All right, go ahead and be seated tonight. And maybe, Elliot, if you don't mind, I think I probably left my lapel out on the welcome desk or on some desk somewhere. I don't know where it's at. Or it could actually be right here, unless that's the one that Brother Sherman broke. It's not. All right, good. And thank you very much. Because on Sunday night I asked Brother Branch, I said, do you move around much? And he said, no, I cannot stand still. I cannot. Anybody else like that? When I'm on the phone, I have to walk around. And so if I'm talking, I'm moving. And so I want you to get your Bibles tonight. Go with me to Ephesians chapter number one, all right? We're going to start in Ephesians one. And we're going to circle back to Ephesians eventually. But we're going to start in Ephesians chapter number one. And tonight I'm going to introduce a concept. We actually introduced it a couple of weeks ago. And we are going to talk tonight about what is called dispensationalism. And I want you to know that that is a good Bible word. It's a good Bible word. The word dispensation is used in the Bible about four different times. But the idea is consistent all the way through the scriptures. The reason why we're beginning with that is you cannot understand the details of the thing before you get an overview of the thing. You know, when we were in Bible college, one of the first classes we were required to take was called a survey class, an Old Testament survey and a New Testament survey and a survey class. And some of you have taken survey classes. It literally means that you look at the book of the Bible, but you get an overview or a survey of it, if you will. And so you don't get a lot of details when you do a survey. You get an overview. Here's the reason why. If you read, say, the book of Ezekiel, but you don't know what the book of Ezekiel is about, you will not understand Ezekiel. And so the reason why we're doing what we're doing tonight is you will not understand some of the facts about the age in which we live and the ages that are coming if you do not have an overview. And so this overview, this survey of time, if you will, will give you the proper context to begin thinking about some of the scriptures we're going to look at over the course of the study. So when I say the word dispensation, this isn't just some word that we came up with. This is a Bible word and it's used in the context of the way that we use it. I want you to look at Ephesians chapter number one. We'll begin there. and I want you to see this word as it's used in the scriptures. The Bible says this, let's look in verse number six, we'll start there. This is obviously talking about Christ. The forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself. All of this is talking about the things that we receive in Jesus Christ. And he has, if you will, in verse number nine, clued us in to his will. He's taught us what his will is. And look at the Bible says in verse number 10, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, Now this is really discussing a couple of different things. First off, he is discussing in this book of Ephesians, one of his themes is that in the New Testament church age, God was going to combine Jew and Gentile into one body. This was foreign to the Old Testament scriptures. The Jews were commanded, if you will, to separate as a holy people from all the other heathens or Gentiles. Now in the New Testament, the same grace, if you will, was going to be offered and when people were getting saved they were going to be brought into the same congregation. One of the biggest adjustments of the New Testament church was Jews had to get their bigoted ideas out of their mind about Gentiles and Gentiles and Samaritans had to be willing also to accept the Jewish people and they had to learn that Christ was a greater unifier than their cultural differences. And so it was a huge challenge to them. And that's actually what the book of Ephesians is about, is about the church being made up of Jews and Gentiles. But really what he's talking about, if you'll see in verse number 10, he says that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, what he is saying is this. In the past, there have been different dispensations that have been leading to the dispensation of the fullness of times. And what he's saying is, and by the way, if you read in the New Testament, you'll see a phrase, we'll see it later tonight, that's used over and over again, that is the phrase, these last days, in the last days, in the last days. The reason why he's saying last days, I know you and I, we sometimes literally interpret that as to mean this is like the last day. The idea is that we are in the dispensation of the fullness of times. In other words, God's work that he was leading up to in the Old Testament has now been accomplished and satisfied in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and his resurrection. And now everything else, if you will, is hurling us fast towards the end of days when all things are made new. So what I'm trying to say to you is this, when he says the dispensation of the fullness of times, he is saying we have reached a day and age where a majority of the work of God has been accomplished. So that means we are in the last days. God has, if you will, less work left to do than he has done. And so what we are gonna look at tonight is the work, if you will, that God has done. This'll probably take us at