Harrison, Jeffrey: Seven Crises Of Earths History 01 Three Works

Second Peter chapter three and verse one. This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you in books which I stir up your pure minds by word and message, that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the Holy Prophet, and of the commandment of us the apostles of our, of the Lord Jesus, of the Lord and Savior. Knowing this first, that they shall come in the last days, prophets walking after their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise that is coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continuously were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were the hold and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water fell. For the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word, are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of a misgodly man. But beloved, be not ignorant to this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long suffering for us all, not willing that any should fail, for the fall should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of person ought he to be to not hold conversation in God? Looking for and hasting entry that comes with the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Therefore, beloved, see that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace, without spot and blame, and account that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation, even that our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written up to you, as also in all his epistles, he can give them of these things in which are some things hard to be understood, which they as it were unlearned and unstable left, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, if ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own faith, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory, both now and forever. Amen. Now into the first epistle to the Corinthians and the tenth chapter. And verse thirty two. Give none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God. Even as I please all men in all things, speaking not mine own profit, for the profit of men, so they may be saved. Be ye followers of me, even as I also am. And God will bless you, though three portions from his own separate blood. Now this is a tremendous subject, and it comes from eternity to eternity, and deals with the purpose of God in relation to the human race. Now, we won't expect this book to answer every question that comes into your mind. This book is involved in God's purpose and his relationship with the human elect. He begins the book by being in the human race, and he ends the book by eternal repentance upon the human race, either to Jesus Christ or else the later Bible. But it's the human race that is involved. So all these arguments about evolution and all the rest of it, just don't take them in. They have not the least use or place or foundation for these theories and ideas that is, you know, it's a bit funny, but, uh, you next year. I remember I was reading some of these books on evolution of the rest of it, and this was in some seminar in, uh, America, and the, the teacher, uh, was, uh, giving his ideas on the evolution of the horse. That the horse had to stop having teeth, the same as what a cat has today. And because it had the soft, padded feet, it couldn't run as quickly as it would like to have done. So it became easy prey for the wild tiger. And it discovered the remarkable intelligence these creatures have. It discovered that by, uh, just running on the tip toes of the pen, then he was able to increase his speed. And uh, with constantly running on the tips of the pen, then the skin became pallid, and it became thicker and thicker and thicker until he was a heat. And that's why the horse who got a heat today, and that's why it's able to increase its speed and, uh, the, the tiger. Now, are there any questions on one blind magazine? First, if that horse was sensible enough to run on the tips of its toes and make food so that it could run quicker than the tiger, then why did the tiger have enough strength to run its own course and catch the hawk off again? So that was his reason. And if he believed he's right on the one side of it, then he believed it's better on the other side of it. There's no such thing as he believes it's right. So. In fact, I was talking to Bert not so long ago, and you know, there are still some arguments that go on, and I said there is one little statement that will solve the problem of evolution, if it is a problem. Everything, everything after his own state. So it can't move out of its fall unless it surrenders its own. And so it must stay in its all, and it can't move out. And you've got to have it moving out if you want to believe it. And there's no such thing as moving out of your soul, so there's no such thing as evolution. My brother and sister, we're living in dangerous days. Now, you young people, be careful. Even among Christians, we're seeking to prove this Bible to be true by what we find in geology and archaeology, and there you got a blank piece of science. Now that's the cart before the horse. We don't try to prove the Bible by by any of theseologies. We prove that theseologies are right or right or wrong by the truth. Have you got it? And so this is the touchstone and not the science. Well, here we have the scoffers in the Latin days, and