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Father God, thank you for today. Thank you for this opportunity to hear your word being preached. Please bless the message. Please bless pastor. Please help us to keep distractions to a minimum and open our hearts and our ears to your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, we are there in 2 Timothy chapter number 2. I'd like you to look down at verse number 15, 2 Timothy chapter number 2 and verse 15, this very famous verse in the Bible, 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 15. The Bible says, Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. I want you to focus on these two words, rightly dividing, rightly dividing the word of truth. This morning I want to speak on a very specific subject and some of you may think, you know, what is this sermon about or why is he speaking on this, but I think if you listen this morning and if you go through and look at the scriptures with us, it might help you out a lot. Once a quarter at Verdi Baptist Church we have what we call our Striving Together class. It's our class for new and potential members. It's basically how we welcome in new members to the church, kind of let them know who we are and what we're about. And in that class we will go through and read the articles of faith, the statement that basically says what we believe at Verdi Baptist Church. And one of our statements in that article basically just says this, we are non-dispensational. We are non-dispensational. And often a question that I will get at this class, I think every single class I've had someone, someone if not a couple of people ask me, what is dispensationalism or what does it mean to not be dispensational. And this morning I'm going to do my best to teach you what dispensational doctrine is and why we do not believe it. Some of you say, you may think I have no idea what that is anyway, but listen, we need to know what we believe at Verdi Baptist Church. And we don't cater here to just, you know, come here and we're going to listen to a little pep talk about how you can have your best life. Now, you know, we try to dig into the Bible and study the Bible and the Bible says there in 2 Timothy 2.15, study to show thyself approved unto God. That's what we're going to do this morning. We're going to study the Bible. We're going to look at what the Bible teaches about this subject and why we don't agree with it and why it's a false doctrine. And this, this idea of dispensational theology has crept into churches all across America and has crept into many independent funeral Baptist churches. And here's why it's so dangerous. Dispensational theology, and I'll explain more as we go through it, is the backbone that basically keeps up all sorts of false doctrine. I mean the pre-tribulation doctrine, Zionism, all sorts of weird things that are taught today behind the pulpit are all allowed to be taught or they have the ability to teach them because they all go back to this idea of dispensational theology. So this morning I want to preach a sermon entitled Dispensing with Dispensational Theology. Now when I started writing this sermon, I was talking to Brother Stuckey about this and Brother Stuckey mentioned to me, you know, you might need to preach a whole series to cover this doctrine. Because there's so much there and I'm not going to preach a whole series on this but as I was going through, just to scratch the surface, just to get in all like the real important things that you need to know, I realized I'm not going to be able to preach this in one sermon. So here's what I'm probably going to do. I'm going to go about halfway through and then we're probably just going to have to postpone the patriarch series tonight and I'll probably finish this sermon tonight. But I'll give you as much as I can this morning on the subject of dispensing dispensational theology. So let's begin with this, the definition of dispensational theology. Some of you are wondering, well, what is dispensational theology? And here's the thing, dispensationalism teaches that God changed the way He dealt with man over different periods of time. And you know, we look there at 2 Timothy 2.15 where it says, study to show thyself approved unto God. And I want to give you that challenge this morning. We're going to study this morning to show ourselves approved unto God. But it's interesting because this verse is actually one of the verses that people who are accepting of dispensational theology, they'll usually go to this verse to prove, to try to prove or make an attempt to prove dispensational theology in the Bible. Here's why. Because the verse says, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. And they'll say, you see these words rightly dividing the word of truth? And they'll say, that's a reference to dispensational theology. Now, I'm not really sure how that refers to dispensational theology. But basically they'll say this, dispensational theology teaches that God changed the way He dealt with man over different periods of time. They'll teach, and there's all sorts of different types of dispensationalists out there. And the problem with preaching a sermon like this is that I'm going to try to cover just the general view of all of them. And someone's going to send me an email saying, you were talking about hyper-dispensationalism. I'm a classical dispensationalist. And listen, I don't care, alright? It's all stupid, alright? It's all dumb. And we're going to disprove all of it. But here's the thing. You know, they'll teach that basically the general consensus, most dispensationalists out there will teach that through the history of the world, there have been or there will be a total of seven dispensations in which God dealt with man differently. Through those dispensations. You say, well why would God change the way He deals with man over seven dispensations in the period of time? And here's why they'll teach. They'll say, because of man's failure. Because man failed at the dispensation that they were at, so God had to change the way He was dealing with man and had to create a new way. Now let me just give you, let me just read for you from a couple of articles. Here's a well-known preacher which I am not recommending and I'm not endorsing. But here is a man by the name of John Piper and let me just give you his definition of dispensationalism. John Piper said, it can be hard to summarize dispensational theology as a whole because in recent years multiple forms of it have developed. In general, there are three main distinctives. First, dispensationalism sees God as structuring His relationship with mankind through several stages of revelation which mark off different dispensations or stewardship arrangements. Here's what they're saying. God created a stewardship arrangement with man which they call a dispensation and basically God gave man rules to follow and things they were supposed to do. And then man messed it up. He continues. He says, each dispensation is a test of mankind to be faithful to the particular revelation given at that time. So when man fails, then God has to basically change and move and make things different and create a new test or a new dispensation. Generally, seven dispensations are distinguished. Here they are. Number one, innocence. That's before the fall. Number two, conscience from Adam to Noah. Number three, government from Noah to Babel. Number four, promise from Abraham to Moses. Number five, law from Moses to Christ. Number six, grace from Christ or Pentecost to the rapture. And number seven, the millennium. He continues. Second, dispensationalism holds to a literal interpretation of scripture. This does not deny the existence of figure of speech and non-literal language in the