{"id":19195,"date":"2017-04-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-04-19T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-015\/"},"modified":"2017-04-19T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-04-19T05:00:00","slug":"the-coming-kingdom-015","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-015\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coming Kingdom 015"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[111],"series_event":[470],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19195","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-revelation","series_event-the-coming-kingdom","sermon_service_type-wednesday-evenings","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"The Coming Kingdom 015","sermon_date":"20170419","sermon_month":"4","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":4564,"sermon_slides":4563,"sermon_mp3":4565,"sermon_id":"419171854394","series_or_event":470,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":111,"chapter_and_verse":"3:21","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nThe Coming Kingdom\n\n4-19-17\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Revelation 3:21\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 15\n\nLet\u2019s open our Bibles to the Book of Revelation, chapter 3, verse 21.\u00a0\u00a0 As you are turning there just \u00a0\u00a0a quick reminder.\u00a0 As I indicated on Sunday I\u2019m not going to be here for a couple of weeks.\u00a0 But next Wednesday night the same Bat time, same Bat station\u2026did you guys ever watch Batman?\u00a0 Okay, good, you guys are spiritual then.\u00a0 Dr. J. B. Hixson is going to be here.\u00a0 We have a flyer on the name tag table and he\u2019s going to be talking about ten unmistakable signs we may be in the last days.\u00a0 This is a really polished presentation that he does.\u00a0 And then that following Sunday, which is not this Sunday but this will be the 30th<\/sup> he\u2019s going to be speaking in my Sunday School class on is grace worth fighting for, defending grace graciously.\u00a0\u00a0 And then in the main service April 30th<\/sup> he\u2019s going to be talking about one minute after the rapture.\u00a0 These are really good presentations, I\u2019ve heard him do it on Steeling the Mind.\n\nThen Jim is going to speak here in this session, May 3, and Jim is also going to be speaking in the service this Sunday, April 23 in the Sunday School class on beholding the Lord through His Word, part 1.\u00a0 And then he\u2019s doing a sermon on law and grace, part 3.\u00a0 Gosh, all these parts, it\u2019s like a mini soap opera trying to figure out what part we\u2019re in.\u00a0 Anyway, all that to say you guys will be in good hands and I appreciate your prayers as we travel on this cruise that we\u2019re doing.\u00a0 It\u2019s basically a Viking river cruise covering the main\u2026 I\u2019m supposed to be co-leading it so you can pray for me, covering the main sites, some of the key sites of the Protestant Reformation, which happened exactly 500 years ago.\u00a0 Did you know that? \u00a0So this October 31st<\/sup> it\u2019ll be 500 years when Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the Cathedral Door in Wittenberg, Germany, \u00a0which touched off what we now know as the Protestant Reformation.\n\nNo I\u2019ll probably, I don\u2019t know, when I get back I\u2019ll probably, at least in the Sunday School class, after we finish Soteriology I might do some teaching on the Reformation.\u00a0 The church world was completely different, as you probably know, prior to the Reformation.\u00a0 There was only one church, the Catholic Church; the Bibles were chained to the pulpits, the masses were told they couldn\u2019t understand the Bible except if the priest interpreted it for them and the priest interpreted it allegorically.\u00a0 The mass was in Latin and most of the people in Europe didn\u2019t speak Latin, and the people were ripe for manipulation because they didn\u2019t have a Bible.\u00a0 So they were taught the doctrine of purgatory, which is this idea that your loved ones are in this temporary holding place called purgatory and to get them out of purgatory you had to pay the right fee\u2026 to who?\u00a0 The church!\u00a0 So Tetzel, I should go off on all this we might not talk about what we\u2019re supposed to talk about tonight, but Tetzel, a Dominican friar at the time of Martin Luther came up with a statement: \u201cWhen the coin in the coffer rings the soul from purgatory springs.\u201d\u00a0 So pay the right fee and we\u2019ll get your relatives out of purgatory.\n\nNow think about this.\u00a0 How could you validate whether that was true or not if you were ignorant of the Scripture?\u00a0 And the Scripture wasn\u2019t even available to you?\u00a0 See the vulnerability people were in?\u00a0 And this is why God raised up men like Martin Luther and others, to get back to the authority of the Scripture, to emphasize literacy, because your average person really couldn\u2019t read.\u00a0 So the Reformers came along and they taught the priesthood of all believers, and talk about the desire to raise literacy rates, we wouldn\u2019t have the education raising literacy rates had it not been for the Protestant Reformers and their agenda was to get the Bible in the hands of the people so they could understand it so they wouldn\u2019t be manipulated by these priests.\u00a0 See that.\n\nAnd so we have what we have today because of these men that God raised up.\u00a0 Some of them died in the cause, pre-Reformation guys like John Huss were burned to death for doing this.\u00a0 William Tyndale was, I think he was burned to death if I remember right.\u00a0 What was his crime?\u00a0 He was translating the Bible into the vernacular of the common man.\u00a0 And Luther of course did that as well in Germany, he didn\u2019t suffer a martyr\u2019s death but\u2026 I mean, this was just huge what happened 500 years ago and we\u2019re living in the wake of all of that. \u00a0\u00a0And we kind of take it all for granted but the history on this is really, really interesting.\u00a0 Anyway, I\u2019ll probably deal with some of this stuff in my Sunday School class when I get back.\u00a0 Is that okay with everybody.\n\nAll right.\u00a0 In the meantime let\u2019s go to the book of Revelation, chapter 3, verse 21, continuing tonight to cover the doctrine of the kingdom, looking at what does the Bible say about the kingdom.\u00a0 And I just used my introduction time so I\u2019m not going to give you my usual intro tonight which you guys all know well by now anyway, right?\u00a0 I mean, essentially the way the covenants are set up and the promises are set up is through the nation of Israel is going to come a King and that King would be who?\u00a0 Jesus!\u00a0 And for the nation to experience the kingdom they have to enthrone the king.