Sermon on the Mount, review

Sermon on the Mount is our special topic. It's kind of an exciting one because when we first started talking about doing Sermon on the Mount, I was somewhere between overjoyed and terrified because it was such a difficult topic. And there's such a variety of things written on it that you can almost, it's hard to find your bearings. And like when I was really young, trying to figure out if I'm supposed to cut out my eye and throw it away, which one do I choose? Because they both, you know, or which hand do I cut off? Because I've probably done bad things with both of them.

So as we've gone through that, I think it's been a lot of fun for me and very exciting to figure out how that all really, really works out and how the Lord was really way more clear than maybe a cursory reading in our cultural context might. give us.

However, one topic that we haven't discussed quite so much, we've discussed it in bits and pieces, is whether or not or how the Sermon on the Mount will apply to either the Tribulation or the Millennium period in history. Obviously, both are future periods of history, and Christ gave this in what we now would call past period in history, right? So, we've talked a little bit about how it was applicable to them today. We've talked a great deal about which things are universally applicable to believers of all ages, and there are quite a handful of those in the Sermon on the Mount.

And then there's really a huge handful of them that we talked about, including what we call the Lord's Prayer, which we'll get to look at again today, which are not really church appropriate, which don't really stay in keeping with the church as it goes. Today, if you have your Bible, would be a great day to have it open, because we're going to just be flying through these three chapters that we've spent the last several weeks on. So yeah, today is definitely, I would love to be a high conversation day, because I think there's a lot to be discussed here.

And I think it's, after all we've looked at, going to come incredibly clear. to us where this lines up. I've heard that luck favors the prepared, but I don't know about providence. We'll do our best. We know that the Beatitudes are no longer directly applicable.

Obviously, we start off with the Beatitudes, this beautiful, beautiful section, talking about the characters. One of the best-loved passages in all the Bible. I think, I mean, outside of maybe the Lord's Prayer, I've seen that probably on more plaques and church walls than possibly any other passage in the Bible that I can think of right now. So we have this beautiful, A beautiful passage that's really almost poetic.

We know that the Beatitudes no longer directly apply even to the Jews who believe in Christ today, as it is teaching the heart condition of the ethnic Jew under the principle of law looking to entrance into the millennium. Jews who believe in this age are brought into the church, which is a wholly distinct body from Israel, as we found in Ephesians 2, 19 through 22. And they're saved completely by grace and dead to the principle of law in any form. Just hammer this away once again.

We see it time and time again. We spent three classes on Intro. This is Christ talking about Entrance. Entrance into the Kingdom, Entrance into the Kingdom, Entrance into the Kingdom. We've seen it almost every week, in almost every lesson. But Jesus is always using this Entrance language.

So, for the Jew this day, receiving this, he's saying this is the character requirement for someone who's going to get into the Kingdom. This is what God expects you to be in heart and mind and character. So obviously to the Jew today who believes, they're not worried about entrance into the kingdom in the same way that the first century Jews or that the tribulation Jews would be concerned about entrance in the kingdom. Right? Because in the church age where If a Jew comes to have faith in Christ now, they're added to the church. They're no longer part of ethnic Israel, of that people group as far as the peoples of God. So they're saved by grace and faith. They're no longer under law, just as dead to law as you or I now. However, in that time it was a bit different.

Moving right after that to Matthew 5, 10 through 12. I've got a handful of bigger, longer passages. I'd really like for us to have volunteers and read it out as we see. Most of the ones we'd like to have read are even in the handout. Will someone read for us Matthew 5, 10 through 12? Beth, would you be so kind?

Much to those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsehoods say all kinds of evil against you, because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets, you were persecuted. Great, great.

So, what do you think? Based on our studies so far, based on what you already know of eschatology, based on what we've learned about the character of God, does that sound like a tribulation? Something that's more applicable during the Tribulation? Or something that's more applicable during the Millennial Kingdom? And why? I see you're all chomping at the bit to answer. Tribulation? OK. So April says the Tribulation. How come? Why does that seem to have the character of a Tribulation persecuted in the Millennial Kingdom? Yeah, there it is. No persecution in the Millennial Kingdom, especially for the Jews.

