If you turned up today in our meeting naked you would feel ashamed and, probably, I wouldn’t let you in because something has changed, we don’t walk around naked anymore.
Tony Pearce
Now, we all perhaps don’t even realize this, but obviously, there are certain things that will happen which didn’t in the past and don’t happen today.
Genesis 2.25 says concerning Adam and Eve,
25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Genesis 2.25
If you turned up today in our meeting naked, you would feel ashamed and I probably wouldn’t let you in because something has changed. We don’t walk around naked anymore.
So, it’s clear that there’s been a change in the dispensation, in the way which God orders His order in the world. And this is an issue which Paul deals with in his letters: in Romans, in Galatians, in Ephesians, and particularly in the Book of Hebrews.
It was probably an issue which he had to work out himself as a religious Pharisee coming to faith In Jesus.
Having that radical conversion experience, he had then to work out what to retain from his former life as a Pharisee and what to put off.
As a former religious Jew and also as an intellectual powerhouse, he was able to work it out and write about this for his generation and for future generations.
I guess that’s one reason why God chose Paul, to be able to put this into writing so that we could understand it. He writes about the change which has happened in the dispensation from the Law through Moses to Grace through Jesus Christ. So, let’s have a look at this little chart.
This chart gives you some idea of, though it may not be totally clear at the bottom, but it tells you something about the dispensations and it divides history, Biblical history into seven dispensations or ages.
First one is the Age of Innocence. The first man and woman were pure and innocent, they enjoyed a relationship with God. They had just one command: ‘not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil’.
15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 2.15-17
And they blew it. They broke that commandment and, as a result, sin came into the world.
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. Genesis 3.4-7
Because of their disobedience, we came into the second age which was
The Age of Conscience in which the man and the woman were expelled from the Garden of Eden.
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. Genesis 3.22-24
Blood sacrifices were needed to cover their sin. The first thing which God did was to clothe them, to take/sacrifice an animal to clothe them with animal skins. Clothing them with animal skins involved the death of that animal, which involved it shedding its blood. So, the first animal sacrifice happened actually to clothe Adam and Eve after they realized that they were naked and they needed to be clothed.
21 Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them. Genesis 3.21
There was something which came about them causing them to want to be hide their private parts, to appear clothed as they went into the world. Also, as a result of this, they experienced the fall. They experienced ‘thorns and thistles’:
17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:
“Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.
19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”
In labour ,the woman experienced hardship in bringing forth children,
16 To the woman He said:
“I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception;
In pain you shall bring forth children;
Your desire shall be for your husband,
And he shall rule over you.” Genesis 3.16
And, from then on, they need to come to God through the sacrifice of blood and also through calling on the Name of the Lord.
In chapter 4 of Genesis we are told
Then men began to call on the name of the Lord. Genesis 4.26
in order to have a relationship with God. And we see that this continued, this Age of Conscience, calling on the Name of the Lord, relating to God through this continued rite, through to the time of Noah.
By the time we got to the time of Noah, we find that people have gone faraway from God, and the Bible says,
5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Genesis 6.5
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. Genesis 6.11
every imagination the heart of man was only evil continually and God decided he was going to change the situation. He was going to destroy the world because of its wickedness:
12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Genesis 6.12-13
We then have the next change or dispensation being introduced which came about through The Flood. Noah and his family coming through the flood in the Ark, and God setting up
the dispensation or Age of Human Government. The Jews actually work out there are Seven Laws of Noah, I am not sure how that works out but, apparently, there are things which God did said to Noah after The Flood, by which He told him to set up some kind of a government including the use of capital punishment for murder. and if you’re going to have capital punishment as punishment for murder.
Therefore, after The Flood, you had some kind of government to administer society.
The implication of The Words which God gave to Noah are that there should be set up a government and that there should be an authority for men to begin governing others
So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man.
6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood,
By man his blood shall be shed;
For in the image of God
He made man.
7 And as for you, be fruitful and multiply;
Bring forth abundantly in the earth
And multiply in it.”8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: 9 “And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. 11 Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” Genesis 9.1-11
By the time we get to the Tower of Babel, we find that even this new covenant had been abused and that there was now an evil government coming through a man called Nimrod.
6 The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. 7 The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtechah; and the sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan.
8 Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.” 10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 11 From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, 12 and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city).
13 Mizraim begot Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, 14 Pathrusim, and Casluhim (from whom came the Philistines and Caphtorim).
15 Canaan begot Sidon his firstborn, and Heth; 16 the Jebusite, the Amorite, and the Girgashite; 17 the Hivite, the Arkite, and the Sinite; 18 the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. Afterward the families of the Canaanites were dispersed. 19 And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon as you go toward Gerar, as far as Gaza; then as you go toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. 20 These were the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands and in their nations. Genesis 10.6-20
They set up a tower in Babel which was made to worship other gods and to turn people away from the true and living God.
Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” Genesis 11.1-4
This caused God to scatter them and then to bring in the next age which is
The age of Promise. Going through this very quickly, promise involved the call of Abraham and his descendants.
God was going to deal with a family, Abraham and his descendants, the children of Israel. They were going to be given the revelation of one God, the creator God. They were told they shouldn’t worship idols. There was a covenant of promise to the people, promised to Abraham, that he would have a multitude of descendants and that he would have the title deeds of ownership upon the land upon which he was a stranger, the land of Israel. And God gave him the sign of circumcision as a sign of this Covenant so that male descendants of Abraham were to be circumcised and therefore be separated from the non-circumcised, Gentile neighbours.