\u00a0 So all of that is developed very clearly as you move through the pages of the Old Testament God is laying this truth our precept by precept.\u00a0 And Jesus shows up and offers Himself as the King of the nation, which gave the nation an opportunity to enthrone the King and receive the kingdom and the tragedy in the Gospels is that the nation of Israel rejected the offer.\n\nSo at that point the kingdom is not cancelled but it is postponed.\u00a0 So the promise of God related to the kingdom are waiting a future generation of Israel to enthrone the King.\u00a0 So that means that we\u2019re in an age of time now called the interim age, which is not the kingdom but it\u2019s not an age of time where God is doing nothing.\u00a0 There is an interim program that\u2019s taking place and it\u2019s expressed through the Matthew 13 parables and also something called the church age.\u00a0 And those two concepts basically run concurrently or simultaneously and if you understand those two areas of the Bible you\u2019ll understand what God is doing today. \u00a0As the nation of Israel is in unbelief the offer of the kingdom is off the table and the kingdom is in a state of postponement.\n\nSo to help us kind of get a handle on this interim age I tried to, last time, make five preliminary observations and we only made three of the five.\u00a0 The first preliminary observation is this interim age is a real period of time and Jesus started to develop it in the parable of the minas where He said He was going away for a long age and He\u2019s entrusting people with His possessions, to manage on His behalf while He is gone.\u00a0 And He taught them this parable because they still thought the kingdom was going to appear immediately and He basically says no, the kingdom is not going to appear immediately.\u00a0 It\u2019s going to come one day but there\u2019s this long age of time before it materializes.\n\nThe end of the interim age will be the return of Christ and the manifestation of the kingdom. So we start to see hints in the latter teachings of Jesus about this long interim period of time.\u00a0 We never heard anything about this in the Old Testament.\u00a0 As the kingdom was being offered to Israel there was no hint of this teaching but now that Israel has rejected the offer of the kingdom it\u2019s very apparent there\u2019s going to be this interim age.\n\nAnd number two, this is an age that has been brought about by Israel\u2019s unbelief.\u00a0 God knew what would happen, He knew that the nation would reject the King and that Israel would not receive the kingdom. That\u2019s what it means in Daniel 9:26 when it says the Messiah will be cut off and inherit nothing; \u201cinherit nothing\u201d means he won\u2019t inherit the kingdom.\u00a0\u00a0 [Daniel 9:26, \u201cThen 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. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.\u201d]\n\nAnd Lewis Sperry Chafer said God not only knows beforehand the choice that His creatures will make but is Himself able to work in them both to will and to do His own good pleasure.\u00a0 So God knew exactly what would happen related to Israel\u2019s rejection of their King and He always knew, although it hadn\u2019t been disclosed, this interim time that would come into His program.\u00a0 And we\u2019re living in that interim age today in the year 2017.\n\nThe third point is that this is what\u2019s called a mystery age.\u00a0 The term that\u2019s used to describe this age in Matthew 13:11 and Ephesians 3:9 is the word \u201cmystery.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0[ Matthew 13:11, \u201cJesus answered them, \u2018To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.\u201d\u2019\u00a0 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]\n\nDoes anybody remember what the word \u201cmystery\u201d means?\u00a0 It\u2019s something unknown and hidden but now disclosed.\u00a0 So this mystery age you\u2019re not going to find in the Old Testament and it is barely even hinted at in the Gospels because it\u2019s a new disclosure of God.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a new idea of God\u2019s, He always knew this age would come but He had never disclosed it.\u00a0 And He\u2019s disclosing it at a particular time in history because of Israel\u2019s unbelief.\n\nNow the fourth point and I don\u2019t think we got to cover this last time, is this is what called a priestly age.\u00a0 There are three offices of Christ: Christ is prophet, priest and king.\u00a0 Prophet was His function at His first coming and this is what prophets do, they call the nation of Israel to repentance.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what Jesus did when He was offering them the kingdom; He was functioning as prophet.\u00a0 He will reign as King in His second advent and He will reign as King at that time, after the tribulation period is over when he is seated on David\u2019s throne and the times of the Gentiles will have formally ended.\u00a0 And there\u2019s a reference to that in Matthew 25:31.\u00a0 [Matthew 25:31, \u201cBut when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.\u201d]\n\nSo first coming He\u2019s the prophet; second coming He\u2019s the king, but what is He today?\u00a0 He\u2019s not functioning as king, He is functioning as priest.\u00a0 Hebrews 4:15 basically says that \u201cwe do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but He\u2019s one who has been tested in every yet way yet without sin.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 So currently Jesus is not on David\u2019s throne contrary to what Reformed theology wants to convince you of.\u00a0 He is actually at the Father\u2019s right hand functioning, not as King (which He will at His second coming) not as prophet (which He did at His first coming) but as priest.\u00a0 And as priest, just because he\u2019s not functioning yet as King, He couldn\u2019t be functioning as King because who\u2019s ruling the world?\u00a0 Satan.\n\nJust because He\u2019s not functioning as King right now\u2026 see when he rules as King Satan is dethroned, he\u2019ll be put in the abyss for a thousand years.\u00a0 Just because he\u2019s not functioning as King presently doesn\u2019t mean He\u2019s not doing anything.\u00a0 There are many, many things that He\u2019s doing: He\u2019s gifting the church, He\u2019s building His church, He\u2019s making intercession for us, He\u2019s restoring broken fellowship between us and the Father when we sin and there\u2019s a whole list of things that He\u2019s doing.\u00a0 And what He is doing now the theologians call the present session of Christ.\u00a0 That\u2019s what we\u2019re in right now. We\u2019re in what is called the present session of Christ; we are NOT in the Davidic Kingdom.\n\nAnd most Christians have an awareness of what Christ did at His first coming; they have an awareness of what He will do at His second coming.