There's going to be no, I mean, you know the records, the Old Testament passages say that two, three Gentiles are going to be grabbing to a Jew and say, hey, can you take us to the Messiah? Far from persecuting, saying, hey, we'll work your land for you so that, if you'll take us, so that you can be a nation of priests. As wild as that is. So it fits very well, though, with life during Christ's earthly ministry. I mean, while Christ was alive, his disciples faced a great deal of persecution, didn't they?

I mean, the blind man's parents, and forgive me, I can't remember the reference, the blind man's parents were afraid to say that Jesus did it. Oh, well he's of age, ask him. We don't want to get tangled up in this. And then the blind man himself was willing to speak a little bit more boldly. You shouldn't call him the blind man, right? The man who'd received his sight was able to speak a little bit more boldly. And the threat was obviously to put him out of the synagogue. put him out of all the social order of life. So definitely something that was there during Christ's Fitzwilliam, Christ's earthly ministry.

The character of the tribulation is also fits very much the character of the tribulation. As you read in Revelation 12 and 13, Satan is going to make a point to try to destroy Israel. It's going to be personal. Individuals will happily think they're doing themselves well to persecute the Jews, and nations will try to persecute the Jews as well in this time. Because Satan knows if he can wipe out the Jews, he can prove God unfaithful to one of his promises. So Satan's going to absolutely try to destroy the Jewish people during this tribulation. So this is incredibly incredibly applicable both for the time of Christ's life and also for the tribulation. So as we look at the Millennium Kingdom, Isaiah and writing about the Millennium Kingdom. Can I get a witness? Can I have someone else read? Someone else want to read this? I don't know if the italics makes it difficult.

You say it's millennium or tribulation. Why does it say you're rewarded in heaven? Because I thought the Jews were the earthly people. The reward is kept in heaven, right? And then when do they receive it? In all your kingdom. There you go. And no one can get it out there. Unless they have a really big ladder, no thieves can get up there to get it. Well, that's true. But their perspective was the reward is kept in heaven to be brought with the Messiah. That he'll bring the reward with him. Amen. Amen. So there's a constant promise of that peace and prosperity that they were waiting on. That's fantastic.

Anyway, can someone read Isaiah 14, 3 through 7? Someone with courage and volume. It will be in the day when the Lord gives you rest from your pain and turmoil of harsh service in which you have been enslaved, that you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon and say how the oppressor has ceased and how fury has ceased. The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked and the scepter of the rulers. which used to strike the people in fury with unceasing strokes, which subdued the nations in anger with unrestrained persecution.

The whole earth is at rest and is quiet. They break forth into shouts of joy. All right, so just another picture. And there's a handful of them, obviously, in the Old Testament prophets about the prosperity and the peace and the lack of persecution that will come during that millennial kingdom. So obviously, if Jesus is saying, hey, blessed are you when you're persecuted, you must really have to go out of your way to find this in the millennial kingdom. So why would he bother addressing it if he's speaking to the millennial kingdom? So that seems like a fairly soundly tribulation-oriented and or during Christ's time-oriented series of verses.

Much of chapter five deals with the law. And actually much of this, we talked in the very beginning of our study here in the first three introduction passages, that part of Christ's purpose in this was to scrape off all the things that were added to the law. Obviously we know that there was the law of Moses.

The Pharisees in their absolute religiosity had tried to add hedges around the law so that you wouldn't ever possibly even kind of break the law. One example that we see in the Bible is that Paul says he received the 40 less one lashes. And they were allowed to give 40 lashes but not 41, but the Pharisees were so worried that you might miscount. that they're going to give you 39 just in case. It wasn't that nice of them. So big teddy bears, really.

So anyway, so a lot of what Christ is doing, as we as we saw, was scraping off a lot of that extra stuff, a lot of those extra little tidbits and rules and regulations that that had been added to the law and he's saying, no, no, no, no, no, you've missed it all together. Once again, going back to what he was saying and what he said in chapter four, repent for the kingdom of heaven's at hand. And they had no idea what you meant. What do you mean? We've not only kept the law, we've added to it. We've got more law than they've ever had before. We're like the kings of law.

