and I realized that after Easter like I didn't have this class in my calendar and I go I need to put the class back in the calendar so then I went back and counted like today is 16 weeks I don't know about any of you like I don't feel like it's been 16 weeks I don't feel like it's been that long I'm serious I mean usually other classes that I've taken at church I I'm like, it's an eight-week class? Oh my gosh. And after the third week, I'm like, ugh. I've paid for it, and I'm committed. I've got to go. But this, I mean, I know it's you teaching. I know that's a big part of it. But it's just digging in God's word and really pouring back all those layers, it makes you just want more and more and more and more. And so, 16 weeks has just, it feels like that. It feels like nothing, you know? So, as soon as this book's over, we got to find another thing to do on Tuesdays. Okay. Because I can't be without it. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Caleb, have you learned something? Schrader? Yeah. All right, Eli, Emma. You're quiet about it, I know, just like I was. Brother Roger, have you learned something in this set of classes? This is 16 weeks here. Yeah? Yeah. All right. Well, I taught this 100 years ago, it seems like, at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church. When Ray was there, I was teaching. I went through God's eternal purpose, I'm sure, back then. I taught everything under the sun. But is there time, Ellen, in learning, Brother Ray? Absolutely. You can learn more now than what you did 30 years ago. You're exposed to this stuff, but you don't understand it. You know it's there, and you hear about it. Like the first and second resurrections, you have a problem with that. You know, you just can't separate this thing. Do you know how much of Christendom isn't able to separate that? About 60% of it can't separate it. because they don't want to separate it. Because it's not according to their theological basis. So they won't separate it. They won't look at the thousand-year reign of Christ at all. They say that is spiritual. And to make it on earth is carnal and terrible. But it's there, the promises of God, okay? Now, we had problems last week. We talked about the first and the last resurrection, didn't we? When is the first resurrection? Schrader, do you know? The first resurrection. Yes, the first resurrection. On this map, where is the first resurrection? And the next one is, where's the first fruits of the first resurrection? Where's the first resurrection on your deal? After the church age? That's right. A plus. All right. See there, you learned something. You know that. The first resurrection here, where's the first fruits of the first resurrection? Right after the cross. Where? Right after the cross. Thank you very much. You've got an a-plus Okay, so the first fruits of the resurrection are right here. Some of the saved were raised Old Testament Saints walked in the city Okay, Jesus was raised which is the first fruits of the resurrection All right. Where is a where are the two people in the Bible that are a type of the rapture? Elijah and you know, okay Elijah and Enoch because they were taken up to be with God. All right? Now, what was paradise or heaven, so to speak, called before the cross of Christ? It's called what? I'm not going to ask Emma. We won't ask you, you can write it down on a piece of paper. Caleb. What was heaven or paradise called before Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead? Huh? That's right, Sheol. Sheol. And Sheol was what? Brother Roger? The place to ask about. All right, what? That's Sheol, that's the Hebrew word. Now what's the Greek word for it, Brother Ray? The Greek word for Sheol. Hades. Sheol means the place to ask about. Hades means what? The place not seen. But what chapter and what book in the Bible tells us the greatest information about Sheol and this other place that we still haven't got the name about? What is it called before Christ died? It was called Sheol, but it was a place in Sheol and a place in Hades. What's it called, Brother Ray? No. What's it called? Chris, you know. Yes, you do. What's it called in Luke? Huh? In the book of Luke, what's it called? What? Abraham's bosom. Abraham's bosom. Oh, see, these terms you need to be familiar with so you can explain this. Have you ever tried to explain this to some of your lost friends, Schrader? This will really blow them away now, I'm telling you. This will blow them away. You start talking about this theological stuff like this, you start witnessing to a Mormon even, to a Jehovah Witness or whatever, if they'll listen to you at all. Mormon might, but they'll try to confuse you a little bit, but Jehovah Witness, they don't want to tell you, they don't want you to tell them anything, but you can get something on this. What book in the Bible tells us more information about Sheol, Abraham's bosom, Hades, than any other place in the Bible, in one place? No. What's the book? It's the Hecinaideotheke. Hecinaideotheke. It's in the New Testament. What? Luke the 16th chapter. All