there are plenty of them, saying, where is the promise that is coming? For all things continue as they did from the beginning of the world, of which they are willingly ignorant. So he says, such a thing declares their own ignorance. Samai herodot supa. Have a look at that first by yourself. I know we're living in a bad age today. So those conditions don't prevail today, really. Hm? I tell you without a police. Now, something has happened in between then and now. That's what we call a crisis. Hm? And you can go right away through time, as well as through the scriptures, and you can see certain events have happened that weren't in existence before, that have changed the course of the human race, that have changed the method of dealing with things, and these are what are called crises. And as you can see, I've got seven crises now. So we'll go through a bit of it later on. Now, I just read that scripture just to show, uh, that they are ignorant, willingly, willfully ignorant. They don't want what the scripture says. They want their own ideas and their thoughts, and they say everything continues as it did from the beginning, when they know quite well that they do not continue the same. And, uh, my dear friends, if this world goes on for another couple of centuries, we'll find that there are going to be such changes in this world's behavior that we know about in the days of our day. We have trust. But now, when I read the first Corinthians chapter ten, the verse thirty three, here's a strange verse. Give not offense, neither to the Jew, nor to the Greek or Gentile, nor to the Church of God. Now, it's the Spirit of God that has done it, not me. And he's taken the whole of the human race, and he's divided that human race into three sections. The Jews, the Gentiles, and the Church of God. Now, I know, and I don't want the argument up with, well, the Church of O- uh, of God, that speaks in this local aspect, the local assembly. I- I'll agree with you, brother. I'll agree with you. But what is true of the local assembly in this text is just as true of the whole of the church, which is the body of Christ. Now, here then, no matter how a world has described the human race, they describe it by its nationality, by its color, by its creed. They describe it in all sorts of ways, political and all that kind of thing. But God has divided the human race into three: Jews, Gentiles, church. Now, God doesn't do things out of a whim or a fancy. He has a reason for doing it. So, if we've got the time, and I trust that we have got the time, I don't mean here now, but uh, in your own private time, that you've got the time to look right away through the scriptures and just find out where and why God made those decisions. Hmm? Right. Well, to put it quite briefly, you will discover this, that when you're in the first chapter and go on into the second chapter where things become clearer, there's just a man and a woman. Born of his bone, flesh of his flesh, that's what he should say about his wife. And then when we come to chapter four and five, you get the genealogies of the two sons that are referred to. The first one is Cain, and the next one is Seth. God hath appointed thee another beast in the stead of Abel, whom Cain slew. Now, these were two brothers, and they continued of the family, so that you'll get no reference to any tribes, there'll be no reference to any kingdoms, there'll be no reference to any distinctions among the human race. They're just one people, no distinction. Even when we come to chapter eleven, we'll find this of the book of Genesis, we'll find this. They were of one leg and of one feet. Now please, while I'm here, brother, sister, lest I forget, God did not reverse that order on the day of Pentecost. God didn't take the confusion away, and they all understood one common language again, like they did there at the Tower of Babel. They heard every man in their own dialect. So it wasn't just the removal of the confusion and the bringing back of that one language. It was confusion, and they heard everyone in their own language. But here it was just one language, and everyone could understand one another. But now, because of certain events, we'll go into them later, God dealt with that people. He told them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. But no. They said, go to, let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth. And they didn't want that to happen, what God said should happen, that they should be fruitful, multiply, and there fill the earth. They said, no, we're going to dwell in one place, and we're going to stay as one family. We can understand one another, and that's how it's going to be. And God gave them confusion of life. Like that. So that a man could work alongside a neighbor, then suddenly he became a stranger, and he never understood the word he said. And a daughter to a mother, a son to a father. And here there was a confusion of languages, and they had to search out certain people that could understand this new language that they'd acquired all of a sudden. And as they found these few scattered abroad everywhere, they each moved in their own direction and acquired their own customs, cultivated their own language, building their own borders, laid down their own rules, and so kingdom started. Hm? And so here I find that it's all one speech right away till we get to the Tower of David. But now, when