\u00a0 But for whatever reason, and Lewis Sperry Chafer brings this out in his systematic theology, most Christians have absolutely no idea what Jesus is doing now.\u00a0 There is a total lack\u2026 and I\u2019m not sure why this is so but there is a total lack of teaching within the evangelical church about the present session of Christ.\u00a0 And yet this is the part of Christ\u2019s ministry that we probably should become the most aware of because it\u2019s the one that He\u2019s doing now that directly affects us.\u00a0 And people confuse the present session of Christ in Reformed theology with the Davidic Kingdom and those are two completely separate ideas.\n\nSo the Book of Hebrews is very clear that Jesus Christ is functioning as High priest, not after the order of Aaron\u2026 now who was Aaron?\u00a0 Aaron was a priest in the lineage of Israel, a Levite.\u00a0 Jesus is not functioning as a Levitical priest but the book of Hebrews makes the point that He is functioning as priest after the order of Melchizedek.\u00a0 So Melchizedek is this very obscure figure that shows\u00a0 up in Genesis and the author of Hebrews, whoever the author was, uses him as a type to explain that the priesthood that Jesus is now issuing is higher than Aaron\u2019s priesthood.\u00a0 And that\u2019s really the whole point of the book of Hebrews, to get that across.\u00a0 And this is a big deal because a lot of people today will go to a priest to confess their sins, to communicate to God, they feel like they have to talk to someone with a robe on or whatever.\u00a0 And the reason they think that is they don\u2019t understand that they have a priest already in Jesus Christ, who is without sin, unlike a human priest.\n\nSo this whole idea of having a priest, talking to a priest, communicating to a priest so I can get to God, people wouldn\u2019t have that ambition or that need if they understood the privileges that they now have in Jesus Christ, who currently at the Father\u2019s right hand is functioning as high priest after the order of Melchizedek.\u00a0 So the whole book of Hebrews is trying to get across that point.\n\nSo the age of time that we\u2019re in, this mystery age or this interim age is not a prophetic age, it\u2019s not a kingdom age but it\u2019s what I would call a priestly age as Christ is fulfilling office number 2 at the Father\u2019s right hand.\u00a0 We know that this is not the kingdom age because Daniel 9:26 says the Messiah will be cut off and inherit nothing.\u00a0 [Daniel 9:26, \u201cThen 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. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.\u201d]\u00a0 He won\u2019t inherit His kingdom but that doesn\u2019t mean Jesus is doing nothing today.\u00a0 He\u2019s at the Father\u2019s right hand functioning as high priest and the whole book of Hebrews is devoted to communicating this point.\n\nSo take a look at Revelation 3:21, where exactly did Jesus go when He ascended?\u00a0 It says this in Revelation 3:21, this would be about 60 years or so after His ascension, which is described in Acts 1; He makes this statement to the church, I think this is the church at Laodicea, and Jesus says, \u201cHe who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.\u201d\u00a0 Now look at this verse very carefully.\u00a0 How many thrones do you see there?\u00a0 Be brave, give me a number.\u00a0 There\u2019s two thrones, there\u2019s not one, there\u2019s two.\u00a0 He says, \u201cHe who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with me on My throne,\u201d now when He says \u201cI will grant\u201d what\u2019s the tense of that verb?\u00a0 Future, \u201cMy throne\u201d Jesus says is future.\u00a0 Now what throne is He talking about?\u00a0 He\u2019s talking about His office as King, number 3 there, when He will actually sit on David\u2019s throne.\n\nBy the way, David\u2019s throne is on the earth, did you know that.\u00a0 It\u2019s in the literal city of Jerusalem. So when Jesus, in Revelation 3:21 makes reference to His throne, yet future, He is talking about the future Davidic throne.\u00a0 [Revelation 3:21, \u201cHe who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.\u201d] \u00a0He\u2019s not on David\u2019s throne yet which is on the earth.\u00a0 He will sit on that throne and reign over the whole world in the millennial kingdom.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cHe who overcomes I will grant him to sit down with me on My throne, as I also overcame\u201d now what\u2019s the tense of that verb?\u00a0 It\u2019s past, \u201cas I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.\u201d\n\nSo when you look at this verse very carefully you\u2019ll see, number 1, there\u2019s two thrones, one future, one now.\u00a0 One is on the earth, one is in heaven; the future one is Jesus\u2019 Davidic throne which He\u2019s not on now; if He was on it now the times of the Gentiles would be over.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 And we\u2019d be in the millennial kingdom.\u00a0 But the throne that He is seated on now is not His throne, it\u2019s His Father\u2019s throne in heaven.\u00a0 Do you see that?\u00a0 And it\u2019s very important to understand the details of this to get in your mind exactly what Jesus is doing presently in the mystery age.\n\nNow I\u2019ve made reference, I think last time we were together, to progressive dispensationalism.\u00a0 Progressive dispensationalism is the new trend amongst the younger scholars at Dallas Seminary and other places and what they\u2019re trying to argue is this: Jesus is on David\u2019s throne now, reigning as King.\u00a0 Reformed theology says this is as much of the Davidic Covenant as we\u2019re ever going to get, right now.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that kind of a depressing subject?\u00a0 Progressive dispensationalism, which wants to build a bridge to the Reformed community, which is ecumenical and to build a bridge to the Reformed community you have to give up certain points.\u00a0 And one of the points that they\u2019re all giving up in spades is this idea that Jesus is not functioning as King, He\u2019s functioning as priest.\u00a0 He\u2019s not on David\u2019s throne, He\u2019s on the Father\u2019s throne.\n\nSo what progressive dispensationalist are trying to argue in addition to, as we saw last week, that the church is in the Old Testament, which I tried to show you last week that the church is not in the Old Testament, they\u2019re also trying to argue that Jesus is now reigning on David\u2019s throne in an already form of the Davidic Covenant.\u00a0 So when you get around these guys they use this expression all the time, already\u2014not yet and they\u2019re applying that to the Davidic Covenant and basically what they\u2019re saying is we are already in the Davidic Covenant in spiritual form but don\u2019t worry, we still believe in a future Davidic reign of Christ.