right, there you go. Luke the 16th chapter tells us more about that. We're talking about the church age in this lesson on page 97, but let's get us here. In this chart here, all of you have your charts, don't you? The church age, now this is questions now. All right, Eli. When did the church begin? Just after Christ died? No. When did the church begin, Caleb? It started in Genesis. Well, in reality, it prophesied the Gentile church in the book of Genesis, Genesis 9, 24 through 27. Where did it begin there, Christine? At the Sea of Galilee. At the Sea of Galilee. And what does the word church mean in Greek? I mean, what is the word for church in Greek? Ekklesia. Ekklesia. All right. What does Ekklesia mean there, Brother Roger? One's called out. One's called out. So when Jesus called the church out, and when did he begin calling that out? At the seashores of Galilee. There were many church members in that church. We're going to go back, and we're going to look at some of this stuff. And I want a couple of you to put your Bibles open, because I want to have you do some reading here. in just a little while. This church began at the seashores of Galilee. Who prepared the material for the church? Who was the person? Yes, Caleb. Who prepared the material for the church? Who baptized those people that would become church members? Yes, Caleb. John the Baptist, all right. What should he be called? Not John the Baptist, what is he, should he be called? Huh? John the Immerser or John the Dipper? All right, that's kind of funny. See, that's John the Dipper, all right? Anytime you say baptized, it should be dipped or immersed, all right? Now, let's go on a little bit further. Last week, we talked about the two resurrections, okay? And the two resurrections in many places are almost said in the same verse, and it doesn't make explanation of them. It kind of confuses people to some extent. But why is the first resurrection called the first resurrection? And the first resurrection, the greatest part of it takes place at the end of the church age. Why is it called the first resurrection even though people are resurrected here at the end of this tribulation period? Why is it called the first? These are the believers in the church age that are resurrected. But why is it called the first resurrection? It's distinguishing it from what? From the resurrection of the dead. From the resurrection of the dead. Because it says that the dead live not again until 1,000 years. What dead? The double dead. Double dead. Double dead. Nekros dead in Greek and Thanatos dead in Greek. Nekros dead means what, Chris? First dead? Nekros. Nekros. Nekros, brother Roger? Dead. Dead bodies. Nekros. Dead bodies. All right, thanatos. Thanatos means what, Brother Ray? Spiritually separated dead. All right, so that's the double dead. That's at the end of the tribulation period. Now there are several resurrections, but all of the resurrections, including the first fruits of the resurrection here, the resurrection of all the saved from the dead during the church age, and some people may say all the way from here to there, There are differences of opinions that I believe that they're from here to there, that they're resurrected, okay? I think they get to go to the wedding feast. They're not all of the bride. All of these people are not in the bride here. The bride is made up of what, Brother Ray? Faithful. Faithful, baptized believers from the New Testament church age, all right? Those are the ones that are qualified for it. That doesn't mean you're going to be there in the bride. What does it take to be in a bride? What does it take to be in a bride? Huh? Everything. It takes everything. What's it take to be saved? Nothing. Nothing. We trust, believe in the person of Jesus Christ, his death, burial, and resurrection, and then God gives us repentance, and he gives us faith to be saved. We do nothing about it. But salvation, being in the family of God, being in the kingdom of God, and the church is two different things. Most of the world doesn't know what the church even is. I'm telling you. They don't know. what the church is. No protestant will know what the church is. Only baptist. They've been preaching that for 2000 years and they think that there were kind of weirdos. Simple as that. But the church is the bride is made up of the church, the faithful members in the church. Why does this tell you that the bride has made herself ready in the book of Revelation salvation? You don't make yourself ready in salvation, do you? Do you have anything to do with it? No. Period, zero, nothing. All right, let's go to the book now. Go to the book. How many of you have a book? If you don't have a book, you got one here. Do you need a book? How about your sister over there? She needs a book? All right. Any of you need a book? All right. Everybody needs to have a book. All right. All right. Page 97. I wrote this a long time ago. Maybe when I was traveling from Valley Acres to Bakersfield, I don't know where it was, but I had Dakota scribble it down in her little old handwriting as I