{"id":19193,"date":"2017-04-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-04-05T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-013\/"},"modified":"2017-04-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-04-05T05:00:00","slug":"the-coming-kingdom-013","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-013\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coming Kingdom 013"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[94],"series_event":[470],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19193","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-ephesians","series_event-the-coming-kingdom","sermon_service_type-wednesday-evenings","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"The Coming Kingdom 013","sermon_date":"20170405","sermon_month":"4","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":4536,"sermon_slides":4538,"sermon_mp3":4537,"sermon_id":"4517211272","series_or_event":470,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":94,"chapter_and_verse":"3:5","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Coming Kingdom\n\n4-5-17\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ephesians 3:5\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 13\n\nGood evening everybody.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take our Bibles, if we could and open them to the Gospel of Luke, Luke 19:11.\u00a0 And I\u2019m hoping that you\u2019re seeing a sense of the whole Bible through this study.\u00a0 This forces us to put the whole Bible together as we\u2019re looking at what does the Bible say about the kingdom?\u00a0 Of course, the whole story begins in Eden, where God ruled through a man, Adam, who ruled creation on God\u2019s behalf and that\u2019s what you see in Genesis 1 and 2 and then that\u2019s lost in Genesis 3 when Adam stops ruling creation for God and starts listening to creation.\u00a0 And the moment that happens the fall takes place and the kingdom of God disappears.\u00a0 So God sets aside a nation called Israel and we know that through Israel this kingdom that was lost in Eden is going to be restored to the earth, and that\u2019s where Israel is given certain promises through the Abrahamic Covenant which she will always own and can never divest herself of.\n\nThen you go to the Mosaic Covenant and that\u2019s when a condition is introduced; if the condition is met then Israel doesn\u2019t become the owner but the what?\u00a0 The possessor of her blessings and that\u2019s when the kingdom comes.\u00a0 Now of course that Mosaic Covenant, the condition of it ultimately points to\u00a0 who?\u00a0 Jesus!\n\nThen the kingdom is divided and the north is swept away, the south remains, which is okay because the south is the most important because there\u2019s a real important tribe in the south called the tribe of Judah and we know from the prophecies we\u2019ve looked at that that\u2019s where the kingdom comes from.\u00a0 The south is taken into captivity in Babylon and that\u2019s what starts the times of the Gentiles.\u00a0 And the times of the Gentiles start with the last reigning king on David\u2019s throne is deposed by Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel\u2019s prophecies during that time period tell us that the kingdom won\u2019t materialize on the earth until the times of the Gentiles ends.\n\nSo the times of the Gentiles is the period of time when the nation is subjugated by various Gentile powers, Daniel names them by name, and it\u2019s only after the antichrist\u2019s empire is overthrown by Jesus in the future in the tribulation period that the kingdom will come.\u00a0 So as long as the times of the Gentiles are occurring and we\u2019re still under them today, the kingdom is in postponement but we\u2019re not to lose hope because the Old Testament prophets function as a light shining in a dark place telling us what the world is going to look like one day when the kingdom arrives.\n\nAnd then the nation of Israel comes out of Babylonian captivity and they go back into the Promised Land under Persia, and they rebuild their temple, they rebuild the wall around the city of Jerusalem.\u00a0 The book of Ezra and Nehemiah cover that time period. And so the nation of Israel is in the land for 400 years, which is a long time, right?\u00a0 And the times of the Gentiles just keep on marching on; Babylon is replaced by Persia, is replaced by Greece, is replaced by Rome, Rome is that empire that\u2019s in power when Jesus shows up.\u00a0 And that\u2019s when Jesus shows up and He offers the kingdom to the nation of Israel on\u00a0 a silver platter.\u00a0 So all the nation of Israel had to do was enthrone the King on His terms and the times of the Gentiles, hypothetically, would have ended and the kingdom of God would have materialized, and that\u2019s what\u2019s called the offer of the kingdom.\u00a0 We\u2019ve traced that.\n\nWe know, though, that in the last maybe three or four studies we\u2019ve done that that offer was turned down; that\u2019s the great tragedy, is the nation of Israel rejected the offer of the kingdom, and the turning point\u2026 anybody recall the turning point, which chapter?\u00a0 Matthew 12, once they attribute Christ\u2019s miracles to the devil the offer at that point is taken off the table and it won\u2019t be reoffered till the tribulation period.\n\nNow a lot of you have probably been thinking that\u2019s a lot of Jewish stuff, a lot of Israel stuff, what about us in 2017 in Sugarland?\u00a0 Where do we fit into the whole thing?\u00a0 And that\u2019s what we start talking about tonight under number 10, where Jesus starts to describe an interim age of time.\u00a0 Now that the offer of the kingdom is off the table, now that the nation of Israel is under discipline, now that it\u2019s very certain that the kingdom is not going to come until the distant future in the tribulation period, does that mean that just because we\u2019re not in the kingdom age now that God is sort of not doing anything?\u00a0 And nothing could be further from the truth because what Jesus starts to describe is an interim age of time where God is very active; it\u2019s the age of time that we\u2019re living in now but it\u2019s not to be confused with the kingdom.\n\nSo this interim age has two parts to it; the first part is what\u2019s called the interadvent age, and you say well what does the interadvent age mean?\u00a0 It means the age between the two advents of Christ, His First Coming and when He will reign from David\u2019s throne in the Second Coming.