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. Ephesians 2:8-9
According to Paul writing in Ephesians 3.1, we are now in the dispensation of Grace, which means we’re put right with God by the Grace of God through repentance and faith in Jesus the Messiah.
As we receive forgiveness and new life through believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, we then accept God’s Way of living, His Commandments given through the Lord Jesus, and written in the Word of God.
It is interesting to note that the word used used for ‘dispensation’ in Ephesians is the Greek οἰκονομίαν [oikonomian] which is made up of two Greek words οἶκος [oikos] meaning ‘house’ and νόμος [nomos] meaning ‘law’ or ‘rules’.
So, you have house rules. Now, that gives you some idea of what the dispensation means. It means that, during this dispensation, God gives certain commands or rules by which He wants people to live. The word ‘rules’ is perhaps not totally adequate for what we mean, what is implied is a pattern of behaviour revealed by God. And that, if you keep this pattern of behaviour, if you keep these Commandments, the Bible says God is going to bless you.
If you disobey them on the other hand, and rebel against them, then you come under the Judgment of God and the power of the evil one.
In all these things, God doesn’t change, but there’s often a change in the rules as we move from one dispensation to another. I gave you the most obvious example which was that in the first dispensation, the Age of Innocence, the man and the woman
25 … were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Genesis 2.25
In contrast, if you were to come to church today naked, you would feel ashamed and we might not let you in because, obviously, something has changed from that time. At that time, it wasn’t shameful to walk around naked; now, we feel that it is shameful.
Similarly, if you were living in the time from Moses through to the Messiah, there were certain Commandments which you were to keep if you were a observant Jewish person. Keeping the commands of Moses, you would to circumcise your sons, you would have to keep kosher food laws, you would have to keep the Sabbath (not to work on the Sabbath and keep the legal Sabbath), not working on the seventh day. And we had certain laws which were written as well as the the Ten Commandments.
But now, we’re in the dispensation of Grace in which these legal requirements have been lifted. We’re not actually required to circumcise our sons;
17 But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let him walk. And so I ordain in all the churches. 18 Was anyone called while circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Was anyone called while uncircumcised? Let him not be circumcised. 19 Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters. 20 Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called. 21 Were you called while a slave? Do not be concerned about it; but if you can be made free, rather use it. 22 For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord’s freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is Christ’s slave. 23 You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men. 24 Brethren, let each one remain with God in that state in which he was called. 1 Corinthians 7.17-24
you can keep kosher food laws if you want to, but you’re not required to;
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 don’t have to keep the legal Sabbath, you don’t have to keep from working on the seventh day.
15 The Lord then answered him and said, “Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? 16 So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” 17 And when He said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame; and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him. Luke 13.15-17
Certain things have changed as we move into this dispensation when we’re saved through repentance and faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Now, if you look in every age God is looking out for those who keep His rules, those who keep His Covenant, and the devil is also looking out for ways to tempt people to reject God’s Commandments, reject God’s covenant.
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5.8
If you break the rules, if you break the Covenant, this brings judgment on you, to those who do so. If you keep them, it gives you deliverance and a blessing on those who keep them.
Another point you notice when looking through this scheme of dispensationalism is that you see that every change in a dispensation is accompanied by some supernatural intervention of God on a big scale, at once rescuing His people and bringing judgment on people who are in rebellion against Him.
These dispensations also bringing the God’s people, those who are faithful to the Lord, into the next stage or dispensation to carry on the purposes of God.
Perhaps the most clear examples of that are The Flood which we’ll speak about in moment, The Exodus, and the death and resurrection of Jesus, the miracles which he performed, the gift of the Holy Spirit and the accompanying miracles performed by the apostles on the Day of Pentecost which brought to birth the through church – the Ecclesia – ‘the called out ones’ who are God’s agent of Salvation in this age.
Apparently, the Church of England is a bit nervous about using the word ‘church’ today. Well, we shouldn’t be nervous about using the word ‘church’, except we should understand what church means. It doesn’t mean a building, it doesn’t mean an organization, it means ‘those who are called’ out the word in Greek is ἐκκλησία [ecclesia], derived from the Greek preposition ἐκ [ek] meaning ‘out of’, and the verb καλέω [kaleō] meaning ‘to call’, that is, ‘the called out ones’. It means the people who’ve been called by the Lord to follow Him in this age, and who are actually the agents of God’s Salvation in this age.