was thinking. I said, the cross is the hub that holds the spokes of God's eternal purpose in perfect unity. If you go out there and you look out there in the yard, you'll see these old wagon wheels. And you'll see they have a hub on them and a bearing, a steel bearing in the middle of it. There's places for spokes. Without that hub, that wheel wouldn't exist. That wheel, the spokes go out and make the wheel bigger, so it makes a big wheel instead of a little bitty hub. And then they used to have an iron wheel on it so it would wear for a long, long time. And some of those iron wheels out there are this thick. They were pounded out with blacksmiths. Those were done by a blacksmith. And back before they had arc welding and acetylene welding, they used big forges. And they would put, you know what borax is? Borax soap. They'd use borax for flux, and they'd dip the ends of that in borax. See, I'm an antique. And they'd dip that in there, and they'd get it just absolutely almost white hot, and they'd hit it together, and it would make it amalgamated into one piece. And you can see it, and some of them are so good, you could hardly tell where it was welded together. The cross is the hub that holds the spokes of God's eternal purpose in perfect unity and harmony. The cross. Without the cross of Christ, there is no salvation, there is no church, There is nothing. Now, remember this. Now, we're living in a time that is horrible. This is one of the most, God's churches have, up on this chart up here, God's churches have been through a lot, haven't they? The Catholic church from right about here over to this period of time right in here killed between 50 and 100 million Christians. Islam began over here about 610 AD. And she killed, she did better than Catholicism did. She killed 270 million. Almost three times more than Catholicism did. But Muhammad learned his lessons well from the Catholic church that had begun. Because they began to convert by the sword. So he converted by the sword. His religion as a philosophy absolutely didn't work, did it? He couldn't even convince his own people. They finally run him off. He escaped from Mecca to Medina and got down there and made a covenant with three Jewish tribes that they could coexist together with a covenant. And then after he got enough power, this is what we call a hudnit treaty, just one just where you can gain advantage. Then he turned on them and he exiled them out of their own land, took their palaces and their homes and their walled cities. The last group that he did, he killed between 600 and 900 men and had their heads chopped off. That's what we call the trench. He dug a trench in that city, had all their families stand out here and watch them, and he took all the men from puberty on up. They dug a trench and they had his men, and he sat up here watching over this, and they cut off between 600 and 900 men's heads. And then he began to take the wives that were watching. I want her because she's beautiful. I want her to be mine. I want this. I want that. And they would start tearing their clothes off of these people as they would stand down there. They would tie their hands and their head together and saw their heads off, and they would tear their clothes off, steal everything, every bit and Dump them to the ditch, beheaded and naked. Now, today. Now, these people believed in in and this is these are Abraham's children. These are the Jews, OK? You know why he did this? You know why he did this? Why did Mohammed kill these people? Why did you do it, Randall? You know, I'm sure. And how about Brother Roger? How come do you know what happened there? He told them to look in their book and tell him that it prophesied that he was coming into the world. I can do that. Revelation 6 and 1. That's where he's coming into the world. And if Islamic culture, Islamic eschatology is correct, the Mahdi, according to them, the Mahdi will be the incarnation of Muhammad. And he will bring, for seven years, he will rule on this earth. And that's what the Bible says the Antichrist will rule for seven years. And what else does the Bible say about the Antichrist in Genesis 3.15? Chris. That he will be a what? Seed. That he will literally be the son of Satan. This person with the Antichrist will be a literal son of Satan. that Satan will procreate with a woman and bring forth this thing, this Nephilim, this monster. Okay? So we see all of this, and the churches today are facing a terrible contest in America. You can't go in your open schools, in your public schools, can you tell anybody about Jesus? Huh? Can you pray in the school? Will they allow that? If you're a Muslim, can you pray in the school? They will fix you a prayer thing. Can you tell them about Muhammad if you're a Muslim? Can you tell and say that Jesus is not the son of God? Yeah. But can the Christians? And this is America now. We're talking about America. Something's wrong. I can take you from that video that I was in here showing a while ago and have George Bush get up there and swear and say, Islam is a peaceful religion. The world