Bible, but rather means that there is a literal meaning behind the figurative passages. And let me just say this. I agree with that second point. You know, that's, I don't know why I added that. I'm not sure that has anything to do with dispensationalism, but obviously we take the Bible literally. Here's point number three, the third point. Third, as a result of this literal interpretation of scripture, which I would disagree that they are actually taking it literally, dispensationalism holds to a distinction between Israel, even believing Israel, even saved Jews, and what they refer to as the church. On this view, the promise made to Israel in the Old Testament were not intended as prophecies about what God would do spiritually for the church, but will literally be fulfilled by Israel itself largely in the millennium. And I'm not even sure if John Piper is a dispensationalist. He was just writing on the subject, and that's the definition he gave. Here's a famous dispensationalist by the name of John MacArthur. Here's John MacArthur's definition of dispensationalism. Dispensation means that God manages things in a certain place at a certain time. He went on to say, it's a title of theology that recognizes a literal nation of Israel to be restored in the future, a literal kingdom, a literal tribulation, and a literal return, and a literal rapture. So here's what I want you to understand, okay? Keep your place there in 2 Timothy chapter number two. Ma'am, you can have a seat. 2 Timothy chapter number two, and go to the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter number 46, and look at verse number 10. Isaiah chapter 46 and verse, now keep your place in 2 Timothy 2 because we're going to come back to this place, but go to Isaiah. If you can find the major books of the Bible, you've got Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Isaiah 46, and verse number 10, alright? Now while you go there, let me explain this to you, and I want you to understand, okay? Dispensationalism teaches that there are seven different dispensations in which God was dealing with man, but because of man's failures, God had to change up the way that he dealt. So here's dispensation number one, innocence. So basically from creation to the fall of man, when Adam and Eve sinned. Here's what they're saying, God created this plan to deal with man in the garden of Eden, to be able to have a relationship with them, but because man messed up, because Adam sinned, because Eve sinned, because of the fall, God had to step back and he's like, oh man, what am I going to do now? You know, I need to create a new plan to deal with man, so then he created a new dispensation in which he would deal with man in a different way. The second dispensation is that what they call the conscious. It goes from Adam to Noah. So from Adam to Noah, things were going well, God's like, okay, everything's working out fine, but then, you know, the world got really bad, and people started sinning, and God had to, you know, flood the earth, and of course, you know, he saved Noah with the ark, but that came as a surprise to God. I mean, God thought things were going to work out well, but man just messed up again, so God just had to start over, and let's create a new dispensation, let's try a new test. So then God came up with government, you know, and that basically worked out well from Noah all up until the time that they decided to create a government structure called the Tower of Babel to try to get up to heaven, and then God's like, oh, they messed up again, you know, that's not going to work either. So now we're going to have to create a new test, so God basically disperses them into nations, and he chooses one nation, and he chooses a man by the name of Abraham, and he gives him a promise, that's dispensation chapter 4, but you know what, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, they were sinners like everyone else, they messed up everything too, it didn't work out, so God's like, I'm going to have to do something different, I'm just going to have to give them a law, so then comes Moses, and he gives them the law, and basically from Moses to Jesus, we have the dispensation of the law, and things were going well, you know, things are going fine, but you know, they messed that up too at the end, they weren't following the law, they weren't doing what they were supposed to do, so then Jesus had to come, so you know, finally God's like, you know what, this is just not going to work, I'm just going to have to send my son down there to fix everything, you know, and he sends Jesus down, and then we enter into the dispensation of grace, and basically that's the dispensation you and I are in right now, and basically it's hard for us to mess it up, because you know, when it's grace, it's not of works, it's really, you know, it's difficult to mess up grace when it's free, right? But here's the thing, we're going to mess it up too, according to dispensationalists, we're going to fail at reaching the people of the gospel of Jesus Christ, so then eventually Jesus is just going to come back and just do it himself at the millennial reign, and that's the seventh dispensation. So here's what I want you to understand, you know, and here's the question that I want to ask, do we believe that to some extent God dealt differently with people at different times? And the answer to that question is yes, obviously God dealt different with Adam and Eve in the garden than He does with us today as New Testament believers, obviously things were a little different during the Old Testament Levitical priesthood and the tabernacle than they are, but here's the question that we have, do we believe that God has had to or will need to change His plan because He just can't get it right, because He just can't figure it out? You know, He thought it was going to work out in the garden until Adam messed it up, then He thought it was going to work out until the Tower of Babel, until Noah, until this. Man, I'm not taking any questions, all right, yeah. So, you know, do we think that God just is up there, just trying time after time, messing up, not getting it right, is that what we believe? Well, let me ask you this, what does the Bible say? Isaiah 46, look at verse 10, notice what the Bible says, Isaiah 46 and verse 10, Isaiah 46 and verse 10, notice what the Bible says, declaring, this is talking about God, declaring, notice, the end from the beginning and from the ancient of times, the things that are not yet done saying, my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. Listen to me, the Bible teaches that God knew the end from the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, when God said, you know, when the Bible says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, it wasn't like He was like, man, we're going to try this garden to even think, see how it works out and if not, then we'll just have to try again. Look, God knew how this whole thing was going to play out before it ever started. He created the, the Bible says that He gave the end from the beginning. He understood, look, it was always His plan that Jesus would come, it was always His plan that there would be a millennial reign. And this idea that God gave them a test, they failed, so He gives them another test, they failed again, so finally I'm going to give you another test and finally He's just going to give up and just come down here as God in the flesh and reign, that's a ridiculous, ridiculous way of thinking and looking at God. The Bible says that He declared the end from the beginning and from the ancient times, the things that are not yet done saying, my counsel shall stand and I will do my pleasure. He had a plan, He had a counsel, no one's going to change it, no one's going to take that away. Go to Malachi chapter number 3, that's the last book in the Old Testament, Malachi chapter number 3, look at verse number 6. Malachi chapter 3 verse 6, notice what the Bible says, for I am the Lord, notice what He says, I change not. Dispensationalists teach that God has to change His plan, God has to change the way He deals with man because He just can't figure man out. No, He created man but He just can't figure out how to make them work and how to relate and how to establish a relationship, so He has to try this way and He has to try that way. No, no, no, the Bible says, I am the Lord, I change not, therefore He says of Jacob, are not consumed. He says, look, I had a plan for Israel, I had a plan for believers, I had a, He said, I've been in charge, He said, I know the end from the beginning. Go to Hebrews chapter number 13, now if you kept your place in 2 Timothy, if you kept your place in 2 Timothy, you're going to want to go past 2 Timothy, past Titus, past Philemon, into the book of Hebrews. 