\u00a0 So that age of time has been going on for 2,000 years, right, and I don\u2019t know how long it will continue, maybe it will continue next week, maybe it will continue another hundred years, I\u2019m not a date setter, I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 But the unique age of time is graphically depicted for us in Matthew 13 through eight parables which all things considered we\u2019ll start looking at those eight parables next week.\u00a0 In other words, if you want to understand the course of the\u00a0 present age Matthew 13 and the eight parables that Christ gives fill in that picture for us.\n\nAnd then we continue on into the New Testament and we discover something else that\u2019s happening during this interadvent age is the church of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Jesus has already hinted at a coming church in Matthew 16:18, remember what He said, \u201cI will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.\u201d\u00a0 So what is this church?\u00a0 Who is a member of the church?\u00a0 And those kind of issues also begin to be explained, developed, in the interadvent age.\n\nSo to understand what\u2019s happening between the two advents of Christ you have to study, number 1, the eight parables that Jesus gives in Matthew 13 to explain this time period and then you also have to study the church, what is the church?\u00a0 Why does the church exist?\u00a0 And what is God\u2019s purpose for the church?\u00a0 So that\u2019s the direction we\u2019re going in.\u00a0 So next week, assuming we complete this list, will start looking at the Matthew 13 parables and then after that we\u2019ll begin looking at the church.\n\nBut even before we get to those subjects tonight I would like to make five preliminary observations about the interadvent age to help us understand it a little bit better.\u00a0 So before we get to the Matthew 13 parables in the church I want to give you five preliminary thoughts about the interadvent age, just to help us understand it and orient our thoughts toward it.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what I tried to do in the book in chapter 9.\n\nSo here are the first of the five preliminary thoughts and before I even get to that let me back up just for a second.\u00a0 Right now the nation of Israel is the owner but not the possessor of the blessings.\u00a0 Therefore the kingdom was never established on the earth.\u00a0 The opportunity for the kingdom to be established on the earth will not be reasserted until the tribulation period when the offer will be re-\u00a0 given, Matthew 24:14.\u00a0 [Matthew 24:14, \u201cThis gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.\u201d]\n\nSo our belief on the kingdom is that it is in a state of postponement.\u00a0 So you might call this post\u00adponement theology.\u00a0 Now that\u2019s very different than Judaism.\u00a0 If you ask an unbelieving Jew, do you think Jesus was your Messiah and they\u2019ll basically tell you no.\u00a0 And you say why don\u2019t you believe He was your Messiah?\u00a0 They will say because He failed, He never brought in the kingdom.\u00a0 In our vantage point he didn\u2019t fail, it\u2019s the nation of Israel that failed.\u00a0 He would have given them the kingdom but Israel never met their conditions.\u00a0\u00a0 But in the minds of Judaism in general they will reject Jesus as their king today because they don\u2019t see the kingdom.\u00a0 So in their minds that means Jesus failed in His mission.\n\nOn the other end of the stick if\u00a0 you were to be sitting in the Reformed type of church under a Reformed theologian they will basically tell you that Jesus succeeded in bringing in the kingdom.\u00a0 And you say well how in the world did Jesus succeed in bringing in the kingdom, I don\u2019t see kingdom conditions.\u00a0 And they\u2019ll say it\u2019s happening now spiritually.\u00a0 So they take all of the earthly promises about the kingdom and sort of rewrite them and repackage them so that they become spiritual realities.\u00a0 So you say well, how come the Lord hasn\u2019t brought in the kingdom and how come they haven\u2019t beaten their swords into plowshares and they\u2019ll say oh, you\u2019re taking that too literally, that\u2019s just Jesus reigning in our hearts and giving us peace.\u00a0 And you say well how come the Dead Sea never came back to life the way Ezekiel 47 describes it.\u00a0 And they\u2019ll say oh, you\u2019re taking that too literally, the Dead Sea coming back to life is just a symbol of the believer trusting in Christ and going from death to life spiritually.\n\nSo if you want to spiritualize all of the promises I guess you could argue they\u2019re happening today. So Reformed theology basically says Jesus succeeded in bringing in the kingdom; He actually established the kingdom in the first century.\u00a0 But you see, our method of interpretation, which is a consistent literal approach, won\u2019t allow us to rewrite those prophecies.\u00a0 So we don\u2019t believe He succeeded in bringing in the kingdom.\u00a0 We also don\u2019t believe He failed.\u00a0 We believe the nation of Israel in the first century failed.\u00a0 Our belief is the kingdom is not in a state of cancellation, it\u2019s not in a state of fulfillment, but in a state of postponement.\u00a0 So that\u2019s kind of the angle that we\u2019re coming from and it\u2019s\u00a0 your literal approach to the Scripture which kind of pushes you in that direction.\u00a0 So since the kingdom is postponed we don\u2019t believe that God is doing nothing today; He\u2019s very active in this interim age and the eight parables in Matthew 13 and the teaching on the church that we\u2019re going to get is the New Testament shows us exactly what He\u2019s doing.\n\nBut having said all that let\u2019s make five preliminary observations about this interim age.\u00a0 The first one is this is an authentic age, in other words, it\u2019s a real period of time that God said would come.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have any real hints of it in the Old Testament, you don\u2019t have any real hints of it as the kingdom was being presented to first century Israel.\u00a0 But once you move beyond Matthew 12 you start seeing more and more hints that the Lord gives of this interim age.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why I had you turn to Luke 19; this is the parable of the minas and this is how the parable begins.\n\nLuke 19:11, it says, \u201cWhile they were listening to these things, Jesus went on to tell a parable, because He was near Jerusalem,\u201d and look at this, \u201cand they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.