\u00a0 So they\u2019re sort of in between a guy like me, a traditional dispen\u00adsation\u00adalist and a Reformed theologian who believes we\u2019re totally in the Davidic Covenant right now.\n\nAnd one of the most troubling parts of their doctrine, from my vantage point, it goes directly against Dallas Seminary\u2019s doctrinal statement incidentally, is they believe that Jesus is reigning on David\u2019s throne now and we are in an already form of the kingdom.\u00a0 So the Davidic Covenant is started but it\u2019s going to come in full later.\u00a0 So it is a mediating position between traditional dispensationalism and Reformed theology.\n\nAnd the post-moderns love this because post-moderns believe that nobody has the truth, which is a truth claim in and of itself, isn\u2019t it.\u00a0 So they always believe that truth lies between competing opposites; you go into the middle somewhere, I call this middle ground mania, and that\u2019s where the truth resides.\u00a0 So progressive dispensationalism has positioned itself directly in between traditional dispensationalism and Reformed theology.\u00a0 And they are giving ground to the Reformed movement by saying look, we acknowledge that Jesus is reigning as Davidic King presently but unlike you we also believe that there will be a full Davidic Covenant from David\u2019s literal throne later.\n\nMy viewpoint is they\u2019re wrong on this; we are not in the Davidic Covenant now in any sense; He is functioning, not as King but as what?\u00a0 High priest.\u00a0 We\u2019re not in the third office yet, we\u2019re in His second office.\n\nSo one of the things progressive dispensationalists argue when you point out the two thrones here in Revelation 3:21 is they argue that look, in the eternal state the two thrones will merge.\u00a0 So Revelation 22:1 says, \u201cThen he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb,\u201d see what\u2019s happened there in the eternal state?\u00a0 When all is said and done the two thrones are going to merge; they will be one and the same.\u00a0 And so what they argue is well, they\u2019re merged in the eternal state, so therefor they must be merged when?\u00a0 Now.\u00a0 See what they\u2019re doing?\u00a0 They\u2019re going all the way to the end of the Bible developing a method of interpretation concerning these two thrones as one and reading it back into the present.\n\nAnd Darrell Bock, a well-known progressive dispensationalist, writes this: \u201cOne may object that the throne at the right hand of God is not the Davidic throne which is earthly.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s what I argue.\u00a0 \u201cThis objection may be raised by appealing to a text like Revelation 3:21\u201d which is what we just did, \u201cwhere Jesus distinguishes between My throne, in which the overcomer will sit, and the Father\u2019s throne on which Jesus currently sits.\u00a0 The argument is made that the throne on which Jesus sits in Acts is the Father\u2019s throne, not David\u2019s throne,\u201d see, these guys are all about putting Jesus on David\u2019s throne now, \u00a0\u201cThis throne of the Lamb set next to the Father is alluded to again in Revelation 22:1,\u201d so what Darrell Bock is saying is don\u2019t pay attention to Revelation 3:21, which governs our age, there\u2019s nothing behind that curtain, move right along and watch my gimmickry go over to Revelation 22 where the thrones merge.\u00a0 That\u2019s what\u2019s normative.\u00a0 He says, \u201cThis is the same throne that Jesus occupies in the consummation! He exercises Davidic rule even\u00a0 as He will exercise it then.\u201d\u00a0 So don\u2019t pay attention to Revelation 3:21, reinterpret Revelation 3:21 by an eternal state passage.\n\nThis is not even hermeneutics that these guys are doing.\u00a0 You don\u2019t analyze concepts by what some other passage says in a totally different dispensation, do you?\u00a0 You try to figure out what the text says without dragging a bunch of stuff to the text.\u00a0 And these guys do this all the time.\u00a0 I showed you last time what they\u2019re doing with \u201cmystery\u201d in Romans 16.\u00a0 They\u2019re trying to define \u201cmystery\u201d in Romans 16, because you might recall their understanding of mystery is something revealed but unrealized.\u00a0 Our definition of mystery is it\u2019s something completely unrevealed.\u00a0 They\u2019re trying to define mystery not based on how Romans 16 reads but how what reads?\u00a0 How Romans 1 reads.\n\nAnd you might remember the discussion last week, I tried to show you that the Scripture here in Romans 16 are the Old Testament Scriptures or the New Testament Scriptures?\u00a0 The New Testament Scriptures, which as you follow the discussion last week destroys their view of mystery and they say well don\u2019t pay attention to Scripture in Romans 16; connect Romans 16 with Romans 1.\u00a0 So all of the time and it was very troubling to me to watch all of these millennials and twenty-somethings that I was in seminary with just get picked off by these arguments because to me they are not arguments at all.\u00a0 These guys are not doing biblical exegesis; they\u2019re trying to interpret parts of the Bible by what some other part of the Bible says so don\u2019t\u00a0 understand Romans 16 based on Romans 16, understand Romans 16 based on Romans 1 and that\u2019s why I went to a lot of labor last week to show you that Romans 1 and Romans 16 are two different animals.\n\nAnd they\u2019re trying to do the exact same thing with these two thrones.\u00a0 As you point out the two thrones they say don\u2019t pay attention to that passage, pay attention to Revelation 22:1.\u00a0 The reality of the situation is the eternal state is a totally different world entirely.\u00a0 Did you know that in the eternal state there won\u2019t be Satan, there won\u2019t be death.\u00a0 I was visiting with Jim Hertzog the other day, my wife and I were, the man is getting ready to die, fortunately he\u2019s a believer.\u00a0 There\u2019s people in this church that are suffering and getting ready to die.\u00a0 It\u2019s obvious that we are not in the eternal security.\u00a0 Amen.\u00a0 So how can you take an eternal state passage about a merger of two thrones and read it back into the present age as Jesus is speaking to the church in our age, the church at Laodicea.\n\nSo in the eternal state there\u2019s no Satan, there won\u2019t even be an ocean if you take that literally.\u00a0 I was teaching this in California and there was a surfer guy in the class and he was really\u2026 he was really disappointed about that and I didn\u2019t have an answer for him other than you won\u2019t be disappointed when you get there; whatever enjoyment you get from the ocean and surfing will be replaced, believe me!