His promises say that.\u00a0 We know that God is at work today and yet if\u00a0 you\u2019re into geometry and points of correspondence and things like that, you look at the present age and the present work of God that there\u2019s not enough points of correspond\u00addence with what God has said to Israel to call the church Israel.\u00a0 It\u2019s got to be an intercalation or an interruption.\n\nSo that is where we are as the people of God; we are this unique work of God taking place in between the 69th<\/sup> and 70th<\/sup> week of what?\u00a0 It starts with a D, we\u2019re studying it on Sunday morning, Daniel.\u00a0 You say well why does the pastor take so long on the Seventy Weeks of Daniel prophecy?\u00a0 I mean, we were in Daniel\u2019s Seventy Weeks prophecy longer than Daniel was.\u00a0 Why go into all that detail?\u00a0 Because that detail is necessary to understand our identity in the present and if you don\u2019t understand who you are in God you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re supposed to be doing. And you know when your business is suffering and\u00a0 you hire a consultant to come in and fix business problems, and the consultant is a good one, generally the first type of question a consultant asks is why do you exist?\u00a0 Why does this business exist?\u00a0 I mean, what is it uniquely doing that no other business, or your competitors are not able to do?\u00a0 And you go and you ask employees of businesses about their mission statement or their vision statement and they can rattle on and on about balance sheets and income statements and bank accounts and really the consultant is looking for something far more fundamental.\u00a0 Why do you exist?\u00a0 Can you articulate in a sentence of two why this business exists.\u00a0 And if you can\u2019t do that then you\u2019re going to start to struggle as a business.\n\nAnd if that\u2019s true with a business think about the church.\u00a0 I mean, why is there so much confusion today about what churches are supposed to be doing, what our calling is, what our task is?\u00a0 The reason is leadership really has never given themselves to the study of ecclesiology, and in fact, the leaders of the church don\u2019t really understand why they exist as under God.\u00a0 And as Howard Hendricks said, what did he say\u2026 if there\u2019s a\u2026 I\u2019m going to butcher the statement, \u201cif there\u2019s a confusion in the pulpit there\u2019ll be a fog in the pew,\u201d something to that extent.\u00a0 So if the leaders are confused then the laity are confused.\u00a0\u00a0 And your average church leader today really can\u2019t articulate why they exist or who they are as a unique work of God.\u00a0 And if the leaders can\u2019t articulate it the sheep can\u2019t articulate it either, because the shepherds are supposed to be leading the sheep. So that\u2019s why I spent the time on this Seventy Weeks prophecy.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I wanted\u00a0 you to see there\u2019s a gap of time of undisclosed duration terminating week sixty-nine.\u00a0 Week seventy is yet to come and right there in the middle of that God has inserted something so unique that the Old Testament prophets themselves didn\u2019t even understand it.\u00a0 It\u2019s something brand new, something foreign. We are not Israel, we are intercalation in God\u2019s program with Israel.\n\nSo there we sit, in between the 69th<\/sup> week, which has already been fulfilled, and the\u00a0 70th<\/sup> week, which is yet to come.\u00a0 There we sit and this program has been going on for the last two thousand\u00a0 years, called an intercalation.\u00a0 So we are that unique work of God in the gap between the first 69 weeks of Daniel\u2019s prophecy and the 70th<\/sup> week.\u00a0 And remember to whom was the 70 weeks prophecy given?\u00a0 Remember I gave you ten facts on that.\u00a0 Daniel 9:24 indicates that the prophecy was given to who?\u00a0 God\u2019s people and God\u2019s city.\u00a0 [Daniel 9:24, \u201cSeventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.\u201d]\n\nSo the first sixty-nine weeks concern Israel, the seventieth week, yet to come, concerns Israel, and what is God doing right in the interim, in between that gap, that\u2019s where you fit, that\u2019s where I fit, that\u2019s where the body of Christ fits that\u2019s been going on for the last two thousand years, this unique work of God which is very foreign to anything God has done with Israel, called an intercalation.\u00a0 We are not the new Israel; we are not an extension of Israel.\u00a0 We are something so different that the only term Lewis Sperry Chafer could conceptualize to articulate this was an intercalation.\n\nNow once you start talking this way you\u2019ve got to put your helmet on because you\u2019re going to be attacked immediately.\u00a0 Reformed theology hates this idea that the church is an intercalation.\u00a0 What they want everybody to believe is that the church has replaced Israel and the church has now become the new Israel.