\u201d\u00a0 So they\u2019re still thinking kingdom, kingdom, kingdom, they\u2019re not paying attention to the fact that the leaders have rejected the offer of the kingdom and so He\u2019s got a group of people around Him, a believing remnant, and they don\u2019t know anything about an interim age and they believe the kingdom is going to materialize any second.\u00a0 And to that group He gives them the parable of the minas, it\u2019s Luke 19:11-27, and the idea is He\u2019s going to be going away now for a long time and in the interim, while he\u2019s away for a long time He\u2019s entrusting people certain minas, or talents if you will, it\u2019s very similar to\u2026 a mina is very similar to a talent which is a monetary denomination.\u00a0 And His servants are to do what while He\u2019s gone?\u00a0 They\u2019re to invest it properly.\n\nAnd as He\u2019s explaining this He begins to hint at this interim age where He\u2019s going away for a long time but one of these days He\u2019s going to come back and hold people accountable for what they did with the money that He entrusted to them.\u00a0 [Luke 19:12, \u201cSo He said, \u2018A nobleman went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself, and then<\/em> return. \u00a0[13] And he called ten of his slaves, and gave them ten minas and said to them, \u2018Do business with this<\/em> until I come back.<\/em>\u2019 [14] But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, \u2018We do not want this man to reign over us.\u2019\u201d]\n\nIf you go down to Luke 19:15 it says, \u201cWhen he returned, after receiving the kingdom,\u201d so this is after a long period of time has elapsed, \u201che ordered that these slaves, to whom he had given the money, be called to him so that he might know what business they had done.\u201d\u00a0 So it\u2019s the story, and you all are familiar with it, that he goes away for an extended period of time; at the end of this extended period of time He\u2019s going to come back and He\u2019s going to hold people accountable for how they invested the Master\u2019s money.\u00a0 And the reason I bring up this story of the parable of the minas is the context of it is they thought, verse 11, the kingdom was going to appear immediately.\u00a0 And here he basically says no it\u2019s not, there\u2019s going to be a lengthy age of time where you\u2019re entrusted by God with certain things; it\u2019s not going to be the kingdom but one of these days when He comes back and establishes His kingdom He\u2019s going to hold people accountable.\u00a0 So this is really your first hint of this interim age in the teachings of Jesus.\n\nArthur Pink, in his excellent book, The Prophetic Parables of Matthew Thirteen<\/em>, says this, and I think accurately.\u00a0 He says: \u201cBecause Israel rejected their King, He\u201d that\u2019s Jesus, temporarily rejected them; \u00a0in other words, the nation is in unbelief, the nation is in discipline, and therefore the setting up of His kingdom on this earth was what?\u00a0 Postponed.\u00a0 That\u2019s our belief.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t succeed in bringing in the kingdom; the kingdom is in a state of postponement.\u00a0 And then he says, \u201cThe King would depart from this world and be absent for a lengthy season, before He returned again and set up His kingdom\u201d and look what he says, \u201csee Luke 19:12, 15,\u201d the parable of the minas which was specifically given to folks who thought the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately and instantaneously.\u00a0 So in essence what we\u2019re talking about here is an authentic period of time that God Himself, Jesus Christ Himself, teaches on.\n\nThe second preliminary observation I want to give you about this interim age is number 2, this age was caused by Israel\u2019s unbelief.\u00a0 The reasons that this age started, this interim age, is because Israel fell into unbelief and didn\u2019t receive the offer of the King or his kingdom.\u00a0 So notice if you will Daniel 9:25 written way back in the 6th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 Daniel predicted that this day would arrive and he writes this: \u201cSo you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.\u00a0 [26] Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.\u00a0 And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.\u201d\n\nNotice here in this prophecy, written 600 years before Jesus shows up that Jesus is called \u201cthe Prince,\u201d He\u2019s not called the King because to be the King the nation of Israel would have had to submit to Him, which they never did.\u00a0 So currently Jesus is not reigning as King because of the nation\u2019s response.\u00a0 And Daniel specifically predicted that after seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, which is a very specific time period, beginning with the decree of Artaxerxes, all the way back in Nehemiah 2, going forward to the Sunday that we\u2019re celebrating this Sunday, which is which Sunday? \u00a0anybody know?\u00a0 Palm Sunday, that day was identified in Daniel\u2019s prophecies to the exact day.\u00a0 So Jesus would show up, He would present His Messianic credentials to the nation on Palm Sunday but they would reject Him.\u00a0 He would be cut off, that\u2019s a reference to His crucifixion, and then notice what this underlined portion says, \u201cthe Messiah will be cut off and have\u201d what? \u201cnothing,\u201d why does the Messiah have nothing?\u00a0 Because He never inherited the what?\u00a0 The kingdom, so He stayed a prince, not a king, He inherited nothing.\n\nSo what caused this age of time that we\u2019re in now is Israel\u2019s unbelief.\u00a0 Israel\u2019s unbelief in the first century led to the interim age of time that we\u2019re in now where the kingdom is in postponement.\u00a0 So God used a genuine offer to the nation of Israel to bring in something that has never been described anywhere in the Bible, this interim age that I\u2019m trying to talk through and develop.\n\nSo Lewis Sperry Chafer puts it this way: \u201cGod not only knows beforehand the choice His creatures will make, but is Himself able to work in them both to will and to do of His own good pleasure. The Scriptures present many incidents which disclose the fact that the will of God is executed by men even when they have no conscious intention to do the will of God. . . . Was the death of Christ in danger of being abortive and all the types and prophecies respecting His death of being proved untrue until Pilate made his decision regarding that death?