least this Wednesday and next to go through these dispensations. A couple of weeks ago, we took time to look at the beginning and the end of the first dispensation, and I'm hoping we'll get back to that tonight. What I would like to do for a few moments is talk to you about what a dispensation is. Now, I want you to understand this. The word dispensation in the Bible literally means a stewardship. Now stewardship is not a word that we use very often in our language today, but the idea of a stewardship is this. It would be, if you will, the giving of something that a servant is now responsible for. It's very simple, right? It's a stewardship. So you've been given something that you are now responsible for. I don't know if you ever had a parent who gave you something. Maybe your dad gave you something and you said, now, this was mine, I'm giving it to you to care for. Inevitably, something happened to that thing, didn't it? Here, I'm giving this to you for you to care for. If you've ever had a family member go overseas, or maybe it's more practical to say, if you've ever had a family member go to prison. Some of you say, I don't have a family who lives overseas, but you might have family in prison. And if they've gone to prison, then they've actually had to relinquish, if you will, many of the things that they own, and they have to give them to somebody for safekeeping while they're gonna be away. And so my point to you is this, if you are keeping something that belongs to somebody else and you're responsible for it, you've been given a stewardship. So here's the way that God deals with mankind. God, at different times during the world history, will have a certain way in which He's working with mankind. He will give them a responsibility. Now, I already said this a couple of weeks ago. Inevitably, man fails at his responsibility. Inevitably, man fails. Do you know what God does? Rather than cutting it off and scraping it clean, He just starts a new stewardship. He gives another way. And by the way, here's the amazing thing about God. You ready for this? In every dispensation, in every stewardship, God reveals more and more and more about himself. Now, if God were like you and me, and if somebody entrusted something to us and we made a wreck of it, would you think that person was going to give you more to take care of? And yet here's how gracious God is. Every time we wreck it, he says, listen, let me teach you a little bit more about me. Let me show you how much I love you. Let me show you more of who I am and what I've got in store for you. And this is the story of the dispensations. In every dispensation, he shows us more and more about himself. And so I wanna talk to you about a few things. We'll try and move through this quickly. First off, what is a dispensation? It's just an administration or an economy in which God works. So when we say economy, what we mean is think about the different kinds of economies. Think about different government structures. That's a good way to think of it. Think of different government structures in the world. We have monarchies, right, where we've got kings and queens. You've got socialism, where everybody loses. You've got There you go, all right. Listen, we've got a democracy. We actually have a republic. There are different forms of government. And so God, if you will, over the course of time, works in different sorts of administrations or governments in order to work with man. Now, let me say this. What makes up a dispensation? First off, there's a rule or there's an expectation. Let's take the first dispensation as an easy example. What was the stewardship given to Adam and Eve? Here's the garden. What was the rule? Don't eat that one tree, right? They're given the whole garden. And God says, that one tree is mine. That one tree is mine. And so again, we don't know the exact timeframe, but the Bible seems to indicate it wasn't very long before Eve was eating that fruit and going, Adam, I'm telling you, this is so good. You've got to have some of this. And so immediately man fails. What does God do at the end of the first dispensation? You know what he does? He comes down, he sheds the blood of an animal, teaches them about sacrifice, covers their sin, and starts over. Now there are consequences though. What was the consequence? Anybody know? They got kicked out of the garden. God actually put an angel there with a flaming sword so they could not get back in. The reasons for that are complicated, but the point is there was a consequence for their sin. It wasn't just like God said, it'll all be fine. No, he said, I will fix this at some stage, but you're going to have to bear some consequences for your sin. And I'm going to start over. And so we're gonna look at some of that tonight. So there's always a rule or an expectation, and then there's a responsibility based off of what's been given. So here's the garden, here's the rule, and then, of course, the truth of the matter is, after failure of that stewardship, there is a consequence and a judgment and a new dispensation begins. I wanna show you, if I can, some biblical proof of this concept. And here's the reason why. This may sound like, first off, I told you, We are learning the nature and the outworking of God. This is not a shallow study. And I believe that many of you, you desire to know what we would call, and it sounds a little haughty, but the deeper things of God. Is it fair to say that? We're not