The Covenant was then repeated to Isaac, to Jacob and, through him, to the 12 sons of Jacob, the tribes of Israel.
8 “Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise;
Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
Your father’s children shall bow down before you.
9 Judah is a lion’s whelp;
From the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He bows down, he lies down as a lion;
And as a lion, who shall rouse him?
10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah,
Nor a lawgiver from between his feet,
Until Shiloh comes;
And to Him shall be the obedience of the people. Genesis 49.8-10
They ended up blowing that as well as they turned against Joseph. Joseph went down to Egypt and then they all ended up going down to Egypt.
3 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph; does my father still live?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed in his presence. 4 And Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near to me.” So they came near. Then he said: “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither ploughing nor harvesting. 7 And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8 So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Genesis 45.3-8
In Egypt, in the fulness of time, the Jewish people became slaves.
Here are the names of Israel’s children who went to Egypt with Jacob. Each one went with his family. 2 Jacob’s sons were
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah,
3 Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin,
4 Dan, Naphtali,
Gad and Asher.
5 The total number of Jacob’s children and grandchildren was 70. Joseph was already in Egypt.
6 Joseph and all his brothers died. So did all their children. 7 The people of Israel had many children. The number of them greatly increased. There were so many of them that they filled the land.
8 Then a new king came to power in Egypt. Joseph didn’t mean anything to him. 9 “Look,” he said to his people. “The Israelites are far too many for us. 10 Come. We must deal with them carefully. If we don’t, there will be even more of them. Then if war breaks out, they’ll join our enemies. They’ll fight against us and leave the country.”
11 So the Egyptians put slave drivers over the people of Israel. Exodus 1.1-11
One of the things you notice about these covenants is that everyone ends with some kind of a failure by humanity and God then having to move in to set that situation right.
God sends Moses to liberate the children of Israel through the Exodus and they come out of Egypt go to Sinai and receive there the Ten Commandments. Israel is then set apart as God’s chosen people
to whom His Law, His Torah is revealed, the Ten Commandments, the ones which relate to God: ‘having no other God before Me’, ‘not making idols’; the moral Commandments ‘not to commit adultery’, ‘not to murder’, ‘not to lie’, etc.
And you have additional laws regarding the offering of sacrifices, the organization of society, purity, etc.
Within these Commandments you have the establishment of the Age of Law rules regarding saying ‘no to idolatry’, ‘no to other gods’ and ‘no to immorality’.
As well as ‘yes to worship of one God’, ‘yes to social justice’, ‘to moral righteousness’ in how we live.
We also have the ‘circumcision, ‘Sabbath observance’ and ‘the dietary laws’ as a sign of Israel being accepted into the Covenant and how all these things cover their sin and failure through the offering of a sacrifice.
Also in this Age or dispensation you have the promise of the Messiah coming one upon whom the Lord would lay the iniquity of us all.
3 He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53.3-6
Now, during this time, you have repeated failures, falls and rises again and again, times when God blesses them because of their obedience and when God judges them because of their disobedience.
“Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God: Deuteronomy 28.1-2
15 “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: Deuteronomy 28.15
By the time you get to Jesus, you have failure again. We have the legalistic system of redemption through works which has been created by the Pharisees, which Jesus condemns at His coming:
Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, 2 saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. 4 For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. 5 But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. 6 They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, 7 greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’ 8 But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. 9 Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. 10 And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ. 11 But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Matthew 23.1-12
And this leads to the rejection of the Messiah by the religious leaders, to His crucifixion, and to the rejection of the message of the Apostles after the resurrection,
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30 and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ Matthew 23.27-30
causing the fall of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jewish people into the Nations.
36 Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 38 See! Your house is left to you desolate; 39 for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ” Matthew 23.36-39
And you also have a separation then between the believers remnant of Jews who believe in Jesus the Messiah, who spread the gospel, and the unbelieving majority who don’t.
Which leads into the presence age, the Age of Grace and the covenants now extended through through Israel to the Gentiles.
We have one new man in Christ, and the sacrifice of Jesus replaces the sacrifices under the Mosaic Covenant to cover our sin.
45 And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 1 Corinthians 15.45
We have salvation by Grace, the undeserved favour of God to all who repent and believe the Gospel. We also have the Commandment to take this message out into all the world.
The Jewish disciples of Jesus did that. The Jewish people also wrote the New Testament for us that we may learn about the Messiah.
So, we have a great debt to the Jewish people and we have to remember that, during this time of the age of Grace, one of the things which you find out when reading the New Testament is that you have a relaxation of some of the laws of the Mosaic Covenant: circumcision is no longer required and there are Kosher food laws that are no longer required in the same way, nor is the legal observance of the Sabbath.
9 The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. 10 Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance 11 and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. 13 And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.”
14 But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.”
15 And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” 16 This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again. Acts 10.9-16
You also have some additions of the laws of Christ. For example, in the Ten Commandments it speaks about ‘not committing adultery’ yet the law of Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount he says don’t even look at a woman with lust in your heart otherwise you committed adultery with her in your heart.
27 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. Matthew 5.27-30
Jesus also says not only don’t murder but also don’t hate your brother, but love your neighbour as yourself.
34 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22.34-40
We have a whole lot of changes that come as a result of our new birth in Jesus and the Holy Spirit coming. So, we have a change in dispensation which takes place.
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3.1-8