One of the most
When Jesus has finished preaching this sermon, the people were astonished at his teaching for he taught them as one having
The Lord’s sermon on the mount is no exception. In fact, in the conclusion of his sermon, Jesus makes it abundantly clear why it is vitally important for everyone not merely to hear his words, but to obey them.
First of all, Jesus sets the stage by saying in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
Now according to this passage, each of us are faced with a decision of utmost importance and there are only two options. The narrow way and the broad way. The broad way leads to destruction, while the narrow way leads to live. The broad way is easy to travel down and the narrow way is difficult. Because the broad way is easy, most people will travel down that way. Because the narrow way is difficult, only a few will find it.
The fact that the narrow way must be found implies that it must be searched for, but there are many dangerous obstacles along the way and Jesus points out in Matthew 7:15-17 what those obstacles are. He warns about some of them, namely false teachers which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Jesus then focuses his attention to warning us about the inevitable and inescapable day of
Matthew 7:15-17 “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.”
Indeed, one day we will all stand before God to give an account of the things that we have done. But Jesus is not merely warning us on the reality of judgment, he is instructing us on how to be ready for the judgment. In Matthew 7:21 Jesus says, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”
He is telling us that to prepare for the judgment. It takes more than words and wishes. It takes a compliance to the will of God. Now the people Jesus describes here, we’ll be surprised on the day of Judgment. He goes on and says in Matthew 7:22-23, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
Here Jesus is describing people who never had a real relationship with God, although they thought they did and they felt they did. Now that is a scary thought because Jesus is talking about self deception. He wants us to know that you and I can be deceived, that it is possible for us to go through life only to find out that on the day of judgment we were not really in fact doing the will of God. Now that is a warning.
So how do we avoid being surprised on the Day of Judgment? Will. Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:24-25 “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.”
Jesus is describing a wise man. The reason he is a wise man is
Now when you turn over to Luke’s parallel account, Luke gives us something that is a little bit extra.
He adds an additional detail in Luke 6:47-48 where Jesus said, “Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.”
Now notice that in order for the wise man to reach the Rock, he had to do some digging. In fact, he had to do quite a bit of digging because Jesus said he dug deep. It was not easy for him, but it required deliberate and diligent effort. In other words, it took a spiritual muscle and some and a shovel to reach that rock. Then I submit that for us to build upon that solid foundation that will stand on the Day of Judgment that we too are going to have to do some digging.
Now there are many foundations that we can build on that are unstable and dangerous and we’ve got to be able to determine today the difference between sinking sand and solid rock.
Let me give you some examples of sinking sand.
First, majority opinion is unstable ground and unfortunately we sometimes follow the crowd and we let the majority opinions sway our thinking. Large numbers can deceive us and lull us into a false sense of security. God commanded his people of old and he’s still warns us today, “Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil,” Exodus 23:2
If we’re not careful, we can catch ourselves saying, “well, everyone else is doing it and that many people can’t be wrong.” But whenever you hear everybody else is doing it, that’s a red flag and it’s a good enough reason to run in the opposite direction, because the majority opinion doesn’t have a very good track record of being right.
Sometimes the majority opinion just means you’ve got a lot of fools in the same place. Look at the days of Noah, only eight souls were saved. Look at the days of Jesus after having thousands of people following him one day, they forsook him the next. During the last week of his earthly ministry, the people lined the streets shouting their accolades. “Hosanna. Blessed is the king.” But by the end of the very same week, the crowd had shifted from commendation to condemnation, as they shout, “crucify him.”
We must not be persuaded into believing something simply because a lot of other people are doing it. Jesus warns us not to be deceived by the numbers because wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in there at. So don’t allow the masses to manipulate you into following them down the road to hell.
Dig Past what everyone else is saying, what everyone else is believing and practicing because the majority opinion is sinking sand.
Something else that is equally unreliable is our emotion or our feelings. Regrettably, many are building upon a foundation of emotionalism. In other words, as long as something feels good, makes you happy, and doesn’t bother your conscience. That is the standard that is often used to gauge whether something is right or wrong. But feelings are subject to change and feelings are subject to deception. What feels wrong one day may feel right the next. What is so dangerous about feelings is that they are so powerful they can make a lie seen true. When Joseph was sold as a slave into Egypt by his brothers, they took his coat of many colors, dipped it in animal blood and presented it to Jacob, their father with the lie that Joseph was dead. Now, Jacob believed that lie and he believed that for years and he felt the same way as if it had been the truth. He grieved. He wept, his heart was broken. In fact, his feelings were so real and powerful that even after they told him the truth, he did not believe them until he saw for himself.
Well, the Bible warns us about the deception of feelings. Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Our emotions are sinking sand.
The Bible also warns us of another deadly foundation that is the teaching or the traditions of men.
Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 2:5, “That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” In Titus 1:14 it says, “Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.”
And then in Matthew 15:9, Jesus said, “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”
When someone is learning to fly an airplane, he is taught to rely on the instrument panel when learning to fly because it’s so possible to get jostled around in a storm, to lose visibility and experience vertigo and to lose equilibrium. And what seems to be, up may really be down. And if pilots are guided by their senses, they can crash. So they’re taught to rely and to trust the instrument panel even when it seems counterintuitive. Now it’s possible for us to get so jostled around by the what the Bible calls “every wind of doctrine,” that we lose our spiritual equilibrium. Our hearts can deceive us and what’s wrong may seem right and what’s right may seem wrong. And if we are swayed by the numbers or led by how we feel or, what seems right, we could be headed in the wrong direction and we may never know it until it’s too late.
The Bible is our instrument panel. It is a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path, (Psalm 119:105). The Bible tells us that we are to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding.
When we talk about our emotions, about the majority, about the doctrines of men, these three things have absolutely no authority to save our souls or to make our worship acceptable or prepare us for eternity. So what must we do? Well, we must dig deeper. We must dig deeper than sinking sand. The sinking sand of emotionalism that really has no foundation. Dig past what the majority opinion says or the doctrines of men teach and come to the words of Jesus Christ.
Jesus said in John 12:48 “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.”
When we stand before God on the Day of Judgment, as we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, there’s going to be only one standard of judgment. The word of God. In Revelation 20:12, John The revelator, as he sees a picture of the judgment scene, he says, “I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” And so we’re going to be judged on the day of judgment by the word of God. And that’s why Jesus said, “he who hears these sayings of mine and does them is a wise man.”
Now, there is a lot of misinformation and false doctrine in the world today and one particular area that we need to address is what the Bible teaches.
We need to dig past all of the doctrines of men to learn what the Bible teaches about the church. For example, some say the church is not important or necessary, but when we dig deeper into the word of God, we find several passages that highlight the great value that God places upon the church. First of all, notice a few ways the Bible describes the church. It’s described as the body of Christ, the family of God or the House of God, the Kingdom of God, the bride of Christ. In fact, Paul says in Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.” Jesus gave himself shed his blood for the church. He purchased the church. He owns the church.
In fact, before he died, he made this promise in Matthew 16:16-18 “And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Jesus is the builder of the Church and us, it belongs to him. Sometimes we hear the statement, “choose the Church of your choice.” But that idea is not found in the Bible because when Jesus established his church, there was only one to choose from. But in the process of time, men drifted away and began to denominate, designate, that is divided into differing groups. Denominationalism is nothing more than an attempt to justify a system of organized division. Today there are over 18,000 different religious groups that claim Christianity. All of these groups teach different things, have different names and worship in different ways.
We are told that that is okay because we can be doctrinally divided and still be spiritually united. But that idea is not found in the Bible either. Now, it is true that we read of congregations of the Lord’s Church that met in different locations, but they were all expected by God to follow the same teaching. When we take the word of God and when we dig into the truth, we see that the Lord’s desire for his church is unity. But what kind of unity does the Lord desire? Is it “unity and diversity” or “unity and conformity?”