in the shallow waters here. When we're talking about dispensations and God's stewardship of mankind, this is not shallow waters. Having said that, I want you to understand that when you get deeper into the things of the scriptures, there are things that you have to learn how to reconcile with other scriptures. Let me give you an example of what I mean. God does not change, but his workings with man can be under a new government or a new administration. God does not change from one dispensation to the next, but his dealings with man can change. His ability to reveal himself and how he holds us accountable can change. The judgment that he brings can change. But God himself in his character does not change. So that's an important thing for us to understand. So if the Bible teaches that there are different ways in which God works, but also teaches us that he himself does not change, then here's what we're gonna find. Even though the dispensation changes, there's some things about God that stay the same. I want to show you just some biblical proof from the scriptures that God does indeed change how He works with us. And you won't have to turn to these, but I'm going to put them up here for you. In fact, if you can give me the screen. I thought I had that. Sorry. And so I want to show you some scriptures. Hebrews 1, 1 and 2 is a great example of this. The book of Hebrews begins. It's a very unusual way for it to begin. And so yeah, God who, listen to this, God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past. Here's what that means, God at different times and in different ways communicated with man, okay? God at different times and in different ways communicated with man. And so Hebrews 1, 1 and 2 actually teach us this. I'm gonna read it to you and we might be able to get it. I just unplugged it and plugged it back in. And let me try and try again. Why don't you take your Bibles and go with me to Hebrews 1, verses 1 and 2. You can be there before we might get this working. So Hebrews 1, 1 and 2. I want you to look at it with me. What we're showing you is that God does indeed change the ways in which He works with man. And it is, if you will, by the way, God reveals Himself. but he doesn't just reveal himself. I want you to listen to this. God progressively reveals himself. I want you to think of God's revelation as if it were a building. What God does is he reveals, if you will, the foundation. Well, how much do you know about a place by a foundation? We're very grateful, and I say this sincerely, we're very grateful. The foundation to our house is up, up on Eichmann's Road. So we took the kids up there and we went and stood, I went and sat on my back porch. Okay. I mean, there's no porch, but there are steps. So I sat on the back steps and, and, and it took me a while, but I got the blueprint out and literally I walked the kids through the house and what it was going to look like. And we stood in the garage and then, and we got our feet all, all nasty and gross. Um, and so, but what I want you to understand is you can't look at, if you were to go up and look at that foundation, you really would not know a whole lot about the house. You really wouldn't. You would have to have the blueprint, which is what it's going to look like when it's completed, to know what the house looks like. Only God has the completed picture. But what he does is he piece by piece, I imagine it won't be very long before they deliver some lumber up there. Now when they deliver lumber and those walls go up and the floors go in, you're going to know a lot more about the house. And then once we go in and we put in outlets and we put on a roof, you're going to know a lot more about the house. My point is this, God in that same way reveals things about himself piece by piece. Let's look at it in your Bible. Will you please look at Hebrews 1, 1 and 2. And I believe Paul wrote this and I think it's obvious if you read it, you can read his language all over it. But he doesn't begin his letter the same way he begins his other letters. Usually Paul begins by saying what? He says, he usually begins by saying Paul, okay? But he doesn't start the book of Hebrews by saying Paul, because he's writing to a different audience. He is writing to people who generally have rejected him. The Hebrews rejected Paul. So when he writes to them in an authoritative fashion, he does not begin with Paul, he begins with Paul. The only book of the New Testament that begins that way, God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. So let's just take apart what he said. God used to talk at different times and in different ways to us through the prophets, right? Then look what he says after that. God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son. Now, can I tell you what Jesus Christ was? He was the full manifestation of God on earth. He was a brand new, if you will, revelation. So here's what God has done all the way back. And by the way, if you remember what we talked about two weeks ago, this should be very powerful. In Genesis 3, 14, 15, 16, 17, there is what we call the Proto-Evangelium, first gospel, Proto-first Evangelium gospel, the first gospel. And here's what God said. You, you woman, I have a message for you. You are going to have a seed. We talked about this. Women don't have seed. How can a woman have a seed? There's only one way a woman could have a seed. And that's if a virgin were to conceive and give birth to a