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 13, look at verse number 8, Hebrews chapter number 13 and verse number 8. Notice what the Bible says, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. Look, Jesus doesn't change. God doesn't change. Nothing catches God by surprise and He's like, whoa, man, I just, I knew, I should have known, you know, the angel, when I put that tree, you know, of knowledge of good and evil in the center of that garden, I should have known that they were going to eat them. Look, God knew the end from the beginning. God knew how it was all going to work out. God is in control. Nothing catches Him. And this idea that, oh, they messed up, so He has to bring a new test. And they didn't do that one, so He's got to bring a new dispensation. And finally it will culminate with the dispensation of the millennium. That's a ridiculous way of looking at God and looking at Jesus Christ. The Bible says Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever. Now that's just defining for you dispensationalism. Just right there, that would be enough for us to walk away from dispensationalism and say, that's ridiculous, it's stupid. But here's the thing, that's not even, that's not the worst part. Honestly, I wouldn't even bring that up in a sermon on dispensationalism if it wasn't for the fact that there's just many of you who don't even know what dispensational theology is. So I kind of have to explain it to you. But here's the thing, there are dangers, there are dangerous doctrines that come from dispensational theology. And like I said, I can't go through all of them. I mean it would be like a 30 week series. So here's what I'm going to do this morning, because there's seven major dispensations. There are seven dispensations that these dispensations believe that are going to happen in the world. So here's what I'm going to do, I'm going to give you seven dangerous dispensational doctrines that come from this dispensational theology garbage. And I'm going to try to just give you something. I'm going to tell you right now, I'm not going to get through all of them this morning. I'm going to get to probably half of them this morning and I'll have to finish the other half tonight. But go with me to the book of Romans, Romans chapter number 4. Now while you go there, let me read for you from the book of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 13 says this, Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Here's the problem with dispensational theology, and we'll talk about this tonight. You can't find it in the Bible. You can't find a verse in the scripture that tells you, well God gave us these seven different dispensations. It's completely and utterly made up. And listen, it's a way of trying to teach the Bible using the words which man's wisdom teacheth. And whenever we come to the Bible, whenever you open up a theology book, whenever you open up whatever type of book, and you're going to use man's wisdom to try to explain God, you're already wrong. The Bible says which things we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. So you know what we're going to do this morning? We're going to compare spiritual things with spiritual. And here's the thing, this is a spiritual book. We're going to compare scriptures in this book with other scriptures in this book. You know what's not a spiritual book? Scofield's notes that he put in his Bible, that's not spiritual. You know what's not spiritual? Darby's commentary on dispensationalism, that's not spiritual. You know what's not spiritual? You know Larkin's writings on dispensationalism, that's not spiritual. And this is where people get messed up with bad doctrine. They'll say, well this theology teacher, this book, this commentary, this theology book, this radio program, this TV show. Hey look, it doesn't matter what man says, here's the only question that needs to be answered. What does God say about it? What does the Holy Spirit say about it? And look, I'm not going to get up here today and tell you, well here's what the Baptist teach historically. No, no, no, I'm just going to tell you, here's what the Bible says. Here's what the Word of God says. Go to Romans chapter number 4, Romans chapter number 4. I'm going to try to give you seven major dangerous dispensational doctrines that come from this idea, that are held up by this idea that God had seven tests and man keeps failing and failing and God keeps getting taken off. He doesn't know what to do to help us and he's just going, I'm going to try again, I'm going to try again. And finally it all culminates with Jesus just coming down and taking control. And let me make this clear, because somebody's going to say to me, well do you think that the way that you and I live today is different than the Garden of Eden? Of course we do. Look, of course things have changed. And the Bible even talks about that. Of course God dealt differently with Adam and Eve than He does with us today. But is God just this failure up in heaven who just doesn't know what He's doing and He just has to keep changing things up? No, no. I am the Lord, I change not. He declared the end from the beginning. He knew exactly what was going to happen. He knew exactly how it was going to go down. Go to Romans chapter number 4. Let me give you the first dangerous dispensational doctrine. Here's the, and these are not in any particular order. Dangerous dispensational doctrine number 1. And I'm just picking the seven that I think are the most dangerous. There's others out there that you may think they are or are not as dangerous. But here's the first one. They teach that in previous dispensations, i.e. the Old Testament. You want to talk about rightly dividing the word truth? Here's a good simple way of doing it. The Old Testament, the New Testament. You know, those are biblical words. The Old Covenant, the New Covenant. But here's what they'll teach. They'll say in previous dispensations, basically the Old Testament, people were saved by keeping the law. Because here's the thing, grace wasn't even available until after Jesus. I mean the dispensation of grace did not even start until after Jesus. So no one was saved by grace back then. No one was saved by faith back then. They were all saved because they mostly, the Old Testament, believers believed under the dispensation of the law. So how were they saved by the law? Now go to Romans chapter 4. Now let me say this. Many dispensationalists today are getting away from the belief that the Old Testament saints were saved by works. Okay, so I just want to let you know that. Because, you know, it's so easy to disprove that. And we're just going to look at a few passages this morning to