Well, the answer to that question is found in the Lord’s prayer in John 17 when Jesus was praying for his apostles, he said in verse 20-21 “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”
Jesus makes it very clear that the kind of unity he desires for all believers is the same kind of unity that he shares with the father. Now, what kind of unity do they have? Do they agree to disagree? Do the Father and Jesus have unity and diversity? Do they disagree on doctrinal matters such as what a sinner must do to be saved? Do they differ on the kind of worship they like? No, not at all. That’s not the kind of unity between the father and the son, and that’s not the kind of unity that Jesus wants for the church. In fact, when you take a look at what happened when Paul addressed division within the Church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 1:12-13, “Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?”
You see, the church there had divided and had fractured and we’re calling themselves by different names, perhaps their favorite preacher, but Paul refutes such carnality by asking the rhetorical question is Christ divided? Notice Paul’s solution for division in verse 10, “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”
Now does that sound like Paul is telling the Corinthians that they can be doctrinally divided and be spiritually united? Not at all. Paul did not command, and Jesus did not pray, for a unity in diversity, but uniformity to the word of God. That’s why when we dig past all of the doctrines and the denominations of men.
We see in the Bible that each congregation of the Lord’s Church was alike in doctrine and in its practices.
So we must dig through the mantra of choosing the Church of our choice and go to the word of God and find the Church of God’s choice. Now that isn’t always easy. It’s going to take determination and diligence and a shovel to dig past and all of the sinking sand that is about us and come to the solid rock. But it’s worth it. Are you willing to do it? Are you willing to say, as we sometimes sing on Christ, the solid rock I stand? All other ground is sinking sand.
I hope that you consider these things for yourself. And if I can be of assistance, please let me know.
The “Mark of the Beast” is NOT a microchip
Imagine, in 65 AD, the 7 churches of Asia received John’s Revelation. As they read it they were astonished that 2000 years in the future, one of the two beasts of Revelation would require everyone to have microchips inserted in them. They were probably like, “Wow! Microchip technology! What’s that?” The Book of Revelation was written to, and to be understood by, the seven churches of Asia. ANY interpretation that would have been foreign to them is foreign to the Bible.
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Is A Millenial Kingdom Coming?
Will Jesus return to reign one thousand years on earth?
I can hardly think of a famous televangelist today who does not teach that there is coming a rapture of the church and a period of tribulation. Then upon the earth, a great battle involving Christ and then a literal period of a thousand years when Christ will bodily live here on the earth and reign over all of the nations. You may have read books to picture what it will supposedly be like when the church has been taken out of the world and the unsaved are quote “left behind.” Or you have heard the well known preachers on television and radio warn that the political events of our day are part of a countdown in the Middle East to the ultimate appearing of Jesus and the commencement of his kingdom reign on earth.
You don’t have to look very far at all to find that doctrine espoused. There are many views of eschatology today, but what I just described is by far the most widely accepted and popular theory in what is often coined “evangelical Christianity.” But it hasn’t always been so. John Nelson
Now, today, it’s hard to think of a popular and well known preacher who doesn’t preach some form of pre-millennialism. The theory hinges upon a literalistic interpretation of prophecy both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament Book of Revelation. In fact, the major proof text is found in Revelation 20:1-10.
“And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever,” Revelation 20:1-10.
Is this passage teaching that a millennial kingdom of Christ is yet to come here on this earth? Notice that no where does this passage even say Christ establishes an earthly throne.
Dispensational pre-millennialism is based upon the idea that all of church history can be broken down into seven periods of time beginning with the age of innocence then conscience, then human government, then promise, then law and so forth. And when we come to the New Testament, we supposedly have the “dispensation of grace” otherwise known as the Church Age, and we’re waiting on the final era of time to commence. And that is what proponents of this doctrine called the “kingdom age or dispensation.” In other words, we’re waiting on the kingdom to come and it has not come yet.
They tell us that Jesus came to Earth 2000 years ago preaching the Kingdom. The problem is the Jews rejected it, and since they rejected it, he delayed the kingdom until they get future time. And instead established the church. We’re currently living in that era where we as Gentiles can enjoy the blessings of God, but we’re told that God really has two plans.
He has a plan for the Gentiles and that God still has a plan in place to set up the Jewish kingdom and reign over it from the city of Jerusalem. The theory says that when the redemption of the Gentiles is complete, that the Lord will secretly rapture the church out of the world. And that will be the beginning of a seven year period of tribulation on the earth. The antichrist will arise, darkness will reign over the earth, but at the end of that seven years, Jesus will return with his saints and a great battle will take place at the valley of Armegeddon in the Middle East, that Jesus will win the battle. He’ll bind the devil and he will reign from Jerusalem over the whole earth for a thousand years. And at the end of that literal 1000 years, Satan will be loosed. He’ll unleash his fury and try one last time to get the upper hand. Then the last judgment of God will come. Satan and his forces will be cast into hell forever and eternity will begin.
You’ve likely heard some version of that scenario many, many times, but is it what the Bible teaches? Many televangelists preach that theory regularly. Many books that you can buy at just about any religious bookstore, advance that theory. There was a series of books written a number of years ago called the “Left Behind” series that advocates that theory. It was even made into movies. But does that match what Jesus and his apostles said about the kingdom?
We could go through the theory of dispensational, pre-millennialism point by point, and we could look word by word, phrase by phrase and verse by verse at Revelation 20 and learn a great, great deal, but the whole argument really comes down to a two or three major points of contention, so in our limited space, we’ll deal with those.
- Number one, how do we interpret Bible prophecy such as what we have in Revelation? Is it to be read literally or is it to be looked at figuratively?
- Number two, are the Jews still God’s chosen people? Does God still have a plan for the fleshly Jewish nation?
- Number three, what do plainer passages in the Bible,
non symbolic or figurative passages in the Bible say about the kingdom?
How we answer those questions will tell us whether or not there’s any truth to pre-millennialism.
Number one, how do we interpret Bible prophecy such as what we have in Revelation?
First, how are we to interpret prophecy and specifically the book of Revelation? Many people, including preachers, have a field day with the Revelation given to John when he was on Patmos, and if you don’t consider the timeframes, style and purpose of the book, your imagination can easily run wild.
In the very first verse of the book, it is called the Revelation, which is translated from the Greek word “apokalypsis.” That means an unveiling. It is the apocalypse and it belongs to a specific kind of literature that was popular leading up to the first century among the Jews. Now, there were many of these types of writings. Some of them were inspired and included in the Old Testament, such as the book of Daniel. And then there were many uninspired apocalyptic type writings. These were all visions that we’re steeped in, signs and symbols that were intended to convey a greater message. Now, don’t lose sight of that definition of this kind of literature. They were all one type or another. Have a vision that we’re all steeped in symbolic language and signs that were intended to convey a greater message.
Now in the case of Revelation, it was written in code, so to speak, in order to smuggle a message of hope to the rest of the world that its Roman persecutors would not be able to understand and Revelation signaled their victory over the crushing forces of earth, but if it had fallen into the hands of the emperor and the Roman authorities will, they would have decimated the church for suggesting such a thing.
So Revelation was written in the symbolic language of an apocalypse that Jews in the early church would be very familiar with. It’s language, it’s signs, it’s symbols. They would understand it, but the pagans specifically the Romans would not. What that means is that the specific prophecies of Revelation are not to be seen as literal events, but rather as symbolic of something else.