\u00a0 In other words, they\u2019re basic ecclesiology is God is finished with Israel as\u00a0 a nation, there is no future for the nation of Israel.\u00a0 The only hope for the Jews is that they could get saved in the church age.\u00a0 But other than that, all of the national promises are gone, those are done away with and all of those promises have been\u2026 watch this now, spiritually, not literally, spiritually transferred to the church.\n\nSo promises about they\u2019ll beat their swords into plowshares, things like that, they don\u2019t interpret that literally as a millennial reign of Christ on earth.\u00a0 They say that\u2019s Jesus reigning in our hearts today\u2026 spiritual peace.\u00a0\u00a0 And they do this with almost every prophecy that we would understand that is yet to be fulfilled for Israel, it suddenly gets repackaged and the church has now superseded Israel.\u00a0 Sometimes this doctrine goes by the name supersessionism, replacement theology and supersessionism are synonyms.\u00a0 It\u2019s called supersessionism because the church supersedes Israel.\u00a0 See that, replacement theology.\n\nAnd it\u2019s interesting, not only do they have to deliteralize Israel\u2019s promises to get this to work but they have to only transfer the blessings to the church because when you get into the particulars of the Mosaic Covenant you\u2019ll see that Israel had blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience.\u00a0 The curses are never transferred to the church, isn\u2019t that convenient.\u00a0 We\u2019ll leave those behind with the stubborn Jewish people but we\u2019ll take all the blessings.\u00a0 And you say well do people actually believe this?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what every Christian out there believes but here\u2019s what I would say: 80-90% of the Christian world, Christendom, by way of denominational affiliation is attending a church that is connected to replacement theology.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how good each pastor of those churches do communicating replacement theology but when you look at the confessions and the creeds of most churches by way of denominational affiliation, almost every single one of them that I can think of is connected to replacement theology.\u00a0 So it\u2019s no doubt that the church is confused on its mission when the church can\u2019t even define who it is, right?\u00a0 Or what it\u2019s identity is, and here at Sugar Land Bible Church we reject supersessionism, we reject replacement theology, we reject the idea that the church is just an extension of Israel.\u00a0 It is NOT an extension of Israel, it\u2019s unique in comparison to Israel and that\u2019s why I spent all of that time in prior sessions going through the 24 differences between Israel and the church.\u00a0 So we are an intercalation and once you start articulating that you have to put your helmet on because Reformed theology hates this very idea.\n\nNow here\u2019s a citation from the late R. C. Sproul\u2019s magazine and this is what it says, a quote rather.\u00a0 \u201cWe are not dispensationalists here....We believe that the church is essentially Israel.\u201d\u00a0 Whoops, I disagree.\u00a0 \u201cWe believe that the answer to, \u2018What about the Jews?\u2019 is, \u2018Here we are.\u2019 We deny that the church is God\u2019s \u2018plan B.\u2019<\/u> We deny that we are living in God\u2019s redemptive parenthesis<\/u>.\u201d\u00a0 They don\u2019t like the Chaferian model.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cThere, we are again one people. In His holy and heavenly temple there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, pre-mil nor post-mil.\u201d It\u2019s one big happy family mentality.\u00a0 \u201cThere, we are all together,\u201d watch this, \u201cthe Israel of God, princes with God, and the ekklesia<\/em>, the set apart ones.\u201d\u00a0 [From Table Talk<\/em> magazine, Spring of 1999, p. 2 (inside cover), by R. C. Sproul Jr., editor, emphasis is mine.]\n\nSo notice what he says here, if you believe in the parenthesis idea, the strongman argument that\u2019s brought against your position is you believe that the church is God\u2019s plan B.\u00a0 Now you all know what a straw man\u2019s argument is, right?\u00a0 It\u2019s a logical fallacy, it\u2019s a misrepresentation of what your opponent believes.\u00a0 And what you do is you tear down, not what your opponent believes, you tear down the miscaricature that you\u2019ve just manufactured.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a man of straw because a man of straw falls over very quickly, right?\u00a0 And it\u2019s a logical fallacy because you\u2019re not dealing with what your opponent actually believes, you\u2019re dealing with what you just manufactured concerning what your opponent believes.\u00a0 And if you want to see examples of straw man fallacies just watch politicians, they do the this to each other all the time on both sides of the aisle.\u00a0 If you vote for my opponent my opponent is going to take away your social security check when the poor guy never said anything about social security.