\u00a0 There won\u2019t be any death or crying or pain; there won\u2019t even be a sun or a moon or an night because the Lord will illuminate everything.\u00a0 You won\u2019t have any luminaries any more.\u00a0 There won\u2019t be evil, there won\u2019t even be a curse.\n\nSo I just am very much against defining Revelation 3:21, [\u201cHe who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.\u201d] erasing the distinction the two thrones which Jesus clearly talks about by creating some lens from a totally remote part of the Bible that doesn\u2019t have anything to do with our present age.\u00a0\u00a0 Just like I\u2019m very much against using Romans 1 to redefine Romans 16.\u00a0 But\u00a0 you see, if\u00a0 you\u2019re young and somebody is standing up in front of you with a PhD from Europe and you\u2019re coming out of a church that really doesn\u2019t teach you much, these guys sound very glib, they sound very articulate, and they pick off person after person after person after person.\u00a0 And this is the kind of bad teaching that\u2019s coming into our Bible churches and one of the reasons I want to tell you guys about it is because I want you to be in a position to educate\u00a0 your children and\u00a0 your grandchildren about these things because this is what they\u2019re being taught at many of our mainline seminaries.\n\nSo where is Jesus now?\u00a0 Take a look at Revelation 12:5, \u201cAnd she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child\u201d that\u2019s Jesus \u201cwas caught up\u201d that\u2019s His ascension, where was He caught up to, \u201cto God and to\u201d what? \u201cHis throne.\u201d \u00a0It doesn\u2019t say He was caught up to David\u2019s throne.\u00a0 First of all, if He was on David\u2019s throne He wouldn\u2019t have been caught up, right?\u00a0 Because David\u2019s throne is on the earth.\u00a0 It\u2019s very clear here that Jesus is not on David\u2019s throne exercising his authority as king; He\u2019s on the Father\u2019s throne functioning as what?\u00a0 High priest, after the order of who? Melchizedek.\n\nAnd it\u2019s not a low-grade position, let me tell you.\u00a0 It\u2019s a position of glory.\u00a0 This is Christ\u2019s final\u2026 you know, we talk about the Lord\u2019s prayer, you try to find it in Matthew 6; Matthew 6 is really not the Lord\u2019s prayer because He says things like \u201cforgive us our trespasses,\u201d I don\u2019t think Jesus had any sins, right, so it\u2019s not a prayer that Jesus prayed in Matthew 6, it\u2019s more of a model prayer for the who?\u00a0 The disciples.\u00a0 Matthew 6 is the disciples prayer.\u00a0 If you want to see the Lord\u2019s prayer, what He prayed, you read John 17.\u00a0 So just prior to His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension He says, \u201cNow Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.\u201d \u00a0[John 17:5]\u00a0 So where is Jesus?\u00a0 It\u2019s not a low level position at all, even though He\u2019s not yet on David\u2019s throne reigning over the earth; it\u2019s a very high position.\u00a0 It\u2019s a position of glory; it\u2019s a position of glory that He experienced with the Father for all eternity.\u00a0 It\u2019s true that it\u2019s not yet the Davidic Kingdom and not yet David\u2019s throne but you shouldn\u2019t undervalue what Jesus is doing now. We anticipate the Davidic Kingdom but He is in a position of glory functioning as high priest which is what we call the present what?\u00a0 The present session of Christ, and area of theology that most average Christians know very little about.\n\nNow in this position of glory at the Father\u2019s right hand He is still the Davidic heir.\u00a0 He is still the heir to David\u2019s promises and David\u2019s throne.\u00a0 But just because you\u2019re an heir to the throne doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re on the throne yet; are you with me on that.\u00a0 For example,\u00a0 you can be an heir to an estate, that\u2019s your legal position but things have to happen, there has to be a death and other things for you to actually enter into that inheritance.\u00a0 So just because you\u2019re an heir doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re experiencing the inheritance yet.\u00a0 So Jesus very clearly is an heir to David\u2019s throne; He is still called a Davidite, a Davidic descendant, there\u2019s no question about that.\u00a0\u00a0 But that\u2019s not the same thing as saying he\u2019s on David\u2019s throne.\u00a0 He won\u2019t be on David\u2019s throne until He\u2019s on this earth from Jerusalem reigning over the Millennial kingdom and that won\u2019t happen until the tribulation period is over following Israel\u2019s conversion.\n\nSo Revelation 3:7 says, \u201cAnd to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of\u201d what? \u201cDavid,\u201d that would be Jesus, \u201cwho opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens,\u201d so He has the keys to\u00a0 the Davidic Covenant but that doesn\u2019t mean He\u2019s actually in the Davidic Covenant.\u00a0 Are you with me on that?\u00a0 Because what Darrell Bock and his group do is they find every reference like this which is describing Christ\u2019s present session, connected with David and they\u2019re trying to get people to believe that Jesus is actually on David\u2019s throne now in heaven.\u00a0 And that is NOT what these passages are talking about.\u00a0 All of these passages are not talking about Jesus on David\u2019s throne, reigning over the Davidic Kingdom; they\u2019re talking about Jesus as the heir to David\u2019s throne.\u00a0 Are you with me?\n\nThey do the same thing in Revelation 5:5, which says, \u201cand one of the elders said to me, \u2018Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of\u201d who? \u201cDavid, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.\u201d\u00a0 So there again is Jesus getting ready to open the seals, and He\u2019s called \u201cthe root of David,\u201d that doesn\u2019t mean He\u2019s in heaven reigning on David\u2019s throne but He is the heir to David\u2019s throne.\n\nRevelation 22:16 says, \u201cI, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of\u201d who? \u201cDavid, the bright morning star.\u201d\u00a0 Now that doesn\u2019t\u00a0 mean that Jesus is reigning on David\u2019s throne right now.\u00a0\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re in the Davidic Kingdom now.\u00a0 How do I know that?\u00a0 Because to argue that this is the Davidic Kingdom is to rewrite all of the passages that we have gone through in the Old Testament telling you what the Davidic Kingdom is going to be like one day.\u00a0 So you have to pit the New Testament against the Old and say that the ne changes the Old and that\u2019s not what we believe.