we come to the very next thing after the Tower of Babel, we come to this man, Abram. Now, he was as much of that system as what all the others were. But, it says that God said to Abram, get thee out unto a land that I will show thee of. And he made that man a stranger among all the others, a stranger. And from that point, God made his first distinction in the Jew and the Gentile race. That man was the father of the Jew, and all the rest were the nations of the Gentile. Now that's the first decision and the first division that got next. Now we'll carry on, and God still deals with those two, uh, divisions, Jew and Gentile. He go right away through, even though he submits the power to the Gentiles for a period and he's yet to carry it through. He's dealing with the Jews in particular, and to that people he has promised a Messiah. The one that is to be born of Abram's seed. Thy seed shall sit in the gates of his enemies, and in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed. And as we have it in the Epistle to the Galatians, Paul says now, God didn't say thy seeds. He says thy seed, and he's not talking in the plural, he's talking in the singular, and that seed is cursed. And so they were promised a Messiah that was going to bring them into power, authority, and dominion, and they were going to be rulers in the earth. Now, when the Messiah came, I'm only going over what you know, but it's necessary as a foundation. When the Messiah came, he didn't come in the way that they thought he would. Why do the heathen raise the people imagine things, saying the king set themselves in all the state council together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us break the bands of thunder and cast away the cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, he shall have them in derision, he shall mock when the fear cometh. I have set my king upon my holy hill of God. Now that's what he wanted. That's what he, uh, expected. Will thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? But he didn't come that way, did he? No. Instead of glory, it was shame. Instead of honor, it was contempt. Instead of renown, it was a problem. And so they took that one. Three and a half years of life convicted the whole of that Jewish nation. Have a look at it. The Lord Jesus quotes the first commandment and the greatest. Do this, he said, and you'll live. And he was the only one that did it. None of you could ever do it, and nobody has ever done it. Now, they take him and they crucify him. Now, when they reject him, God rejects the nation. Hm? And so he's cast them off. If you'd like to look at it more carefully, have a look at, uh, nine, ten, eleven of the Epistle to the Romans, and you'll find them there in the place of rejection. So now, in the Old Testament scriptures, we find that God has divided the human race into two sections, the Jew and the Gentile. Now, my brother, he makes no mention in the Old Testament of another section in the human race. I love that. Because it's a great pity. Because some people think that God has made a reference. And because God has made a reference to the church in the Old Testament, then the church is going through the tribulation. But you can have what you like, brother, but I don't believe the church is going through the tribulation. And so it's a secret, a mystery not revealed unto the prophets as it is now revealed unto the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the Old Testament scripture has two works that God has not finished. They remain incomplete. Now, my young brother, in your prophecy is? Oh, it's a difficult thing, isn't it? I'd like to tell you this is important. When you've just got the key, that's all you want, just the key. Prophecy is just this. God telling us beforehand how he's going to finish these two works that he started and not finished. That's why there are no prophecies about the church in the Old Testament, because he hadn't started yet. Hm? He was a mystic. But the prophecies of the Old Testament, have a look then, my, where in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and so on, right to Malachi, have a look, and you'll find my tremendous utterances that you know quite well have not been fulfilled. They relate to the fulfilling of these two works. Now that is prophecy. We'll look at it a bit closer. Now, when he's rejected this nation, the nation of Israel, he puts those two works down, and now he starts another work, and he begins by taking a people out from among the nations. No, they don't belong to Israel, no, and don't belong to that work there that he's begun and put that down. This is another work altogether. These two works, we'll find out later, they have their beginnings in the earth, and they were carried on in the earth, and they'll be accomplished in the earth. But this one doesn't belong to the earth at all. Their names are written in heaven. Mm. Our citizenship is from heaven. Should we die, I say should we die, it is to be at home with the Lord. That's where the home is, in heaven. And all the way through, blessed with spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. We're seated with him in the heavenlies, yes. Set your affection upon things above where Christ sitteth there. Everything has got to do with heaven as far as this work is concerned. So, brothers and sisters, don't conform yourself to this present ego world, but rather