child. You are going to have seed and your seed is going to have his heel bruised. But your seed is going to crush the serpent's head. That was a mysterious telling of the gospel message. So all the way through the years, what is God doing? Reveal more and more and more and more of himself until what? Until the fullness of time has now come and he has revealed enough that when he gives his son, we can recognize him. And now when Jesus Christ comes onto the earth, he is the seed of a woman who will at his death have his heel bruised, but will crush the serpent's head. the fullness of time had come. And God is always revealing more and more about himself. Let me give you another scripture if I can and you're just going to be turning with me, aren't you? Galatians chapter number three. I think what happened, Brother Matt, is we just took this apart this past Sunday night and we probably missed a connection somewhere. And so we've got interns we can blame it on. It's great. It's great. That's what they're here for. They're just here to blame. Galatians chapter number three. Look, if you will, verse number 22. Galatians 3.22. Now I'm taking time to show this to you because I want you to understand how God does change his work with man over the course of time. And I'm going to say some negative things about other systems of theology in a second because I have to give you some context for why we're teaching what we're teaching. Look in Galatians chapter 3, look at verse 22. Bible says, but the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, now he's not talking about faith as a general concept because faith has existed since the Garden of Eden and I'll show that to you in a moment. He's talking about the faith of knowing Jesus Christ, the son of God who came and died and rose again. He's talking about specific faith in Christ. So he says this in verse number 22, I'm sorry, verse number 23. Before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. Let's apply that to what we're talking about. God at sundry times and in divers manners gave the law so that we could learn that we could not save ourselves but needed a savior. That's the whole, listen, let me say this to you. That's the whole purpose of human history was to bring us to Jesus Christ. Boy, I can't imagine how it must completely and totally agitate atheist historians It's agitated them so badly, they've had to try to rework the calendar, haven't they? We live in 2024. You ready for this 2024? A.D. Anno Domini. 2024 years after the coming of the Lord. How that must agitate historians. You're never gonna escape it. You're never gonna escape the fact that, listen, you ready for this? Jesus Christ literally split time in half. His birth. And by the way, here's what they'll tell you. Well, it was actually the Julian calendar. It was actually brought over because Julius Caesar. Listen, they can say anything they want. We for 2000 years have been saying B.C. and A.D. and we know exactly what it means before Christ and Anno Domini. But listen, are any of you like me? If you ever turn on a video and they say something B.C.E., you just shut it off. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? BCE means Before Common Era. And they tried to replace BC before Christ with BCE, which was Before Common Era. As soon as I hear that, I just shut it off. That or if I hear billions of years. You just shut it off. You just shut it off. Because you're going to watch the same company put out a video two years later and they'll be like, actually it was 10,000 billion years. And they have no timeline off of which they're operating. No timeline. And so I'm gonna, in this study, we'll give you a timeline of the history of the world. Let's look again. I want you to see a couple more verses. Look at verse number 25. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. Do you understand? All we're pointing out is that God worked a certain way and now is working a different way. One of the marks of dispensationalism, you need to get this. One of the marks of dispensationalism is that we draw a strong difference between the law and grace. Now I'm gonna say something that's gonna be a little bit negative towards people who have other systems of theology. There is a system of theology that is the antithesis of dispensationalism, and it's called covenant theology. And covenant theology struggles in a couple of areas. Covenant theology generally, I'm gonna say some strong things, just prepare yourself, and if you wanna discuss it later with me, I'd be happy to do that, and I mean that very happy to do that. I wouldn't accept it as a challenge. We just don't have the time to delve too, we're already as deep as we can get in this study. Covenant theology generally belongs to Reformed theology, which is what you and I would know as Calvinism. And here's what they believe about covenant theology. They believe that God superintended the salvation of anyone who got saved in the Old Covenant the same way He has superintended the salvation of anyone in the New Covenant. You say, what does that mean? What it means is before the world began, they believe that God literally picked and chose who would be saved and who would not. Therefore, the difference between law and grace doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, because God always just handpicked everybody who was gonna get saved. Now, can I tell you something that's very clear? God did know every single