How can a person read the book of Revelation and not immediately recognize that the things spoken are not literally what they’re pictured as, but that they represent
It says in verse four that those who were beheaded for Christ’s sake reign with Christ. What does that mean? That if a person was not martyred and more specifically by beheading, that they cannot be part of Christ? Reign will of course not. There’s a symbol of the dragon, the serpent, the chain, the key, the bottomless pit, and the numbers in Revelations. Especially in the numbers we find all throughout apocalyptic type literature, they’re all symbols that are employed to draw a larger picture for the persecuted Church of the first century.
One thousand for example, is not to be taken as a literal quantity anymore than 144,000 in chapter 14. Now the Jehovah’s Witnesses try to make the 144,000 a literal number and some who argue with them. It’s very ironic that some who argue with them over that, then turn around and try to make Revelation 20 mean a literal 1000 year reign on the earth.
The number 1000 is used throughout scripture to measue the immeasurable. It merely symbolizes a great amount. This reign of Christ isn’t talking about a literal earthly government because Jesus said in John 18:36, “my kingdom is not of this world.” it is not like earthly kingdoms. It doesn’t have the characteristics of an earthly kingdom. It didn’t originate with this world and it’s not headquartered here in this world. Revelation 20 is simply talking about the unfettered spread of the Gospel and as long as the Gospel exists and is preached in this world, Satan has no power over your heart and mind that you don’t give him. That is a critical point. There is no excuse for being deceived as long as we have access to the word of God.
Now, there may come a time and it seems this may be what John is talking about when he says that Satan will be loosed for a short season when faith will virtually vanish from the earth, but this is all symbolically referring to the Christ mastery over sin and evil to the reality and availability of redemption to the whole world who will turn to Jesus and be saved. I hope that if you did not see my study about the nature of the kingdom and the timing of the kingdom, that you’ll go back and review it. Study it because it’s critical to understand that in view of Revelation chapter 20.
So number one, prophecies like revelation are written in symbolic, not literal language. The premillennial theory about the kingdom requires a literal reading and interpretation of revelation. And yet, they actually pick and choose what to take literally and what to take symbolically.
Number two, are the Jews still God’s chosen people?
That’s really the crux of the matter. What dispensational pre-millennial suggests is that God has two different plans or programs for two different groups of people. The promises made to Abraham in Genesis and later expanded to David in 2 Samuel. Those are physical promises for the racial Jews or the Jewish nation. And then the church in this age has received other promises from God that are spiritual, so says the dispensationalist. God is supposedly working these two plans, one for the church, one for the Jews, and this church age that we’re living in is sort of a parentheses in God’s plan. The church is a stopgap measure that came about after the Jews rejected Jesus and is here until Jesus comes and fulfills the plan pertaining to the Jews.
Pre-millennialism says that God deals with the Jews in the millennium. When Jesus comes and sets up his kingdom, the Jews will finally have all of the promises fulfilled and the Old Testament system of worship will be resumed and the temple reestablished and even animal sacrifice will be resumed. Sacrifices will be resurrected in Jerusalem during this purported era to come.
That’s really what the pure doctrine of a dispensational pre-millennialism says.
First of all, according to the Old Testament, all of God’s promises to Israel were fulfilled. The Nation Promise was fulfilled. God made them a nation. The Land Promise was fulfilled. God brought them into the land that was promised. Solomon reigned over all of the promised land according to 1 Kings 4:21. The seed promise was fulfilled in the birth of Jesus through their lineage.
Joshua 21:43-45 “And the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. And the Lord gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.”
Read that again…. not one of God’s promises to Israel failed to be fulfilled. There are no promises left unfilled.
None of God’s promises were left unfulfilled, but we should also remember that their enjoyment of God’s promises to Abraham was conditional and all of God’s promises to us are conditional. Pre-millennialism says the promises were unconditional. That despite the Jews rejection of God, that he will still fulfill all of the promises made thousands of years ago.
God placed conditions on those promises such as the promise to give them a land conditions that ancient Israel did not keep.
Deuteronomy 28:63 says “And it shall come to pass, that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.”
You see, the promise of the land was conditional. According to 2 Chronicles 36:14-17, they did in fact lose the land because they didn’t obey the Lord.
Chronicles 36:14-17 “Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand.”
Now they had a kingdom. The Jews had kingdom and they lost it. There is no prophecy of the Jewish kingdom to be found in the New Testament. The Bible teaches that upon God casting them off as his people that the promises were given to the new Israel instead.
So what is this new Israel? What is the new Israel as compared to the old Israel? Paul says, ” For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise,” Galatians 3:26-29.
Well, there you have it. Now, preachers may try to explain it away but that’s what your Bible says. There is no such thing in God’s sight as a Jew or a Gentile. We are all one in Christ Jesus in this era of time. That is those who are in Christ Jesus by being baptized into Christ Jesus.
Now number three, what do the nonfigurative passages plainly say about the kingdom?
The whole debate boils down to when did the kingdom come and what is the kingdom?
Is the kingdom yet to come? Are we in the church age and still waiting on the kingdom, as the pre-millennialist alleges? Is the Kingdom a literal earthly kingdom to come or is Christ reigning in the hearts of his subjects from the right hand of God today?
Let’s quickly notice these comparisons.
Christ is the head of the church
Ephesians 1:22 ” And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.”
The church is an everlasting institution.
Ephesians 3:21 “ Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”
Daniel
The parables in Matthew 13 have long been understood to refer to the church, but all seven of those parables are said to pertain to the Kingdom of Heaven.
The church was established in the lifetime of the apostles when they received power from the Holy Spirit according to Acts 2, and yet Jesus said, the Kingdom of God would come in the disciples’ lifetimes with power.
Mark 9:1 “And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.”
We are in the kingdom now:Colossians 1:13, “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:”
Revelation 1:6,9, “And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
Finally the Church of Christ is called the Israel of God in Galatians 6:16, “And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.”
Well, that all tells us the Kingdom of God has come. It is a spiritual reign now, as long as the Gospel is preached and obeyed in this world. Pre-millennialism says that Jesus will take up his reign when he comes back to Earth, but Paul said, Christ will deliver up the kingdom to his father. The kingdom is not coming, it is here and it will be delivered to the Father at Christ’s second coming.
1 Corinthians 15:22-24, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.”
The doctrine of dispensational pre-
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Has The Kingdom of Christ Already Come?
Has The Kingdom Of God Already Come? Many believe the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven, will come in the future, yet Jesus said it would come in the lifetime of his disciples. Did Christ establish his kingdom in the first century?
The Kingdom of the Lord is one of the most primary themes of the Bible. God desires to reign over the hearts and lives of men. It was
It means more than the forgiveness of sin and the promise of going to heaven one day, but it also means that we submit to God and his authority, which in this age has been given to Jesus Christ, his son, and therefore we honor Jesus as the Lord and as the king over all kings. There’s much confusion about the Kingdom of the Lord today.
What kind of kingdom is it? Is it here or is it yet to come? Are all men part of it or is it made up only of certain people?
Matthew 4:12-17 says, “Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee; And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.“
Jesus came preaching the good news of his coming kingdom, that it was at hand. Well, was it or are we still waiting for it?
Jesus came preaching the good news of the kingdom, the word kingdom merely referring to Christ’s reign in the earth or the rule of God over men. The message of John and Jesus was simple. The long awaited kingdom of the Messiah was at hand. That’s Bible language. The Rule of God was about to commence. It was imminent, but there’s a great deal of confusion about that. There was in Jesus’ day and people are still confused about it today. The confusion is not over the fact that the Messiah would rule over a kingdom. Nearly all who believe that Jesus is the Messiah believe that he is a king. The confusion is over the concept of his rule, the nature of his kingdom, and when the kingdom came or will come.
Well, let’s look at the great misunderstanding that people had about the kingdom and Jesus.
