PART – #05 of “Dispensation Under Attack”
“Scriptures alone can explain Scripture, which is one of the golden rules for understanding Scripture.”
No portion of Scripture is for ‘private interpretation’, writes Peter in [2 Peter 1:20].
And that is exactly what has been happening for several centuries, and still goes on today.
Christendom, for the most part, has rarely allowed the Scriptures to explain Scripture.
It’s one of the prime reason for all the maddening confusion within itself..
God is not the ‘Author of confusion’ [1 Corinthians 14:33].
HE, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, is the sole Author of all Scripture [2 Timothy 3:16].
And we must allow the ‘Author’ of all Scripture to explain Scripture.
In the last CRUMB 0140, we mentioned that Jesus Christ was dispensational.
So how exactly was Jesus Christ a dispensationalist?
Before we answer that question……….
A Brief Recap
Let’s have a brief recap of this series so far.
This particular series is about various dispensations or administrations in the Bible and what they mean.
What do they mean to us, and how do we make application of them in these current times.
What things are ‘for us’ and what thing are ‘to us’, for there is a significant difference.
It’s what the apostle Paul refers to as ‘rightly dividing the word of truth’ when he writes to Timothy in [2 Timothy 2:15].
And what is the ‘Word of truth’?
Well, all of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation is the Word of Truth.
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God,……..” 2 Timothy 3:16
And so it’s under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul tells us that the ‘Word of Truth’, that is, all of Scripture, must be ‘divided’ or ‘separated’.
What does that mean?
Study The Word
[2 Timothy 2:15] is the only place in all of the Bible where we are told to ‘study’ the word.
It’s how we show ourselves “approved unto God”, it so says.
And it does not end there.
God further tells us ‘how to study Scripture’.
And that is by ‘rightly dividing’ them.
There are many who may read their Bible, but there are very few who actually study Scripture.
And we are instructed to do so by predominantly separating what comes ‘under the Law’ from that which is ‘under Grace’.
These are the two main dispensations, or administrations, in the Bible which ‘do not mix’.
This is very strongly and analogically demonstrated in [Galatians 4:22-31], of that which took place in Genesis 21:1-12.
And this is a clear-cut case of the Scripture explaining Scripture.
It’s Galatians 4:22-31 explaining the real meaning of Genesis 21:1-12, as God intends it to be understood.
God was looking down the aeons of time, 2000 years down the line.
And it was in order to bring up a crucial ‘doctrinal point’ for HIS hidden ‘Age of Grace’ agenda.
What Saith The Scripture
“ Nevertheless what saith the scripture?” as we pick up the final and conclusive two verses in Galatians 4:22-31.
And that is God’s final Word on the matter….take it or leave it!
“Cast out the bondwoman and her son (representing the Law):”
These are ‘strong’ words!
….. “for the son of the bondwoman (Law) shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman (Grace)”
“So then, brethren, we (in this Age of Grace) are not children of the bondwoman (Law), but of the free (Grace).”
We cannot take something that belonged to ‘under the Law’, and place it amidst that which belongs ‘under Grace’.
They do not mix!
For they are two totally different dispensations.
They are two completely different programmes and agendas of God.
The one ‘under the Law’ was ‘earthly’, the ‘Kingdom programme’, which speaks of the God’s ‘Kingdom on earth’.
Christ’s Three-Year Ministry
That was what Christ’s three-year earthly ministry to the nation of Israel was all about.
The promised Kingdom was ‘at hand’, it was at the door [Matthew 10:5-7].
This was right in line with the promise God made to Abraham in [Genesis 12:1-3], known as, ‘The Abrahamic Covenant’.
It was Israel’s ‘earthly promise’, and we know that Israel nationally, rejected all that out of unbelief.
Abraham’s innumerable earthly offspring would be like the “dust of the earth” [Genesis 13:16].
Way back in the early chapters of Genesis, we find a hopeless race of humanity coming out of Adam, getting destroyed in the flood.
Then, God beginning fresh through Noah, they went right back into paganism at the Tower of Babel.
And by the time God calls out Abraham, there was not a single believer left on the planet.
The Next Part of God’s Programme
God is now all set to bring in the next part of his Programme.
And it would be according to that same ‘determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God’, spoken of in [Acts 2:23].
God does something brand new as He initiates the next step of His unfolding plan.
Out of this vast river of humanity, God is going to pull out ‘one man’, Abraham.
SO God, in so many words, at 2000 B.C. says:
“I’m going to do something totally different.
I’m going to call out ‘one man’.
And out of that one man, I’m going to bring to Me a little nation.
Then I’m going to work through that little nation and prepare them.
And then through them I will take Salvation back to the whole main stream of humanity.”
This is what has come to be known as the ‘Abrahamic Covenant’ which Scripture brings out in [Genesis 12:1-3].
Everything For Us
Everything in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is ‘for us’.