18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
κἀγὼ δέ σοι λέγω ὅτι σὺ εἶ Πέτρος, καὶ ἐπὶ ταύτῃ τῇ πέτρᾳ οἰκοδομήσω μου τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, καὶ πύλαι ᾅδου οὐ κατισχύσουσιν αὐτῆς· Matthew 16.18
I said that the clearest example at of God doing a rescue operation on His people and bringing judgment on his enemies is the story of the great flood in the days of Noah, and it’s interesting that Jesus said it would be as in the days of Noah at the time of his Second Coming.
36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 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. Matthew 24.36-39
There are a lot of parallels between the days of Noah and the days of the Second Coming. First of all there is evidence that The Flood really happened. A lot of people say the early part of Genesis make up a myth. Well, if the early chapters of Genesis represent a myth so are we.
The other part of Genesis is history, they say. I haven’t time to go into it, but if you look at websites like Answers in Genesis and other organizations, they give you reasons to believe that Genesis 1 really happened, that God did really create the heavens and the Earth, that the Fall really happened, and also that the events which led up to The Flood really happened and the flood itself happened.
God causes the changes that happen in and to the world. As a result of these changes, we have the dispensations. In fact, The Flood explains a lot of things which this evolutionist are trying to get to grips with, such as the fossil records, changes in the earth following The Flood. I also heard someone on the television talking about something they found on a Scottish island which shows that there were multitudes of ice ages, and shows you the rings of ice ages and so on. So, I thought, ‘Well, that doesn’t quite ring true to me. I’ll see what Answers in Genesis says about it.’
And their website gives a very interesting argument which I’m not going to give you here because it would take too long, but you can look it up look up under Ice Age | Answers in Genesis and they tell you how the Ice Ages were probably the result of the conditions changing after The Flood, causing evaporation and the fall of snow.
There was a period of cold weather conditions which is possibly recorded in the Book of Job which is the oldest book in the Bible and speaks a lot about ice. Look look up the word ice in the concordance you’ll find it comes most in the Book of Job
14 “To him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friend,
Even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
15 My brothers have dealt deceitfully like a brook,
Like the streams of the brooks that pass away,
16 Which are dark because of the ice,
And into which the snow vanishes. Job 6.14-16
Just a little aside, from the Spirit point of view, The Flood came at a time of great wickedness on the earth and much satanic activity which caused the conditions that we read about in Genesis chapter 6. God was sorry that He made the world. He saw
5 … 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
The previous verse in Genesis (6.4) says that there were imprints of the Nephilim, the giant Nephilim in Hebrew means ‘the fallen ones’ and the suggestion is that there was some connection between fallen angels and women who begot these Nephilim who themselves bring about great evil upon the face of the earth.
4 There were giants הַנְּפִלִ֞ים [hannǝpilîm] [Nephilim] on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Genesis 6.4
33 There we saw the giants הַנְּפִילִ֛ים [hannǝpilîm] [Nephilim] (the descendants of Anak came from the giants הַנְּפִילִ֛ים [hannǝpilîm] [Nephilim]); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” Numbers 13.33
I’m not totally sure about that one, but we know that there was clearly some demonic infiltration which took place and caused the violence and the corruption found in the days of Noah.
Reading the Bible, we see that Noah found Grace in the eyes of the Lord and provided The Ark which was a type of Salvation to save Noah and his family and the animal species in order to repopulate the earth after The Flood, a worldwide flood by the way.
We’ve also got geological evidence that there was a literal worldwide flood, it wasn’t a local flood. Had it been a local flood, they wouldn’t have needed to bother with building The Ark and getting the animals in, they would have just moved to a place where the waters wouldn’t overwhelm them, but it was a worldwide flood that went over the tops of the high hills.
It’s interesting, if you look at the dimensions of The Ark as recorded in the Book of Genesis, you find that it was exactly the right dimensions had you wanted to build a boat a large boat that didn’t have to get from A to B quickly and would just had to float in turbulent waters and not capsize.
The Ark was exactly the right dimensions. How did Noah work that out? Well, he didn’t, because God revealed it to him.