And Jesus is saying, yeah, you fully missed it there. The law isn't a tool to impress God. So here's Christ once again focusing on inward righteousness and all this, kind of going back to that character issue. So Jesus commits a significant portion of chapter 5 to correcting the Jews' teaching about murder, adultery, oaths, divorce, revenge, and love for enemies by bringing his listeners back to the original Mosaic law. Obviously, once we get back into the tribulation, we're back into the principle of law. Really, there's only two times in human history where we see the principle of grace really played out.

God dealt with Abraham on the basis of grace. He said, you're justified by faith, or on account of his faith, God declared him righteous, and anything that Abraham did after his point of belief didn't nullify God's promise. He had the whole episode with Hagar and Ishmael. Did that nullify God's promise? No. He wasn't a perfect picture of obedience, but God has initiated dealing with him on the principle of grace.

We don't see that again until the church. until us. That's something we share in common. That's why Paul connects us back to Abraham and doesn't connect us back to the Mosaic period at all. So it's incredibly exciting in that respect. However, once the church is gone and the church period or the church time is over, it's going to be back to the Tribulation. In the Old Testament, it's very clear that we're right back to the principle of law again. And once again, just to be totally clear, obviously, people of all times were saved by faith through grace, 100%. But God's principle with which he dealt with people does change throughout time. So once we get back to the Tribulation, this will be a good thing to scrape away and clear away.

Well, what about the Millennium? What do you think? Will God be dealing via the principle of grace or the principle of law with the Jews? I think that's a phenomenal guess. It'll be the wildest period in all of human history. He'll be dealing with them on basis of the law. They'll have to fulfill the law, do the law, but he'll graciously write it on their hearts and give them the ability to actually do it.

So what was the, what's the song that we sing occasionally? The law, what's something about, the law tells me to do something, gives me neither hand nor feet. Oh yeah, do this and live, the law commands, but gives me neither feet nor hands. Yeah. The better way is grace does bring. Gives me flight, gives me wings. There it is. So then, He'll give them feet and hands to actually do the law. He'll write it on their hearts, he'll give them the ability to do it. Does this possibly mean that the Holy Spirit would be in their hearts? Explicitly. Scripture in the Old Testament says that the Holy Spirit is in their hearts.

Yeah, is it Joel? The spirit we poured out on the flesh? Jeremiah 31, 31. But you've got 33 quoted here. But Isaiah, Ezekiel and Jeremiah are the three prophets that speak of the new covenant for Israel. They will have the Holy Spirit within every single one of them. The law will be written on their hearts. They won't even have need for rabbis because it will be written so clearly and distinctly on their hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Not a lot of the way how a lot of people that wouldn't believe in the different dispensations per se, they would say that that really is just why this is the church that they're talking about. Exactly. I mean, I'm not saying that that's correct. I'm just saying that that's what I've heard. And many will teach that in part because they don't understand the distinction. I mean, they have the law written on their hearts. We don't, you know. But on the other hand, you could say that I mean, the Holy Spirit, to a certain degree, has become our law, hasn't he? I mean, I don't know. I mean, the fact is, he now, since we are not bound by the Mosaic law, we are bound by what he tells us to do and how he leads us, to a certain degree, that would be the other way.

The law is your life, is what the Law of Moses says. The New Testament, Paul writes, Christ is your life. There's the distinction. What's your life? Christ is our life. The law is their life. By the Spirit. So there are similarities, but the distinctions are important to keep clear, too. Yeah, because the Holy Spirit is conforming us to the image of Christ, right? But the Holy Spirit will enable them to keep the law, which it doesn't do for us. They will begin fully conformed to the law. We are being conformed to the image of Christ. Any more comments or questions on that? That's obviously huge. Wow. No, but the land does. I'm baffled. I'm completely speechless. I don't know how to respond to that. Can you clarify the question a little bit more?

We're talking about the fruit of the spirit in our lives, and if they have the spirit in their lives, would the fruit of the spirit be manifested in them? The character of it will be different. because here's one of the passages that comes to mind. Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return with gladness and joy and sorrow and mourning, you know, turned away. Yes, there will be joy. It's on a different basis. So are they really, really joyful? Yes.

They're joyful because the Messiah is in their lands. The Messiah has reigned. They're joyful And they're seeing it with their very eyes. They're joyous because the Lord has made every Jew a priest to all the Gentiles on the earth, bringing them to the Messiah.