be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And so God is doing the work now, but it's got nothing to do with these two works. It's another one altogether. It's called the church. Now, it's a pity that it was called the church. That sounded, I don't know, but it would have been better if they'd have left it. There are some words that would have been better if they'd have been left. For instance, you take that word, uh, he's the image of the invisible God. It would have been better if they'd have left that word in the Greek. The Greek word is icon, and you know what an icon is, don't you? I mean, you find plenty of them over there in these, uh, strange, uh, places of their idol worship, and they try to create, uh, that that can be seen, you know, maybe with six hands have seen them, and the six heads have seen on one of them, and monstrosities. But they're trying to give a physical demonstration, you know, things that you can see that belong to the abilities of the God that you can't see. That's an icon. Now, Christ is the icon of the invisible God. He that has seen me has seen my Father also. He's God manifested in flesh. But if you had a look in Hebrews chapter one, he's the brightness of his glory, the expressed image of his person. Now it's a different word altogether, and if you'd like to look up your concordance, that word is an English word just the same, and the word is character. Well, if icon is an outward illustration of what the inward reality is, the character is the inward reality, no matter what the person tries to show to somebody else. Hm? Now there he is, the absolute reality of deity. Hm? So you don't need to change the word. Well, here's the word here, brother, and you young ones, just have a look at it for yourself. You older ones know the word is ecclesia, isn't it? Well, uh, ecclesia means, uh, a company together, but ek always means out of or away from. So ekklesia means a company of people brought out from. Hm? Stephen tells us that, uh, Israel was like the church in the wilderness, brought out from Egypt by the blood of the Lamb. That's how you and I were brought out. Now here it is, here's the company of people that are brought out from the world. We're not of this world, even as he's not of this world. Our citizenship is from heaven, from whence we look for the Savior. That's where we belong. That's where our affections, that's where our aim ought to be. The heavenlies, a called out people from this world. They're not of this world, even as I am not of this world. So now here are three things. We get to the time when there's no distinctions at all in the human race away from Adam to the calling out of Abraham. Then when he calls out Abraham and comes to the rejection of the Messiah, then we find the division in the human race, the Jew and the Gentile. Then when they reject the Messiah, and the Messiah rejects the nation as a nation, I mean, a Jew as a Jew can be saved today the same as any other person can, but as a nation, God is not dealing with the nation as a nation, but he's calling out a people, and he's making that people a completely new work that nobody knew anything about before it came into being. The church, the called out ones that ultimately are going to be seen as the bride of the Lamb. Now, there are three works then, and he's, uh, not finished any of them. Now, that's a remarkable thing, isn't it? He's not finished this one. He just dropped it, gave confusion of tongues, scattered them abroad, started another one, and divided the human race into Jew and Gentile, then he put them down when they rejected the Messiah, and he started another one, the church. So there are three works, and God hasn't finished either of them. Oh, but you say, there's a lot to follow, isn't there? A lot to follow. And this is where we are now. I would say we're nearer this end than this end, wouldn't you? Mm? But this is where we are in the church period. Now, brethren, I think you'll agree with me that though the church is the last company of people that God brings in as a people, the Jew, the Gentile, and the church, without any distinction, a division of Jew and Gentile, and not till Pentecost does the church come into being. But when he's going to fulfill and complete those works, he reverses the order. And the one that God started last at Pentecost is the one that he's going to finish first. Hm? Well, I believe the Lord will come tonight, don't you? Do you really believe that, brother? You know, sounds like you're hearing. Well, I don't know when he's going to come. But if you listen to the Apostle Paul, he always puts himself among the living ones. We which are alive and remain, eh, shall not precede them directly. We which are alive and remain, eh. John puts himself among the living ones, hmm, that we be not ashamed before him at his coming. My, he was a blessed hope, wasn't he? A blessed hope. Well, some have said that, that Peter knew that he was going to die. You don't find any reference to it until you come to the second epistle of Peter. Oh yes, the reference is there in, uh, John twenty one And, uh, the Lord is speaking to Peter. When thou wast young, thou wentest with us wherever thou wouldst, but when thou art old, another shall take me where thou wouldest not. And John that is writing that book, he's the one that puts the footnote to it. This be Jesus signifying by what death he should