It also says in the Book of Genesis that it was covered in pitch בַּכֹּֽפֶר׃ [bakkōper] [kaffar].
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. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch בַּכֹּֽפֶר׃ [bakkōper] [kaffar]. 15 And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16 You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17 And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. Genesis 6.13-17
If you look up the word ‘pitch’ in Hebrew is בַּכֹּֽפֶר׃ [bakkōper] [kaffar] which is related to the Hebrew word for Kippur כִּפֻּרִים֙ [kippūrîm] ‘atonement’. So, there’s some idea of atonement, a place to go in to be rescued from The Flood which is coming.
Now, Jesus said it would be ‘as in the days of Noah’ at the time of His return. He said there will be great wickedness on the earth, an increase in satanic activity calling for violence, wars, destruction, immorality. You will have false prophets causing people to worship false gods.
4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. Matthew 24.4-14
Also, there is evidence in the Bible that there will be some kind of technology causing wealth and abundance of goods, but in that it would also contain the seeds of our destruction within it.
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2.15-17
15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Revelation 13.15-17
All these things are going to lead up to the time which the Bible calls the Great Tribulation. According to the Bible, the last 7-year period of the the earth will be a time of unique trouble on the earth before the return of Jesus Christ.
We can discuss a bit later on whether the Rapture comes before, in the middle, or at the end of it, but the Bible says that, whatever you believe, this is going to happen.
21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened. Matthew 24.21-22
The Bible says there is going to be a unique time of trouble unlike any that has been before or ever shall be and, if God didn’t cut short those days, then it would be the end of life on earth. No flesh will be saved, means no life would continue out of this time.
Also it speaks of the coming who is known as the Antichrist or the Beast. It is going to be a time of huge rebellion against God leading to the coming of the Lawless one. He is described in the Book of Revelation chapter 13 where it says that the Devil gives him his power and his authority, that he opposes and persecutes those who belong to the Lord, he demands to be worshiped, and he brings in, ultimately, the Mark of the Beast system by which you can’t buy or sell unless you have that mark on your body.
The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. 3 And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marvelled and followed the beast. 4 So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”
5 And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. 6 Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. 7 It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. 8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Revelation 13.2-8
Some people see that there are developments in the area of technology which could be leading us towards such a system being set up in the last days.
In the Book of Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, Paul writes,
3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. 2 Thessalonians 2.3-4
The point Paul is making there is that the Antichrist/ the Beast wants to take the place of God, he wants to be worshiped as God. The Book of Daniel also says about this man coming to cause himself to be worshiped as God and to defy all gods.
23 “And in the latter time of their kingdom,
When the transgressors have reached their fullness,
A king shall arise,
Having fierce features,
Who understands sinister schemes.
24 His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power;
He shall destroy fearfully,
And shall prosper and thrive;
He shall destroy the mighty, and also the holy people.25 “Through his cunning
He shall cause deceit to prosper under his rule;
And he shall exalt himself in his heart.
He shall destroy many in their prosperity.
He shall even rise against the Prince of princes;
But he shall be broken without human means. Daniel 8.23-25
Going on in Thessalonians, it says,
9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2 Thessalonians 2.9-12
So, he is going to come with power, working miracles of some kind, lying deceptions according to the working of Satan. This one is not just an ordinary bad guy coming along, he has certain powers behind him. You could see types like this in the person of Adolf Hitler who had a way of holding a supernatural hold over people and yet he wasn’t the total or final Antichrist.
You can have other figures in history who’ve persecuted God’s people, and a present man in North Korea for example. You have all sorts of people who are raising themselves up as persecuting figures, but this one is going to come, the supreme Antichrist figure who will arrive in the last days. and he’s going to deceive people, those who perish because they won’t have received the love of the truth.
Obviously, if you look at that negatively, the answer to not being deceived is to love the truth, that is, Jesus Christ.
If you love the truth, if you love Jesus Christ and you believe in Him, and you believe His Word, you are going to be inspired by the truth and you’re going to be led by the truth into all truth, and you’re not going to be deceived by the lying signs and wonders, the lying propaganda which is going on around us today.