disprove it. But, you know, today there are still the hyper dispensationalists who believe it. Which are basically just the guys who are just sticking to what they believe and not changing it, you know. But let me say this. The men who created dispensationalism and the men who promoted it and who really made it famous. Men like John Darby and C.I. Schofield, they all believed this doctrine. They all taught that in the Old Testament people were saved by keeping the law, people were saved by works. Here's the question I have for you. What does the Bible say? What does the Holy Ghost say? Are you there in Romans 4? Look at verse 3. Now here's the thing. Every single one of these points could be their own sermon. I mean I could preach a seven week series on the stupidity of dispensationalism. But I don't have time to do that. So I'm just going to give you a quick point and then we're going to move on, alright. And you're going to have to just study to show thyself and prove them to God yourself, you know, if you want more information. Romans chapter 4, look at verse 3. For what saith the scripture? Isn't that the question we're asking? What is the Bible? No, what does John Darby say? What does C.I. Schofield's notes say? No, no, no, that's not the question. The question is for what saith the scripture? What does the Bible say? What does the Holy Ghost say? For what saith the scripture? Abraham, now let me just quiz you, alright. We're in class this morning. You're getting a free Bible college class today and we're not even going to lie to you. I mean you're getting off really good because number one, we're not going to charge you and we're not going to lie to you. Which is two things most Bible colleges do, alright. So here's the thing. But let me just give you a test. Abraham, Old Testament character or New Testament character? Okay, for what saith the scripture, Abraham, now Abraham, according to dispensational theology, lived during the dispensation of the promise, not the dispensation of grace. Okay, Abraham, notice, believed. You see how I would believe that? That's your faith. Believed God. And it, what? What is the it referring to? His faith, his belief. And it was counted unto him for what? Righteousness. How, according to Romans 4, how did Abraham get saved? By faith, by believing. Now let me ask you a question. Isn't that the same way you and I get saved today? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, right? No, no, no. Abraham lived in a separate dispensation. He lived in the dispensation of the promise. And you know, grace wasn't even available back then. Is that what the Bible teaches? And here's the answer, no. You're there in Romans 4, go down to verse number 6. Romans 4, look at verse number 6. Even as David, alright, here's your next quiz. Old Testament character or New Testament character? Okay, I'm not trying to trick you, alright. Old Testament character, alright. Even as David, now let me say this. David lived during the dispensation of the law, according to these people. His dispensation was the dispensation of the law. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of a man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without what? Without works. Okay, did David believe that the way you got righteousness imputed onto you was by works or by the things you did or by keeping the law? No. But he lived in the dispensation of the law. It wasn't until after Jesus that the dispensation of grace. Look, I don't care what man's wisdom teacheth. What does the Bible say? The Bible says that David was saved without works. Huh, that sounds a lot like the way you and I are saved today. Isn't that what Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith, Abraham? And not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works, David, lest any man should boast. Here's what I'm trying to tell you. All throughout history, anyone who's ever been saved, they've all been saved the same way by placing their faith in the Messiah. By placing their faith in Christ. And you say, well what if Christ hadn't came yet? They were either by faith looking to the cross, believing that the Lamb of God was coming, or you and I are looking back, believing that He came. But anyone who's ever saved is only saved by faith. Period. No one's saved by keeping the law. No one's saved by living a good life. The Bible says there's none that do the good, no not one. And by the way, that's quoted from the Old Testament. So here is a dangerous dispensational doctrine. In previous dispensations, man was saved by keeping the law. That's a bunch of garbage. It's not true. And look, all the proponents that started this thing all believe that. Let me give you another dangerous dispensational doctrine. There in Romans 4, flip a couple of pages to Romans chapter 6. Dangerous dispensational doctrine. The dispensation of the law, here's what they believe. The dispensation of the law and the dispensation of grace are two different periods of time. Therefore, there was a time when people were under the law, but had no access to grace. And we, as New Testament believers, are under grace, but have no obligation to the law. That's what dispensationalism teaches. That because there's a dispensation of the law, there's a dispensation of grace, there's a dispensation of this, there's a dispensation of that. There was a time when people were under the law, but had no access to grace. And there's a time when people are under the grace, you and I, but have no obligation to the law. We just discard it, it doesn't count, we don't need to talk about it. Okay, here's the question. Is that what the Bible says? Well, my theology teacher, I know what man's wisdom teaches. I'm asking, what does the Holy Ghost teach? What does the Word of God say? Are you there in Romans 6? Look at verse 14. Romans 6, verse 14. For sin shall not have dominion. Now look, look down at your Bible, alright? Throw away all your commentaries, all your radio programs, all your stupid people on the internet, and just look at what the Bible says. For sin shall not have dominion. What's the word dominion mean? It means power, control, or authority over something. Okay, sin shall not have dominion. Who believes that when you got saved, sin had no longer dominion over you? Look, before you were saved, you only had a sin nature. You couldn't quit sinning if you wanted to. It had dominion over you. But after you got saved, you were translated from darkness to light. After you got saved, you were translated from the power of darkness to the power of God. Now you have the Holy Spirit. Now you can walk in the Spirit. The Bible says walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. You don't have to be a drug addict. You don't have to be a drunkard. You don't have to be addicted to pornography. You don't have to be a liar. You don't have to be an adulterer. You don't have to walk in sin. When you got saved, it had no more dominion over you. That's what it's teaching. Look at it. For sin shall not have dominion over you. Why? For. The word for means because ye are not under the law. But under grace. Hey, I agree with that. You say, are you under the law? No, sin has no dominion over me. Do you understand that's what it's teaching? Let me give you an illustration. Look, we're all sinners before God. So I'm going to just give you a physical illustration. But here's the thing. Could you arrest me? And this would have to happen in like Texas because in California we never do this, all right? But could you arrest me for murder and put me to death if I've never killed anyone? If I've never killed anyone, could you legally do that? You know what the answer is? No. You know why? Because I'm not under that law. That law had no dominion over me