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Dispensationalism II - Lesson 4
Attached Audio:
- THE DISPENSATION OF HUMAN GOVERNMENT (Genesis 8:15-22 [15] And God spake unto Noah, saying,
[16] Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee.
[17] Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.
[18] And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him:
[19] Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.
[20] And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
[21] And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
[22] While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
See All...) (Continued) - Commission (Genesis 9:1-7 [1] And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
[2] And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.
[3] Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
[4] But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
[5] And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man.
[6] Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
[7] And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.
See All...) - Be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth (verses 1, 7); a repetition and continuation of the original commission given to man (Genesis 1:28And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
See All...) - Bring the animal world into subjection (verses 2-3)
- They shall fear you
- They shall be meat for you
- Do not eat blood (verse 4); this commandment is continued (Leviticus 17:10-14 [10] And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people.
[11] For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
[12] Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood.
[13] And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten; he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust.
[14] For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.
See All...; Acts 15:19-20 [19] Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: [20] But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
See All...) - Practice capital punishment on murderers (verses 5-6); this is the foundation of all righteous government (Romans 13:3-4 [3] For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:
[4] For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
See All...) - Special Note: Be Fruitful and Multiply (Genesis 1:28And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
See All...; Genesis 9:1And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
See All...) - The curiosity: Why be fruitful AND multiply? Are they not the same? Is God just repeating Himself? What is the spiritual application of the three parts of this commission: be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth?
- The problem
- Churches and church movements go through stages of history that tend to follow specific generations of preachers and Christians (compare Judges 2:7-13 [7] And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD, that he did for Israel.
[8] And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old.
[9] And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash.
[10] And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.
[11] And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim:
[12] And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger.
[13] And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.
See All...). - First generation: the pioneers
- Second generation: the builders
- Third generation: the managers (trying to hold on to what the earlier generations built)
- Fourth generation: the traitors (who sell out the purposes and beliefs of earlier generations)
- NOTE: Every third generation needs a time of revival and renewal. We are entering the fourth generation and have not seen this renewal.
- Four kinds of churches today demonstrate our need
- Dying churches – 4,000 churches per year are shutting down in America
- Shadow churches – Large buildings with a handful of people
- Fighting churches – Preachers and congregations grabbing for their part of the remaining Christians
- Worldly churches – churches which will do anything to hold a crowd
- Churches have a life cycle just like other things in this world. They eventually get old and die. In order to keep the work of Christ going, we must be starting new churches. Many churches know the importance of soul-winning and foreign missions. We fail most in the starting of new churches. The spiritual application of being fruitful is to win souls; of multiplying is to start new churches; of replenishing the earth is to send out missionaries. We must be doing all three.
- The example of creation (Job 12:7-8 [7] But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee:
[8] Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.
See All...) - All of God’s creatures are designed to reproduce themselves (Genesis 1:11-12 [11] And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
[12] And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
See All...) - Living things in this world dies and must be replaced
- How many 50 year old churches are doing a great work for God? How many 100 year old churches? Churches die—spiritually if not physically. Churches must reproduce churches.
- The example of the early commissions
- Made up of three parts (Genesis 1:28And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
See All...; Genesis 9:1And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
See All...) - Difference between fruitfulness and multiplication (1 Chronicles 4:27And Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters: but his brethren had not many children, neither did all their family multiply, like to the children of Judah.
See All...) - Fruitfulness – bearing offspring [soul-winning]
- Multiplying – increasing by dividing into more groups [church-planting]
- The danger of refusing to multiply
- The command (Genesis 9:1And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
See All...) - The conflict: their disobedience (Genesis 11:1-6 [1] And the whole earth was of one language, and of 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] And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
[4] And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
[5] And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
[6] And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
See All...) - The constraint: God forces multiplication (Genesis 11:7-9 [7] Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
[8] So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
[9] Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
See All...) - Application: Are there churches today that want to make a name for themselves and build a tower to reach unto heaven? Is it possible that God allows church splits to compensate for churches that will not multiply or send out young preachers to start new churches?
- The example of the first church in Jerusalem
- Their command to go (Acts 1:8But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
See All...) - Their conflict with God in not going (Acts 1:4-5 [4] And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.
[5] For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
See All...; Acts 2:33Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
See All..., 41, 46; Acts 4:4Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.
See All...; Acts 5:13And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them.
See All...) - The constraint to go (Acts 8:1-4 [1] And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.
[2] And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.
[3] As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.
[4] Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.
See All...) - The ministry of the Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 11:1Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
See All...) - He established new churches (Acts 14:23And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.
See All...; Acts 15:41And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches.
See All...) - This is not just for foreign missionaries. We should be doing missions at home and in our immediate area. We should also be reaching outside our immediate are to start churches across the nation.
- Paul’s command to Timothy
- Do the work of an evangelist (2 Timothy 4:5But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
See All...) - Philip, the only man called an evangelist in scripture (Acts 1:8But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
See All...), demonstrates the work of an evangelist (Acts 8) - Preaching the gospel to the lost (verses 5, 40)
- Winning lost souls to Christ (verses 26-39)
- Opening new areas up to the gospel (verse 5)
- Application to pastors
- If the first two jobs of an evangelist (preaching and soul-winning) are the duty of a pastor, then the third duty (open up new areas) must also be his duty.
- Pastors should be opening up new areas to the gospel. Church planting is one of the best ways to do this. We need a new vision for our churches—one that properly balances our threefold commission:
- Be fruitful – win souls
- Multiply – plant churches
- Replenish the earth – send missionaries
Proverbs 28:25
He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the LORD shall be made fat.