Is there joy yet? But it's on a different basis. There's a lot of external expression. For us, we can have the fruit of the Spirit in the midst of what on the outside looks like misery. Was Zion a joy? Will there be love? Will there be peace? Yes, there will be joy. In fact, he will be the Prince of Peace, right? But it will be spiritual, but it will have external expression and environmental characteristics that we don't operate by. We don't have the fruit of the Spirit being joy because our crops are really good and because everybody likes us. Tim Manette just sent me an email from last week. He said a friend of his is teaching over in Kuwait.

They take the flag of Israel and black it out in all the books that they distribute to people. They take a black marker and wipe out the name of Israel on all the textbooks and everything that they give to people. Can I help you? That's a complete reversal of what they experience now.

So obviously all this teaching about scraping off and teaching about what the law is about was incredibly applicable at the time. Because they needed that. They needed to know, let's get back to the real Mosaic law. Let's really get back to it. Versus moving forward and forward with this intricate system of more laws and more hedges and more protection.

And during the tribulation, obviously, there'll be this uprising of 144,000 Jewish male pure men who will run around the whole face of the globe sharing the gospel and teaching, teaching the Jews at that time and teaching people at that time. Will they still be making the sacrifices during the millennium?

Oh, yes. Yeah, it's explicitly. And it'll be, in fact, in some of them, just as it always was, it'll be memorial. The last half of Ezekiel fills it out for chapters. But why? Memorial sacrifices. just like we do the Lord's Table or anything like that, will be all the Passover, the Lord's Table.

The Passover obviously looks forward to Christ coming, and there's the sacrifices that go along with that. Hebrews tells us that blood never had the power to take away sin. So it was always memorial, it was always looking forward to Christ. It was all going towards that. We on the other side of the cross celebrate the Lord's table, both looking back to his first coming and looking forward to his next. And then in the millennial period, they'll be doing all those sacrifices looking back, two ages back at Christ's death on the cross. So it'll be a memorial in value. It won't, once again, won't have any magical, because they won't be sitting anyway.

And the temple will be huge. Yeah. It's one of the big criticisms of taking these passages literally. How could they ever make a temple that big? God's bigger. He can handle that. I'm not worried about that. That really doesn't pose much of a stumbling block for me.

So all the Jews will be like priests in terms of they will represent the Gentiles to God, but only the Levites will be doing the priestly duties in accordance with the law, Old Testament law. As wild as that is. All right, so, however, there's all this, kind of got pulled away, all this talk about teaching, and Christ is teaching them, and in the tribulation period, obviously, the Jews will be looking back on this sermon and saying, okay, so this is what it's all about. This is what the law's all about, getting themselves straight on what the law's about.

However, when we get to the Millennial Kingdom, the picture kind of changes, as we see in Jeremiah 31, 33. Would someone be so kind as to read that for us? They will not teach again each man his neighbor and each man his brother saying no more or I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more. They will not teach again each man his neighbor and each man his brother saying no the Lord where they will all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them declare the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more. Hebrew poetry.

So, based on that passage, what's the distinction between what we have here in the Sermon on the Mount and what Jeremiah is telling us about will be the case during the Messianic Kingdom and the Millennial Kingdom? Where's the distinction? Are you talking about the same thing? Let's do a show of hands. Who thinks that Jeremiah and Christ are talking about the same thing, same time? Who thinks they might be talking about different times?

I'm not looking. Okay, good. Oh, okay, that's fair. That's totally fair. Is Jeremiah talking about millennial kingdom or tribulation or some other time? Church, parentheses, time of Christ. And is Christ here talking about the same time or a different time? In the Sermon on the Mount. In the Sermon on the Mount, right. Is Christ here talking about, in the Sermon on the Mount, talking about something that's tribulation, something that's millennium, or something that's... We know... I'll give you a cheat, I'll give you a hint. Jeremiah is talking about the millennium. No question.

He's talking about the Messianic kingdom. So the question is, is Christ talking about the same thing or is he talking about a different thing? Is he addressing a different time and different problem? Yeah. Right. He's addressing a different... One of the things I think that Bud had asked about it was the passage that talks about, you know, the people who say, Lord, Lord. And he says, I never knew you. Right. And what does it say here? They will all know me. So there's a distinction right there. One is a distinction of people who thought they knew the Lord and don't. And here is the all-knowing. Wow.