individual in his foreknowledge who would be saved and who would not be saved, Old Testament and new. But there is a huge difference between foreknowledge and God being the one who decided, if you will, in his sovereignty or willy-nilly, who gets to go to heaven and who does not. You need to be careful anytime you lay evil at the foot of God Himself. And so I want you to understand that it was never the will of God for there to even be a hell let alone for humans to be in it. And the Bible is very clear that He is patient and long-suffering and He would that all men would come to repentance. How silly would it be for us to believe that we're living in this day and age because simply those that God picked just haven't gotten saved yet. The Bible doesn't teach that. The Bible teaches that we're still here because He is long suffering, waiting for people to come to Him. So does He know who's gonna come to Him? Yes, He does. This is something we said before. Tomorrow is the same thing as yesterday to God. And we're gonna refer back to that again in just a moment. I want you to look at one more scripture with me, if you will. Another mark of dispensationalism that's very important. Go with me to Romans chapter 11, please. Romans chapter number 11. Another mark of dispensationalism versus covenant theology is that we believe there is a distinction, hear me, an eternal distinction between the nation of Israel and the local church. Now, there are some people who teach what we call replacement theology. Replacement theology is this. Replacement theology means that now the church has inherited all of the promises made to Israel. Now, I would challenge you. By the way, there were some people who believed this back during the Crusades. So they went into the promised land and tried to take it by force. And it became pretty obvious that God was not on their side because they did not win. Now, I'm not saying that that land shouldn't, we all understand at this stage it should, it does, and it should belong to Israel. But notice that God did not allow it to be taken by force because he was not blessing those crusaders. My point to you is this, there is no replacement for the nation of Israel. God still loves, honors, and plans to use his people. The church is an entirely different entity than the nation of Israel. Now, you may think that this isn't important for us to discuss, but let me tell you, with the world events, this is important for us to discuss. Because you and I, if we don't fall in the right place with the nation of Israel, we fall in the wrong place with God. And so that's his family, that's his bloodline. And by the way, he chose them so that his son would come through them. That's an important understanding that we need to have. Look at the Bible, it says in Romans chapter number 11, look at verse number one. Paul says, I say then, hath God cast away his people? He says, God forbid. Here's what he's addressing, by the way, in this passage. What he is saying is this. If we are saved by faith, But the nation of Israel was chosen because they were literally of a certain family, which means a bloodline, which means marriage and birth. Then is God now, because we're dealing spiritually and not physically, is he done with his people Israel? And his answer is emphatic, isn't it? He is not done with Israel. He is not done with Israel. I want you to look at the end of the chapter. We certainly don't have time to navigate all of this. Chapters 9, 10, and 11 are some of the most complex passages in the New Testament. But I want you to see at the end of the passage, look in Romans 11, look at verse number 25. He says, I would not, brethren, that ye be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits. That blindness, in part, is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. You know what he just said? Israel is operating with blinders on, spiritual blinders, until the time of the Gentiles is finished and then I will return to working with my nation Israel. By the way, if you don't know what that's called, that time when God returns to working with his nation instead of the church is called the tribulation period. The seven-year tribulation because the church, hear me, has been raptured out. We've been caught away. God returns to working with his nation Israel. Do you know what he does during the seven-year tribulation period? In short, he protects his children, he uses his children to evangelize the whole world, and he pours out judgment on the nations for their treatment of Israel. That's what the book of Revelation is. Is God pouring out judgment when he separates the sheep from the goats, the goats being the nations that have mistreated Israel. That's what the tribulation period is. It's not just judgment on the world for its sin. It is judgment on the nations for its treatment of Israel. He protects Israel. He uses Israel. He restores Israel. You want to know the reason why? Because the nation of Israel rejects the Antichrist as Messiah and accepts Jesus Christ during the tribulation period. There's a grand revival that happens in the nation of Israel. So all of this, again, let's look back at the scriptures, verse number 26. And so all Israel shall be saved. Now, is he saying that every individual Jewish person will be saved? No, he's speaking of Israel, again, as a nation being restored back to being used by God. And he says, as is written, there shall come out of Sion