because I've never broken that law. I've never broken that law. Now, before God, we've broken, you know, the Bible says, for whosoever shall... Good night. I'm going to... James 2, 10. If you break the law in one part, you're guilty of all. That's what the Bible says, okay? So before God, it doesn't matter what you've done. But just, you know, in society. Okay, but if I kill someone, guess what happens now? Now I'm under that law. Now I'm under the weight of that law. Now I'm under the judgment of that law. Now that law has power over me. And you know what? The law had power over you and over I before we were saved. We were under the judgment of that law. But when you got saved, you were removed from that. He took the punishment. Now sin has no dominion over you. Why? For, the Bible says, for you're not under the law, but under grace. Now, hold on. Oh, so that means we can just do whatever we want. We can just sin because we're not under law. We're under grace. And listen to me. Anyone who tells you, I'm not under the law, brother. I'm under grace. You know what they're telling you? I can sin. I can fornicate. I can look at whatever I want on the Internet. And you can't tell me not to because I'm not under the law. Is that what the Bible says? Well, look at it. Romans 6, 14. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace. Amen. Look at verse 15. What then? Shall we sin because we're not under the law? So are you just allowed to just break whatever law, do whatever you want? It doesn't matter. Not under law. That's what all these liberals are teaching today. We're under grace. You know, Pastor Jimenez is a legalist because he's teaching you that you better live right and do right because he's teaching you that Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. Well, that's a wrong dispensation. Okay. You know, notice what it says. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Are you just, we're not under the law. We're under grace. Okay, so that means you can just do whatever you want? No. He said God forbid. Look at Romans 6, 1. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Isn't that the dispensation we're in, the dispensation of grace? Well, look, if I'm under the dispensation of grace, shall I just sin? Continue in sin that grace may abound because that's the dispensation we're in. Notice verse 2. God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin? You know what it means to be dead to sin? That you're not under the dominion of sin. That you're not under the control or the authority of sin. That sin has no dominion over you. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? So when people say, we're not under the law. We're under grace. You can do whatever you want. They're lying to you. That's a lie. That's not what the Bible says. Nowhere in the Bible are you going to find God telling you because you just happen to be in the right dispensation, you just get to do whatever you want. Now, David, he messed up, you know, because he was under law, so he better make sure he does everything right. But you just go ahead and fornicate, just go ahead and smoke and drink. You're under the problem. You're under grace. What kind of a God do you think we serve? You know, for God, for the ultimate saints, he came down real hard. But for you and I, it's like, you know, it's just a party. You listen to me. I am the Lord. I change not. If it was wrong for David to commit adultery, if it was wrong for Abraham to live in sin, then it's wrong for you and for me. Period. And guess what? If we're saved by grace, if we're saved through faith, then they were saved by grace and through faith as well. Go to Genesis chapter number 6, Genesis chapter number 6, look at verse 8, Genesis chapter number 6, look at verse number 8, Genesis chapter 6 and verse 8. You know, this is a very important doctrine that you need to learn. And listen to me, the devil is doing his best to distract you while I'm preaching this sermon. Because he doesn't want you to hear what I have to say. Stay focused. Genesis 6, look at verse 8. Genesis 6, verse 8. And ushers, do me a favor. Don't let anybody come up here again, all right? Genesis chapter 6, verse 8, notice what the Bible says. But Noah, but Noah, okay, Noah lived under one dispensation. Dispensation of conscience, dispensation of government, all right? He kind of lived in both, he was a mark that ended one and started the other one. Noah did not live in the dispensation of grace, because the dispensation of grace is a new testament of believers. All right? Noah is not a new testament of believers. Notice what it says, Genesis 6, 8. But Noah found what? Grace. In the eyes of who? The Lord. Oh, he didn't live in the dispensation of grace. That's because your little dispensations are made of garbage. There's never been a time on this earth when man did not live under the law of God and when man did not live under the grace of God. Period. We've, salvation's always been by grace. And we've always been obligated to keep the law, not for salvation, but for a right relationship with God. It's always been that. And Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. So this idea that the law and grace are two separate dispensations, two separate periods of time, and there was a time when they were under the law, but had no access to grace. That's heresy. That's what Peter Ruckman taught. And this idea that we're under grace, but have no obligations of law. The Bible calls that teaching lasciviousness. Teaching people that they can just lust and live however they want, and they have no obligations of the law. It all comes from dispensational theology and it's all a bunch of garbage. Go to Revelation 13, last book in the Bible. Should be fairly easy to find. You're going from the first book in the Bible to the last book in the Bible. Should be fairly easy to find. Let me give you dangerous dispensational doctrine number three. All these doctrines come from dispensationalism. And we reject all of them. Dangerous dispensational doctrine number three. Because remember, dispensationalism and dispensationalists aren't going to tell you this, okay? Because here's what I've noticed. Most people, they don't even know what they believe. You talk to people who are like, you're a Catholic? Oh yeah, I grew up Catholic. You know what the Catholics teach at YZ? I never heard of that. You know, half these people, they grow up dispensationalism, they don't even know what that means. But remember, dispensationalism teaches that God gave a test, a dispensation to people, they mess that up, so then you have to give them another test, all right? Keep that in mind when I give you dangerous dispensational doctrine number three. Here's a dangerous doctrine that comes from dispensational theology. They teach that Jesus came first to offer himself to the Jews as their Messiah, and only because they crucified him was then the gospel opened up to the Gentiles. So basically, they're saying like, he came to give himself as the Messiah. That was the test. The Jews messed up. They really messed up. They didn't just reject him. They killed him. And we're supposed to believe God didn't see that coming. God didn't know that was going to happen. God was just like, what? In the world, you keep failing. So then it's like plan B, go to the Gentiles. Plan B, establish the church. Because they messed up. They failed their test again. So now it's like, let's go to the Gentiles, okay? Here's what they believe. Jesus came first to offer himself to the Jews as their Messiah, and only because they crucified him was the gospel opened up to the Gentiles. Here's the question I have for you. Did the crucifixion of Jesus catch God by surprise? Yes or no? No. I mean, do you really believe that? Okay, Revelation 13, look at verse 8. Revelation 13, verse 8. Revelation 13 and verse 8, notice what the Bible says. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb, notice, who's the Lamb? That's Jesus. Remember John the Baptist said, the Lamb of God, talking about Jesus, the Lamb of God, that take it away, this is the world. The Lamb, notice the last phrase in verse 8, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. You know that God had a plan for the Lamb to be slain even from the moment that he laid the foundation of the world? From the moment that he created planet earth, from Genesis 1, 1, it was in his mind. He already knew because he knows the end from the beginning. He already knew that man would sin, that man would need a savior, and he already had a plan that the Lamb, in fact, he was slain from the foundation of the earth. But dispensationalists will tell you, no, no, no. See, here's what they don't want to tell you, is that if the Jews wouldn't have messed up and would have just maintained the law, then there would have been no need for the dispensation of grace. There'd be no need for you and I to be brought into the, into salvation, and we, and we would just still be, they would just still be getting saved by keeping the law or being righteous by keeping the law. But because they crucified him, now it's like plan B. Oh, let's go to these stinking Gentiles. Let's go establish this church, all right? Is that what the Bible says? No, he was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. We just went through Genesis 24 where Abraham takes Isaac up to the mountain to offer him up as a sacrifice and we saw all of those, you know, it was the typology and all those different things that point to the fact that Jesus was coming. So, you know, was it just a mistake and was it just this thing where like, okay, now plan B, they killed him, so let's go to the Gentiles. No, he was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Go to the book of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter number 2. If you got your place in Romans, I'm not sure if you did, I meant to tell you to stay in Romans but you got Romans first and second Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 2, Ephesians chapter 2. Let me give you dangerous dispensational doctrine number 4. And if you notice like whenever I preach a sermon, I'm teaching a doctrine, I try to like give you like real just like simple statements, you know, just like to not complicate it but I can't do that with this, like I have to read like a whole paragraph because their doctrine is so complicated, you know, and we're going to talk about that tonight as to why they purposely make it complicated. But let me give you dangerous dispensational doctrine number 4. When the Jews rejected Christ, remember, because they, you know, he came to be their Messiah, Sam Gibb, famous fundamental Baptist preaches that, he, oh, he only came to be the Messiah of the Jews, he's not my Messiah, that's what he said, well, you're not saved, he's not your Messiah, you know, but Sam Gibb, Mr. Dispensationalism, Mr. Pre-Trib Rector, Mr. Zionist, no, he only came to be the Messiah of the Jews, that's because he was a dispensationalist, that's what they believe. But here's what they teach, when the Jews rejected Christ and crucified Him, God placed the Jews on hold and is now only temporarily dealing with what they refer to as the church, but God will eventually be done with the church, because eventually we're going to mess it up too, and He's going to rapture us out of here, because that's what the rapture is, it's us getting out of here because we just messed up, because we couldn't get it done, and will once again place his attention back to the Jews so that they can go through their little 7-year tribulation period all about the Jews reaching people at the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what they believe. So here's what they believe, the church, which I don't even like to use that term, I don't believe in the church, I believe in local churches, we're a local church here, there's no universal church, one day we'll all be gathered together in heaven and we'll be the church, but right now there's the church in Sacramento, there's a church in Arizona, church in Texas, but here's what they teach, the church is basically a parenthetical period in history and does not replace Israel. So here's what they're saying, God, He got really mad at them because they were naughty, you know, they killed Jesus. So He basically puts them on time out. The Jews are on time out, you know, and He picked up His toys and now He's playing with the Gentiles for a little while. But eventually He's going to get fed up with us because we're going to fail too. So He's going to rapture us out of there and then bring back His real, you know, we're like the red-headed stepchild, but the ones He really loves, those Jews, He's going to bring them back and go through the tribulation period. That's what they teach, that's what they believe. We're a parenthetical, you know, period and we're just a distraction while the Jews are on time out. And here's their big thing, because here's the big, the two major doctors of dispensationalism is Zionism, a worship of the Jews. Look, I'm not against a Jewish person. The Bible says that anyone who believes in Jesus Christ can be saved. But this idea, we're like, we're just going to give them a free pass because they're a Jew. The Bible says that God is no respecter of persons. And here's the two major things that dispensations believe, just the Jews can do no wrong, even if they kill Jesus, they just get us time out. But they're coming back, they're making a comeback, tribulation period. And here's the other thing, of course, connected to that is the pre-tribulation rapture, which I'll deal with tonight because, you know, how dispensationalism connects to the pre-trib rapture because I can't, I don't have time to deal with that this morning. But dangerous dispensational doctrine is that they rejected Christ, the Jews, so God put them on time out, we're a parenthetical period in the life of the world, and eventually, but here's the main thing, the church does not replace Israel, all right? So here's the thing, are you in Ephesians chapter 2? I can show you like a million verses on this, and I'm not going to take the time to do it because I'm already at like 44 minutes of preaching and I got to be done soon. But let me just give you one passage to look at, okay? Ephesians chapter 2, look at verse 11. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 11, notice what the Bible says, wherefore remember that ye, all right? Now Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, is preaching to the Gentiles, all right? Ephesians, Ephesians, these are Gentiles, look at what he says, wherefore remember that ye, okay, who is the ye? Look, being in time past, Gentiles in the flesh, okay? Is it pretty clear who the ye are? Who are the ye? They are Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision. Who is called uncircumcision? The Gentiles in the flesh, all right? That's who's called uncircumcision. That's who he's talking to. Notice what he says, wherefore remember that ye, being in time past, Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh. So who calls the Gentiles uncircumcision? Those who are the circumcision in the flesh made by hands. Are you following what's being said here? You got two groups, you got the Gentiles and you got the Jews. One is circumcised, one is uncircumcised. And one group is calling the other group the uncircumcision. One group is called circumcision. Look at verse 12, that at that time ye, notice the Gentiles, were without Christ being aliens. You