Unfathomable Riches of Christ - The Identification Truths: The Front Door - Part 2
Vern Peterman · Feb 4, 2018
Unfathomable Riches of Christ, No. 04
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926198292167

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Now Randy Erskine covered Part 1 and just kind of the big picture. This unfathomable riches, this comes out of a phrase from the Apostle Paul in Ephesians Chapter 3, the unfathomable riches of Christ. It is something that has been summarized by Louis Sperry Schaeffer And then that got boiled down by Hampton Keithley III, who's home with the Lord now. Both Mike and I knew him in some way or another. But he's home with the Lord now. But before he went home, Nancy got permission to boil it down even further.

So that's one that we've made available. As a matter of fact, it's available for last week's message. It's available. You can download it off the website. And also, they've had some copies. They're in print. And so that's kind of the starting point. Various other people have looked at these and kind of developed the same thing in different forms.

The particular approach that we're going to be using is that the identification truths for Church-aged believers is the front end. is the entry door, if you will, into the unfathomable riches of Christ, which you see, for example, about three dozen times in the book of Ephesians. You see, as we'll soon discover here, in Christ, in him, in the beloved, in whom. So all those in statements are indications And Randy covered some other expressions, for example, joined to.

That's used in Romans chapter 7 verse 4. So in here, so one of the ways the truth is conveyed is that the believer is in Christ as opposed to remaining in Adam. Now what difference does that make that you're in Christ as opposed to in Adam? Does it make a difference? Now I see heads nodding, okay. But that's good. Alright, so in what ways would you say it makes a difference? What's the difference between in Adam and in Christ? In Adam you're not a believer. You're not. Okay, not a believer. Yeah, you're not. You don't have the redemption. Okay, yeah.

So one of the things we point out, and will continue to point out, is Ephesians 1.7 and Colossians 1.14.

In Him, in Christ, we have the redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And so if you're not in Christ, you're in Adam, and you have the redemption. Do you have the forgiveness of sinners? No. So it is a complete opposite. So the one who has placed his faith in Christ for salvation is in Christ, meaning that the believer has been placed by God entirely in Christ.

So can I do anything to improve my stance and odds in Christ? Can I say, well, that guy over there, he's more in Christ than I am. No. No, that's not true, is it? Let's just ask this. Was the Apostle Paul more in Christ than you are as a believer? No. No, that's really amazing.

In 1 Peter chapter 3, Peter writes to the husbands, and he says, live with your wives in an understanding way, recognizing the women as a weaker vessel, but, he says, show them honor as joint heirs of the grace of life. Everything that is true of us, all these unfathomable riches, are as true for the wife as for the husband, or as true for the believer who is very young, as well as the believer who has been around a while. So all these things are true of the believer regardless of chronological age, regardless of spiritual age. So, there's nothing we do to, like, I can't go around and say, well, I have a little button here, and that says that I have enhanced in Christ-ness. Right? Can I say that? No, there isn't anything, because God does it all, and what we're talking about, this unfathomable riches, is true of every single believer and not in some grayscale or degree. And it's God's accomplishment. All right, so it says, spiritually speaking, so as to share an identity with him. What do we mean by share an identity with him?

And his likeness. OK, so that's one we actually talked about last year. Is there a process of us being made into his likeness? Is there a process of us being made into the likeness of Christ? Yes. As a matter of fact, we said last year that there were actually two. Being conformed and being transformed are two parallel processes. that are both in the direction of being made like Christ. So there are processes, right, that are still taking place. What we're talking about here, however, is something that isn't a process, it's something accomplished when. When you believe, what happened? Yeah, you believed and all of a sudden all these things that we're looking at here are instantly true.

And so to share an identity, does that mean I am precisely exactly the same as Christ and nobody can tell the difference? Okay. Now I see heads shaking, which is good. So if it doesn't mean exactly, totally identical, just so much so that you can't tell the difference, What does it mean to share an identity with Him? In what ways do we share an identity with Christ? First of all, it's spiritual, right?

So each of us comes in here and we say, well, that looks like this person and this other person looks like that person. On the outside, we look at it and say, well, that's this individual. It's funny how that changes over time. But this identity that we have is true of us from the moment we believe, and God did it all.