\u00a0 So you\u2019re tearing down an image that you\u2019ve created.\n\nSo when they call us plan B theology that is not what we believe; that\u2019s a misrepresentation.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because Paul, in the Book of Ephesians, chapter 3 and verse 11, and keep in mind that Ephesians 2 and 3, probably better than any place in the whole Bible I can think of, describes this mystery of the church age that we\u2019re in.\u00a0 The mystery did not start with the pen of Paul.\u00a0 The mystery started in Acts 2 but Paul is uniquely set aside by God to explain the mystery.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have the 13 letters of Paul you don\u2019t have an explanation of the mystery.\u00a0 All you would know from the Bible would be Israel, Israel, Israel, Israel. Even Jesus Christ ministered under the dispensation of the Law, Galatians 4:4. [Galatians 4:4, \u201cBut when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 Had it not been for God\u2019s unique work with Paul we would have virtually no explanation of the mystery that we\u2019re in.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the writings of the Apostle Paul are such a big deal.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I really don\u2019t like those bumper stickers that say \u201cWhat Would Jesus Do?\u201d\u00a0 Have you seen those?\u00a0 And I really, and I don\u2019t know how this will ever change unless we start publishing new Bibles, but you notice that when you go through the Gospels, did you notice that in many of your translations Christ\u2019s words are in red?\u00a0 And the idea that you get from that is well the reason those are in red is because those are the important words.\n\nNow obviously what Jesus did and said was very important because He was the incarnate Son of God.\u00a0 But you have to look at very carefully at what Jesus said in the Upper Room.\u00a0 He said I have many things to share with you but you are not yet able to understand.\u00a0 And yet when the Spirit of truth comes He will guide you into all truth. \u00a0[John 16:12, \u201cI have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.\u00a0 [13] But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.\u201d]\n\nSo Jesus Himself in such a statement never claimed to be the final authority of divine revelation even though He is uniquely the incarnate Son of God even though we have red letter editions of the Bible, even though we walk around with little [can't understand word] and bumper stickers that say \u201cWhat would Jesus do?\u201d\u00a0 If you look at what Jesus actually said in the Upper Room you\u2019ll see He said there\u2019s greater truth coming and I\u2019m not going to give it to you now, here in the Upper Room because you\u2019re not yet able to receive it. \u00a0So when did this greater truth come?\u00a0 The mystery starts in Acts 2 and Paul, the apostle, is set aside to explain the mystery with his 13 letters.\u00a0 Most prominently he does it in Ephesians 2 and 3.\n\nNow when you understand this you\u2019ll begin to understand the providence of God and the sovereignty of God as to why Paul was in prison so frequently.\u00a0 In fact, I think it\u2019s in 2 Corinthians 11 where he\u2019s talking about his hardships; he talks about his many imprisonments.\u00a0 I mean, here\u2019s a guy that was in prison in Philippi, Acts 16, later in prison in Caesarea, ultimately he spends two years in Roman imprisonment.\u00a0 He gets out of Roman imprisonment, the Book of Acts doesn\u2019t record this but we know that He had a ministry of about, maybe five years, where he wrote the pastoral letters.\u00a0 And then at the end of his life where does he go right back into?\u00a0 Back into prison.\u00a0 Why did God have this guy in prison so much?\u00a0 Well, you\u2019re dealing with a first century prison; there\u2019s no Wi-fi connections, there\u2019s no weight room, there\u2019s no cable television.\u00a0 I mean, there\u2019s virtually nothing to distract\u00a0 you.\u00a0 So what is he in a position to receive?\u00a0 He is in a position to receive mystery truth about the church that we would hardly know anything about had God not worked providentially and sovereignly in Paul\u2019s life.\n\nSo if you were just to study the epistles of Paul you would get a lot correct, you wouldn\u2019t get the whole revelation of God but you would have a tremendous understanding as to what God is doing, particularly Ephesians chapters 2 and 3, where he really gets into the issue.\u00a0 I mean, what is the church?\u00a0 How is the church supposed to be governed.\u00a0 I mean, we\u2019re in the process of selecting elders.\u00a0 Well, who gave us the idea that we\u2019re supposed to have elders?\u00a0 And who are deacons, where do you get all that teaching?\u00a0 You\u2019re not going to get it in the gospels.\u00a0 Jesus was ministering under the Law when that was written.\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019re certainly not going to get it in the Old Testament because there you have Judges and Kings and people like that.