\u201d [Lewis Sperry Chafer, vol. 5, Systematic Theology<\/em> (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1993), 347-48.\u2019]\n\nAnd Chafer\u2019s point is this, God used the free moral will of His own creation to bring in the next phase of His plan, and this is how God works.\u00a0 God is so big, He is so brave that He can actually use one of His creatures decision to reject Him to bring in the next phase of His plan.\u00a0 So God takes lemons and turns them into what? Lemonade.\u00a0 So God took their decision to reject Him and turned Him over to the Romans for execution, to, number 1, pay the sin debt for the whole world.\u00a0 And number 2, to bring in an age of time that God always wanted to bring in but had never been disclosed in the Old Testament and that\u2019s this interim age.\n\nSo when we talk about this interim age we have to understand that, number 1, it\u2019s an authentic period of time that Jesus starts to describe.\u00a0 And number 2, it\u2019s an age of time caused by Israel\u2019s unbelief; in fact, God used Israel\u2019s unbelief to bring in this age of time which was always part of His plan.\u00a0 So I know some of this is hard to wrap your mind around but the wonderful thing about God is no matter what decision people make it never throws His game off.\u00a0 People reject the things of God and God just uses it to bring in something that\u2019s part of His plan.\u00a0 So this age of time, as I\u2019ll be showing you, was always part of His plan.\u00a0 But He used the instrumentality of Israel\u2019s belief to bring it into fruition.\n\nThis takes us to the third preliminary observation which is as follows: The present age is a mystery age.\u00a0 So take a look, if you could, at Matthew 13:11.\u00a0 This is where Jesus starts to develop this interim age in eight parables.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cJesus answered them, \u2018To you it has been granted to know the\u201d what? \u201cthe mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.\u201d\u00a0 So He specifically describes this age of time as a mystery, or mysteries.\u00a0 Now the two phases of this age are the eight parables and the church, and both are described as mysteries.\u00a0 When Paul really gets down to business and starts to explain the church age he uses the term mystery as well.\u00a0 Notice Ephesians 3:9, \u201cand to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things.\u201d\u00a0 So both the elements of Matthew 13:11 and the eight parables which explain the interadvent age and then the second element to the mystery age, which is the church, both of these are specifically, by the Scripture, called a mystery.\n\nSo the big question becomes what is a mystery?\u00a0 And the word mystery remains a mystery to a lot of folks because they use the English word mystery in defining it and not the Greek word.\u00a0 Vine, in his Complete Expository Dictionary of Old Testament and New Testament Words<\/em> defines a mystery properly as follows; he says: \u201cIn the New Testament, it [myst\u0113rion<\/em>]\u201d now \u00a0myst\u0113rion<\/em> is the Greek word translated mystery in those two passages that I referenced earlier, \u201c\u201dIn the New Testament it [myst\u0113rion<\/em>] denotes, not the mysterious (as with the English word), but that which, being outside the range of unassisted natural apprehension, can be made known only by Divine revelation, and is made known in a manner and at a time appointed by God, and to those who are illumined by His Spirit.\u201d\n\nSo the first thing to understand about mystery is just forget the English definition of it.\u00a0 In English a mystery is something that has to be searched out with great diligence.\u00a0 If I\u2019m reading a mystery novel I don\u2019t really know who the bad guy is until the last chapter.\u00a0 If I\u2019m watching a mystery movie I don\u2019t know who the bad guy is until the final five minutes, and that\u2019s not what the Greek word \u201cmystery\u201d means.\u00a0 When the Greeks used the word \u201cmystery\u201d they didn\u2019t use it the way we use it, as something that has to be searched out.\u00a0 A mystery is something that has been newly disclosed by God.\u00a0 You couldn\u2019t know it other than through God but God has made it now in plain view.\u00a0 So He\u2019s taken something that in prior ages was veiled or hidden or unknowable, that the greatest philosophers on planet earth, they couldn\u2019t understand it either because only God can make it known, and suddenly at the right time God pulls back the curtain, He pulls back the veil and you can clearly see what it is that\u2019s been hidden but now disclosed.\n\nSo in Greek the word \u201cmystery\u201d basically means something hidden now disclosed.\u00a0 And that is what the church age is that we\u2019re living in now.\u00a0 It\u2019s a mystery.\u00a0 Ephesians 3:9 says, \u201cand to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things.\u201d\u00a0 So there is something happening today that has never happened before prior to the day of Pentecost when the church began and that\u2019s what the mystery is.\u00a0 And we, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are part of that mystery.\n\nSo what is this new thing?\u00a0 Take a look at Ephesians 2:15-16, and we start to get a hint of this mystery.\u00a0 Generally it\u2019s the writings of the Apostle Paul in the book of Ephesians that best explains this mystery of the church age.\u00a0 And here\u2019s the mystery, \u201cby abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is<\/em> the Law of commandments contained<\/em> in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus<\/em> establishing peace, [16] and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.\u201d\n\nWhat is the mystery?\u00a0 The mystery is there is a new man, a new spiritual man, called the church.\u00a0 That new man consists of both believing Jews and believing Gentiles united together on equal footing as co-heirs of the things of God.\u00a0 There is no more a national division between Jew and Gentile because you see in the Old Testament age to get right with God you had to believe in the God of Israel and then to grow as a new believer you had to convert to Judaism.\u00a0 So in the prior age Israel was always on top.\u00a0 Israel was always the preeminent servants of God.\u00a0 What is new now, what the mystery is beginning in Acts 2 is\u00a0 everyone that is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, everyone that has believed in the very Messiah that Israel rejected is taken by the Holy Spirit, called the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and is united to this new man called the church.