\u00a0 We believe that the Davidic Kingdom is going to manifest itself exactly like it\u2019s described in heaven and what is happening now is not the Davidic Kingdom; there\u2019s not world peace and other things but it\u2019s Jesus functioning as high priest at the Father\u2019s right hand, not on David\u2019s throne but the Father\u2019s throne, although He is the heir of David\u2019s throne and He will be on it one day.\n\nIf you want to know exactly what\u2019s happening today one of the best pieces of typology that we have in the Old Testament is King David.\u00a0 In 1 Samuel 16 David was anointed as king.\u00a0 Did you all know that?\u00a0 He was anointed as king in 1 Samuel 16 and yet he did not take his seat on the throne over the kingdom until 2 Samuel 2 and then 2 Samuel 5 is when he got Jerusalem back. So David is anointed as King in 1 Samuel 16 but he does not reign as King until 2 Samuel 2-5, beginning his Davidic reign.\u00a0 So there was a time period where David, it was very clear, was the anointed king but he was not functioning as king because who was running the country?\u00a0 A guy named Saul, and everybody during that time period was having to choose\u2014are you with Saul or are you with David?\n\nIf you\u2019re with David you have to walk by what?\u00a0 Faith because David was not yet on the throne.\u00a0 If you\u2019re with Saul you walked by what?\u00a0 Sight, because Saul was on the throne.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why there\u2019s so much information in the Samuel books about Saul\u2019s good looks; it talks about him being tall and handsome and you read all this stuff and it\u2019s like why do they keep describing his looks?\u00a0 Because people followed Saul if they walked by sight; if you were with David, which was a minority group called David\u2019s men you had to walk by faith.\u00a0 And that circumstance didn\u2019t change until Saul was deposed.\u00a0 David had two opportunities to kill Saul, 1 Samuel 24 I believe it is and 1 Samuel 26 and both times he said no; he waited on the Lord to depose Saul.\u00a0 As you know, Saul ultimately committed suicide and then and only then was David elevated.\n\nSo from 1 Samuel 16 to 2 Samuel 2-5 there\u2019s an interim time period where David is anointed as King but not yet reigning as king.\u00a0 That interim time period is exactly what\u2019s happening right now.\u00a0 Jesus has been anointed as King at His resurrection and ascension, Psalm 2, but is He reigning as King today?\u00a0 What do you think?\u00a0 Is Jesus reigning as King today?\u00a0 He\u2019s anointed as King but is He reigning as King?\u00a0 He\u2019s not reigning as King because who\u2019s on the throne?\u00a0 A Saul-like character called Satan.\u00a0 So what is happening right now?\u00a0 Do you see what God is doing?\u00a0 He\u2019s forcing the whole human race to decide, who are you with?\u00a0 Are you with Christ?\u00a0 If you\u2019re with Christ you\u2019ve got to walk by faith because Christ is not yet in His kingdom.\u00a0 If you\u2019re with Satan you\u2019re walking by sight because you\u2019re following what you can see.\n\nSo if you can wrap your mind around the interim time period between 1 Samuel 16 when David was anointed and that interim time period ending with David actually reigning as King where humanity, people were being forced to make a choice.\u00a0 That\u2019s exactly what\u2019s happening right now.\u00a0 Jesus will reign on David\u2019s throne one day; He has been anointed to do that but He\u2019s not yet there.\u00a0 So therefore if you\u2019re with Jesus you\u2019re walking by faith; if you\u2019re with the devil you\u2019re walking by what?\u00a0 Sight.\u00a0 And just as Saul was deposed and replaced by David one of these days Satan, who\u2019s running this world system, is going to be deposed and replaced by Jesus Christ.\u00a0 So that becomes tremendous typology that the Holy Spirit has given us to understand this interim time period that we\u2019re in now when Jesus is functioning as high priest, not as Davidic King.\u00a0 And don\u2019t let this Davidic language confuse you. What it is communicating is Jesus is the heir to David\u2019s throne, not that He\u2019s now on David\u2019s throne.\n\nSo currently Hebrews 7:3 says this of Jesus.\u00a0 \u201cWithout father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually.\u201d\u00a0 The audience in the book of Hebrews is thinking about leaving Christianity and going back to their Jewish roots.\u00a0 You know, people today talk about Jewish roots movements; this was\u00a0 Jewish roots movement in the sense that they were thinking about dumping Christianity entirely and they were becoming weakened because of the trials that they were under; they were being persecuted to come back to their Hebrew roots and the author of Hebrews says don\u2019t lapse backward, even though you\u2019re under pressure to do so, get strength from your high priest who lives to make intercession for you, who\u2019s very active currently, not in His Davidic reign but in His present what? Present session.\n\nAnd so the author goes into all this detail, not describing the Davidic reign of Christ.\u00a0 Why would he have to do that, we already have that described in the Old Testament.\u00a0 He goes into tremendous detail in Hebrews to discuss the pre current priesthood of Christ, Christ at the Father\u2019s right hand on the Father\u2019s throne is available to strengthen us as we\u2019re living in the devil\u2019s world.\u00a0 And that is sort of the point that the author of Hebrews is getting at.\n\nSo the point I really want to get across to everybody is this.\u00a0 The current age of time that we\u2019re in is not a fulfillment of the Davidic Kingdom.\u00a0 It\u2019s something different.\u00a0 Reformed theology will try to tell you that the current age is a total and complete fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant.\u00a0 I\u2019m saying no, the current age of time is an age where God is at work, no doubt, but it is not to be confused with the Davidic Kingdom.\u00a0 Progressive dispensationalists come along and say well, the present age is a partial fulfillment of the Davidic Kingdom because they believe in the already and the not yet.\u00a0 And to that assertion I\u2019m saying no, the present age is not either a complete fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant, contrary to Reformed theology, nor is it even a partial fulfillment of the Davidic Kingdom contra progressive dispensationalism.\n\nThis is a completely unique age, never been disclosed before that has zero to do with the Davidic Kingdom.\u00a0 Christ today is not functioning as King, He\u2019s functioning as what?\u00a0 High priest, nothing to do with the Davidic Kingdom, although He\u2019s the Davidic heir.\u00a0 So Lewis Sperry Chafer, who founded Dallas Theological, if you put your ear to the ground and listen carefully you can hear him rolling over in his grave right now because he would be stunned at what these guys are doing with the school that he started, in this area.