\u00a0 And you\u2019re certainly not going to find it in the Book of Revelation because that\u2019s primarily, after chapter 3, describing what God is going to do on the earth after the church has been removed.\n\nSo where would you go to get a description of elders.\u00a0 I mean, what are elders supposed to be like?\u00a0 Do they all have to have an MBA from Harvard.\u00a0\u00a0 Is that what God is looking for in elders?\u00a0 In fact, what you\u2019ll discover in 1 Timothy 3 is God has an explanation for us.\u00a0 And who wrote 1 Timothy 3, any guesses?\u00a0 The Apostle Paul.\u00a0 So all of these things in the church age that we take for granted we would have virtually no explanation of if it wasn\u2019t for Paul.\n\nNow Paul, in Ephesians 3:11 makes this statement when he says, \u201cThis\u201d the church, the mystery he\u2019s talking about, \u201cwas in accordance with the\u201d what?\u00a0 what purpose? \u201ceternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s the church.\u00a0 The church is not plan B, oh my gosh, God is up there slapping His forehead, what am I going to do, My chosen nation rejected My Son, I\u2019m so worried, so upset, what am I going to do?\u00a0 Oh, I know what I\u2019ll do as an afterthought, as plan B, I\u2019ll create the church.\n\nAnd in the citation here from R. C. Sproul that\u2019s how he misrepresents the way we think, he calls us plan B theology.\u00a0 And when you get into the mindset of Reformed theologians they call us this all the time, plan B theology.\u00a0 The problem guys is\u00a0 you just created a strawman fallacy; we don\u2019t believe in plan B theology.\u00a0 How could there be a plan B when God is executing the plan.\u00a0 Paul is very clear here that the church, although unrevealed prior to this point in time, is part of not just the purpose of God but the eternal purpose of God.\u00a0 God always knew this was going to happen, it just hadn\u2019t been disclosed yet.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 The church was always contemplated in the mind of God; it just hadn\u2019t been disclosed yet.\u00a0 Who am I going to use, God says, to disclose this plan?\u00a0 I know what I\u2019ll use, I\u2019ll use this man, the Apostle Paul.\u00a0 And just to make sure he\u2019s got plenty of time to write this out and work on it I will orchestrate his life in such a way that he will spend a lot of his life in solitude.\u00a0 You see how the whole thing is coming together.\n\nNow one of the things that happens to people when we finally realize the divine truth is we have a tendency to get over exuberant about it and we become unbalanced the other way.\u00a0 So a lot of people will look at the church as the heavenly people of God, which it is, but then they will simultaneously say the church has no role whatsoever in the program that God is going to execute with national Israel in terms of the millennial kingdom.\u00a0 And that is to become out of balance the other direction because the Bible is very clear that we have an earthly role.\u00a0 If I\u2019m understanding my eschatology correctly we are with the Lord in the Father\u2019s house for seven years.\u00a0 Jesus made a reference to this in John 14:1-4; He\u2019s coming to receive us unto Himself and wherever He is we will be also which I think is probably the infant description of the rapture there.\u00a0 John 14:1-4.\n\n[John 14:1-4, \u201c\u2018Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. [2] In My Father\u2019s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. [3] If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there<\/em> you may be also. [4] And you know the way where I am going.\u2019 [5] Thomas said to Him, \u2018Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?\u201d\u2019]\n\nSo there we are, in heaven, with the Lord for seven\u00a0 years. But seven years is not a long period of time, is it?\u00a0 Because Jesus, at the end of that seven year period is returning where? \u00a0Where is He coming back to?\u00a0 He\u2019s coming back to the earth.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the prophet, Zechariah 14 talks about His feet will touch the Mount of Olives and the Mount of Olives will split.\u00a0 That sounds sort of physical to me, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 And that\u2019s why when the disciples, after the ascension in Acts 1, where Jesus went to the Father\u2019s house to prepare these dwelling places for us, they\u2019re kind of looking up into heaven.\u00a0 And remember what the angel said?\u00a0 Why are you looking up there, don\u2019t you know that this Jesus is going to come back just like He left.\u00a0 So how did He leave?\u00a0 Physically, visibly, bodily, from the Mount of Olives.\u00a0 Well how is He going to come back?\u00a0 Physically, visibly, bodily to the Mount of Olives.\u00a0 And if what He says is true, and it has to be true because God said it, John 14:1-4, that we will be forever with the Lord.\u00a0 Guess who\u2019s coming back with Him.\u00a0 His church.\u00a0 His church is coming back with Him to this earth to rule and reign under His delegated authority.