\u00a0 And no more can it be said in the present age that the Jews are the preeminent servants of God; everybody is equal, everybody is on the same footing, everyone is a joint heir in this new man.\u00a0 And that is something brand new and totally new and you can read your Old Testament until your eyeballs bleed, you\u2019ll never find that concept in the Old Testament\u2026 never!\n\nAnd even into the ministry of Christ you don\u2019t find this concept.\u00a0 Galatians 4:4 says that Jesus ministered, or was born unto law, he was ministering when a time when Israel was still preeminent.\u00a0 [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 And he\u2019s hinting at this age that\u2019s coming but the shift doesn\u2019t happen until Acts 2 when the church is born.\u00a0 And Paul really doesn\u2019t fully explain it, something that\u2019s already started, until he writes the book of Ephesians and he begins to describe Jews and Gentiles, Paul himself being Jewish, understanding that just because he\u2019s Jewish doesn\u2019t make him more elevated at all in the church; we\u2019re all on equal footing, we\u2019re in the new spiritual man reconciled (see that) in one body, the church.\u00a0 That\u2019s the mystery.\u00a0 That\u2019s something brand new that\u2019s never been disclosed.\n\nPaul, in Ephesians 3, take a look at that for a minute, verses 3-6, starts to unpack this mystery concept.\u00a0 And he says this, \u201cthat by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. [4] By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,\u201d see, he uses this word musterion<\/em> twice there, [5] \u201cwhich in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles\u201d plural \u201cand prophets in the Spirit;\u201d so he\u2019s describing something that God has shown not just him but the other apostles, the mystery of the church.\u00a0 And then he says, verse 6, \u201cto be specific\u201d meaning here\u2019s what it is, here\u2019s the mystery, \u201cto be specific,<\/em> that the Gentiles\u201d that\u2019s non-Jews, \u201care\u201d what? \u201cfellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.\u201d\n\nSo Paul is saying in this new age of time I, a Jew, am no longer a preeminent servant of God, I am on equal footing with many other believing Gentile, as all of us have been brought into this one new man called the church.\u00a0 That is the mystery.\n\nIf you go over to 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 he doesn\u2019t use the word \u201cmystery\u201d here but he unpacks a little bit more what the mystery is.\u00a0 He says this: \u201cFor even as the body is one and yet<\/em> has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. [13] For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.\u201d\u00a0 So he\u2019s describing a new spiritual man with different body parts.\u00a0 Now we all are called to play different roles in this new man, I don\u2019t have two left feet, I\u2019ve got a left foot and a right foot that play different functions, so in the same way now two of us are gifted exactly alike.\u00a0 If two of us are alike then one is unnecessary I guess.\u00a0 So God is a God of great diversity; He\u2019s a God of great variety, He gifts us all differently to do different things.\u00a0 But only as my physical body works in harmony can my entire being be effective.\u00a0\u00a0 So in the same way everybody in the body of Christ is on the same footing; we\u2019re all on equal footing, it doesn\u2019t matter if we\u2019re Jewish or Gentile, there\u2019s no preeminent nation right now as there was in Old Testament times.\n\nAnd in essence what God is doing is He is gifting us all differently to play different roles in His body, the Church.\u00a0 So we\u2019re all part of one body, it doesn\u2019t matter whether we\u2019re Jew or whether we\u2019re Greek, \u201cFor by one Spirit we were all baptized\u201d now \u201cbaptized\u201d means identification and most people when they look at that word \u201cbaptized\u201d they think of water, and there are contexts where he is talking about water baptism but this isn\u2019t one of them.\u00a0 This is talking about something that God has already done the moment you placed your faith in Christ.\u00a0 The water baptism just symbolizes the outward reality.\u00a0 But he\u2019s not even talking about water baptism, he\u2019s talking about spirit baptism, baptism means identification.\u00a0 The moment you trusted Christ the Lord reached out and connected you to the body of Christ, the church, and He gave\u00a0 you an individual gift mix to use for the benefitting of His church but it\u2019s something that God has done and it doesn\u2019t really matter where you go to church in terms of denominational affiliation.\u00a0 You could be Metha Cathol Bapterion or a Bapticostal Fundamatic or whatever you are, the point of the matter is you\u2019re part of the body of Christ.\u00a0 That\u2019s the big picture. \u00a0\u00a0And\u00a0 you have been connected to His body, the church, and you have the same standing as a Jew who\u2019s a believer.\u00a0 So no preeminent nation anymore at least in the current age.\n\nNow let me tell you something; that is not how it worked in the Old Testament.\u00a0 If you wanted to be saved you had to believe in the God of Israel and if you wanted to grow as a new believer you had to convert, if you were a Gentile, to Judaism.\u00a0 And these folks were called proselytes.\u00a0 The most famous proselyte in the Old Testament is probably Ruth, she was from Moab.\u00a0 Moab is the nation adjacent to Israel, east of the Jordan River in Old Testament times.\u00a0 And you remember the story of Ruth, how her mother, Naomi, left Bethlehem and went to Moab and eventually through a whole series of events Naomi became Ruth\u2019s mother-in-law.\u00a0 Ruth, the Moabitess, wanted to return with Naomi back to the land of Israel; remember what Ruth said, \u201cBut Ruth said, \u2018Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go\u201d what\u201d \u201cI will go.\u201d\u00a0 If you go back to Israel I\u2019ll go back to Israel with you, \u201cand where you lodge, I will lodge.\u201d\u00a0 You want to lodge in Bethlehem, or Jerusalem I\u2019m going to lodge there with you physically.\u00a0 \u201cYour people shall be\u201d what? \u201cmy people, and your God, my God.\u201d\n\nSo that\u2019s how it worked all the way through the Old Testament.\u00a0 A Gentile had to become a proselyte; to grow in the things of God they had to convert to Judaism.