So if we are not precise clones of Christ so much that people can't tell the difference, how would you describe the relationship, the family relationship that we have to Christ? We're in Christ as He is in us. So we are in Christ. Are we in Christ in everything with regards to him?

So one thing is it does not include the deity. So that's key. We don't suddenly become deities. And by the way, that's something that both the Roman Catholic Catechism and the Orthodox churches mistake. Mormons also make that mistake. So you'll have various parts of Christendom make that mistake. We do not share his deity. And what else?

We share in his history, correct? And we'll talk more about that. We share in his history, but do we share, like when Jesus was born of Mary in Bethlehem, do we share in that? No. When Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee in the boat with the disciples after feeding the 4,000, do we share in that? No. So what are the things that we share a history in in Christ?

Starting with his crucifixion and death. It's burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. And so we're going to talk about the first parts of that today and then finish it up next time. So we share a history with him in each of these aspects in which he has been identified.

OK, so then, there isn't the slightest indication in scripture that this varies over time. We talked about processes in the middle of last year, but this being in Christ is not something that varies over time. God doesn't change that, and we can't change it. It doesn't vary.

Let's look at the part in the middle of page 1, with, together with, and united. So these terms tell of how we were identified with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating in the heavenlies. So as a number of verses testify, and we give some examples. Romans 6, 4 through 6, we put in there A and B because that's the first two parts, right?

Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death. And by the way, is that a good thing? Yes, right? Baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be united with him in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old self, and I would say that actually the King James, the new King James, old man, and I've even seen it translated probably better, old person, It would be better than the term self.

So, in Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ.

Now, is Paul talking about himself? Is he just talking about himself? I see heads shaking. Yes? No? Is he talking about himself or not? He's talking about himself, but not only himself. He's using himself as an example. He's using himself for emphasis in order to personalize it. So what you have here, he says, I have been crucified with Christ not to say he's the only one who has, but to personalize it. And so, can we read those words and say the same thing and consider it true of ourselves?

Yeah, that's the intent. I, put your name in there, have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, as a matter of fact I could expand that a bit, it's no longer I who do the living. But Christ does the living in me, Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh—by the way, that word flesh, does that always mean the same thing? No, it doesn't. In fact, it means about a half-dozen different things depending on the context. So this is not living in the flesh meaning the sin nature in action, but this is simply in reference to the body. I live in this body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.

So this starts off with, I've been crucified, now how can Christ do the living in me? Is my identification with him in crucifixion the only truth that's represented there? So what else is happening there? If Christ is doing the living in me, was I only crucified with him? For him to do the living through me, it means that he has to have been resurrected as well, right?

And then Ephesians 2, 4-6, but God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, and this will go into things we won't cover in detail today, but made us alive together with Christ, for by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

So the top of page two, let's work our way through some of the consequences of being identified. So we'll be looking at what are the consequences, what's the outcome from that? We look at the fact of having been crucified with Christ, what are the consequences? We look at the fact of having been crucified with Christ, what does that mean in terms of the outcome?

So these are absolutely true of us in our position. What position are you in now, physically? You're sitting, except for me, I'm standing up. But, that can change, can't it? Spiritually, though, your position, as we use the term, doesn't change, can't change. So then we see several New Testament passages say we are identified with Christ and His death. And if we are identified with Christ and His death, how important is that?

Could God just kind of skip it? That's very important. You're saying it's very important. Could God skip it? No. And why not? Couldn't God just say, you know, I don't think I'll do that part work. I'll just do it with half of them. Is there any reason why that could be skipped over or done selectively?

So you get out of your own life into your new? Yeah. Yeah. In other words, a death, a complete death, has to happen. And can I swap? Okay, died. buried, raised, ascended, and seated. Can I swap orders? Sequence? I can't swap a sequence and have it mean the same thing. So having been crucified with him is the first thing, and that's first on purpose. And it's not just, hey, I think I'll be resurrected, and then I'll be crucified, and then I'll be ascended. You can't mix them up. The sequence is essential, and those five things are all five of them essential. Okay, so it's as though the Roman soldiers that drove the nails and the crowd that surrounded Christ were not aware that every believer from the day of Pentecost to the day of the rapture was crucified with Christ.