\n\nNow does He need us to rule and reign?\u00a0 Absolutely not!\u00a0 He could get the job done by Himself but he has chosen to involve us in the process because it\u2019s a privilege to be used by God, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 It\u2019s like when my daughter was really little, I was trying to get her to empty the dishwasher, she was so small, she really didn\u2019t know where things went, she couldn\u2019t reach up to where the upper cupboards are and now she\u2019s taller than my wife so now she has no excuse, right?\u00a0 But I wanted to kind of give her the privilege of participating in chores because don\u2019t we feel a little bit better about ourselves when we\u2019re contributing to something?\u00a0 So I sat there and I thought to myself gosh, it\u2019s taking a long time, I could just get this done in a couple of minutes.\u00a0 Then I thought to myself, well I\u2019d better not do that because I would be depriving her of the privilege of contributing.\n\nThe reality of the situation is God could just come back, He could expel Satan into the abyss, He could rule and reign all by Himself for a thousand years, He doesn\u2019t need any help.\u00a0 But he wants to involve us in the process for the joy that we experience in it as a contributor.\u00a0 So we will be with Christ on planet earth functioning under His delegated authority in the millennial kingdom.\u00a0 And you see, this is the part of the equation that oftentimes is missed because we\u2019re so exuberant about how the church is a heavenly people.\u00a0 And it\u2019s not Israel, and it\u2019s different than Israel and I would say \u201cAmen\u201d to all of that, but what I want us to understand is we have an earthly role.\u00a0 In fact, if I\u2019m\u00a0 understanding my eschatology correctly our heavenly role is pretty minor, it\u2019s important but it only goes for seven years; the earthly role goes for a thousand years.\n\nSo your Bible in the New Testament and the Pauline letters communicates this all of the time.\u00a0 It\u2019s a reminder of our ultimate earthly destiny.\u00a0 So over in 1 Corinthians 6 you have the Corinthians suing each other in front of pagan judges.\u00a0 And Paul\u2019s point is well what kind of testimony is that, in front of an unbelieving judge?\u00a0 I mean, didn\u2019t Jesus say all men will know\u00a0 you are My disciples by your ability to win arguments?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t say that, does it?\u00a0 \u201cAll men will know that you are My disciples by you love for one another.\u201d\u00a0 [John 13:35]\n\nSo the fact that you\u2019re suing each other in front of a pagan judge you\u2019ve destroyed the witness of the church and Paul says you\u2019re defeated already.\u00a0 And in the process of this rebuke Paul reminds the Corinthians of their earthly role, and notice what he says in 1 Corinthians 6:1-3.\u00a0 He says, \u201cDoes any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints?\u00a0 [2] Or do you not know\u201d watch this \u201cthat the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to<\/em> constitute<\/em> the smallest law courts? [3] Do you not know that we will judge angels?\u201d\u00a0 And please don\u2019t ask me what that means, I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how we\u2019re going to judge the angels.\u00a0 Is it the good angels, the fallen angels, what does that mean?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if I know, I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s important that I know.\u00a0 What is important is the last part of verse 3, \u201cHow much more matters of this life?\u201d\n\nI mean you guys are so cantankerous with each other and fighting each other that you can\u2019t even\u00a0 get your differences resolved in house, you\u2019ve got to go outside to get your differences resolved\u00a0 and in the process you\u2019re destroying the witness of the church in front of this unbelieving judge.\u00a0 And He says don\u2019t you understand that in the millennial kingdom you\u2019re going to be ruling and reigning to such an extent that you\u2019re even going to sit in judgment on the angels?\u00a0 And if that\u2019s your destiny can\u2019t you get your act together with this little problem that you have over here.\u00a0 So his whole rebuke is a reminder of the earthly destiny of the church.\u00a0 And this is why we shouldn\u2019t get so exuberant about the Israel\/church distinction that we cut ourselves off completely from God\u2019s future program with Israel.\u00a0 We have a role in it.\n\nThese rebukes continue over in 2 Timothy 2:11-13, Paul writes to Timothy, \u201cIt is a trustworthy statement:\u201d and I always crack up when it says that because of course it\u2019s a trustworthy statement, it\u2019s in the Bible, but just in case you forgot, here is a trustworthy statement, \u201cFor if we died with Him, we will also live with Him;\u201d look at this, [12] If we endure, we will also\u201d what? \u201creign with Him;\u201d oh no, look at this, \u201cIf we deny Him, He also will deny us;\u201d\u00a0 [13] But \u201cIf we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.