His own day. The prophets had all told of upcoming messianic king who would one day rule on the throne that David once occupied and the greatest hope of the Jews was that their king would come and deliver them. But what did that mean to them? David and Solomon represented the glory days of Israel to the ancient Jew. Israel was sovereign, secure, and prosperous during those early years, but it didn’t remain that way for long. After Solomon died and his son took over the throne, the kingdom was divided. You have the northern tribes, and then you had Judah. Well, trouble would follow God’s people from then on. Because they sinned and rebelled against the Lord, God handed them over to their enemies. God’s people became captives and servants.
There was, for example, the long period where the Jews were carried off to Babylon and held captive there and they’re beloved and holy city of Jerusalem was laid waste.The walls werebroken down and their temple destroyed. They eventually returned from Babylon. But it wasn’t the same during the intertestamental period. That is the 400 years between the Old and New Testaments, also called the “Second Temple Period”.
They came under the rule of the Romans. In fact, not very long before Jesus was born and their political fate shaped and molded their concept of the promised Messiah. In fact, it changed their concept of the Promised Messiah during that period of time, instead of anticipating a messiah who would break the fetters of sin from their hearts and souls, they were looking for a messiah or leader who would break the yoke of the Roman Caesar from off their necks. They resented the rule of the Romans, particularly paying taxes to the Roman government and tired of being subjects to other kings. They yearned to have their sovereignty back, so that was the mindset of the Jewish people during those last years of the intertestamental period and at the time that Jesus was born into the world.
It’s essential that we understand that historical basis.
That’s what they were wanting. That’s what they were expecting in a messiah, and in his attendant kingdom. They envisioned a powerful leader who would arise and lead their liberation from the Roman government and make them a sovereign nation, again. They misunderstood all of their prophets and God’s promises about a kingdom. So with these misconceptions in place when John the Baptist came before Jesus, heralding the soon coming kingdom, the news was met with excitement by many. John told the people to repent and be baptized for the remission of their sins in anticipation of the Messiah and his kingdom, for it was at hand. We read about how he baptized multitudes of people who responded to his preaching.
Notice in Matthew 3:1-6, the Bible says, “In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.”
So John, being the harbinger of the Christ, says the kingdom is at hand. It is near, the
And regardless of what you thought the kingdom represented, wouldn’t you have understood that whatever it is, it is about to be established. How else would they have interpreted John Statement? The kingdom is at hand.
It’s very hard to imagine them hearing John preach and then envisioning a kingdom that was still thousands of years away. In the lifetime of John, the kingdom was near and then John fulfills his ministry. He steps aside, he’s put into prison, and Jesus begins his ministry.
What did Jesus preach? Well, Mark 1:14-15, tells us, ” Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”
Repent and believe the gospel. So Jesus picks up the message, started by John. He says, “the time is fulfilled.” In other words, it’s now time. This kingdom that God has been promising you for hundreds of years is at hand. The time is right now.
There are many, many people who believe that the time wasn’t right. In fact, most preachers you hear today not only contend that the kingdom still has not come 2000 years after Jesus spoke these words, they’re even suggesting or implying that the rejection that Jesus faced by the Jews meant that God delayed the kingdom until another and still future time.
“If only the Jews would have received Jesus as their messiah, then he would have established the kingdom then,” they say. But because they instead rejected him all the time, while it just wasn’t right. And their doctrine of dispensational, pre-millennialism says that one day the Jews will receive him, and that will be the time that he finally takes up his rule and sets up his kingdom.
But what did Jesus say? He said, “the time is fulfilled. The kingdom is at hand.” Nothing takes God by surprise. Nothing caught Jesus unawares. He’s omniscient.
God knew that the Jewish nation would reject his son, and yet the apostle Paul would later say that, in the fullness of time, that is when the time was right, God sent his son into the world, made of a woman, Galatians 4:4.
So Jesus came exactly when God determined that he would come. God’s calendar was not off by one day, and when Jesus came, he said, it’s time. The time is fulfilled. Prophecy was being fulfilled, all of the pieces were being put into place and the kingdom he says is at hand.
Now again, would anyone listening to Jesus say, “the time is fulfilled, the kingdom is at hand” Would anyone walk away thinking Jesus was promising something that was still at least 2000 years away from fulfillment.
Who could believe it? No. They may have misunderstood what Jesus meant by a kingdom and they did, but they understood that whatever the kingdom is, it was very near. It was imminent.
Then we see in Matthew 10:5-7, that Jesus sent out the twelve “and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Well, there it is again. Nothing has changed. And then in Luke 10:1-9, Jesus sends the seventy out to preach from city to city and he instructs them in Verse Nine, to heal the sick, but are there in and say unto them, “the Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.”
Now the sad thing is most of them were going to miss out on the kingdom, but that didn’t prevent Jesus from doing what he said he would do. Over and over and over again. Inspiration says at that time, 2000 years ago in the first century, “the kingdom is at hand.”
The kingdom is nigh unto those people. Now, friend, think about how preposterous it is to suggest that the rejection of the Jewish leaders somehow took the Lord by surprise and that he had to alter the longstanding plan of God and put the church in the place of the kingdom. God sends Jesus in the fullness of time.
He comes saying, “the time is fulfilled. Get ready. The kingdom is at hand. It is nigh unto you or near you.” But all of the sudden things go sour and God has to back up and delay the promised kingdom.
I have more faith in the forknowledge and wisdom of God than to believe such a thing. Not only did John and then Jesus, and then Jesus’ disciples come saying “the kingdom was at hand,” but long before, the Old Testament prophets prophesied the timing of the kingdom.
Hundreds of years before Jesus even came, the Holy Spirit inspired them to write of the very seasoned in time when the kingdom would come and the Holy Spirit guiding the Old Testament prophets was very specific about this. And if they would only heed their own scriptures, they would have recognized what all was taking place when Jesus came.
For example, the prophecy of Daniel 600 years before Jesus was born, Daniel was carried off to Babylon. And while he was there, the king had a dream about this powerful man or great image of a man, that had a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, a belly and thighs of bronze legs of iron and feet of clay.
Well, that perplexed King Nebuchadnezzar, and so he called on Daniel to interpret this dream for him. In Daniel Chapter two, verses 31 through 44, Daniel explains that this man with five parts represented five great kingdom arrows that would arise and he begins by describing the Babylonian Empire that was in power at that time.
He said it was a powerful empire represented by the head of gold, but he said there was a kingdom coming after that one, a lesser kingdom. That according to Daniel Chapter Eight and verse 20 was Medo-Persian that later rose in 539 BC. That was the chest and arms of silver and Nebuchadnezzar his dream.
And then in 330 BC we see the rise of Greece.
What we learned, that’s the third kingdom. According to Chapter Eight and verse 20, one that’s the belly and the thighs of bronze, and then come the legs of iron. And in 63 BC, the Roman Empire emerges, which was empowered during the days of Jesus and which later divided into several parts, which is why he did represents the feet that were made of iron, and clay,the Roman Empire.
So what is the point in all of this? What did Daniel say would happen when these kingdoms arose in history? Well, listen to Daniel, those kingdoms’ days that he talks about there and the vision were numbered.
Daniel Chapter two and verse 35 tells us then was the iron and the clay, the brass, the silver, the gold broken to pieces together and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors. And the wind carried them away. That no place was found for them.
And the Bible says, the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Now look down at verse 44, he says, “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.”
Now, when would the kingdom come? In the days of the Roman Empire, a kingdom that will never be destroyed would come during the days of the Roman Empire. A kingdom that would be superior to all other kingdoms.
Fast forward more than 600 years and look at Hebrews 12:28 “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.”
Well, that sounds familiar, doesn’t it? A kingdom which will stand forever. A kingdom that will not be destroyed.
The writer of Hebrews didn’t say, “One of these days a kingdom will come.” The saints then to whom he was writing had received or were receiving a kingdom.