\u00a0 Listen to this quote from his systematic theology. He says, \u201cSimilarly the earthly kingdom that according to the Scriptures had its origin in the covenant made to David, which is mundane and literal in its original form and equally as mundane and literal in uncounted references to it in all subsequent Scriptures which trace it on to its consummation,\u201d see, he\u2019s talking about the Davidic reign of Christ which will be earthly.\u00a0 He says, this \u201cis by theological legerdemain,\u201d that\u2019s why I like reading these old guys, the use these vocabulary words that no one uses any more, does anybody know what legerdemain is?\u00a0 \u00a0There you go, trickery, deceit, scheming, manipulation is by theological legerdemain metamorphosed\u201d I don\u2019t even know if I\u2019m pronouncing that right, \u201clegerdemain metamorphosed\u201d which means changed \u201cinto a spiritual monstrosity\u201d\u00a0 that\u2019s pretty strong language, isn\u2019t it.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026in which an absent King seated on His Father\u2019s throne in heaven is accepted in lieu\u201d or in replacement \u201cof the theocratic monarch of David\u2019s line seated on David\u2019s throne in Jerusalem.\u201d\n\nAnd what he is saying there is you cannot confuse the present age with the Davidic Kingdom.\u00a0 Those are two completely different things.\u00a0 He says to convert this age into the Davidic Kingdom is to result to trickery and to metamorphosize something into a spiritual monstrosity.\u00a0 And he was very clear in his writings that the present age is not the Davidic Kingdom, it\u2019s a mystery age; the Davidic Kingdom will come one day to the earth but this age is not to be confused with it.\u00a0 And you see, this is why there\u2019s such a deprecation in the minds of these younger scholars against Lewis Sperry Chafer.\u00a0 I endured so many putdowns and criticisms of Chafer, oh, he didn\u2019t know Greek (which he did by the way), oh, he was not a trained theologian, he never went to Europe to study, well praise God for that, that\u2019s why the man was thinking correctly, he wasn\u2019t listening to European scholars, he was reading his Bible.\u00a0 See that?\n\nAnd there\u2019s no way he would ever have gone along with this idea that\u2019s being foisted on people that the present age is some kind of complete fulfillment of the Davidic Kingdom or even a partial fulfillment of the Davidic Kingdom.\u00a0 And so that\u2019s why the name of the game is to trash Chafer.\u00a0 In fact, during my time there I didn\u2019t have a single professor that ever assigned Chafer for me to read.\u00a0 The one exception was Robert Lightner, an older man, theologian, but other than his class I would have had no exposure to Chafer because Lewis Sperry Chafer is saying the opposite of where these guys want to go with their present form of the Davidic Kingdom.\n\nSo what am I trying to get at?\u00a0 The present age is a priestly age.\u00a0 Are you with me on that?\u00a0 And one more point and with this we\u2019ll close.\u00a0 I was going to try to get into the Matthew 13 parables tonight but obviously I\u2019m not going to be able to do that.\u00a0 The present age, watch this very carefully, although not the Davidic age, is an important age.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the game that\u2019s played; they say if you believe that the present age is a parenthesis, it\u2019s what Chafer called an intercalation which means an interval, there\u2019s an interval that has never been expressed by God, God always knew it would come but it would interrupt the coming of the Davidic Kingdom and during this parenthesis or what Chafer called an intercalation God is clearly at work although it\u2019s not the Davidic Kingdom.\n\nWhat they say is if you believe that then you believe that the present age is unimportant and they would malign the position over and over again by saying you believe in plan B theology.\u00a0 Plan B theology is, in their minds, saying poor God didn\u2019t know what to when the nation of Israel rejected His Son and He got really sweaty palms and got nervous and at the last minute He says I know, as an afterthought, I\u2019ll create the church.\u00a0 So this is how they misrepresent our view.\u00a0 They misrepresent our view by contending that we believe in plan B theology and if you get on the internet and you start doing research on dispensationalists you\u2019ll see all of these vitriolic attacks against dispensationalists.\u00a0 And at some point someone is going to bring up plan B theology.\n\nLet me tell you something about the present age; it is NOT plan B.\u00a0 How do I know that?\u00a0 Because Ephesians 3:11 describes it as part of the eternal purpose of God.\u00a0 Do you see that.\u00a0 Ephesians 3:11 says, \u201cThis was in accordance,\u201d\u00a0 this being the church, \u201cThis was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord,\u201d the present age is the outworking of the eternal purposes of God.\u00a0 God knew what would happen with Israel and He had already planned the present age in eternity past.\u00a0 It\u2019s not an accident, it\u2019s not a footnote, it\u2019s not God\u2019s saying oh no, what am I going to do, let\u2019s throw the church age at people.\u00a0 It is the outworking of the eternal purpose of God.\u00a0 The difference is it just hadn\u2019t been revealed yet.\n\nSee, Israel\u2019s plan throughout the pages of the Old Testament has been revealed.\u00a0 The church\u2019s plan hasn\u2019t been revealed but just because it hasn\u2019t been revealed to man does not mean that it had never been planned by God.\u00a0 So never let anybody tell you that the present age is an accident of plan B. Ephesians 3:11 contradicts that because it\u2019s part of \u201cthe eternal purpose of God.\u201d\u00a0 It just hadn\u2019t been revealed yet.\n\nSo that white area is our view of the current church age; it\u2019s called an intercalation which means a pause in God\u2019s kingdom program.\u00a0 Now if you\u2019re going to be with us on Sunday mornings eventually we\u2019re going to get to the seventy weeks prophecy; it\u2019s the unknown age of time currently transpiring between Daniel 9:26 and Daniel 9:27, between the first sixty-nine weeks of the prophecy and the 70th<\/sup> week of the prophecy yet to come there is a period of time there called an interval of parenthesis and an intercalation, not to be confused with the Davidic kingdom, an age of time that God always purposed that He would bring forth, it just hadn\u2019t been revealed yet.\n\n[Daniel 9:26-27, \u201cThen 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. And its end will come<\/em> with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. [27] And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come<\/em> one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.