can live with it. And Bill Clinton. And Bush's Secretary of State. All these people. Hillary. All of these people. Obama. Islam is a peaceful religion. And they say Islam means peace. What does Islam mean? What does Islam mean? It comes from Salaam, all right, but what does it mean, Randy? It means surrender. When you surrender, then there's peace. And there won't be any peace until you surrender. When they come into one caliphate, that's where we are. And this is talking about the end of the church age that we live in. This is when this is going to happen. This is what's going to happen. Christians, right, we're right, ready to step into that period of time right there when there will be no religion from the middle of that on. But Islam or the Antichrist. That's the only religion that's going to be lawful. Everything else is unlawful. In the history of the world since Muhammad began, has there ever been peace where there was an Islamic nation? Does Iran have peace? Does Iraq have peace? Does Syria have peace? Does Jordan have peace? Saudi Arabia have peace? Do any of these countries have peace? What is it? I'm teaching right now the Kingdom of God series whenever I do it, off and on, but we're studying in the 18th, 17th and 18th chapter. Did you read, listen, you haven't listened to those yet? I don't want to jump ahead. Guess what? I know. Islam is going to turn against itself. That's when this Antichrist, if it's Islam, the Antichrist is going to turn against himself and they're going to start killing each other. And the world is going to be Saudi Arabia is going to be burning up. And all our money is going out, and all of them are bawling and squalling, oh, Babylon. Babylon. Babylon. Poor Babylon. Well, because in the Koran, it even says that if you, as a Muslim, if you do not stand up when jihad is called, you are to be put to death. That's right. Yeah. All of those. And they will start killing each other. That's what's going to happen. that religion will fold in on itself because of violence, because it is a violent religion. That's all it is. All right, let's go on. We've talked about the Sadducees. What's a Sadducee? A Sadducee. A Sadducee. They're Sadducees. Why are they Sadducees? They don't believe in the resurrection or any spiritual things because basically they are what? Atheist agnostics. Do they believe in the Talmud? No. Do they believe in the Mishnah? No. All right, who believes in the Mishnah and the Talmud, and who propagated it? And what is the Mishnah and the Talmud? Brother Roger? Commentaries on the Bible, and according in Jesus' time, what did Jesus say to them? You will have more weight on your commentaries than you do on the scriptures. You have made null and effect of the word of God with your commentaries. That's the mission in Talmud. And so that's what we're talking about here. They wouldn't let you walk across the grass on Saturday, would they? If you were a Pharisee, if you were a Jew, could you walk across the grass on Saturday? Let me tell you a little bit about modern Judaism, Orthodox Judaism. The Sabbath begins when? Let's get rid of it now. When does the Sabbath begin? Friday night at six o'clock. When is it over? Saturday night at six o'clock. So you've got a 24-hour period of time there. And it's not Sunday. The Sabbath is not Sunday. It never has been. I don't care what the Catholic Church said. It's not Sunday. Sabbath is from Friday night to Saturday evening, okay? Now, this is kind of funny. How many of you think people are going to have to go to the bathroom on the Sabbath? You have toilet paper? We had corn cobs in magazines and newspapers back in my day. Did you ever see that old outhouse I had out there in the back? I fell down in it. Had to fish me out of it when I was little. But the Jews, today, they will take and they will take out just enough toilet paper for you to wipe with and they'll fold it up and put it on the back of everything. They do this before because if you rolled it off of the toilet paper roller, you're working. You can't walk across the grass on the Sabbath because you might sow grass seeds. You cannot eat an egg that was laid on the Sabbath. That's verboten, forbidden. Okay, you can't do that. Did I get that right in German, brother, verboten? All right. All right. These are the things that these people did. And what are the groups of people that were, tell me the four groups. It's not in the book now. I told you this last week. What are the four groups of the people that were in existence in the Judaism society, Judaistic society? The Hellenists, which were what? They originated in Alexandria, Egypt, and they were the Greek-speaking, and they were the Greek, very much Greek, and by the way, they brought the Greek culture into Judaism. Okay, what are the other ones? What are the impostors? Who were the impostors? The Herodians. Herodians. That's when Alexander the Great, or not Alexander, that's when Anthony and Cleopatra assigned the first, they took and they put Herod on the throne, which is Esau's son, instead of what? Instead of Joseph that should