the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob, for this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins. He's talking about future. Let's talk about the future. So all I'm showing you tonight is even though we're using the word dispensation, the truth of what we're showing you is all through the scriptures. And you can see that God has at times worked in certain ways, He's working a certain way now, and He'll work a certain way in the future. What do we call that? Dispensations. We call them dispensations. We use that terminology directly from the scriptures. Tonight, I wanna give you a few more scriptures, and then we're gonna call it a night. And next week, when we have our visual working, we will put up a visual of all the dispensations, and we'll walk through every one of them. There are essentially seven dispensations, and we will show you the stewardship that God gave, the test, the failure, and the judgment. And once you see it, you're like, well, that's pretty obvious. Because once you see it written out, it becomes very clear. I wanna give you a few more scriptures concerning. Notice that almost all of the verses we've looked at don't actually use the word dispensation. But the concept is there. I want you to see the word dispensation. I think it's important for you to view. Will you get your Bibles, go back with me to Ephesians chapter number three. Look at Ephesians chapter number three. I hope that you enjoy this deeper dive and I know that I'm even using terminology when it comes to like covenant theology. We're talking about reformed theology. We're talking about replacement theology. I know that's a lot to throw at you. It's a lot maybe for you to go home and look at. I want you to know as your pastor, I'm available to you. I consider it a great compliment when I receive questions. Because that means someone is entrusting me to help them help give them spiritual knowledge. I do not mind questions. I don't at all. You send me a Facebook message, a text message. You want to call me on the phone. You want to schedule a visit in the office to ask. I enjoy that very much. I want to be here to help you understand the scriptures. And I want to challenge you about something. Listen to me. I know that these are things that if you're not careful, you go, well, that doesn't feel very practical. Listen to me. When you're learning about God and how he works, it's practical. When you're learning about God and you're learning his word, you're learning something you need to learn. And I think sometimes we really don't challenge ourselves enough in church. We preach salvation and we preach the gospel and we just sit and we have a real good time with it. And let me tell you, there's so much in the word of God and pastors have been given the duty by God to preach the whole counsel of God. So you've gotta be gracious enough to let us just delve into some of this depth And again, study it on your own. Study it on your own. If you want a couple of good books, if you're willing to actually read, this is not the Sunday comics. If you want a book that's gonna walk you through these things, I've got two or three good books that will walk you through all these things we're talking about. Let's look at these scriptures very quickly. We'll be done for tonight. Look at Ephesians chapter number three. Let's look at the first few verses. For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if ye have heard, of the dispensation of the grace of God, which is given me to you word." What is he saying? I was given a stewardship to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. And then what does he go on to say in verse number three? How that by revelation, he made known unto me the mystery as I wrote afore in few words, whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge and the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto you, his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. Here's what he's saying. All that was saying this, God didn't always work this way, but now the dispensation that he is working in is a dispensation of the gospel being offered to the Gentiles. It's a dispensation that Paul, as the apostle to the Gentiles, had been given to him. This is my responsibility. In fact, I want you to see that again in 1 Corinthians 9. We turn the room, we're gonna look at a couple more, so hang with me and I'll let you grab your dungans and go home with your heads full, full. This is what we call loading your boat. Is anybody's boat loaded tonight? This is what it's supposed to do. Walk away full, right? 1 Corinthians 9, I want you to look at what the Bible says in verse 16. He says, for though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward, but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me. So I want you to understand, he is speaking about, listen now, this is important as we're closing out, this is our current dispensation. Do you wanna know what our current dispensation is? It's a dispensation of the gospel. We are the first generation that has the whole story. Aren't you glad? Listen, you could have lived in the generation where the expectation was, God said, water's gonna fall from the sky, I need you to trust me to get on a boat. But you live in the generation where God says, I want you to trust me, there's sin in you, and I want you to get in Jesus. That's the dispensation in which we live. The gospel is now complete, we know it. Even though there's