die. It's Peter that puts the footnote there. But Peter didn't know anything about it. Because in that same passage, John is following. And Peter, he says to the Lord Jesus, and what shall this man do? He says, what is that to thee? What if I will that he tarry till I come? See? So if they'd like to try and rob the child of God of the blessed hope, the Lord put it right again, didn't he? Till I come. Hmm? Oh, my brother, my sister, don't lose it. And you've got to wait until the second epistle and the first chapter, and then he'll start talking about his decease of which the Lord spoke, and he makes no reference to it until then. Now the Lord is coming, and he's going to take us to where we belong. And as we bore the image of the earthy, we're going to bear the image of the heavenly. And we're going to be with him, and we're going to be like him, and that for all eternity, and we're never going to go out of his presence anymore forever. Now, what is God going to do when he's taken this work out of the scene altogether? He hasn't got the church down here now. That's been translated that he's coming. He's got just got the Jews and the Gentiles. Well, what was he doing then here? Well, let's have a look at it. Let's have a look. When God made the man and then made the woman, he said, let us make man in our image and after our likeness, and let him have dominion over all the works of our hands. Now that was the authority that Adam had got. No room for evolution there, is there? Hm? That man knew what creation was about. And God caused all the creatures to pass before that man, and that man gave them their names, and what names he gave them, that was the name of them. And I'd like to tell you this, brother and sister, he never called those animals and the birds and the rest of it just out of a whim, like you'd call your dog. He gave them a name according to their habit and according to their character. He was a wise man and an intelligent man. Now that's the man that was to have dominion over all the works of God's hands. So the thought is of universal dominion, and they're set in the hands of the man. That's the man that had access to the Garden of Eden, and there he walked, and there he talked with his God in the cool of the day. As one responsible to God for the position of having dominion, that man would give answer to the God, his creator. He would be able to speak, he'd be able to explain, he'd be able to expound on all the subject, and that man never needed a man to stand between him and God. He spoke with his creator as friend with friend. That's the greatness of the man. Now, there was just one point in which God made Adam realize that though he had dominion over all the works of his hands, God was Lord of all. One command. Of all the trees that are in the midst of the garden, thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, thou mayest not eat of it, for the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And that one command was enough to make Eve and Adam realize that they were subject to this great person, their creator. He was Lord of all, and they were subject to his law and his command. Now, I don't need to go into all the subtle argument of Satan himself. I know you get the world, the flesh, and the devil. That's right, you're not ignorant of Satan's devices. That's how Paul puts it, isn't it? Ah, you'll find them there with the Lord Jesus. You'll get the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life. You'll get them all there. And here is that subtle, mischievous one, Satan himself. Brethren, please, now you young people, when you're speaking about Satan, then you'll speak with dignity. For there is no part of creation greater than Satan himself. Even the Archangel Michael dares not bring a railing accusation against him, but said, the Lord will be great. That's how great Satan was. He's described in Isaiah, again in Ezekiel, as the covering cherub. That's his position. Order, government, judgment committed into his hand. Perfect in all in the days in which he was created, until pride filled his heart. I will be as God, I will sit as the Most High. The Lord Jesus said, I beheld Satan cast out of heaven. Now please, a world will call him old Nick, and the world will call him a lot of names, but you've got enough names for Satan in the Bible. Then use those names. Use them, because God has laid it upon us to do it. And so he comes, and with his subtlety, he deceives that woman. I know she shouldn't have done it. I know she shouldn't have done it, but I'll give her an excuse. She had no precedent. No one else had been brought in that position and failed before. And after all, she hadn't got the knowledge of good and evil, because that belonged to the tree that she was going to eat of, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She was innocent, completely innocent. And here is this person, as wise as she may be, without the knowledge of good and evil, completely innocent, that person was de- beguiled by that mischievous wicked one. And she took of the fruit, and she knew that she was naked. I don't know why Adam took her, but he did it wittingly. He could see the difference between that woman that was his wife and himself. The only reason I can give, brother, he loved his wife. Because he loved his wife. If that woman had put herself under the judgment of God, he'd prove his love to her, and he'd