So once again, when Christ is doing all this correction about the law, just the very nature of his discourse would make it not really millennially or applicable during the millennium. Now, when you say the all-knowing, is that everyone in the world, or just all the Jews? This is specific to the Jews. If we were to look at the context, it's specific to the Jews. And as we'll talk about a little bit further, but in the Millennial Kingdom, there will be disobedience. It won't be very long, well-played out, but there will be disobedience, and not presumably from among the Jews, but from among the nation.

Exactly. And then that's, yeah. Christ has defeated Satan and bound him or whatever, there will be disobedience? Right, because essentially during the Millennial Kingdom, you've got Satan's out of the picture, the three enemies of the believer, the flesh, the devil, and the world, right? Well, Satan will be completely out of the picture. The world will be under the control of the Messiah.

So all that's left, not for us as the church, our flesh will be dealt with and gone by then. For the Jews, they'll be indwelt with the Holy Spirit, their flesh will be dealt with. But amongst the Gentiles, all that will be left of those three enemies is the flesh. They'll still have to deal with.

So this last period will be kind of proof positive that even in the most perfect situation, humanity needs fully to rely on God, fully to rely on the Lord. So for them to be saved, per se, they'll in essence have to become Jews? I believe they'll just have to have faith. Get their ear low. I would imagine many will want to do that. Want to get close. I don't know if they'll be able to proselytize, will they? They would back in the day. Sure. I mean, they don't have to become Jews, but they will have to have faith. And obey the law.

And will Christ indwell them as he did the Jews? I mean, what's the mechanism? Because the only promise for indwelling of the Holy Spirit is for the Jews at that time. Yeah, but I mean, you don't have grace working then. You just have the law. So what happens to the Gentiles? I mean, do they get this? Once they become Jews or once they start obeying the law or having faith, does the Holy Spirit somehow write the law on their hearts? The Jews are not given that promise. Gentiles are not given the promise. So, I mean, obviously they're not just screwed. No. They're saved, but they will have to deal with things without the promise of the universal. Every person, all the time, presents Holy Spirit. They're saved. What do they have? Well, that's the same thing. Totally different. That's the same thing. even for the Jews.

They did not have the continuous universal promise of the Holy Spirit. So, generally speaking, in this church age, having the Holy Spirit is obviously synonymous with being saved. If you're saved now and you're in the church, you have the Holy Spirit. Done and done. But both prior to Christ's coming and now after, The Holy Spirit will not have that ministry in salvation. Also, the Holy Spirit's ministry to us will be unnecessary at some level during the millennium.

I mean, our seating with Christ and where he's seated in the heavenlies, he won't be seated in the heavenlies then. He'll be seated in the earthlies, in the Holy City, right? So, a lot of the ministries of the Holy Spirit that he's doing now, involving us as the Church, won't be applicable in the same way. We'll always be with him, we'll always be seated with him, but where he's at. So we had decided that everyone going into the millennium is a believer, correct? Right. That only those who are born then have to make that choice.

Well at the end of the millennium, when there's a rebellion, is that going to only be from the Gentiles? Or will the Jews, who all have those, will they not have an own sin nature? It doesn't say clearly, but the indications seem to point to the Gentiles being the source of the rebellion, similar to the Gentiles being the ones attacking the Jews at the end of the Tribulation. Gentiles during the Tribulation were in the city four squares, as we talked about.

I'm sorry, can you start over one more time? we talked about in Revelations, in the Gentiles here on earth, is that going to be our abode? Oh, a phenomenal question. I don't think it's terribly massively clear where we're going to be living, except to know that we'll be with Christ. With Christ. Period. First Thessalonians 4, forever we will be with the Lord. It won't be necessarily a city or anything. Presumably speaking, we won't necessarily be eating, sleeping, and I doubt we'll have a need for privacy. We'll hang out together, I guess.

So it looks like the rebellious ones will pretty much be just the Gentiles? The Gentiles will be the center of the rebellion because they are the ones who do not have the promised Holy Spirit universally and throughout. But what about the children born to the Jews? The children born to the Jews will still have a decision to potentially the possibility, but that's not explicitly laid out. What is clear is that the Gentiles will be the core of the rebellion. That's ultimately clear.