\u201d\u00a0 What is that talking about?\n\nWell, Paul is in Rome, in prison, he\u2019s about to die.\u00a0 He says in 2 Timothy 4:6, \u201cFor the time of my departure is at hand,\u201d he has installed into office over the church at Ephesus a church that Paul himself planted on missionary journey three, where Acts 19:10 says all in Asia heard the Word of the Lord.\u00a0 [Acts 19:10, \u201cThis took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.\u201d]\u00a0 And Paul did all of that without a Wi-Fi connection; can you imagine.\n\nNow Paul is in prison and Timothy, this very young person, who he has installed into this position of authority as the pastor-teacher over the church at Ephesus is becoming what we would say wobbly.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t know if he likes what he\u2019s gotten into.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because he now, late in Paul\u2019s life, there\u2019s a psychopath.\u00a0 Do you think we have psychotic world rulers today?\u00a0 That\u2019s nothing new, Timothy had to deal with a guy named Nero who was actually lighting Christians on fire and using these burning Christians to illumine his garden parties. It was under Nero that the coliseum comes into existence where Christians are thrown to the ravenous beasts and the crowd would cheer as the Christians were dying.\n\nThis is what Timothy is up against.\u00a0 Not only that, he\u2019s very young because in the first letter he says don\u2019t let people look down on you because you\u2019re\u00a0 young.\u00a0 And not only that he\u2019s very sickly, because Paul in the first letter, and the Baptists don\u2019t like this verse, but he says take a little wine for your upset stomach, not a little bit.\u00a0 [1 Timothy 5:23, \u201cNo longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.\u201d]\n\nAnd so you\u2019re dealing with a young guy who\u2019s obviously saved.\u00a0 I mean, would Paul put an unsaved person into authority over the church at Ephesus?\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense. He\u2019s obviously saved.\u00a0 He calls him \u201cmy son in the faith\u201d over and over again.\u00a0 So what is the issue with Timothy?\u00a0 He\u2019s just getting wobbly, he thinking of shrinking backwards.\n\nSo Paul here challenges him with the idea that you\u2019re going to reign with me alongside Christ. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0[2 Timothy 2:11] \u201cIt is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him;\u201d but Timothy, you\u2019re already identified with Christ!\u00a0 And then he says, [12] \u201cIf we endure, we\u201d what? \u201cwill also reign with Him;\u201d now Timothy, here\u2019s the deal, if you shrink back\u00a0 your salvation is not in question.\u00a0 What is in question is the degree of authority that you will wield in the future earthly kingdom because didn\u2019t Jesus, in Luke 19,-verse 17 and verse 19 put one guy in charge of what?\u00a0 Five cities isn\u2019t it; another guy gets in charge of ten cities and we say well wait a minute, we want everything to be equal, we all want ten cities.\u00a0 [Luke 19:17, \u201cAnd he said to him, 'Well done, good slave, because you have been faithful in a very little thing, you are to be in authority over ten cities.'\u201d\u00a0 Luke 19:19, \u201cAnd he said to him also, \u2018And you are to be over five cities.\u201d\u2019]\n\nWell why does one guy get five cities and one guy gets ten cities to rule over in the earthly kingdom?\u00a0 Because one guy was faithful in a little thing and therefore could be trusted with what?\u00a0 Greater things.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what He\u2019s saying to Timothy, yeah, you can shrink back, you can remove yourself from your calling, you\u2019re not going to damage your salvation,\u00a0 you\u2019re going to arrive in heaven, that\u2019s a done deal but what is at stake here is the degree of authority that you will wield in the future earthly kingdom.\n\nPeople say well do you believe in once saved always saved?\u00a0 Yes, I believe in that.\u00a0 Then they say well what\u2019s the incentive to live holy.\u00a0 Well, here\u2019s the incentive---if you don\u2019t live holy as a Christian under God\u2019s resources there are a lot of things that can be sacrificed that are valuable. They may not relate, necessarily, to your arrival in heaven but they are valuable.\u00a0 And believe me, when Jesus returns to this earth and starts assigning people different roles to play in the millennial kingdom, that\u2019s going to be valuable to you.\n\nAnd then He says, \u201cif we deny Him, He will deny us,\u201d deny us what?\u00a0 Not salvation but what? Reigning!\u00a0 Some reign more than others.\u00a0 But verse 13,Ttimothy, can you lose your salvation? \u201cIf we are faithless, He remains\u201d what? \u201cfaithful, for He cannot deny Himself.\u201d [2 Timothy 2:13]\u00a0 Salvation is not an issue; what is an issue is going to be is your authority that\u00a0 you will wield in the earthly kingdom.