stand alongside her under the judgment of God, that the judgment of God might fall upon him. What a lovely picture of Christ, brother. What a lovely picture. He loved the church, didn't he? There under the judgment of God, because he loved the church, he goes and he stands alongside the object of his affection, under the judgment of God, and he bears the judgment of God to tell us that the church might be justified. I love you, but it's because he love. Now, here is universal dominion, but he's still Lord. He still has dominion over the works of God's hands. Now we come to Cain, the seed of the serpent. Notice that, the seed of the serpent. That's the second victory that Satan gets. The first one is the woman disobeying the law of God. The second one is to bring someone in that would be the enemy of God and the people of God. And God says, I'll put enmity between thy seed and her seed. And so here he is, and he gains the day, gains the day. And if you turn to the Epistle of Jude, you'll find that he, uh, this is his altar, Cain's altar, you'll find that he builds an altar. And they've gone the way, the highway of Cain. What's he doing? He's not going to offer a sacrifice that Adam offers. He's going to offer his own sacrifice, and God can accept that. Because May- Cain means acquired. Abel means vanity, a vain thing. Eve put all her confidence in the one that was born first, and no confidence at all in the one that was born second. That's a world for you, isn't it? The world puts all its confidence in the one that's come into the world first, but it has no confidence in the second man, has it? And that's why the world's a failure, and it'll continue to be a failure until the second man's given his place. And so, his name means to acquire. And here's the seed that she thought was the seed of the woman that that should bruise the serpent head and recover all that had been lost because of her folly and her disobedience. And the faith was in vain and misplaced. And that man is going to bring to God all the result of his labor. The curse was upon it. In the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread. Brother and sister never talk about the, by the sweat of your brow. Now the scriptures doesn't say that, because sometimes you only need a bit of a fright and you'll sweat from your body. You'll only need to lie on the sand on a warm day and you'll sweat from your forehead. But you won't sweat in your face unless you're working hard. That's why God s- God says, in the sweat of thy face shall thou regret, and thorns and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee. And so, Cain was cursed. Abel was murdered. The picture that is yet to be seen. But this man's seed is given prominence until the whole of the scene seems to be in the hands of Cain and the seed of Seth, you just get a thin red line in that genealogy of chapter five, and there they are. That godly line. Where are all the others when there's just one thin line that ends with Nor and his three sons, Shem and Jeth. Cain had won. He was under his hand. And so God says, we'll deal with it more at length some other time. God says, the end of all flesh has come before me. Make me an ark. And he built an ark. Brother, if you take eighteen inches was a cubit, he was four hundred and fifty feet long. He was seventy five feet wide, and he was forty five feet high. That's a big thing, isn't it? I don't know how long it took him to build it. I've heard some say six hundred years, but don't say that at all. But we won't go into that either. But, uh, he built it. I remember talking about the, uh, core cloth. I remember talking to the children about Noah and his ark on one occasion, and, uh, I said, you know how long a football field is, don't you? Oh, they all knew that. Well, it's as long as a football pitch and half as long a game. Well, the following night, they always ask them questions on the subject the night before. So I got up to Noah and his ark, and uh, I said, now, what did God say to Adam? How long did God tell uh, Noah to build that ark? Yes? He had to build it as long as a football pitch and half as long again. I'm quite sure God never told him that. Right. But when the fountains of the deep were broken up, you get some good answers. They put you to share some of them. I said, what do you think had happened when the fountains of the deep were broken up? One little fellow put his hand up, he said, the park would get flooded. He only knew of fountains in parks. But there we are. But there is the first judgment, and God dealt with the seed of the serpent and made an end of the serpent's reign. Now here is, he's still got authority and power, puts extra authority in Noah's hand. He that sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. Now, what God was doing was to deal instantly with the murderer, and it would be finished with, and none to continue it. And so any murder after that, the murderer got to be dealt with and put away. We're slipping back. We're slipping badly. Brethren, I'm going to tell you this. In the millennium, sin will be dealt with by death. Now remember that. You wouldn't call the Lord Jesus an unlawful person, would you? He was alive by the law. Now, Noah has been given all that authority and that extra authority to exercise judgment against the murderer. But the only thing we read about Noah is that he builded a vineyard, he made his