I said that, if you watch the the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics last year, it it was actually a celebration of the Antichrist. You saw the guy coming down, you saw people worshiping him, you saw this period of trouble and then, he comes and brings some order out of it. It was a total Antichrist scenario; extraordinary! And it was done with all these brilliant lights and all this super music, and all this stuff which mesmerizes people. Everyone there was cheering it and saying how wonderful it was. Just a handful of Christians like me were saying ‘No, it’s not wonderful! It’s terrible!’
But if you say that, they’ll say, ‘Oh! You’re mad, you’re crazy! It was a nice, it was a spectacular show!’ And that’s what it’ll be like actually, the Antichrist will put on a spectacular show and you can deceive and manipulate people, especially through this new technology that we have.
The Bible says that, in the end, God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
You can see so many ways in which people today are being led into the lie, all kinds of lies: Islam, Communism, all sorts of philosophies, religions, all things which are leading them in away from the light. As I said last week, Satan doesn’t really mind what you believe as long as you don’t believe the truth. ‘We have got to bring everyone together in one lie which will deceive them in the last days’, that’s Satan’s purpose.
22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. 1 John 2.22
Now Jesus said in Matthew 24,
12 And because lawlessness [wickedness/iniquity] will abound, the love of many will grow cold. Matthew 24.12
The word for lawlessness/wickedness/iniquity in the Gospel there, in Matthew 24, is ἀνομίαν [anomia], which means a ‘against nomos‘ the law. So, the wickedness is going to be against God’s law; people are going to be celebrating things which are against the law of God.
Do you see that happening? You have the whole LGBT+ agenda for example. Why do we oppose that? Not because we want to be nasty to homosexuals, but because imposing that upon us is imposing something which is anti-God’s law, and saying, ‘It is good, we have got to bless it’.
It comes in society, especially it comes in the church, then the church looses the plot. At the moment the church says, ‘We’re going to bless anything to do with homosexuality’. It has lost the plot, and it’s gone the way of the Antichrist.
Again, that is to say that we are against homosexuality in practice but we don’t want to be against the people, because God loves them and God wants to bring them to repentance and faith in the Messiah. Yet, the practice itself is wrong in the sight of God and, if you celebrate it, then you’re going ‘anomia‘ = against the law of God, one of the signs of the last days.
And we see that, as people celebrate evil and put down good, we have a harsh, unloving culture which is wicked and oppressive. The love of many will grow cold. What do you see happening in the world today? People’s love, natural love and natural affection is growing cold, and people do those most horrible things to each other because they don’t love God, and they don’t love the Word of God, and they don’t love their neighbour as their selves.
We also see such spirit is going to take control control of society and of the professing church, and one has to say that the professing church is increasingly becoming Antichrist, denying the basic Gospel message, using all kinds of methods to get people into church.
I just saw recently that Canterbury Cathedral is going to have a (what do they call it?), it’s kind of a Pop Festival but you can’t hear it, you have to wear earphones, ‘A Silent Disco’, that’s the word! Thank you! A ‘silent disco’ in Canterbury Cathedral. So, they’ll be listening to all kinds of ungodly music blaring out into their ears because they don’t want to make a sound in the Cathedral. They say they’re not going to blare the music out, they’re just going to put it into your ears which will help people to go deaf. But can you imagine?
Now, whatever you think about the Church of England and Canterbury Cathedral (which was actually founded as a Catholic church for the glory of God with the idea that people would worship God in there) people are now going there to dance around to demonic music. It’s the very opposite of what the church church was founded for, and it’s a sign of the apostasy, the falling away of the church from the truth.
As I said last week, one of the signs of the last days is that people are going to be denying the Lord who bought them, denying the basic Gospel message, and be open to multifaith ecumenism, absorbing all kinds of the false ideas about God from other religions, and this will bring forth what’s called the Babylon religion which the Book of Revelation describes as Babylon.
3 So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. 5 And on her forehead a name was written:
MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT,
THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS
AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS
OF THE EARTH.6 I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marvelled with great amazement. Revelation 17.3-6
The Bible tells you to come out of it because it’s heading for God’s judgment
4 And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. Revelation 18.4
and in the midst of this is going to be the true church, the bride of Christ, the true believers in God who will survive this age when judgment is poured out on the wicked, and go into the new age, the Millennium, and into heaven where they’re going to dwell with God forever.