If the first century Christians were receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and Daniel says, the indestructible kingdom will come in the days of the kings leading up to the first century, the Roman Empire, can’t we conclude that the kingdom came during the first century? Yes, we can and if we believed the prophecy of Daniel, we must.
Jesus told the people in Mark 9:1, “Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.”
That which Daniel said would come during the days of those kings culminating in the Roman empire, Jesus said, “some of you which stand here will not taste death until they have seen the Kingdom of God come with power.”
When would it come? He says, in the lifetime of some of those to whom Jesus was speaking not thousands of years later, but before some of them tasted of death, some of them died before it came, but Jesus says, some of them did not. They were still alive. Well, that means it wasn’t very far away. So when did it come? When was the kingdom established?
Notice Jesus says that it would come during their lifetime and it would come with power. Do we ever read of any of these people to whom Jesus was speaking seeing power from heaven? Sure we do.
Let’s narrow it down. Jesus said the kingdom would come in their lifetime with power. We read in Luke 24:49 just before ascending back to heaven, Jesus told his same disciples who were with him, “And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.”
Well, when did that happen? Go forward a few days and one chapter to Acts 2:1-4 and Luke says, “And when the day of Pentecost
Well, there’s your power that was brought by the Holy Spirit, fulfilling the promise of the Father. What did Jesus say would come with power? He said the kingdom would come with power.
When did it come? On the day of Pentecost. When was that?
In the first century around the year33 AD. What kingdom was in power at that time? Rome, Caesar, the fourth in this line of Kingdoms, of which Daniel said, and in the days of those kings, God would establish a kingdom that would stand forever, would never be destroyed.
So the Holy Spirit came with power upon the disciples on the day of pentecost. Jesus said, in your lifetime the kingdom would come with power, but some will say, “well, that was the church that came on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two.” That was the church. they say, not the kingdom.
Look at Matthew 16:18, Jesus said, “upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” So yes, Jesus built his church and it came in the lifetime of his disciples, but then he goes on to say, “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven,” v.19.
Christ’s church would be established and Peter would use the keys of entrance to the kingdom. Well, so you see the church and the kingdom are used in an interchangeable way.
Isn’t that exactly what happened on
Paul says, “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:”
When they were made free from sin, they were translated into the kingdom when they received the remission of their sins. In Acts Chapter 2, the Bible says, “the Lord added them to the church.”
You see, the kingdom came 2000 years ago and you can be in it today.
The doctrine of dispensational, pre-millennialism, which is so popular, so widely embraced, so often taught by the televangelists, is patently false. It misunderstands the very nature of the kingdom, just as the Jews in Jesus’ own day, misunderstood it.
Understand the kingdom. Don’t forget the Jews had a conception in their mind of the messianic kingdom, but that view, that concept was shaped and molded by the political landscape of their day and the oppression that they had suffered for so long.
So the kingdom that they were now hoping for was not necessarily the kingdom that God promised. Even his disciples did not have a very clear understanding of the kingdom and Jesus had to remind them in John 18:36, “My kingdom is not of this world.” It’s not like other kingdoms.
The psalmist says, “Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way,” (Psalm 119:104). The Bible is the revelation of God to man and you simply can’t live for God until you know something about the word of God.
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5 Steps To Knowing The Will Of God In Your Life
How do you know the will of God? Anybody ever tried to figure that one out? How do I discern the will of God? How do you know of a will of God? That is a skill that you want to develop. That is a skill that you can learn.
Many of us have learned the hard way to be a bit more careful and develop this skill in our life because mistakes hurt.
And mistakes are humiliating. So we’ve learned, sad to say, too many times by trial and error. We’ve learned to develop this skill, how to know the will of God. Well, I wanted to give an expanded answer to this question this morning,
God has a will and desire and purpose for each one of us.
We must discern it and do it all the days of our life. In fact, if that doesn’t cross our mind. If that’s not a desire in our hearts, I think we’ll stumble around all our days because the reason why we are here is to discern and then do the will of God, the God who made us.
We must discern it and do it. I’m not sure if in all the minor details, whether God has a distinct wheel in every single thing we do. I kind of tossed that back and forth and sometimes I say Yay, and sometimes I think, well, maybe not. But as you consider the subject of walking by the promptings of the spirit of God, it gets down to some pretty small details at times.
But this I do know, I’m very sure on the major decisions that God has a will for me, that if I need to make a decision, I should not be making that decision without being able to walk through some clear steps that will put me in tune with the heart of God in his direction for my life and my family.
“Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven,” Matthew 6:10.
God has a will for our life, our desire and a purpose for each and every one of us. We must learn to methodically discern the will of the Lord for major decisions. Major changes in our line. I’ll move to another place, a change of jobs, a property to buy, our business to start or stop, our courtship.
These are just a few examples of things that I’d like to lay out that we dare not just go and do something. The Apostle Paul would not go to Rome on the good idea.
He wouldn’t do that. He knew that he was a man of like passions just like we are, and he knew that he had lots of good ideas or they were good things that he wanted to do.
Colossians 1: 9-10 we get a glimpse into Paul’s heart concerning the subject for the Colossians.
He says “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.”
Paul is simply saying there in Colassians, “I want to see you live out the word of God, the of God for your life, and I’m praying with a great desire in our hearts that you will be able to discern the will of God, that God will fill your heart with his will, with the knowledge of his will, and you will increase in that knowledge of his will more and more.” That’s what Paul wanted for the Colossians.
Of one of his fellow travelers who labored together with him in his church planting work, Paul says, “Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always
That was Paul’s desire. That is my desire, that each one of us would stay and perfect. Someone wisely said,”The will of God is the safest place where you could ever be.“
Doesn’t matter where it is, it doesn’t matter what the circumstances are. If you’re in the will of God, you’re in the safest place where you could be on this side of heaven. Your life may be in danger, you may be naked, hungry and without companionship, yet it is still the safest place you will ever be.
Paul said it this way, “Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me,” Romans 15:30.
I want you to notice the flow of these words here. He’s coming down to the end of his epistle to the Romans, the church at Rome, and he’s beseeching them for prayers on his behalf. I want you to see how his desire for the will of God comes out in these verses.
Paul says, “That I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judaea; and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints,That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed” Romans 15:31-32.
“By the will of God,” that was Paul’s burden. I want to come. Pray that I’ll be able to come to you by the will of God in God’s time and God’s way by God’s meeting. When God opens up the door, that I will come to you by the will of God. That was his desire.
Paul recognized that he could also do the same thing, not by the will of God. He could go to a certain place and be in the wrong place. There were places as you read through the book of Acts where he said, “we desired to go here, but the spirit wouldn’t let us. I think we tried to go over here and we were hindered by the spirit.”
“Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,” Acts 16:6.
Hebrews 13:20-21, “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever.”
And Paul brings that out, “working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ.” We see this theme all the way through Paul’s writings. He keeps moving the people in the direction and creating a desire in their heart to do God’s will.
I want to be in God’s will. That’s the way we are. That’s our desire, but yet many times we make moves that we should remake and it’s something major. We shouldn’t do it until we have proved the will of God through good, clear principles revealed in God’s word. That’s my burden.
Consider David, “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers,” Acts 13:36
By the will of God, not by the will of David, not by the good ideas of David, not by the desires of David, but by the will of God. David served his own generation. Every one of us are called to do the same thing. We may live in our generation. We are alive and well and God wants us somehow to serve our generation while we’re alive. We need to know what God’s will is so that we can serve our generation.
Every one of us
In Acts 22 God is speaking to the Apostle Paul, when he met the Lord on the road to Damascus, he was speaking to him and revealing things to him. And in chapter 22 verse 14 we break into the middle of Paul’s testimony and find these words, “And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth.“
He said “Paul, God arrested you on the road to Damascus and he has chosen you show that you might know his will.”