wine, and he got drunk. And one of his sons saw him drunk, and he went and told his two brethren, and his brethren, they had more reverence of their father, and they went in backwards and covered him. And how Noah got to know, we don't know, but he cursed Ham. Cursed Bikanan. So remember that now, please. A lot of people, and among Christians, I've been off to South Africa a few times. They think the black man is in the position that he is today because he's under Noah's curse. I know that the black man comes from the tribe of Ham. But Ham had four children. One of them was the father of the Egyptian. Another one, Cush. He was the father of the inheritors of Canaan itself. And But was the last one, and he was the father of the black man. So if you're going to say that God cursed Ham, then he cursed the Egyptian, and he cursed the Ethiopian, and he cursed the Canaanite, and he cursed the black man as well. Mm. He never cursed Mizru, the father of the Egyptian. He never cursed Cush, the father of the Ethiopian. He never cursed the father of the black man. He cursed Cain, Lamech. And that curse has been fulfilled because you won't find any of the children of Cain alive today. And God waited until the time of the Canaanites had risen up to his side. Then he said, Moses into them, brought them out and told them to exterminate the nations of the land. But aren't any of them today the judgment that no penance could contain has equal to. So, brother, sister, next time, don't just look at a black person, a man or a woman, and say, well, you like that because of no sense. Rather, it's civilization that has moved south instead of north west. The black man would be having piteer than us and sending missionaries to us to evangelize us instead. So be it. Well, here we are. And so we come to that just one little incident, that's all. And there he got drunk, and as a result of it, he cursed Ham's youngest son, Kenan. And that's the end of Noah. We read no more about his life at all. But we do come to this thing, and it's a tremendous edifice. I won't go into details, a tremendous edifice. Babel. Now it's a Babel where they were going to speak the same language continually and continue as one great family, and God said, no, this is the end of it. We are coming now to, uh, uh, two thousand or more years after Adam came into the world, and they're still abiding together as one big family, and the rest of the earth is empty. And so there he confounds the speech, scatters them abroad upon the face of the earth, and that's an end of the work that he was doing there. Hm? Universal dominion with a man to represent him on the earth. Now, when he starts another work, everyone, if he gave everything to that first man, he gave nothing to that second man. No, not so much as the sole of his foot could rest upon. That's how Joshua described it. Mm. He gave him promises, tremendous promises, but all that he had was what he'd bought to bury his wife and for a burial place for himself. That's all he had. And so, here I find not a man that has dominion over all the works of God's hands, ruling over the universe. I find a man that is a stranger and a pilgrim on the earth. Well, can I say something else, brother? He gives you the opportunity to put some of these things right. How many times have you heard people talking about the nation of Israel is back again in the land? How many times have you heard it? Well, it's not. The nation of Israel is still scattered abroad on the face of the earth. A state has been established in Palestine, a state, but not a nation, and that nation will not be gathered until the Lord himself shall come with glory, and he'll send his four angels to the four corners of the earth, and he'll gather his elect from the four corners of the earth, and that's when the nation will be established, when the truth of Psalm twenty four— I've heard it misapplied a few times, I hope you haven't done it, but uh, lift up your heads, all ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord mighty in battle, this is the King of glory. That's the Lord Jesus going up to heaven, challenging the gates of heaven to open and let the conqueror in. It's exactly the opposite, brother and sister. It's when he's coming back in glory, and the gates of Jerusalem are going to open wide, and the King of glory is going to come in, and he's going to sit on the throne of his father, David. Now that is the fulfillment of Psalm twenty four. So not till then, uh, is that nation going to have its dominion. God gave them the opportunity for it, but they couldn't live up to it, and God put their kingdom into the hands of the Gentiles. Now, as a stranger, that's what he was first of all. And from the time God called him out, he just dwelt in a tent. He never lived in a house, and that's a period of at least a hundred years. And then he became the pilgrim. Now, that's when he built an altar and called upon the name of the Lord. So the stranger is the tent, and the pilgrim is the altar. As a pilgrim, he got nothing down here. Hm? As a stranger, he got nothing down here, but as a pilgrim, he got everything up there. Hm? Here we have no continuing city. If we had a city, then we wouldn't be strangers. And if we continued, then we wouldn't be pilgrims. But there's the nation of Israel, strangers and pilgrims. And so they waited for that one to come, the object of prophecy, the one promised