\u00a0 And what Paul is saying here with this mystery is that\u2019s not how it works any more.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to convert to anything to grow as a believer in Christ, you just have to believe in Christ and as you believe in Christ you\u2019ve already been united to this new man called the church.\u00a0 And if you\u2019re Jewish you have the same standing in the church as the Gentile.\n\nAnd this, to be honest with you this whole concept freaked out the apostles, they didn\u2019t get the whole thing for a while because what happened is a guy named Cornelius got saved in Acts 10 and they had to have a big pow-wow in Jerusalem to ascertain is this true?\u00a0 I mean, can a Gentile really get saved?\u00a0 And then what really freaks them out is when Paul goes off on his first missionary journey there beginning in Acts 13 and he goes into Southern Galatia, outside of the land of Israel and Gentiles start getting saved like crazy.\u00a0 The early church leadership is still Jewish and they\u2019re trying to figure out, what are we going to do with these Gentiles; do they have to convert to Judaism to grow, as it\u2019s always been in Old Testament times.\u00a0 So they had another pow-wow about it in Acts 15 called the Jerusalem Council and they looked through a series of verses and they said you know what?\u00a0 To grow as a Gentile Christian you no longer have to become a Jew because that\u2019s how it may have worked in Old Testament times but we\u2019re in a brand new age now called the church age.\n\nSo this is the mystery.\u00a0 This is something that has been hidden but now has been brought into full disclosure.\u00a0 So the reality of the situation is the church, as I\u2019m describing it, you do not find in the Old Testament.\u00a0 Now people get upset with that sometimes and they like to quote Acts 7:38 which is Stephen\u2019s speech and Stephen, a Jew, reviews Old Testament history and in Acts 7:38 he makes this statement: \u201cThis is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai, and who was with our fathers; and he received living oracles to pass on to you.\u201d\u00a0 And when he talks about the \u201ccongregation in the wilderness\u201d in the time of Moses he uses the word \u201cchurch,\u201d which is the Greek word ekklesia<\/em>, which is the Greek word translated church.\u00a0 And people say well there it is, it says the church in the wilderness, there was a church in the Old Testament.\n\nBut what I want you to understand is the word ekklesia<\/em> is not a technical word.\u00a0 Remember what a technical word is?\u00a0 It\u2019s a word that always means the same thing everywhere it\u2019s used.\u00a0 When Stephen uses the word ekklesia<\/em> to describe the gathering in the wilderness he\u2019s just talking about synagogue; he\u2019s talking about a bunch of Jews getting together in the Old Testament.\u00a0 When Paul uses the word \u201cchurch\u201d he\u2019s not talking about a bunch of Jews getting together; he\u2019s talking about something totally different, where Jew and Gentile have equal standing in the body of Christ in one new man.\u00a0 Paul takes that word \u201cchurch\u201d and infuses into it a meaning that Stephen was not using here in Acts 7:38.\n\nSo yes, you can find the word \u201cchurch\u201d in the Old Testament but not the meaning that Paul gives it when he\u2019s describing the mystery.\u00a0 This new mystery man, mystery nature of the church is something that the Old Testament never revealed; it is something that Jesus doesn\u2019t even talk about it, He makes maybe a few hints at it.\u00a0 It\u2019s not something that started until Acts 2 and even though it started in Acts 2 Paul really doesn\u2019t start to unpack its meaning and explain exactly what\u2019s happened until Acts 28 when he wrote the book of Ephesians. \u00a0So are we clear on what is meant here by \u201cmystery\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0 A new truth never before been disclosed.\n\nNow we have today in the body of Christ and it grieves me to even talk about it because a lot of this has come into existence largely through the influence of my alma mater<\/em> that I have two academic degrees from, Dallas Theological Seminary, but around the 1980\u2019s a younger group of scholars began to emerge.\u00a0 The three principle spokesmen for what\u2019s called progressive dispensationalism would be Darrell Bolk, Craig Blaising<\/em>, both at Dallas at that time, Darrell Bolk is still there, and out on the West Coast Robert L. Saucy who passed away recently.\u00a0 But they began to espouse this idea of progressive dispensationalism and they began to move away from the traditional dispensational\u00adism that we believe here and that I was basically trying to articulate earlier and they began to say well, what mystery really means is that the church was revealed in the Old Testament, it just hadn\u2019t been realized yet.\u00a0 So they\u2019re arguing that the church actually exists the way I\u2019ve described it, in the Old Testament, it just wasn\u2019t realized yet.\n\nI\u2019m giving you a totally different definition.\u00a0 I am saying that the word \u201cmystery\u201d means unrevealed.\u00a0 The Old Testament does not reveal the church in its mystery dimensions.\u00a0 And these guys are coming along and they\u2019re basically rewriting the word \u201cmystery\u201d and trying to make it sound as if the church really is there in the Old Testament but it just hadn\u2019t been realized yet.\n\nSo Robert Saucy writes this, he says, \u201cThe evidence from the Old Testament prophecies and in some cases their later Jewish interpretation shows a relationship between what was promised and what is now revealed. Specifically, the promises concerning the salvation of the Gentiles along with Israel, a certain solidarity between the promises concerning the Messiah and his people, and, perhaps most important, the prediction of the indwelling Spirit of God, make it difficult to deny some connection between this Old Testament hope and the mystery of the union of Gentiles and Israel in Christ found in Ephesians 3.\u201d\u00a0 [Robert L. Saucy, \u201cThe Church as the Mystery of God,\u201d in Dispensationalism, Israel and the Church: The Search for a Definition<\/em>, ed. Craig A. Blaising and Darrell L. Bock (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992), 149.]\n\nSee, everything I\u2019ve been saying before is Ephesians 3 and Ephesians 2 and 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 is a totally new idea.\u00a0 Not only is it unrealized it\u2019s unrevealed.