have been on the throne at that time, in Joseph's lineage. So we have the Herodians, we have the Hellenistic Jews, we have the Sadducees, and we have the Pharisees. All right, now who is the most strict form of all of these? The Orthodox. No, not the Sadducees. Who were the strictest form of Judaism? The Pharisees. Who demanded the crucifixion of Jesus? The Pharisees. Most of all the Pharisees, but all the rest of them stepped in there, didn't they? Now, write it down in the middle. Well, write it the first part. It says, Jesus rebuked them, and they allied themselves with their political and religious opponents in order to defeat him. All of them got together to kill him. but it was the Pharisees that really started out. It was in these turbulent times, in the midst of religious rebellion toward God, that Jesus established his little ecclesia, his little church. I don't like the word church. That should be assembly. Write that little book down, the word assembly, in your book. Now one thing about the Jehovah Witnesses, they got one thing right. They're assembly halls. They're not churches. They're assembly halls. Okay? Assembly halls. The church is an assembly once called out. Okay. What does this word Ekklesia, how does it originate from, what idea does it originate? You remember Brother Ray? It comes from an old Greek word, Ekklesia. And in Greek society, what did they have, Chris? Every, what Marilyn? No, in Greek society, every little state was an independent part of the Greek society, of the Greek nation, and every one of them was, they had an ecclesia that was elected by the people and the ecclesia collected taxes and all of this. It was looked upon as an independent democratic body of a great nation. Now the church is that same word. Jesus borrowed that word. God's purpose was not to be defeated, for he had planned so well that not even this departure in opposition of his chosen nation could shake him. His purpose and his plan stood. That's the hub that holds together the whole plan of God's eternal purpose. The hub that holds the spokes in the wheel together. In the first church council at Jerusalem, James seems to set forth the reason for the work in the New Testament church. I want somebody to go back to Genesis 9, 24 through 27 and read that for me. Come up here and read it out of your Bible in just a moment. Simeon has declared how that God at the first did visit the Gentiles and take out of them a people for his name, Acts 15 and 14. And actually this took place in what part, what chapter in the book of Acts? Where did that Caesarean church get founded, Brother Ray, you remember? What chapter of the book of Acts? Cornelius. All right, Cornelius was a person that God, he was a Gentile, and he was a believer in God, and God told him to go to Joppa because there was a church in Joppa, and who was visiting that church in Joppa? Peter was, Simeon or Peter, okay? And the Lord appeared to Peter three times in a dream and put this sheet down from the heaven And showed it to him and it had what on it what what does sheet have on it you remember? What have on Caleb? All types of animals and every one of them were unclean animals for Jews to eat and God told him Arise slay and eat and he said no way has any of that food ever crossed these Jewish lips And three times God said what? Do not you call? What God has cleansed unclean? All right, and so Acts the 10th chapter from their own is where we have the first Gentile church established out of an arm of the church where brother Ray Joppa Joppa the church in Joppa that church was come out the Joppa Church came out of Jerusalem Church and All through Syria and all of this area all these churches are spread out and there's churches churches churches in the book of Acts everywhere Simeon had declared how that God did first visit the Gentiles and take out of them a people for his name, for his authority, his authority. Who has got that act, who's got that Genesis 9, Genesis 9? You got that over there? Genesis the 9th chapter? Yeah, I want you to come up here and read it, because the camera will not pick you up, nor will the, okay, 9 24 through 27. 24 through 27. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall be he to his brothers. He also said, blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. All right. Now Japheth is going to dwell in the tents of Shem. What does that mean, Brother Roger? Well, Shem held the name and the monument of God's Word and everything. But there will be a time when Shem will lay it down. But Japheth, the Gentiles, will now be the proclaimers in the church age. And the church today is a Gentile church. It's a Gentile church. And that prophesied all the way from the ninth chapter of the book of Genesis. So what happened here? And then A.J. Clerkin says here, and God's plan for man, which I have back there, then we raise the question, what is the purpose of the church age then? It is to take Christ to the world and bear witness of his grace and blood redemption and thereby for God to take for his name a people for his authority, people