hear the word alien? Talking about being a foreigner or a stranger, being aliens from the commonwealth of what? Israel. All right, just focus up here, all right? We're dealing with that, just focus up here. Israel is the circumcision. The Gentiles in the flesh are the uncircumcision. Notice what it says, look at verse 12, that at the time ye, that's the Gentiles, were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant of the promise having no hope and without God in the world, notice verse 13, but now in Christ, in Christ Jesus, ye, who's a ye? The Gentiles, ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. He said you were afar off, now you're made nigh by the blood of Christ, look at verse 14, for he, Jesus, is our peace who hath made, focus on this, who hath made what? Who hath made both. What does both mean? Two. Who hath made both. Who's he talking about? Who are the two groups we're talking about? The Gentiles and Israel. The uncircumcision and the circumcision. Notice, for he is our peace, Jesus, who hath made both one and hath broken down the wall of partition between us. He said Jesus took two groups and made them one. What does the dispensational theology teach? The church, quote unquote, does not replace Israel. We reject replacement theology. The Jews are just on a timeout, they've not been replaced and the church will never be part of the Jews. But is that what the Bible says? Ephesians 2 is very clear, he made both groups one. There was the uncircumcision and the circumcision. There was the commonwealth of Israel and the Gentiles of the flesh and he took two groups and he made them one. Look at verse 15, having abolished in the flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in the ordinances, people like to go to this verse, see here, polish the law. Contain in ordinances, study your Bible. Look up the word ordinance in the Bible, you know what it is? You know, we take an ordinance, a New Testament ordinance, you know what we call it? Who knows what it's called? The Lord's Supper. You know, we take another ordinance, you know what it's called? Baptism. What is an ordinance? It's a picture. It's something you do as a picture. They stopped doing the Passover and they started doing the Lord's Supper. They stopped doing the sacrifices which were a picture of Jesus and now we're, yeah, that changed. The Bible is very clear about that. No one is denying that. But show me where he said, it used to be wrong to commit adultery but now you're under grace, now it's okay. You can't find that in the Bible. Notice what it says. Look at verse 14, for he is our peace who has made both one and that broken down the middle wall of petition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in the ordinances, for to make in himself, notice, of twain. What's twain? Two. Two? What two? The Gentiles, the uncircumcision, and Israel, the circumcision, and to make in himself of twain one new man so making peace and that he might reconcile both unto God in, how many bodies? One body. There's not, it's not them over there and us over here, no, no. When you come to Christ you become one body and you only come to Christ through faith in Jesus Christ. Notice what he says, verse 16, who has made, verse 16, and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross having slain the enmity thereby and came and preached peace to you. Notice, notice, came and preached peace to you, the Gentiles in the flesh, the uncircumcision which were afar off and, and to them. What did he do to them? Came and preached peace to them too. Who's a them? Israel and circumcision? That were not. No, no, no, no, no. See, I read in my dispensational book that he came to the Jews as a messiah and because they accidentally killed him he put them on type, no, no, no, no, that's not what the Bible says. It says that he preached to us and to them, that he got two groups and made them one and Jesus talked about this. He said that he has sheep that are of a different fold. Dispensational theology is a bunch of garbage. But here's what, here's why people love it because it makes them sound real smart. Well, you can't understand the Bible because you're an idiot. Because you didn't go to Bible college like I did because I'm Dr. So-and-so and I'm PhD and I read this book. Why don't you read this book instead of reading all your theology books and all your commentaries and all your charts? I'm more impressed with all your charts, John Hagee, but what about the Bible? What about the Word of God? And here's verse 18, For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye, the Gentiles, the uncircumstations, are no more strangers than foreigners, but fellow citizens of the commonwealth of Israel, with the saints and of the household of God. Is that not the context of this passage? Where did I, you know, in this passage say, now here's the thing folks, okay, you see I word both? See, you don't understand the Greek. In the Greek that actually means they're on time out. Where did I say that? Where did I tell you like, you don't understand this and you don't understand that and I've got this other, no, no, we just read it. We just read it and explained it. The Holy Spirit helped us. So here's dangerous dispensational doctrine number four, we're only a parenthetical period in time while the Jews are put away for a short period of time. But when we mess it up bad enough, then he'll rapture us out and we'll, and then he'll go back to his true love, the Jews. And their main thing is this, the church does not replace the Jews. Is that what Ephesians teaches? No. Is that what, I mean, just a couple of weeks ago I got up here on a Sunday night with a whiteboard and we went through, you know, Galatians and, look, all throughout the Bible. It's very, very, very clear what the Bible teaches. Say, why don't these people get it? Two reasons. They either are just not studying to show themselves approved. They just went to some class and said, well, that's what I was taught, I'm just not dispensationalist. Or number two, like John Darby, which we'll talk about tonight, he's just an unsaid heretic. John Darby's burning in hell right now. He's not saved. And we'll talk about that tonight. And he's the father of modern dispensationalism. The guy that created this whole thing is not even saved and we'll prove that. That's why they don't get it because the natural man understand is not the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. That's why they don't get it. That's why they don't understand it. Okay, real quickly, let me give you one more and then I'll have to finish this tonight. All right, 2 Timothy chapter 3. Look at verse 16. If you're there in Ephesians, you've got Philippians, Colossians, 1, 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 3, look at verse 16. Let me give you dangerous dispensational doctrine number five. Here's what they teach. Some parts of scripture do not apply to New Testament believers today. Dispensationalists teach that there are major portions of scripture that do not apply to us today. Yeah, I've literally had dispensational, I mean, all of us, I think all of us have heard had somebody had some Sam Gimp wannabe tell us, Matthew 24 doesn't apply to you. It's to the Jews. Okay, that's dispensationalism. They'll say, you know, Matthew, Mark and Luke, John isn't, you know, people, I mean, they'll literally say like, the epistles written by Paul, that applies to us. That's it. Everything else doesn't apply. All the laws don't apply. None of that applies. Only the stuff that Paul wrote. Only that applies. Only that applies. They teach that there are major portions of scripture that do not apply to us today. Are you there in a second Timothy 3.16? What does the Bible say? All. You see that word all there? See, in the Greek, all actually means partial. No. All. Guess what all means in the Greek? Guess what the word all means in Greek? I'll give you one guess. It means all. You didn't even go to Bible college. Wow. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. What is profitable? All scripture. And is profitable for doctrine. What's profitable for doctrine? All scripture. For reproof. What's profitable for reproof? All scripture. For correction. What's profitable for correction? All scripture. For instruction in righteousness. What? All of it. Not some of it. Not the epistles written by Paul. Not everything except Matthew 24. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. And people feel so silly about what they believe. When Paul wrote 2 Timothy, the New Testament wasn't even done yet. He was primarily speaking about the Old Testament. The law and all of it. He's talking about the Old Testament. He says all scripture is given by inspiration of God. Is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. They say, no, no, no. There are major portions of scripture that don't apply. And listen to me. We do believe that there are parts of the law that have changed. Let me give you an example. Go to Hebrews chapter 7. You're there in 2 Timothy. You're going to go past Titus, Philemon, Hebrews. I'm going to be done in five minutes, all right? 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews. We do believe that there are parts of scripture that have changed. Here's what I think is so silly. Look, let me just explain to you. You want to know what 1 Timothy believes about everything? Here's what I believe. If the Bible says it, I believe it. Because here's what people say. Because I'll preach against dispensational theology. And then they're like, but you believe that there are certain parts of the Bible that changed. So you must be a dispensationalist. No, I'm just a biblicalist. You say, do you believe parts of the law have changed? Yeah. Which parts? Not the parts Sam Gipp told me. Not the parts John Hagee told me. Well, which parts do you believe have changed? The parts that the Holy Spirit told me? Well, how did the Holy Spirit tell you? Because He wrote it in His Holy Bible? So what are you talking about? Hebrews chapter 7, look at verse 12. We're going to be done. Hebrews chapter 7, verse 12. Hebrews chapter 7, verse 12. Hebrews 7, 12. For the priesthood, the Old Testament Levitical priesthood, being what? Being what? The law doesn't, it doesn't change. God doesn't change, but did the law change according to Hebrews 7 to 12? Look, you just got to decide, do you believe the Bible or not? Or are you going to stick to your little Bible college theology professor, blah, blah, blah? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also to the law. But listen to me, you can't just go around and decide what parts changed and what parts didn't. You got to let the Bible tell you, and He tells you, I preached several weeks ago or several months ago, I preached two sermons on the subject of correlating the Old and the New Testament. We went through every passage in the Bible where God specifically said, I'm changing things. And here's the thing, when He says He changes it, then we change it. And when He doesn't say anything to change it, then we leave it alone. We don't play these mental games with God about, well, you know, this dispensation and that dispensation. No, no, if He changed it, then it's changed. He's in charge. But if He didn't say anything about changing it, so do you, Testament believers, tithe? Show me a verse in the Bible where He said to quit tithing and I'll quit tithing. I'd love to save that money. You can't find that verse. It does not exist. The verse where He says, oh, by the way, I changed tithing. Oh, I changed fornication too. You're good there now too. Bunch of garbage. You say, what do you believe has changed from the Old Testament to the New Testament? Everything He said changed. And if you want to know what it is, listen to my sermons on correlating the Old and New Testament. But other than that, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. And guess what? Those Old Testament passages, they're still profitable. We can still learn from them. Because they were ordinances. They were pictures. They were a tithe. They were showing us the shadow of things to come. So they believe some parts of scripture do not apply to New Testament believers today. I got to be done because I'm not going to, obviously, I'm not going to finish this today. I'm going to finish this tonight, okay? But let me just tell you what we're going to talk about tonight, okay? Here's what we're going to talk about tonight. We're going to talk, because we have two dangerous dispensations left. The sixth one is this. Dispensationalists teach that in the Old Testament, believers did not go to heaven, but went to a holding place called Paradise or Abraham's bosom. And that the sons of God in the Old Testament were actually fallen angels, all right? They teach that. We're going to disprove that from the Bible tonight. The other thing they teach is that the purpose of the rapture is to remove the church because it failed to preach the gospel and it leads into a seven-year tribulation period where God will once again turn His attention back to the Jews. This is a pre-tribulation rapture. We'll correlate that to a pre-tribulation rapture. And then tonight, we're also going to talk about just John Darby, C.I. Scoldfield, the development of dispensational theology. And then we're going to talk about just, you know, even though these things are dangerous doctrines, just the fact that what's really dangerous about this doctrine is that it's so difficult, okay? Because here's the thing. They have all these charts. They have all these books. They have all these things. And here's why it's very important to be... And I'm going to give you an example tonight from Scoldfield's reference Bible, how complicated they make simple things because here's why. They want it to be complicated because you know what happens when we're like, hey, the Bible really clearly says right here that it's after the tribulation and the Bible really clearly says here that the Jews are... that he made twain... of twain, he made one. The Bible is real clear here. They're like, oh, no, no, no. That's the wrong dispensation so you don't understand. That's not right. Come look at my big fancy chart. You know, this verse applies to us. This one applies to us. These three don't. That one does. And you're not smart enough to figure it out. That's really the danger. You say, how do all these stupid doctrines get promoted? Because when there's no rules... When there's no rules, the only rules are, you know, completely believe everything I tell you and if you don't agree with it, it's because you're stupid and I'm not. When that's the game, then yeah, then no one can challenge you. But you know what? I've read about this. You know what we do? We just read the Bible in its context. Look at it. Study it. Allow the Holy Spirit to teach us. So tonight we'll be finishing this sermon because I don't think you want to sit here for another hour while I scream and yell about dispensational theology. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for allowing us to gather today. Thank you for a group of people who actually loves your word and loves to study the Bible and doesn't want to just be given a little pep talk and given some shallow sermon but they want to dig into scripture. Lord, I pray you'd help us, all of us to study, to show ourselves and prove them to God. We love you, Lord. I pray that you'd bring us back tonight as we begin, as we end this sermon. In your precious name I pray. Amen.