I would say to each and every one of us, it is no less so, for any of us. God has arrested us on the road of life. God has arrested our attention. He has grabbed us. He has gripped us for what? That we may know the will of God for our life.
We are here to do God’s will. We have been saved to fulfill God’s will in our life.
So how can I know the will of God? We’ve seen all these scriptures. We can see what God’s heart is by looking at these scriptures, but how do I get from point A to point B?
Yes, I have a heart. My heart wants to do God’s will, but how do I get that simple heart, this desire to do God’s will worked out in everyday life where I have decisions that I need to make, where I’m facing things that I’m not sure what to do about? How do I know the will of God?
There are five steps to this skill of discerning God’s will, and by the way, this is the method by which George Mueller used to discern the will of God in his day. Remember, he served God from his conversion at about 20 years old till his death at 95, discerning God’s will for his life. I think we ought to listen to him and this method that’s George Mueller used.
He got it out of the word of God because he was a man who read his Bible. He read it over and over and over and over again, and when he was done, he started over again and he didn’t get tired of reading it. It was always new and fresh to him and he read it over so many times in his 70 plus years of his Christian life that he’s heart was full of it.
George Mueller used these five points to discern God’s will in his orphanages and in every major area of his life.
Point number one, the foundation of knowing the will of God. This is number one. If you don’t get this, you might as well throw the rest of them away, you will end up in utter frustration. If you skip point number one, if for whatever reason you don’t want to reckon with point number one, you can skip the rest of them. It won’t come out right for you. Point number one, the foundation of knowing the will of God is an absolutely, totally surrendered life.
The foundation of knowing the will of God is an absolutely, totally surrendered life.
You cannot discern the will of God in any particular situation if you’re not all on the altar.
These verses in Romans are probably the clearest definition of discerning the will of God that you can find in the New Testament. They all packed together in two verses. We must begin here if we have a major decision that we need to make and we’re not willing to reckon with this point right here. It may be the reason why we are being frustrated and confused and just wandering around and wondering why this thing is so hard. We must begin here.
“I beseech you
I want that good and perfect will of God for me. Listen to what God says. God was a thing which is good and acceptable and perfect in his sight for you. I’m not going to settle for anything less.
So what does that have to do with the will of God? Well, you know, sometimes, and it’s this way with God’s will. You look down the road with the eyes of your heart. You look down the road and you, you sense things, you see things, but there are a bit blurry and you’re not sure what it is. We want to know the ending of the journey. We want to know where God is taking us, but sometimes, it is not clear.
So we have to walk today in the known will of God and two months from now, we will see where this was leading. That’s number one – a surrendered life.
Number two, this is the tough one. “Not my will, but thine be done,” Luke 22:42. This is the hardest part.
Many times God’s will is tainted by mine. Will George Mueller said, “My will was 90% of the problem of discerning God’s will.” That was George Muellar.
Ninety percent of the problem of discerning God’s will was my will, and again, we’re talking about a godly man, a dedicated man, a man who was filled with all kinds of good desires. But good desires are not enough. It’s got to be God’s desire for my life, and Muellar testified that his will was 90% of the problem.
Many times we desire something with sincere hearts. It’s not an evil desire. It’s a good desire, but good desires are not enough. When we are are discerning major changes in our lives. A good desire is not enough. There’s lots of good desires. There’s lots of things we can do, but I don’t want to just do lots of things. I want to be in the will of God.
Let me say this. God does not hide his will from his people. How many ever felt like God was hiding his will? God does not hide his will, but sometimes we think, “Lord, what’s the deal? How come this is so difficult?”
God is not hiding his will from you. It’s because of my own desires that are in there that it becomes a bit grey to see exactly what God is saying to do. We look a long time to try to see exactly what God wants us to do, but our vision is blocked by our own will, desires and ideas. It’s what God says and what God wants versus what do I want.
On this second point, Muellar was saying that he cannot go any further until he gets his heart to the place where his heart is totally, absolutely given up on everything that he may want.
“Not my will, but thine be done,” is the greatest challenge of discerning the will of God for our life.
Remember, God does not hide his will. He is not in that business. He’s not holding it over here and watching you run around in a frustrated way trying to figure out what you’re supposed to do. God does not do that. He is not that kind of a God.
Point number three, the witness of the spirit. What is the spirit of God’s saying in my heart?
With these next few points, we’re talking, about checks and balances. None of these stand all by themselves. And if you let one stand all by itself, you will stumble and fall, but if you will bring all of them together, you will find that God in his wisdom from his word, has given us a checks and balance to see if we are properly discerning his will.
What is the witness of the spirit in my heart concerning the will of God?
Romans 8:12-14 “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”
Now here we see very clearly in the word of God that God leads his people by his spirit. God’s spirit bears witness with our spirit. This is usually how the will of God begins to unfold. Maybe we’re sitting in our quiet time, maybe we’re having a time alone and then we’re driving somewhere and, it’s quiet and we’re just thinking and we hear the voice of God begin to speak to us about a change of direction in our life.
What is the spirit of God saying in my heart? And it’s at this point, that it’s not what I think in my head. There is a difference between what I think in my head and what the spirit of God is saying in my heart. And the difference is 18 inches.
My head might be saying many things, but I must be wise enough to stay clear enough with God and get alone with God long enough to hear the voice of God above all the other voices saying, “this is the way. Walk you in it.”
I know how Christians can be. Lots of Christians would just as soon go ask the pastor and then just do what he says. That’s safer than just shooting out all on your own and skipping many of the points that I’m sharing, but you know God would have you discern from the depths of your own heart, by the voice of his spirit, speaking to you personally about God’s direction for your life.
Some of us need to grow up a bit. The witness of the spirit of God in our hearts, George Mueller discerned God’s will this way, hundreds of times. God used him to channel $50 million through his hands, $50 million. Why would God channel $50 million through his hands? Because God knew that George Mueller is not going to get a big pile of money in his hand and say, “Oh, now let’s put it over here, or let’s give it over there, or let’s send it here.” George Mueller didn’t do that. When he found a big pile of money in his hand, he fell on his face before God and said, “what is the spirit of God’s saying to do with this money?” He supported tens of thousands of bibles and supported missionaries all over the world.
He did.
What is the spirit of God’s saying in my heart? That’s point number three.
Point number four, the witness of the word.
What does the word of God say about this direction that I think that God wants me to go. What does the word of God say? These two points, number three and point number four agree in one. The witness of the spirit and the witness of the word are one. You can count on that.
God’s spirit will never lead you to do something that is contrary to God’s word. Many a young lady felt God was leading them by his spirit and married an unbeliever, hoping, trusting, that they’ll be able to win them to Lord afterwards. That was not God’s spirit, but it happens all the time. Sometimes it turns out all right. Most times, though, it’s a life long spanking.
God’s Word and God’s spirit witness together concerning the direction we should go in our lives. So if you find yourself in a place where you are needing to discern the will of God immerse your heart and mind in God’s word. While you are discerning God’s spirit through his word, he will speak wisdom and direction to your life.
When it’s time to discern the direction in our lifeit’s time to come to the word of God with a searching heart. I’m searching God’s heart concerning the direction that I need to take. If you come to the word of God that way you will be amazed how many verses God will speak to you out of in every different place in the Bible. That’s why I like to be reading in different places at the same time. God brings them all together and you begin to see what the will of God is concerning a decision you need to make. Stay in the word of God. If you’re trying to make a decision and you don’t take time to read the Bible, I think you’re gonna make a mistake.