Marvelous. All right. Wow, that was a lot of fun. Let's review what we talked about with the Lord's Prayer, because I think the Lord's Prayer is, and maybe just because it was the part that I studied most intensely, but the Lord's Prayer, or what's commonly called the Lord's Prayer, is very anticipatory in nature. They're very much anticipating something. So as we read through it, we can just do a show of hands. Is it appropriate millennium or appropriate tribulation?

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name." Or, our Father who is in heaven, sorry, hallowed be your name. This term, hallowed be your name, as we talked about or discussed a couple weeks ago, was a request for the time when the Lord's name would be revered in all the earth. When no one would say anything else other than that His name is revered and holy and all this.

So, Christ encouraged them to pray for this time. However, it does not appear that the time has yet come. This prayer is said, already starts from the perspective of looking to a yet future time. So, just that first phrase, what do you think? Millennium or Tribulation? Tribulation. Okay. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

I'm always reminded of an illustration that Watchman Knee, talking to his friend, he said, his friend said, I pray every day that God would make me a Christian. I pray that God would make me a Christian. Every day I make it a part of my discipline that God would save me and make me. And he says, look at this cup. What would you say to this cup if this cup every day was praying, Lord, please make me a cup, please make me a cup? You'd say, you're a fool. You're already a cup.

Same thing right with us as believers. We don't need to pray that God would make us a Christian every day. If we've believed and come to faith, we're indwelled by the Holy Spirit, you're a Christian. It's done. You don't need to pray for that continually. Well, here again, we see this kind of pattern.

If we're already in the Millennial Kingdom, what's the use of praying your kingdom come? What would be the benefit of that? Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is something that will be happening, not might be happening, but will be happening in the Millennial Kingdom, and yet not in the Tribulation. So, what do you think? Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Millennium or Tribulation? Tribulation. Pretty clearly Tribulation. Absolutely. I mean, people really be able to direct their prayers to Jerusalem, right? Because he'll be there.

All right, so give us this day our daily bread. Obviously, this is on the insinuation that maybe there won't be enough. Just give us enough for today. Let us provide for us today. Obviously, we talked about the tax situation, the financial and economic situation in the time of Christ, very applicable. These were some heavily taxed folks. Give us today our daily bread? Yeah, that's about all you can expect for most people in that time. So it was applicable then.

In the Tribulation, obviously, we see it being very difficult to meet the needs for food and water. You see time and time again, first a third of the water is gone, then all of a sudden really none of the water is potable. You've got to drink it because otherwise you'll dehydrate and die, but it'll be killing you at the same time. So that'll be a distinct prayer during the Tribulation period.

But in the millennial kingdom, and I didn't put these quotes in there, so you'll have to look them up on your own, Isaiah 30, 23 and 26, 62, 8 and 9, and 65, 21 through 23, give us a pretty clear picture of what the food situation in the millennium will be. So what do you think? Give us this day our daily bread, the need to plea for daily sustenance. Millennium or kingdom? Or tribulation, sorry. Tribulation, okay. Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors. We talked about, once again, this verse was specifically talking about forgiving sins.

We noted this as the verse that is particularly inappropriate for us in the church. Because it seems to condition our forgiveness on whether or not we forgive. And obviously, that's brought out again later, which we won't go into today. So that's one of the ways we can specifically tell that this is not a church prayer. Because we're forgiven regardless of whether or not we forgive, right? We constantly hit the passage in Ephesians. So in discussion of that.

However, this will also be appropriate for the Jews of the Tribulation, as they will be under law. And the Tribulation period is a return to the plan of the ages laid out in the Old Testament. The timetable of the Tribulation and the kingdom is currently on hold for the Church Age, which Ephesians chapter 3 calls a mystery, something not revealed in the Old Testament, revealed after Christ ascension in the beginning of the Church. So if the Jews are there and have the law written on their heart, they're finally able to perfectly complete the law, fulfill the law, What is going to be their need to pray for the forgiveness of debts or for sins? They have now the ability to fully do it. Get every sacrifice. Oh, it's Sunday. I know exactly how far not to go. I don't know what they'll do about it. I mean, all the other specific things that we've set up, they'll be able to do it perfectly.