\u00a0 Well you have progressive dispensationalism coming along and they\u2019re trying to kind of rewrite this theology and they\u2019re trying to get rid of too strong of a distinction between Israel and the church that they believe existed in traditional dispensationalist, like Charles Ryrie, John Walvoord, Dwight Pentecost, even people like myself.\u00a0 And they\u2019re saying well the church really was there because look, the Old Testament reveals salvation of the Gentiles, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 And the Old Testament reveals the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit doesn\u2019t it?\n\nMay I just say to you that the Old Testament does reveal the salvation of the Gentiles; it does reveal the Holy Spirit, but those are truths that are going to be fulfilled when?\u00a0 In the kingdom age.\u00a0 The Old Testament never foresaw what Paul is talking about, of Jew and Gentile having equal standing in one new man.\u00a0 Yes, there\u2019s salvation of the Gentiles in the Old Testament predicted; no problem! Yes, there\u2019s a great indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit predicted in the coming kingdom; no problem!\u00a0 But show me one little passage anywhere where the Old Testament anywhere revealed Jew and Gentile, equal position, in one new spiritual man.\u00a0 The concept isn\u2019t there.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Paul has to spend time explaining it in Ephesians 2 and in Ephesians 3.\n\nThey quote Isaiah 49:6 and all Isaiah 49:6 says is salvation is going to come to the Gentiles one day.\u00a0 \u201cHe says, \u2018It is too small a thing\u201d Isaiah \u201cthat You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make you a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 No problem.\u00a0 I mean I know that salvation of the Gentiles through Jesus is predicted in the Old Testament but that\u2019s kingdom age stuff.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 Does this verse ever say that Jew and Gentile are going to be on equal footing in one new man called the church?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t say that at all.\n\nI have no problem believing in the work of the Holy Spirit and how that\u2019s revealed in the Old Testament as well.\u00a0 Ezekiel 36:26-27 says this:\u00a0 \u201cMoreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. [27] I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.\u201d\u00a0 Now what is this speaking of?\u00a0 The work of the Spirit when?\u00a0 In which age?\u00a0 The kingdom age!\u00a0 Does this verse here talk at all about Jew and Gentile being united in one new man called the church?\u00a0 It never refers to that at all.\n\nSo progressive dispensationalists, by arguing that there are references to the church in the Old Testament, I think they\u2019re completely and totally wrong on this.\u00a0 That\u2019s one of the reasons I am not a progressive dispensationalist; I am a traditional dispensationalist.\u00a0 The doctrinal statement of Sugar Land Bible Church, the way it\u2019s written, is a traditional dispensational doctrinal statement.\u00a0 We don\u2019t believe that the church is in the Old Testament; we don\u2019t believe the church is in the life of Christ.\u00a0 A lot of people think Jesus, in His earthly ministry, started the church; that\u2019s completely inaccurate, Jesus, Galatians 4:4, was born under the Law.\u00a0 [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 He functioned during the prior age of Israel under the Law.\u00a0 He gave hints here and there, not very many hints I might add, of a coming church age but the church age that we\u2019re in now, this mystery age doesn\u2019t start until Acts 2 and it isn\u2019t even fully explained until the Apostle Paul begins to develop these ideas in the book of Ephesians.\n\nYou might wonder why God had Paul in jail so frequently; have you ever wondered that?\u00a0 I mean he\u2019s in jail in Rome twice, he\u2019s in jail in Caesarea, other places.\u00a0 Now we\u2019re talking about a first century prison; you don\u2019t have a tattoo bar, you don\u2019t have cable, you don\u2019t have a weight room.\u00a0 What do you have?\u00a0 You have nothing but you and the Lord and the Lord speaking to you.\u00a0 That\u2019s why God had Paul in jail so frequently, because Paul needed time to receive these truths from God and to record them.\n\nAnd let me tell you something; if we didn\u2019t have our 13 letters from Paul probably the most important on this subject is the Book of Ephesians, if God hadn\u2019t sovereignly worked in Paul\u2019s life in this way, by incarcerating him, allowing him time to receive and record mystery truths, what would we know about the church today?\u00a0 Almost nothing.\u00a0 Even from the ministry of Jesus Christ we hardly know anything about the church.\u00a0 Now Jesus does make some prophecies where He says in the Upper Room, I think about three times, \u201cI have many things to say to you but you\u2019re not able to receive, but when He, the Spirit of truth comes He will guide you into all truth.\u201d\u00a0 [John 16:12-13, \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\nAnd what is He hinting at?\u00a0 He\u2019s hinting at Paul who\u2019s going to show up on the scene.\u00a0 Now Paul, contrary to the doctrine of hyper dispensationalism, did not the start the church; the church started in Acts 2.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be showing you that\u2019s where the baptizing work of the Spirit started, that\u2019s when the body of Christ started.\u00a0 That\u2019s when the Holy Spirit started the body of Christ and started taking subsequent believers and identifying them to the body of Christ.\u00a0 That\u2019s when the whole thing started.\u00a0 But it\u2019s not until Paul that we get a full explanation of what started in Acts 2. See that?\u00a0 And had God not worked sovereignly and strategically in Paul\u2019s life by allowing him to be in jail, to be given time to receive and record these truths, we wouldn\u2019t have these 13 letters, we wouldn\u2019t have the Book of Ephesians, I mean, Ephesians is one of his prison letters, isn\u2019t it.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t he chained to a Roman guard the whole time?\u00a0 He talks about it in Ephesians and Philippians and other books that he wrote around that same time.\u00a0 See, that was such a strategic time in Paul\u2019s life because God was giving him this revelation of the mystery of the church and he was faithfully writing it down.\n\nWe think our most productive times are times we\u2019re out being active.