\u00a0 So Paul\u2019s whole exhortation to get Timid Timothy, that\u2019s what I call him, the guy who\u2019s going wobbly in the knees, to endure as He\u2019s reminding him of his future earthly role.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 And that same philosophy is at work in Paul as he exhorts in the prior verse to the Corinthians.\n\nAnd then we have Revelation 5:10 which is also speaking of the church, \u201cYou have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God;\u201d that\u2019s speaking of the church in context, \u201cand they will reign\u201d notice the future tense there, are we reigning now?\u00a0 Well if we\u2019re reigning now we\u2019re nt doing a very good job because as I look around the world Christians are being martyred all over the world.\u00a0 So obviously we\u2019re not reigning now.\u00a0 It says we will reign and where are going to reign, up in the clouds somewhere, wearing white sheets, having halos on our heads singing the hallelujah chorus 10,000 times, bored out of our minds because we\u2019ve heard that tune before?\u00a0 I mean, that\u2019s not an accurate picture of what the church is going to be doing either.\u00a0 It\u2019s very clear here, \u201cthat we will reign upon the earth.\u201d\n\nSo yeah, we have a seven year role in heaven but it\u2019s very temporary.\u00a0 In fact, I don\u2019t mean to ruin anybody\u2019s worship songs but when Jesus said I have many dwelling places for you in heaven people interpret that as mansions and some of your English translations say mansions.\u00a0 When you study this in the Greek it\u2019s not the word mansion at all; I believe it\u2019s the Greek word monai<\/em>, which is a temporary dwelling.\u00a0 And I was teaching this at a church and I looked out of the corner of my eye and the worship leader was like changing all the music for the closing hymn, and I said why were you doing that.\u00a0 He goes well I had all these songs at the end about mansions in the sky and all this stuff.\n\nBut the reality of the situation is it doesn\u2019t say mansions in the Greek, that snuck into the King James Version, I think it\u2019s in the King James Version if I\u2019m not mistaken, there\u2019s a story on how it got in there which I won\u2019t belabor\u00a0 you with but it\u2019s very clear that monai<\/em>, is used, it\u2019s temporary dwelling places.\u00a0 So what we\u2019re doing with the Lord in heaven obviously by that description is not our ultimate destination.\u00a0 The ultimate destination is right here in Revelation 5:10 where \u201cwe will reign\u201d with Christ, wherever he is we will be, on planet earth functioning over this earth under His delegated authority and the degree of authority that we wield in that time period is dependent upon our faithfulness now.\u00a0 Do you see that?\n\nSo if you don\u2019t understand this you don\u2019t understand the incentive to be faithful now.\u00a0 I mean, why should I be faithful to Christ now; I mean, I\u2019m going to heaven so who cares, I can just live however I want.\u00a0 The issue is you can sacrifice a lot of things that are not necessarily related to salvation but they\u2019re valuable.\u00a0 See that?\n\nSo part of my concern about the intercalation teaching, which as you all know I believe in, is that we can become so exercised over it that we see ourselves strictly as a heavenly people of God and we cut ourselves off from the earthly destiny that\u2019s\u00a0 yet to come.\u00a0 So in theology it\u2019s easy to get out of balance.\n\nSo this statement by R. C. Sproul, I mean, to me it\u2019s embarrassing that he wrote this.\u00a0 And he\u2019s not with us any more so I can\u2019t e-mail him and talk to him about it, not that he would answer my e-mail anyway this side of eternity.\u00a0 But this is completely inaccurate.\u00a0 This is not even scholarship, what he\u2019s doing here.\u00a0 People think it\u2019s scholarship because he sounds real good as he communicates it but if you tried to do this\u2026\u00a0 My readers in my doctrinal dissertation would kill me probably, I mean, there\u2019d be so much red ink on the paper it would be glowing.\u00a0 Scholarship is not about creating strawmen arguments to knock them down.\u00a0 It\u2019s about thoughtfully and carefully interacting with biblically what other people are saying and being fair in your representation of them.\n\nNow Arnold Fruchtenbaum\u2019s response to this is classic because George Zeller of Middletown Church sent this over to Arnold Fruchtenbaum, who I\u2019m sure you all know is a Hebrew Christian.\u00a0 Zeller writes this.\u00a0 \u201cWe believe that the answer to \u2018What about the Jews?\u2019 is, \u2018Here we are.\u2019\u201d Quoting Sproul.\u00a0 \u201cI shared this comment with a friend of mine who is a converted Jew.\u00a0 He was born in Russia after his parents were released from a Communist prison.\u00a0 With the help of the Israeli underground, his family escaped from behind the Iron Curtain.\u00a0 He received Orthodox Jewish training while living in Germany from 1947 to 1951 and then his family immigrated to New York.