from among the nations. We shall never take the nation for Christ. But through the preaching of the gospel, we will take Christ to the nation. And as a result of that preaching, we will bring out unto God believers in Christ that will be redeemed people to inhabit the redeemed earth. What in the world is that? It's jumping way ahead, isn't it? That jumps all the way over to the eternity future. The church age. Who is the administrator of the kingdom of God today? The true churches of the Lord Jesus Christ are administrators of the kingdom of God. Do we have a kingdom of God on earth at this time? No. That kingdom of God was this thousand year reign, which Jesus, when he went to Israel, he showed them all the sample cases of the millennial reign. Did he raise the dead? Did he provide food? Multiplied the food to where God made food. He multiplied he created food for them They had more than enough is that a millennial blessing over here in the Millennium. Nobody's gonna be hungry They're not gonna be any hunger. Will there be any thirst over there? What did he do he created water for them? At his first miracle that he performed at the wedding at Cana by Galilee. What did he do? He turned water into oinos, wine, which was the best wine they ever tasted. That's all gonna be over here in the millennial reign, all of this. They're gonna have plenty of food. They're not gonna want for anything. The whole society, there won't be any greed allowed over there. What causes people to starve to death in the world? It's not lack of food, it's greed. Greed causes the people, greed and power. and manipulation of the masses is what caused people to starve to death. We got enough food to feed everybody in the world, but they don't get it because of greed, the greed of people. Now, in that millennial reign, you're saying that what Jesus was showing was the foreshadowing of that millennial reign. That's right. He showed them what you can have. Israel, this is what you get. I'm here. Did he literally offer the kingdom to them? Did he offer the kingdom to Israel? What did they say? No, no, no, no. No, no, no, no. They kept saying. Now, my question then is there will be people that make it through the tribulation that will repopulate the millennial. Those people will be in real bodies. Right, right. Not not not glorified bodies. No. Are they still going to have to work the land? And will it still be a cursed land where they'll get thorns and thistles? This is the end of the kingdom studies, but let me give you a little bit of this. There will be no curse on the land. We'll have no more weeds to deal with. The land will produce more than ever. You know, your land produces more weeds than it does anything because it's cursed. The land is cursed. It produces a lot of weeds, lots of weeds, doesn't it? Just go out there and water a square foot of land and see what comes up. Nothing but weeds. I was so surprised to go down. I had to walk this place three or four times yesterday. Up and down across these fields and everything else, trying to find leaks in the pipeline. All on foot. Back and forth. And I saw some wild weed out there. Some wild oats. You know, like they have up on Tahoe Ranch that feed all those deer. cattle and everything up there, wild oaks. I was surprised. They blew all the way down here. But you know what? There'd be one wild oak plant and 50 weed plants. Well, maybe 1,000 weed plants to one wild oak plant. Now, over there in the millennium, that ground is going to be producing food only, no weeds. Don't leave any weeds. Everything you plant is gonna grow. It's gonna the land. It's gonna shout out. We could go there and look at all this stuff Okay, it's gonna explode The land is gonna explode with fruit Every tree will produce ten times more because there won't be any bugs over there. They have to spray weeds, you know, they spray herb or Insecticide all over the stuff you have to do it Trees won't live very long on this place when I plan on fish Lake Valley don't any bugs up there A tree would live forever just about up there. You can have a plum tree 60, 70 years old, 150 years old. I've seen plum trees up there 150 years old. Down here, if you can get 15 years out of one, you're lucky. Terrible. Let's go on. The establishment of the church. Contrary to popular belief, the New Testament church is not composed of all the believers. See there what you've been taught almost all your lives? The church is not composed of all believers, nor is it composed of all believers only of the church age. Neither is it invisible and universal. Have you ever seen an invisible and universal church? OK, so help me wrap my brain around what that is. So contrary to popular belief, a New Testament church is not composed of all believers, which, OK, I get that. I understand, because there's people that aren't believers that attend an assembly and call themselves a believer. but then says nor is it composed of all believers of only the church age. So we're living in the church age. So they're saying that that believers in the past before the cross