more to come, we have the story. Jesus came, he was God in flesh, he died for our sins, he rose again on the third day, he is alive forevermore. We're the first generation to have all of that. The first generation. Now, does that mean people in the Old Testament couldn't get saved? No, they got saved. They just trusted God the same way you, let me ask you a question. You ready for this? Let me ask you a question. Do you understand everything about salvation? Anybody tonight understand how you go from death to life? Anybody in here understand a new birth? Anybody at all? Anybody? No, we don't understand it. And in the Old Testament, they didn't understand it. God said, build a boat and build the boat. You understand? It's that simple. Salvation was always the same. We're going to discuss that next week. So I want you to look. Let's finish this up. I want you to look at the book of Colossians and this is very important that we finish here tonight. The book of Colossians. He's gonna talk about what is our current dispensation. We do often call it the dispensation of grace because we have the gospel. We understand it completely in the sense that we understand Christ's death, burial and resurrection. We're the first generation or the first dispensation to get that. But I want you to look at something very important in Colossians chapter number one. Look at verse number 24. We're just gonna look at a few verses and this is it tonight. He says, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church. All I want you to see about that verse is the last part. The Bible says that Christ, the church is his body. Now I want you to listen to me. There are people out there who try to tell you there's a difference between the body of Christ and the church. Well, this verse says they're the same. Does it not? Am I crazy? Or does it say, literally, for his body's sake, which is the church. So what is the body of Christ? It's the church. It's the same thing. Some people say the church is local, the body of Christ is universal. You'll not find that anywhere in the scriptures. The church is a local, is a local situation. It's a local context. Now, is there a universal church that we'll one day meet? Yep. Guess when? Rapture Day. On Rapture Day every saved individual from this entire dispensation will gather in one glorious church and we'll all be Baptist that day. That's a joke, but not really. Listen, there are some people, have you ever heard of the Baptist bride theory? There are people who believe that only Baptists go up in the Rapture. man, how pompous do you have to be to be like, only my denomination gets to go up. And then you can say something like this, not even the Southern Baptist, you got to be independent. It's crazy. It's crazy. But we will all have right doctrine that day. We will. We'll all agree in doctrine. Look at what the Bible says in verse 25, whereof he said, I am made a minister. What is he a minister of? The church. According to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God, even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints. What is the revelation of Christ in this age? It's the church that Jews and Gentile would be in one body together. The dispensation in which we live can best be characterized this way. We live in the church age. God's work today is done through the local church. Now, that may seem like a silly thing to have to point out, but here's what I'm trying to tell you. We sometimes think that the church is just a good thing to do. Listen to me, church is the thing to do. Because God's work is done in the, just like God worked through Moses and the law and the nation of Israel, he has put that aside and his work today is done through the local church. It is His agent to reach the world with the gospel. This is why it is important we understand even dispensationalism because we understand our place in human history in the local church. Do you know that tonight you are fulfilling the will of God for your life by simply sitting there and drinking in the Word of God? You're a part of God's work in the dispensations. May I also say that if you're not faithful and if you're not serving in a local church, you have not taken your place in God's plan for the history of the gospel. That's how important the church is. I hope this is a help to you tonight. I challenge you this week, if you've got questions, do not hesitate to hurl them at me. I would also say this, if you ask me a question and I say, we're gonna get there, just know that within the next few weeks, we'll get there and I'll give you a little answer and then we'll fill it out as we go through this. Let's pray together. God, thank you for the gospel. Lord, we're learning information, but what are we really doing, God? We're learning about you. You are glorious. You are perfect. You are good. You are holy. And you stepped off of your throne in the person of Jesus Christ and you lived a sinless life. You set a stellar and perfect and holy example and then died a horrible death. at the hands of the Romans, at the hands of the Jews, at the hands of our sin. And we thank you that not even death could conquer our God and that you are alive and offering us salvation forevermore. Help us to learn of you and to grow in our knowledge and help us to practice holiness and fear of you and take our place in this dispensation of the gospel. We ask you to help us in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.