\u00a0 He is a dedicated servant of Christ and a respected author.\u00a0 When told about Sproul Jr.\u2019s comment \u2018Here we are, [We are the Jews]\u2019 he commented,\u201d look at this answer, \u2018\u201cIt\u2019s a good thing he was not declaring this on the streets of Belin, Germany around\u00a0 1941!\u2019\u201d\u00a0 [\u2019\u201dHttp:\/\/www.middletownbiblechurch.org\/reformed\/sprouljr.htm, accessed 17 February 2018.]\n\nI mean, sometimes you know you fight these people with just a little bit of wit because it seems like our long biblical cases don\u2019t penetrate but something like this does.\u00a0 If you want to call yourself Israel and you want to call yourself Jewish then why don\u2019t you go over to Saudi Arabia and try that out and see how that works for you.\u00a0 Why don\u2019t you try that in Iran?\u00a0 Why don\u2019t\u00a0 you teleport yourself back to Hitler\u2019s Nazi Germany, 1941, and say we are the Jews.\u00a0 These ideas that we believe in work in a country where there\u2019s freedom like ours.\u00a0 But I guarantee it\u2019s not working in Middle Eastern Islamic countries all over the world.\u00a0 It certainly isn\u2019t working in France, I mean, look how the Jews are treated in France. Look at how antisemitism is bubbling all over planet earth as I speak.\u00a0 Are you going to go into those war zones and call yourself Jewish?\n\nSo next week, I had you open to Galatians 6:16 so all that was supposed to be intro, so obviously I didn\u2019t get very far.\u00a0 Next week I\u2019m going to take you to the key passage that\u2019s involved in the conflict between dispensational theology and Reformed theology.\u00a0 It\u2019s Galatians 6:16 where it looks at first glance as if the church is the Israel of God.\u00a0 So when you\u2019re explaining the intercalation model and you\u2019re explaining that we are not Israel, immediately what you\u2019re going to hear is well the church is the Israel of God.\u00a0 The word Israel is applied to the church.\u00a0 In fact, in Sproul\u2019s comment, as you look there on the bottom,\u00a0 it says, \u201cTherefore we are altogether the\u201d what? \u201cthe Israel of God\u2026.\u201d \u00a0[From Tabletalk Magazine, Spring of 1999, page 2 (inside cover) by R. C. Sproul, Jr. editor]\n\nAnd here\u2019s a book I had to read at Dallas Seminary, by Edmond Clowney, The story of the church begins with Israel,\u201d gosh, I can\u2019t even agree with that.\u00a0 The church is not in the Old Testament.\u00a0 Jesus said, \u201cI will\u201d what?\u00a0 \u201cbuild My Church,\u201d obviously the church didn\u2019t exist in the Old Testament.\u00a0 \u201cThe story of the church begins with Israel, the Old Testament people of God.\u00a0 The identity of the church is necessary for the mission of the church.\u201d\u00a0 I agree with that.\u00a0 \u201cOnly as a holy nation called out of darkness into the light of God\u2019s presence can the church discharge its mission.\u00a0 Peter affirms that the church\u2019s to the titles of Israel.\u201d\u00a0 Hmmmm!\u00a0 Then he describes the church\u2019s witness of praise.\u00a0 \u201cThis understanding of the church as the\u201d what? \u201cnew and true Israel of Christ must inspire our mission in the contemporary world.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0[From Table Talk Magazine, Spring of 1999, pg. 2, Inside cover by R. C. Sproul].\u00a0 He\u2019s basically saying the church is Israel. , p. 2 (inside cover), by R. C. Sproul Jr., editor, emphasis is mine\n\nKenneth Gentry, a replacement theologian, says, \u201cThat is, we believe in the unfolding plan of God in history, the Christian Church is the very fruition of the redemptive purpose of God.\u00a0 As such, the multi-racial, international Church of Jesus Christ\u201d what\u2019s the word? \u201csupersedes\u201d that\u2019s supersessionism, \u201cracial, national Israel as the focus of the kingdom of God.\u00a0 Indeed, we believe that the church becomes \u2018the Israel of God<\/em>\u2019\u201d\u00a0 What verse is he quoting there? Galatians 6;16, it\u2019s a go-to verse.\u00a0 \u201d [From Table Talk Magazine, Spring of 1999, pg. 2, Inside cover by R. C. Sproul]\n\nHans LaRondelle says, \u201cPaul\u2019s benediction in Galatians 6:16 becomes, then, the\u201d what witness? \u201cthe chief witness<\/em>\u201d this is exhibit A, \u201cin the New Testament declaring that the universal church is the Israel of God, the seed of Abraham, the heir to Israel\u2019s covenant promise.\u201d\u00a0 So next week when we\u2019re together I\u2019m going to go through Galatians 6:16 and explain to you why people are confused on that verse.\u00a0 Part of the confusion is our Bible translations are saying different things.\u00a0 That\u2019s why people are confused.\u00a0 Some people are, what I would call, NIV positive, the NIV reads completely different than the NASB on this.\u00a0 Anyway, that\u2019s the direction we\u2019re going.\n\nSo I\u2019m going to stop talking at this point.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t