and believers after the rapture is part of that body. Well, what it's saying here is maybe could be worded better because what he says here, what Common belief says all of these people from here to there are in the church All the way from the beginning for there is the church everybody that saves is gonna be in the church. That's not true The church is the church age only Israel has a special place in the kingdom New Jerusalem is the city that the bride will inhabit But there's a whole and and just look at it this way who is going to go who is going to be wed to the Lord himself Who's wed to the Lord? The bride. Are there going to be guests at the wedding? Who are the guests? Other believers. Other believers that aren't in the bride. If you are the parable of the ten virgins in the Bible. What's the parable of the ten virgins, Brother Raymond? The guests of the bride. That's not the bride. The ten virgins, some of them didn't make themselves ready, did they? During the church age, the church preaches the gospel. Other people outside the church get saved, don't they? Outside of New Testament church, people get saved. Glory, hallelujah for that, if they do. I was saved outside of a New Testament church when I was born again. I was. It wasn't that church's fault. It was the reading of the Bible. I was convicted. I was under the condemnation of sin. And I went down. In the middle of this Pentecostal church, right when they were having all this screaming and hollering and going on and talking in tongues and everything, having a good time. And I went down there and nobody paid attention to me except my ex-step grandmother. And she went down there and she literally led me to the Lord of what to do. Thank God for that. She knew what salvation was. The rest of them, I'm not sure. But I got saved that day, in 1961, a long time ago. So I get that, because the New Testament church is just those people that are in the church age. Yes. So then what do we call the people all before that? Just the prophets? There are other people in the kingdom of God. Israel will have a place in the kingdom of God, won't it? Israel? But will Israel be the bride? No. So, because, I mean, okay, I guess we live in a church age right now. You're a privileged people. Yeah, I know. And this is special. Yeah. And that's what kind of blows my mind, because I think about, wow, Paul and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and and and Peter and John and all these people that sacrificed literally everything. They were martyred. And yet what you're telling me is they're not going to be in the bride, not in the bride. That blows my mind. It does. Now, do you see what a privileged time we live in, in this world? So why are we so, I mean, maybe there's not an answer because I know God's ways are hard ways. God's eternal purpose. Why is that so? I mean, is it because we're on the other side of the cross? Because I thought scripture said that people that believe without seeing are truly blessed. Yes, they are. So then all those people before the cross, they didn't see, or did they see the pre-incarnate Christ? Some of them saw the pre-incarnate Christ, but they believed in the promises of God and they look forward to the cross, okay? The Bible says that God preached the gospel, Jesus preached the gospel under Abraham, didn't he? Galatians. He preached the gospel to them. We see a lot more now back there than what they ever did before, but we live in a privileged time right now in this world that has never been known before. So why? I don't know. I don't know why God chose this. But I thought I would ask. It's really, I keep trying to, this lit upon you today. See, I've been preaching this all the time. I said, do you know what a privileged time you live in? That this is an absolutely unbelievable period of time, and you're here, and people don't pay any attention to it at all? It's special, isn't it? Special. Not because of us. Why is the church going to be here until the end of the age? Because of Jesus. Because he said it would be. Because he would deal with those people that would... Yes, Sister Schrader? Was it given to the Gentiles because the Jews refused? Rejected it. And here we have the Gentiles taking over the reins of God's kingdom. The dogs! The kingdom went to the dogs, so to speak. The Gentiles were dogs. The kingdom went to the dogs. Just remember that. The kingdom went to the dogs. He takes the lead. The first shall be last and the last shall be first. Do you understand that? That means a lot. Who was the first? The Patriarchs and the Jews. Who's last? The Gentiles. And who's going to be first? The Gentiles. Not all of them. Like I said, to be in that bride, it takes everything. It takes everything. You not only got to be saved, Now, everybody that's saved is in the family of God, in what we call in the kingdom of God. But God calls them the kingdom of God, he calls the church. The Bible, the Holy Spirit leads you one place, to salvation and then to service. Do all people follow? Do people follow all the calling of the Spirit of