The apostle Paul puts it across in the simplest of terms in one of his greatest Grace Age epistles.
And we find it in [Romans 15:4]:
“For whatsoever things were written aforetime”, which is everything that was written in the Old Testament Scriptures…
And we can include the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in there too.
Why?
Because they are the fulfilment of the Old Testament, and Christ’s three-year earthly ministry was ‘Under the Law’.
Scripture confirms that in [Galatians 4:4-5].
But we know that Israel nationally, rejected all that out of unbelief.
They refused to believe and accept that JESUS CHRIST was the ‘Promised Messiah’.
What we have today in this “Age of Grace”, is not in fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy, per say.
But rather, it’s the fulfilment of God’s ‘Mystery programme’, “which was kept secret since the world began” [Romans 16:25].
God had kept it veiled, till revealed 7-8 years ‘after the cross’, only to the apostle Paul.
The Gospel of Luke
The Gospel of Luke for example, in [Luke 18:31-34], shows us just that.
31. Then he (speaking of Jesus Christ) took unto him the twelve (His chosen disciples), and said unto them:
Speaking of Himself, Jesus Christ tells them:
“Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man……..”
That is everything written in the Old Testament.
“…….shall be accomplished.”
Then speaking of His own death, burial and resurrection, HE tells them:
32. For he (Jesus) shall be delivered unto the Gentiles (the Romans), and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on:
33. And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.
Now watch this 👇🏾, for most Bible believing people have never seen or noticed this before.
34. And they understood………HOW MUCH???
“……NONE of these things:…..”, say the Scriptures.
Although it was Jesus Himself telling them these things, they could not see nor comprehend them.
WHY? And this is important!
For, “this saying was ‘HID’ from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.”
So, Who hid them? That is the question here.
Well, GOD did!
That takes us back to [Deuteronomy 29:29] in the Old Testament.
“The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: “but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever…..”
That tells us that God can and does keep some things secret till revealed.
And He does so according to ‘His’ Divine providence, plan and purpose.
A New ‘Dispensational’ Revelation
As mentioned earlier, what we have now in this “Age of Grace” is a new ‘dispensational’ revelation.
Many, if not the most within Christendom, don’t seem to realize or understand that.
Before Paul came on the scene, everything was still ‘under the Law’, and according to God’s Kingdom programme.
And it continued even after the cross, for at least 7-8 years.
God was still giving Israel every valid opportunity to still accept their Messiah, Whom they had crucified.
For God had now raised Him from the dead to prove it.
Sacrifices In Full Swing
During Christ’s three-year earthly ministry, animal sacrifices, “according to the Law” were in full swing in the Jerusalem temple.
The Jews were never once told to stop that which was an integral part of the Mosaic ceremonial Law.
This continued even well after the Resurrection and the Ascension Of Jesus Christ back to Glory in heaven.
Never once, did Peter or the other apostles, while preaching to the nation of Israel, tell them that this part of the Mosaic Law was no longer needed.
That it was now out of commission, because Christ Jesus fulfilled everything on the cross.
They “DID NOT” have that revelation, for God had not revealed it as yet.
Josephus, the well-known secular historian of that time, apparently recorded a million animals being sacrificed every year.
That may sound like a stretch and probably was, but the point is, that the practice was well in operation.
The Mercy Promised
So concerning Christ, Luke tells us in [Luke 1:72-73] that He came….
“To perform the mercy promised to our fathers,……”
That speaks of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob.
“…….and to remember his holy covenant;”
And what was this promised mercy and holy covenant?
“The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,” which we find in [Genesis 12:1-3] and [Genesis 15:18].
The apostle Paul in [Romans 15:8] confirms the same thing, by revelation.
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John had not yet written their accounts of the Gospels at that time.
So the apostle Paul could not refer to them.
Hence, it had to be ‘by revelation’ from the Ascended LORD JESUS CHRIST in Glory.
“Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision…..”
And who were the “circumcision”? The Jew! Israel.
“….for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers:”
It’s the same one which [Hebrews 6:13] also speaks of.
“For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,”
So Paul tells us in [Romans 15:4] that all these things written in the Old Testament…..
“…..were written for our learning…..”
And the reason and purpose for that indispensable learning is:
“……that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have (what?) hope.”
Hope Is A Wonderful Thing
So there we have it, and hope is a wonderful thing.
Is is one of the three greatest virtues of Scripture [1 Corinthians 13:13].
And this ‘hope’ is not a not a false hope, or a worldly hope which has every possibility of failing.
This is a hope that has come down from Heaven to earth for every single human being without exception.
It is the ‘Bread from Heaven”.
And it is ‘infallible’, if we will only just lay of hold it and embrace it by FAITH + NOTHING!
It’s what God is looking for from every single human being on this planet.
CLICK [HERE] FOR PART #06 of “Dispensation Under Attack”
(Please note, all that is written in the orange colour, are connecting links, so do read them. You will find them to be very useful.)