\u00a0 In reality when God side-lines you through unemployment, or an injury, that could end up being perhaps the most productive time in your whole ministry because most of us are too busy to sit and receive things from God.\u00a0 I know in my personal life that the times I\u2019ve grown the most is not when I\u2019m out active but when I\u2019m sidelined by God because of some circumstance, and there\u2019s when I really start to learn. See, that\u2019s what God did with Paul, He sidelined him and He put him in this place of incarceration and he had nothing to do but receive and record and in the process we have these 13 letters which fill out all of this mystery doctrine and here we are in the year 2017 in southwest Houston, Sugar Land, Texas, being edified by what Paul said.\u00a0 So that\u2019s the significance of Paul.\u00a0 And the things that Paul is talking about are not found in Ezekiel.\u00a0 They\u2019re not found in Isaiah.\u00a0 They\u2019re brand new things which is what the word \u201cmystery\u201d means.\n\nNow one other thing and with this I\u2019ll close.\u00a0 When Paul uses the word \u201cmystery\u201d he is using the word based on its Old Testament usage.\u00a0 The word \u201cmystery\u201d shows up in the Old Testament in only one book, the book of Daniel.\u00a0 And I think it\u2019s the word [can't understand word] if I\u2019m not mistaken, which is an Aramaic term, which Daniel 2-7 as we\u2019re studying on Sunday morning, was written in Aramaic.\n\nWhat you have to understand is the Old Testament was translated into Greek 200 years before the time of Christ, and which series of books am I thinking of?\u00a0 Anybody know?\u00a0 The Septuagint.\u00a0 So 200 years before Jesus ever showed up you have a Greek translation of the Old Testament; you have a Greek translation of Daniel 2-7.\u00a0 And in that translation that\u2019s the only time the word \u201cmystery\u201d is used, in Daniel 2.\n\nI have all of the references to mystery underlined here.\u00a0 [Daniel 2:18-19, 27-30]\u00a0 It says,\u201d\u00a0<\/sup>so that they might request compassion from the God of heaven concerning this mystery<\/u>, so that Daniel and his friends would not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. [19]\u00a0<\/sup>Then the mystery<\/u> was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. [Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven; [27]\u00a0<\/sup>Daniel answered before the king and said, \u2018As for the mystery<\/u> about which the king has inquired, neither wise men, conjurers, magicians nor<\/em> diviners are able to declare it<\/em> to the king. [28] \u00a0<\/sup>However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries<\/u>, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the latter days. This was your dream and the visions in your mind while<\/em> on your bed. [29] \u00a0<\/sup>As for you, O king, while<\/em> on your bed your thoughts turned to what would take place in the future; and He who reveals mysteries<\/u> has made known to you what will take place. [30]\u00a0<\/sup>But as for me, this mystery<\/u> has not been revealed to me for any wisdom residing in me more than in<\/em> any other<\/em> living man, but for the purpose of making the interpretation known to the king, and that you may understand the thoughts of your mind.\u201d]\n\nHe keeps saying mystery all the way through here, Daniel 2; does anybody remember what mystery he\u2019s talking about?\u00a0 We\u2019ve studied it on Sunday mornings, haven\u2019t we?\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s dream.\u00a0 Remember what Nebuchadnezzar saw, a giant statue, head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze; legs of iron, feet of iron and clay, we\u2019ve worked all the way through that on Sunday mornings.\u00a0 And remember what Nebuchadnezzar said to his wise men?\u00a0 They said, \u201cTell us the dream and we\u2019ll interpret it.\u201d\u00a0 [Daniel 2:4, \u201cThen the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic: \u2018O king, live forever! Tell the dream to your servants, and we will declare the interpretation.\u2019 [5] The king replied to the Chaldeans, \u2018The command from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you will be torn limb from limb and your houses will be made a rubbish heap.\u201d\u2019]\n\nNebuchadnezzar said no, you tell me both the dream and its interpretation.\u00a0 Therefore that\u2019s what the word \u201cmystery\u201d means.\u00a0 It means something that is totally unknown, something that is totally undisclosed, something that could be known only if God Himself pulled back the veil.\u00a0 This the only time the Greek word must\u00e9rion<\/em><\/em> is used in the whole Septuagint in Daniel 2 and in Daniel 2 when you know the context where Nebuchadnezzar says to his so-called wise men I\u2019m not going to give you the dream so you can interpret it, you give me the dream, you start to understand what the word mystery means.\u00a0 The word mystery is not something, as progressive dispensationalists like to say, something revealed but unrealized.\u00a0 That\u2019s not the way the word \u201cmystery\u201d is used here; it\u2019s something totally unrevealed!\u00a0 Daniel understood this because God told him what it was and what it meant.\u00a0 And had God not made that disclosure Daniel wouldn\u2019t have known anything about it; he wouldn\u2019t have known the dream, what it was or its interpretation.\n\nSo when Paul, in Ephesians over and over again keeps saying mystery, mystery, mystery, mystery as he\u2019s describing the church he\u2019s dialing back into that Old Testament term.\u00a0 He\u2019s saying this is something not revealed but unrealized, contra progressive dispensationalism, he is saying this is something unrevealed completely and totally.\n\nNow next week, on this word mystery, I\u2019ll be taking you to two battleground passages, Ephesians 3:5, there\u2019s a real debate on that, and then over to Romans 16:25-26.\n\nBut the only thing I want you to see thus far is this new phase of time that we\u2019re in, this interim age is: number 1, an authentic age, it\u2019s a real period of time that the Lord started to describe.\u00a0 Number 2, it\u2019s an age of time caused by Israel\u2019s unbelief.\u00a0 And then number 3, it clearly is a mystery age, not something revealed already but unrealized but something totally unforeseen that could only be grasped if God revealed it, which He did, the fall.\u00a0 Anyway, not too bad tonight, I stopped at 8:05 so I\u2019ll 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