God? No. Today, it's wonderful. Brother Ray. I'm a little confused here. I don't understand what you guys are talking about, but I understand. John the Baptist is back. John the Baptist is not part of the bride. No. No, they won't. Okay. They won't be in the Bride. But are they important in the Kingdom of God? This is beautiful, isn't it? Have you ever seen this before? Peter, Peter, Paul, all of them are in the Bride. They're in the Bride. They're in the New Testament and they make up, they are the foundation of the Church. Yeah, Abraham's out of order. Yes, they're part of the church. They're the first building stones on top of the Great Foundation. You got it now? Yeah, all right. Maybe I didn't hear that. But Paul, Peter, James, all of them are in the New Testament church age. Were they faithful unto death? Did they give it all? That's what it takes. That's what it takes. Now during the tribulation period, are these people going to have to give it all? You know what? They got special rewards. They're not in the church, but they have special rewards. It says they will rule and reign with Christ. That's a special dispensation right there. A special situation. There's a pattern. Yes. Wow. You got it. You got it. Everything is special in God's eyes and it is a continuous revelation. It is a building block. We see all of this. These people are all saved by grace. Everybody's always been saved by grace. Okay. All saved by grace. But in the church age that we live in today, you are special to God. You are special and act like it. You can just be like everybody else. Or you can say, hey, I got it. You can say, I got it. But are you willing to do that? Are you willing to do that? This is special. We live in that church age. This lesson is pretty long and lengthy on the church. But read it. And I'll go back. And this statement he made up here was a little bit confusing. A little bit confusing. All right? Got any questions so far? I mean, you've been live wires today, haven't you? Live wires. OK. We got a page and a half done. OK. We got a page and a half done. The establishment of the church, contrary to popular belief, a New Testament church did not compose of all the believers. OK. A definition of a New Testament church, a New Testament church is a called out body of scripturally baptized believers associating together in covenant relationship to carry out the faith of the gospel as outlined in the Great Commission, Matthew 28, 18 through 20, actually. All right? We see that. Right there's where we'll start next week. You got any questions? Yes. No light, but you see it. You're in the room. You go from room to room. When you walk into a room, it's dark. And then you turn one light on at a time as you get in that room. And then you can see across that room and you go and see another door and you look out a window and say, wow, I've never been here before. I didn't know this was here. So I do have a question because I have people ask me that they'll ask me this question that I'm going to ask you. They'll say, well, I'm a Christian and I'm going to heaven. So why do I have to I mean, I'll live right, but what do I care if I really are on fire for the Lord or really do anything? You know, isn't heaven the gift? Isn't heaven the goal? And so the goal, I've already reached that goal. No, heaven is not the goal. Heaven is the goal, yes. But heaven isn't the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is to be close with Christ. You really want to be close with Christ? This is your opportunity to be right there sitting on the throne with Him. And then when I say that... Or out there in the congregation someplace. Do they want to be out there next to the bathroom door? Yeah, because when I say that, they'll say, well, at least I'm not in hell. And I'm like, yeah, but why are you satisfied with just that? Because they don't want... We live in an easy-believerism. We live in churches that don't preach the Bible. They preach Jesus only. That's all I want, Jesus only. But that's just the beginning, people. The beginning is salvation. That's not the end. The beginning is salvation. Why settle for less when you can have God's best? Remember, I preached that 30-something years ago, and I preached it again here a while back. Why settle for less when you can have God's best? Why do you want to settle for less? Why? You ready to go? You ready to go out and sick them? Let's have a word of prayer. All right. Sister Schrager, you want to lead us in prayer, please? Father, we just thank you for this time and we thank you for this home, this precious home that was opened to us. And for Mr. Phillips, we just thank you again for teaching us and just help us to understand just all the nuggets that are out there for us to grab. Just place it in our hearts and minds and help us to understand it. We thank you again for this day. for this time, keep us all safe as we separate and go our ways today, and put a special blessing on this home for opening up to us and being so helpful. Thank you again, and we just praise your name. Thank you, dear Jesus. Amen.