Sometimes when I need to make a decision and I’m searching the heart of God through his word, I’ll sit down and read the Bible several hours a day, for several days. That’s a long time. So are the mistakes we make when we don’t. They’re long too. And I don’t want to make a mistake.
Please don’t get me wrong. I’ve got my share of mistakes behind me, I’m just saying, there’s wisdom in God’s word. There have been times when I went to the word of God to discern the will of God and I thought I had it all straightened out myself and by the time I finished, I discovered I was wrong and God was right and he changed my whole perspective on some dumb thing that I was going to do.
The witness of the word, God’s word will check you. Remember we spoke about checks and balances.
If you just take point number three and skip the rest of this study, you can really sound spiritual. The spirit of God said to me today, “Do this and this.” I don’t feel that’s very spiritual if you don’t back it up with some checks and balances. If you don’t compare it to God’s word.
I’ve watched a lot of shipwrecks in the last 20 years of my ministry where the spirit of God told someone to do something, but there were no checks and there were no balances. People, good-hearted Christians, even pastors and missionaries wanting to do God’s will felt the Holy Spirit was directing them, but they didn’t spend time in the Bible before making their decision. Something sounded good, it felt good and they mistook it for God’s will. We need those checks and balances. God has put them right here in the Bible.
So what is the spirit of God saying and how does the word of God witness in my heart? It’s about seeking out his will for me and discerning that direction from the principles in the word of God. That’s a wise thing to do.
Number five, the witness of godly counselors.
I want to remind you now, George Muellar, this man who heard the voice of God above so many other in his day, never made a major move without the witness of godly counselors.
Proverbs 11:14, “Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.”
The Book of Proverbs says you need to hear what somebody else has to say. You know who your counselor is. Your ministers, mature Christian friends, your husband or your wife; these are your counseling team. We need to go to them and say, “here’s what I think I’m hearing from the Lord. What do you think?”
Go to people who know you. Go to people who love you. Go to people who want the best for you. Don’t make the mistake of going to those who will tell you what you want to hear. You will always find somebody who will tell you what you want to hear.
That really seems spiritual. You go there and you get your catalog of those who will say, “Yes, do that.” But the ones that you know will probably say, “I don’t feel good about it.” You don’t go to them. Don’t do that. You’ll never discern the will of God that way.
I’ve learned through the years, God’s spirit bears witness in the hearts of godly men and women and lays out a clear path of God’s will and direction in my life.
The witness of Godly counselors? You say, “I don’t want to go there. He, he won’t tell me what I want to hear.” You should go there. Absolutely. If you know someone who disagrees with what you’re doing, that should be one of the first places you go. Hear another side, be sure you are not missing something.
So we have five things to guide us as we seek God’s will in our life. And there is great blessing in finding and abiding in God’s will: 1 John 2:17 “And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”
False Prophets, False Doctrines and Apostasy
False prophets, false doctrines and apostasy. I know that every one of our hearts are very alert to these things in these the days that we live in. Many of you have gone through experiences yourself where you can speak firsthand, having had to wrestle through many things, trying to find your way, wondering if you’re doing rights, wondering if you are all mixed up trying to figure out what’s going on in this church.
This subject of false prophets and false doctrines and apostasy is one of the major themes of each one of the pastoral epistles. So surely we shall look at it as we are studying the pastoral epistles.
In 1 Timothy 4:1,2 Paul he speaks these words, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.“
These two verses cover all three of the words in the title for the message.
It’s all in those two little verses. Paul wants Timothy to see and hear some warnings about the purity of the church, warnings about the expression of Christ upon the earth, warnings about what’s going to happen to this beautiful faith that he’s been over flowing with.
These latter times, of course, are the times Timothy is living in. This is a warning to Timothy about what he will encounter as a minister of the word. Paul is not talking about today. He is talking about the last days of the Old Covenent that was ended with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 AD.
But, this same warning is applicable to all Christians since that time. Men have conitnued to take heed to seducing spirits and false teachings. The warning was specific to Timothy, yet universal to the church.
Paul says, “the Spirit speakseth expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith. Giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, Speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron.”
That’s what Paul says. Seducing spirits. You know what a seducing spirit is. You know what seduce means? Surely you do. Every one of you men know. It’s a spirit that draws you into error and into sin.
Paul says in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith. I don’t know what your theology is and all of that, but plain sense tells me that you can’t depart from something that you don’t have.
Plain sense tells me that these verses mean what they say, that in the last times, some shall depart from the faith. The faith that Paul got a hold on that changed him from a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious man. Paul says they will depart from the faith. How could this be?
They will give heed to seducing spirits and they will give heed to doctrines of devils or doctrines that devils teach. Doctrines of devils teach doctrines that seducing spirits teach.
They teach new revelations. Something that church never saw before. Men are sedueced and see something that the church has never seen before. Seducing spirits say, “Nobody will understand you. Nobody will understand you. Watch it. Watch it.”
That’s what seducing spirits say. “You are a special messenger. I’m giving you new revelations that the church has never seen before. No one will understand you. Be careful who you share it with. You’re getting new revelations from God that the church has never had before.”
I tell you, that’s a dangerous place to be in and I’ve seen many a young, sincere man fall into that very trap. And they’re still wandering in a maze of spirits. Still 10 years later, they wander in a maze of spirits thinking that they are special prophets. I’ve seen men who have been in the faith 40 years also give heed to these doctrines.
Some will give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines that devils teach, and because of that, they depart from the faith. That would be a tragedy if that’s all that happened, but that isn’t all that happens through them. They don’t just depart from the faith. Verse two says, they become false teachers. They become teachers of these new spirits and these new doctrines. They become teachers speaking lies and hypocrisy. Having their conscience seared with a hot iron.
We live in a day when these things are happening all around us, just as they did in Timothy’s day.
“Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee,“1 Timothy 4:16.
“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables,” 2 Timothy 4:1-4.
Paul instructs Timothy to preach the word. Stay on the word, be instant in season, out of season. Use the word to reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. They will have ears that they will want to be tickled. They shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned to fables.
Each and every one of us can be tempted to turn to false teachings. They are by their very nature seductive. They sound good. We see books put out by “Christian authors,” some very well-respected, that teach error.
We need, like Timothy, to stay focused on sound doctrine. We need to study the word of God. But we need not be fearful.
2 Timothy 1:7 “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”You don’t need to be afraid. God did not leave us here to let us be afraid. Fear and faith don’t go together. Those two walk very far apart. We don’t need to be afraid.
Paul has clearly defined for us how to discern a false teacher and false teachings and the apostasy that comes from it. We are not left in the dark about these things.
We’re gonna take a few exercises here. We’re going to take these things, these beautiful tools of discernment that God has given us, and we’re going to look at them and put them in modern day context and help you to see you truly can discern. Your certainty does not come by what you get in your heads. It comes by what you have in your hearts and what you have in your life. The greatest discernment that you will ever have is a life that is hidden with Christ in God. Ifou don’t have that, you don’t have any discernment. The greatest sermon that you’ll have is the living reality of a Christ living inside of you.
How do you know what is right and what is wrong? The teaching must be Christ centered. It must be after Christ, not after any other thing. It must be Christ centered. You must see the simplicity that is in Christ. It must be that kind of teaching. Not complicated, but the simplicity that is in Christ.
It must be grace that flows from a relationship with Christ Jesus. It must be that, and it must be after godliness. It must be after godliness. It must line up with the words of our Lord Jesus Christ according to godliness and the doctrine that is after godliness. It must be both of those.
It must be sound according to the word. It must agree with scripture and come from scripture, not be read into scripture. Most false doctrines start with a premise. Then that idea is read into selected verses to support that premise. It will sound good. It will sound Biblical, except, instead of originating from the scripture and flowing into the man, it originates with the man and is poured, even forced, into scripture.
