Today marked our 150th Bible study under the title of Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth. I can hardly believe it! We have journeyed so far, but it seems like we have barely scratched the surface!
I made mention of the four things the average church goer is familiar with:
1. John 3:16
2. The Lord's Prayer – Matthew 6:9-13
3. The sermon on the mount – Matthew 5-7
4. The Golden Rule ? Great Commandments – Mark 12:30-31
It was quite ironic that after I watched our church service on 2 Timothy 3, I turned to my friend, Sandy Huntsman's church YouTube channel – Park Crest Baptist Church, to see what the message was. To my surprise, it was on Mark 12:30-31. Karin and I had to laugh at the irony! Even though the doctrine is not to us, we still have a devotional / inspirational responsibility to seek to accomplish all that is possible to apply the great commandments into our daily lives. Paul said it this way:
Philippians 3:10-14: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
In pursuing Christ likeness in our lives we will understand more how to love God with all our hearts, and love our neighbors as Christ loves them.
This morning we were presented with the thought that the millennium will be a military dictatorship ruled by the King of kings and Lord of lords with a rod of iron.
As we walk through the Sermon on the Mount, and see where Jesus gives new revelation to the law of Moses, we see a higher standard of morality and responsibility will be enforced in the messianic kingdom. We saw in our previous study how Christ placed a higher standard of marriage than what Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 24:1-2. Since we live in the mystery period / dispensation of the grace of God, Paul gives us some added teaching in Romans 7 and 2 Corinthians 6. The bottom line, in this dispensation, is that we are not to be unequally yoked to an unbeliever. Moses gave us a picture that you cannot unite two opposite natures together. It will end in disaster!
Deuteronomy 22:10: Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together.
We took a deep dive into the condition of the world's population after the destruction of all the military personnel and the reaping out of the wicked.
V.29-30: We unpacked these verses today looking at many verses in Matthew as well as Isaiah, seeing what is in store for humanity when Messiah King Jesus establishes kingdom rule and judges all the nations. The verses are below revealing that hell will be literally opened up and the tares, the bad fish, the goats, and the surviving wicked will all be judged in righteousness and cast into the open burning pit of tar that will burn the entire millennial kingdom! How frightening for those who reject the gospel of grace today and reject the gospel of the kingdom in the tribulation!
Mark 9:43-48, Matthew 7:21-23, Matthew 13:24-30, 38-43, 47-50, Revelation 14:15-20, Matthew 25:31-46, Isaiah 34:1-10, Isaiah 61:1-6, Isaiah 63:1-4
As Jesus said in Matthew 24:21: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
The tribulation will be the most difficult time in the history of the world, culminating in the return of the King with the armies of heaven, to cleanse this world of all that offends the holiness and righteousness of God.
These are hard sayings, but we need to adjust our belief system to meet the demands of the Bible, and not adjust the Bible to meet the demands of our belief system.
We will continue see the old wine of Moses and the new wine of the kingdom gospel as we continue our walk through the sermon on the mount and beyond in the gospels.