So why do they need to ask for forgiveness in the Millennial Kingdom? So, millennium or tribulation? Definitely tribulation, definitely not millennium. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Now, this we talked about was a specific tribulational verse anyway. Because we talk about this, lead us not into temptation as we kind of Christianize it, or put it in the church and say, Lord, I'm tempted to do these bad things, or think these bad things, or say these bad things. That's the context that we try to bring it into.

But for them, for the Jew, of this time, they knew there was a seven-year tribulation coming. There was no question that it was coming. And their prayer was, Lord, keep me strong, keep me steadfast during this horrible, horrible time when so many will turn away.

And I'm really shooting from the hip there, but I feel like it's only a third of the Jews who are alive during the tribulation are going to make it out and be believers. I figure it's about a third. So whatever concept they had of that, okay, well most of us aren't going to make it through that. Lord, please keep me from temptation. Let me be one of the ones who makes it through because I'm dedicated to you and dedicated to your law. Oh my. Really, actually, I didn't do as bad as you're thinking I did.

You have some questions? Let's jump ahead if there are some questions and address those. I think we have maybe just a few minutes, right? That's the first bell? Is that how that works? Okay, well let's do some questions. Read forward. If you have any questions specifically about it, because I feel like we've pretty well nailed down where this fits in the program of the ages, I guess you'd say. If you have any questions about that, now's definitely the time. The reconciling of the raptured and ones that come from millennium with Christ, the habitat and the way they live and how they relate to these people that are crushed and being worshipped. We're super people. We're in the body like Christ. And I just wonder how in the world that's recognized. There's not much touch on that. Is that still the remaining mystery? All of that?

As far as the tasks or the things that we'll be responsible to do, I can't speak too authoritatively on. We do know, obviously, we'll have a body like his, which the insinuation, obviously, not need sleep, not need food, walk through walls, which will be cool because I'm too lazy to get up for most sunrises. It'd be nice to just kind of be up and just see them all. So anyway, there's a lot of cool, you know, Cool advantages to that. As far as what the Lord will have us doing and how we'll be relating, whether we'll be helping him rule or doing tasks for him or just adoring him, I'm afraid I'm not really equipped to say. Do you have anything to add on that? how we always wonder what we're doing, because that's what we're all about here.

And it's interesting. We won't be human doings. We'll be human beings that will be resurrected. So I think if you look at it, the Lord will occupy our attention. And it won't be as if there's some need for us to do a bunch of stuff. Here's your to-do list. Make sure you get it done, or else. I just...

Scripture doesn't describe it, but what Scripture talks about is our presence with Him. Scripture talks about our relationship to Him. We'll be the bride of Christ and recognizable as that. People are going to look at us and say, hey, you're not normal.

And that's a good thing. You just walked across the swimming pool to get here. Just like Christ, could you eat? Yeah. Do you have to eat? No. There's apparently no need to sleep. Talk to the Lord anytime. And this is amazing. Perhaps one of the reasons why there's not lots of description is we may not be able to understand it. It may be also indescribable. Wow. So there's a lot to look forward to.

Since we talked about the sacrifices in the millennium, there were a lot of reasons why they were sacrificed under the law. But what about in the millennium? Will it just be a memorial looking back to Christ's sacrifice and not for any other purpose? You know, Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement, they'll be doing all those memorials. Insofar as doing the specific sacrifices for, you know, I sinned today, I've got to go kill a bull. Probably won't have to do that because I won't be sinning today. It would be kind of cool to be able to say that. No, I won't be sinning today.

Well, and remember they've got the Mosaic Law calls for seven feasts as well. So you've got all that going on. They'll have food for the feasts. That'll be new. And wonderful. Yeah. So yeah, absolutely, there'll be some that are maybe a little bit outmoded. But most will be done. All right. If you have any questions, I'm sure Vern will be here long after.

Let's pray real quickly. Heavenly Father, we praise you for these miraculous promises that you've given us and the miraculous promises that you've given the Jews. And we praise you that you are good to your word and you are faithful. Lord, that you don't change your mind and you don't change your plan or your program. Lord, as you reveal it to us, we can have faith that you will do what you say. We praise you that what we're looking forward to, Lord, is undoubtedly beyond description. And Lord, that's your promise to us that we were not worthy, that we were not able to do it ourselves. We praise you and we thank you for this time when we can when we can glorify you and worship you for all that you've done in Jesus name. Amen.