What about the teacher? He must be full of the doctrine of Christ first. John says he must be full of the doctrine of Christ. He must be full of the love of Christ. He must be full of the character of Christ. He must be walking with Jesus Christ in a very clear and evident way. He must be living a clearly godly life that his word center in its expressions. You must be able to see that in his life.
“Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father,” 1 John 2:24. A godly teacher will have sound doctrine.
“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous,” 1 John 5:3. A godly teacher will love God and walk upright with God.
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world,” 1 John 4:1. Like Paul, John warned bout the false prophets and seducing spirits that were already at work in the first century. We must try, or judge, the spirits, the teachers, according to the doctrine they teach and the lives that they live.
Jesus also warned his listeners, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves,” Matthew 7:15
They come in sheep’s clothing, they’re deceitful. They’re crafty. They’re going to look like sheep. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening. Oh, that’s enough to make you afraid, isn’t it?
Look what he says in verse 16, “You shall know them by their fruits.” You shall know them by the way they live. And then he said some things which seem a bit absurd to us, but you know, it seems like God needs to say absurd things to us Americans, because Americans seem to run after every fellow.
“Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of
He is evil. I don’t care what he said. I don’t care how you say it. I don’t care what miracles he does. If a tree is bringing forth evil fruit, it’s a corrupt tree, no matter how he looks or what he says, it’s a corrupt tree.
“Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” Then you shall know the teachers, you shall know them by the way they live. We can do that. It’s okay to be a fruit inspector.
Wherefore by their fruits
ye shall know them.
Don’t sit yourself down at the feet of somebody that you don’t know. There’s so many opportunities and so many tapes and videos and radio programs and TV programs and all those things. Don’t sit yourself down at the feet of somebody that you don’t know how they live. Which way are the people going? Are they vibrantly in love with the Lord Jesus Christ? Is he their all in all? Are they excited about their relationship that they have through the blood of Christ Jesus and do they live a God’s word centered life, a life that is manifested in godliness?
I’m not saying that they’re perfect, but that you can see it in their home and you’re seeing in the children and you’re seeing it in their work and you’re seeing by the way they talk and you see it by the way they live and you see it by the way they act.
You can tell which way they are going, whether it’s moving more and more toward the Lord Jesus and godliness or other sliding slowly, so slowly away. There are many examples of that today. Aren’t there people who would say all the right things and they wouldn’t have some of the right things. Yet you can see in their lives and if you watched them for years, there’s this departure, little by little by little.
And know this for sure. When there is a departure from the living word, there will also be a departure from the written word. It’s always there. You have you ever been to a dead liberal church? That’s a very interesting combination, but there are many of them. There are many of them in this America that we live in. Liberal churches who departed from the living word and then departed from the written words.
Now they’re dead. They’re dead. It’s like a Bible says, “But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth,” 1 Timothy 5:6
It’s not enough to have some right things in a life. You must also have him. How do we discern all these things? It is not enough to say, “Jesus, Jesus, I love Jesus.” You must also have a godly life. There must both be there. You must have them both to be sound.
You know Jesus spoke in the sermon on the mouth about the straight and narrow way. What is
You know, you can get off both sides. You could fall off the one side and think they are in the center. They know the right things to do and do them. Many people do that well. That’s not the straight and narrow way and many people will do that. They will do many right things. They will put upon themselves many acts of self denial. They will make many acts of separation. They will have many things that they say that you must do and then they will lift that up and say, “this is the narrow way.”
That’s not the narrow way. That my friend, that’s a ditch.
But others make just as big of a mistake and walk off in the ditch on the other side. They sing, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and Jesus was wonderful to me.”
Did you look at the life and there’s nothing there. There’s no substance, there’s no sadness, there’s no godliness, there’s no beauty of holiness there, and yet they’ll take that and they’ll lift it up and say, “this is the straight and narrow way.”
That’s not the straight and narrow way. You’re in the ditch and how how often they do it. One’s in this side of the ditch. We’ll look at the ones in that side of the ditch and say, “we’re on the road.”
The ones over here on the liberal side of the ditch look at the ones over there, on this religious side of the ditch and they say, “we’re on the road.”
The fact of the matter is, they’re both in the ditch. The straight and narrow away is a strength in a narrow way. You won’t walk on that one unless you are totally unreservedly sold out to the Lord Jesus Christ with a whole heart desire to live and walk a godly life upon this earth. That’s the only way he would walk on the highway.
It’s the challenge of every one of us and for every generation that we make the choice that we’re going to walk on the straight and narrow way.
Every single one of us
The straight and narrow way is more than a system of doing. The straight and narrow way is a holy walk with a holy God through the blood of Jesus Christ, our Lord. That’s the straight and narrow way and it produces a life of godliness and discernment.
You’ll be able to discern the right from the false. You’ll be able to see you all understand what a false prophet is. If you just get there on that road and stay there on that road and walk there, you will understand everything else that doesn’t line up to that. That is the discernment that we need and that’s what Paul is saying in first and second Timothy.
It’s not enough to have some right things. It’s not enough to say you love Jesus. No. Think about some examples of how this has worked out. We will take Paul first since we’re in the pastoral epistles. Paul and the Judaizers. They came along after him. They came along after Paul was there.
Here comes Paul to a new city and he goes to the synagogue. He preaches Christ Jesus and him crucified to the people. The glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. God in some mysterious, miraculous way starts working. People start getting born again as they hear the of the good news that Jesus Christ will save them.
You see their lives transformed by that simple gospel. He preached to them there. Then he has to them together into a little group and he begins to preach to them the unsearchable riches of Christ. He begins to preach to them the unsearchable riches of Christ at all. They become established in Christ and he sees a relationship coming into their lives and then they become. They begin to have a sweet fellowship with God. He sees them growing and the spirit of God working in their lives.
He goes his way to the next city. He leaves them all. They’re gazing on the him, the finisher of their faith. Who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross despising the shame and is now sat down at the right hand of the throne of God on high. They’re looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of their faith. And then here come the Judiaizers after him.
They say, “Hey Man, I believe in Jesus. Jesus is God. That’s right. That’s right. But watch it. Watch it.
Oh listen, you got to keep the mosaic law. You guys don’t understand all of this. You’ve got to keep the mosaic law. The sabbath keepers. Get this and do that. Don’t eat this. Eat this. Keep this feast. Keep that feast.”
And they come in and what they do is they pull those sweet, tender hearts, the focus of their hearts on a bunch of things, as good as they may seem, but a bad thing.
The writer of Hebrews 13:8,9 says it better than I can say. He says this, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and
That’s exactly what happened. Judaizers came in and the focus of the hearts of those tender new Christians was put on meats and fish and circumcision and new moons and service keeping and all of that stuff.
Notice now how Paul corrects the problem. He can’t run there. He can’t get into play like we can fly there for the weekend and straighten everything out. So he write a letter. What does he write in there? He preaches Christ Jesus to them and him crucified. He tells them what Christ has done. He speaks to them about Christ being their all and all. He tells them that Christ is in him, is all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He tells them that they are complete in him and he goes on and on, and what does he do? He pulls their focus back on Jesus. That’s what he does.
You see how he discerned the false. They come with their bags full of religion and try to set up a new system at a new way to do it. After Paul has already established them in Christ. And so what does Paul do? He takes care of religion. He preaches Christ. Christ and only Christ. Christ in Him, crucified over and over again. He begins again to speak to them about the glories of Christ and the unsearchable riches of Christ, and he draws their hearts focus back there. That’s how he took care of it.
“Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ,” Ephesians 3:8,9.
We need to get in right relationship with the Lord Jesus. Get right with God. Get in the word. Stay there. Hebrews 3:14 “For we are made partakers of
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