29 So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, 30 who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life. Mark 10:28-30
So, how is God going to rescue the remnant church?
First of all, through the Gospel. Remember that in each dispensation, there is a remnant who are faithful to the Lord, who accept His ruling and His Commandments, His rules, and so are prepared to enter into the next dispensation.
In our case, it’s through accepting the Gospel’s first message of Jesus in the Gospels. Mark 1:15,
14 Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:14-15
The same message we preach right through the Christian age: ‘repent for your sins, believe the Gospel. Believe that Christ died for your sins, that He rose from the dead, and He ever lives to give you eternal life.
The last message in the Gospels, Matthew 28:18 is:
18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20
So, Jesus tells the disciples to go and make disciples of others. And the word ‘disciple’ means people are going to learn. You are going to learn from God, learn what His Commandments are, learn how to live His way.
Jesus didn’t actually say, ‘go and make Christians’. He said, ‘go and make disciples’, people who learn from me, who do what I tell them. Teaching them to observe all things I’ve commanded you. And I’m with you always to the end of the age.
Note that phrase: ‘all things I’ve commanded you’. In this age, we’re supposed to keep the economia, the house rules for this dispensation, follow Jesus, believe that the Messiah died for our sins.
Corinthians 15: 3-4 says,
3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
The central message of this dispensation is just that Jesus is the Messiah, that He died for our sins, He took the punishment that we deserve, He was buried, He was literally dead and then, on the third third day, He rose from the dead to give eternal life to all those who believe in Him.
It is very simple. You don’t need to be a trained theologian to work that out. You just have to believe it. And the basic message is one which tells us that we have to turn from being in rebellion against God to becoming children of God by keeping His Commandments.
Ephesians chapter 2 says,
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. Ephesians 2:1-3
That’s the human condition. Without the Lord, we’ve all actually come from that condition to become children of God. None of us are born Christians. We have to be born again, we have to receive Jesus by faith, and to be changed into what the next section says,
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:4-10
Again, this is pretty straightforward. He is saying there that we’re born as dead in trespasses and sins, we are made alive through faith in Jesus Christ. And, through faith in Jesus Christ, we are saved and raised up to be seated with Him in Heavenly places. We are saved by faith, by faith in what Jesus did for us, not what we’ve done for Him.
And so, it’s the gift of God, the definition there of the dispensation of Grace.
Can you see that?
9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
But we are called to do good works. If you have been saved, then, the next thing you do is walk in newness of life.
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
We are delivered from the wrath to come, we believe the Gospel, and then we keep the οἰκονομία [economia], the ‘house rules’ for this dispensation.
That also relates to the First Coming. What about the Second Coming of Christ?
Now, as I believe, we are living in the days leading up to the Second Coming of Jesus. These words are pretty relevant to us. In Matthew 24, Jesus said these words,
32 “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. Matthew 24:32
In other words, when you see certain signs happening, you know that Jesus is coming. The main sign is going to be the rebirth of Israel as a nation and the conflict which is going to take place over that nation.
33 So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! 34 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. Matthew 24:32-35
In other words, what Jesus says is going to happen, it has happened, it’s happening now and it will happen. His words will not pass away, they remain true through time.
36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. Matthew 24:36
We don’t know the date of the Second Coming of Jesus, but we do know the signs:
37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 44 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Matthew 24:37-44
This passage is telling you that there’s a day coming when God is going to intervene in human affairs in a massive way. I told you that every dispensation involves some kind of a change in which God intervenes in a very unusual and spectacular way into human affairs.
God is always doing miracles, He is always answering prayer. But there’s going to come a time when He moves in a very big way, does things which are unusual and which move the world from one age to another age. And that time is going to be as in the days of Noah. There is going to be judgment on the wicked and salvation and deliverance to the righteous.