to Abraham himself that should possess the gates of his enemies, and they murdered him. They murdered. But during all that time from Abraham right away through to Malachi, God gives prophecy after prophecy, telling them he's going to fulfill it all. And so, as I've said, he carries on now with the church, and this is the work he's doing. Aye, like John, we can say, then Lord Jesus, come quickly. Be lovely if he came tonight. But it's going to finish soon, and we're going to be caught up to meet the Lord. Now, brethren, there is one more week of Daniel's seventy weeks that has not been fulfilled. You'll get seven years, then you'll get sixty two years when Messiah is cut off for not putting on sin. And there's no mention of that seventieth week. No mention. That's when the sixty ninth week was finished. But this is a parenthesis. It doesn't belong to Daniel's seventy weeks. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, Daniel, not these people, these people. Seventy weeks. So that seventieth week is going to concern the nation of Israel after the church has gone home. Now, some have said there's about forty years in between the rapture and the seventieth week of Daniel beginning. Some will be a bit more modest and say, well, it's about ten. Brother and sister, I do not believe there is any period of time between the rapture and the tribulation. Not at all. President. If this is a parenthesis, and it is in between Daniel's sixty nine weeks and the seventieth week, a parenthesis, don't you think it's strange that God should put another parenthesis in between this parenthesis and the other one. Doesn't make sense, does it? Why does Paul say, and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up? Oh, I believe in concordance, brother. Oh, it's something more forceful than that, isn't it? We which are alive and remain shall be snatched away. That's the word. As though there was no time left. The day of grace had finished. The saints were snatched away. But there's one, ready to take the place as the man of sin, the Antichrist, the wicked one. And so, in this period, he's going to take up this word that he started with Abraham and left off at the rejection of the Messiah. He's going to take up that word in respect to the nation of Israel again, and they're going to become the greatest missionaries that the world ever knew. In three and a half years, have a look in chapter five, the revelation, there's going to be a company of people out of every tribe and people and town and nation, a number that no man can number. In three and a half years, when that faithful remnant become the missionaries, there'll be some work on that. But I tell you this, in that second half of Daniel's seventieth week, those who have made profession in that first part will prove it by their lives and their faithfulness in the second part. And so the nation of Israel is coming in again, and when we reach that period, the king is coming in his glory, and all of it is going to be divided. Refuge is going to be found for the faithful, and God will finish his work upon that nation of Israel. Hm? But when he's finished his work concerning the nation of Israel, and he's coming down to Olivet and set up his throne there, the throne of his father David, he's coming to rule and he's coming to reign. And that work of universal dominion that began with the first men and ended here at, uh, the confusion of tongues. He'll take it up again, and it'll be the second man that will have dominion over the works of his hands, and he'll rule in righteousness for a thousand years. The curse will be removed, the desert will blossom as the rose, death will only come as judgment against violation to the throne, and for a thousand years, the Christ of God will rule as King of kings and Lord of lords. And in that thousand years, he'll finish the work of universal dominion that he begun with Adam. And when he's finished that, then the heavens shall melt with a fervent heat and a great noise and pass away. His work in time concerning the human race is finished. He's finished universal dominion to his glory there in the millennium. He's finished his work concerning the faithfulness of the nation of Israel. He'll finish it there in the seventieth week of Daniel. And the work that he begun in the church at Pentecost, he'll finish it when the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout. So there it is. It's quite simple, isn't it? So I'll leave it to you now just to, uh, search it out for yourself, and you'll find I've left a lot out. So you can tell me what you find out some other time. Now shall we pray together? I'm sorry I'm so late. Our God and our Father, we bow in thy holy presence in that worthy name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we ask thy blessing upon our meditation in thy word. Write these things upon our heart, write them in our memory, and we pray, O God, that as we see the formation of Holy Scripture in such orderly manner as thou hast set it for our learning, we pray that we may be able to remember it and study it for our own profit and edification. We thank thee for the help that thou hast given, and now as we make our ways homeward, will it please thee to keep us safe, free from accidents, harm, and danger? And to thee we will give all the glory with our thanks, in that worthy name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.