\u201d]\n\nAnd that white area represents the time period that we are currently in.\u00a0 Now they took Charles Ryrie to task over this idea of a parenthesis; they said if you believe that we\u2019re in a parenthesis between God\u2019s past program and future program with the nation of Israel then you believe that the present age is unimportant because after all, when you\u2019re writing a paper the stuff you put in the parenthesis isn\u2019t important, right.\u00a0 That\u2019s the logic that they used.\u00a0 The problem is when you look up the word parenthesis in a dictionary it doesn\u2019t mean unimportant at all.\u00a0 I\u2019m writing a paper right now, the stuff I\u2019m putting in parenthesis is not unimportant, it just represents an interval or an interruption in thought.\u00a0 The things in the parenthesis represent an interruption of thought but parenthesis in and of itself doesn\u2019t mean the information in the parenthesis is unimportant.\n\nSo when Ryrie talked about a parenthesis and Chafer talked about an intercalation all they were trying to describe from a human point of view is an interval or an interruption.\u00a0 They never had in their minds this idea of unimportance.\u00a0 But you see, that\u2019s the criticism that\u2019s leveled against Ryrie and Chafer when they use parenthesis language, they say well, you believe the present age is unimportant.\u00a0 It can\u2019t be unimportant because it\u2019s the eternal purpose of God.\u00a0 Are you with me on this?\n\nI like this quote from Thomas Ice, related to Plan B theology.\u00a0 He says, \u201cIn almost 35 years since I have become a dispensationalist,\u201d now this was back in 2003 so we could add another 15 years or whatever to that time period, \u201cIn almost 35\u00a0 years since I have never heard nor read of a dispensationalist teaching a plan B scenario.\u201d\u00a0 And I started thinking about this too, I\u2019ve never heard anybody tell me that the church\u2019s plan B that\u2019s a dispensationalist.\u00a0 \u201c Yet opponents often present this straw man in their statement\u201d let\u2019s pause right there, what is a \u201cstraw man\u201d?\u00a0 A straw man argument is a logical fallacy.\u00a0 A straw man argument is a misrepresentation of your opponents position.\u00a0 Then once the misrepresentation is communicated you tear down, not what your opponent really believes but your creation of what you want your opponent to believe.\u00a0 Are you with me on this?\n\nNow those of you who that follow politics see this going on all the time, right?\u00a0 If you vote for my opponent he is going to take away your social security check, and isn\u2019t social security important, and think about all the poverty that would happen with the elderly and the aged and the infirmed if social security disappeared.\u00a0 And everybody gets all riled up when the reality the guy he\u2019s pointing to has no ambition at all to take away social security.\u00a0 What has happened is a misrepresentation has been created which takes hold of people and once it takes hold of people then you tear down not what the person really says or believes, you tear down this misrepresentation that you\u2019ve created.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a logical fallacy because you\u2019re not attacking what the person actually believes, you\u2019re attacking a creation of what the person believes.\u00a0 See that.\u00a0 And it\u2019s called a straw man because a man of straw does what?\u00a0 Topples over easily.\n\nSo Thomas Ice says, \u201cIn almost 35 years since I\u2019ve been a dispensationalist I have never heard nor read of a dispensationalist teaching a plan B scenario. Yet opponents often present this straw man in their statement of what we supposedly believe. We believe that God\u2019s single plan has always included the Church, but He did not reveal the church age of that plan in the Old Testament. . . . Paul states specifically that the church age \u2018was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord\u2019 \u00a0Ephesians 3:11)\u201d a verse that we alluded to a little earlier. \u201cThis\u201d meaning Ephesians 3:11 and the eternal purpose of God, \u201cThis is why dispensationalists have never\u201d NEVER \u201ctaught the so-called plan A and plan B theory that critics suppose we hold. Dispensationalists have always taught that there is a single plan carried out in\u201d different what? \u201cstages.\u201d\u00a0 But just because you\u2019re in one stage or the other doesn\u2019t mean that stage is less important than the final stage.\u00a0 So it\u2019s a strong man argumentation.\n\nSo in conclusion what do we learn about this mystery age?\u00a0 Number 1, it\u2019s an authentic age, it\u2019s a real period of time.\u00a0 Number 2, it\u2019s an age of time caused by Israel\u2019s unbelief.\u00a0 Number 3, it\u2019s a mystery age, it\u2019s never been disclosed before.\u00a0 Number 4, it\u2019s a priestly age, Jesus is not functioning as King but He\u2019s functioning as what?\u00a0 High Priest after the order of who? Melchizedek.\u00a0 And which throne is He on?\u00a0 The Father\u2019s throne in heaven, not His future throne on the earth.\u00a0 And then finally, number 5, the age of time that we\u2019re in is just as important as any other age.\u00a0 It\u2019s not somehow less significant just because we\u2019re arguing that we\u2019re in the kingdom.\n\nSo next week, actually I won\u2019t be here for two weeks but when I get back together with you on the 7th<\/sup> is it, no, the 10th<\/sup>, try to read chapter 11 in the book which deals with the first part of this interim age that we\u2019re in; the first major description of it is in the Matthew 13 parables.\u00a0 Jesus laid out very carefully the course of the present age in eight parables and if you can take those eight parables and put them together you\u2019ll see the mind of God concerning what He is and what He is not doing today.\u00a0 He\u2019s doing a lot of great things but it has nothing to do with the one day manifestation of the Davidic kingdom.\u00a0 So that\u2019s the direction we\u2019re going in when I am with you all together on the 10th<\/sup>.\u00a0 Okay, I\u2019m going to stop talking at this point, not too bad, 8:03, you guys should consider yourself lucky that I take numbers literally as a dispensationalist; I interpret 8 as not 8:45. Anyway, I know I threw a lot of stuff at you but I just\u2026 you might be looking at this and saying why does all this matter, I\u2019m trying to get\u00a0 you to see some of the current academic attacks that are going on in our way of understanding the Bible.\n\nSo we\u2019ll let people go that need to get out of here to pick up their kids and anybody that would like to engage in a little bit of Q and A we can do that.","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