That's one of the reasons for the Apostle Paul writing in Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ. It's funny, when I was over in Africa, they were very puzzled by that. He says, here Paul gets talking about himself. How come he's talking about himself? OK, why is he doing that? He's wanting people to personalize it. And he's wanting for people to see it individually. Thank you.

So then, the first point there, the sins of the entire world for all time, everyone on the planet, from Adam to the last one born in the present earth, were placed upon Christ. And then, every person who has believed or will believe from Acts 2 to the rapture was there with Christ at his crucifixion and crucified with him. The old man, all of whom we were in Adam, of each of us who believed, was crucified there that day.

Does anybody get an exception? I get a special ticket. An exemption? Nope. And you wouldn't want it, right? Because the crucifixion is not accidental, but it was very intentional and purposeful, enough so that every single believer, from the day of Pentecost to the rapture, was identified with Christ's crucifixion. So ponder this.

Can you think of the names of some of the people who were watching Christ be crucified? Were they also identified with him at that moment, even if they didn't understand that? Now, so let's take for example, who was there? We see the Apostle John and Mary watching.

Can you imagine? Here's Mary who bore him, and it says in Acts chapter 1 that she was still around. So although she is not named, it's presumed that she lived until a few days later to the day of Pentecost. Imagine learning later, and it's possible she didn't know this at the time, but imagine learning later, oh, that that child that I bore, and I was so distressed at his death, I was identified with him at his death. Can you imagine learning that? What a thing to ponder. Intensified meaning to Mary, did you know? This is a rabbit trail, but I'll forget to ask you later. I love rabbit trails.

Was John's mother a sister of Mary? John's mother a sister of Mary? I read that they were cousins. I would say as much as we can make connection, possible relatives. In some instances it becomes difficult, and here's one reason why. A study, I talked about the ossuary or bone boxes, and a study of the names on the bone boxes, one in every five women in Israel was named Mary. So it's like, which one is this, which one is that, and that's why you'll see even terms like the other Mary, right? Just try to make some differentiation.

But to me that added another reason why Jesus may have given his mother to John. Yeah, that is possible, and there's probably a few different reasons for that. One is because at that particular moment, The other brothers did not believe, and in fact, deeply, deeply resented Christ, even to the point of being hateful. And so his passing on the care of Mary was not something that the brothers at that moment would even remotely accept.

Thank you. Yeah. So then we see there. So, in the third point, the law was crucified there, nailed to the cross as well, along with the debt note that went with it. The law was crucified there, nailed to the cross as well, along with the debt note that went with it. Something we have been and will be dealing with in the passage of Acts 15.

Does the fact that the law was nailed there all of a sudden mean that no morality matters anymore? It doesn't, right? So what is of great importance in scripture is how morality gets lived out. It isn't suddenly, oh, murder is just fine. Stealing is just great. It's not that suddenly morality goes out the window. How life gets lived is of immense importance.

So Galatians 2.19, we die to the law.

Galatians 2.20, who does the living? Christ. Does he have a problem living a moral life? No, he doesn't need the law. So this is a very important point. And a good deal of Christendom does not understand that. It's not a matter of just saying, oh, now morality doesn't matter anymore because they don't have the law. It's a matter of saying, here's how morality gets lived out.

So, yes, each of us who believes was with Christ being crucified with him on that hill called Golgotha. So there are three summary outcomes in the identification with Christ's crucifixion that God caused to take place that day. So they're all three in the form of died to, that is, died in relationship to, which expresses the spiritual separation that took place at the cross. So these outcomes are, one, the believer died in relationship to the sin, which as we will see in the group studying downstairs, thus in nature, right?

And the reason we arrive at that is not from looking up the words in the dictionary, you know, thus in, and put that together and make thus in nature, it's because progressively from Romans 5 into Romans chapter 8, the sin nature keeps doing more things. It has an inclination to think and to act that are described in Romans 5 through 8. Which means a believer is no longer an absolute slave to the sin. One of the things that happens in electric and electronic circuits, things of that sort, is we wire things in. Sometimes we wire things in with switches, and other times we just wire what's called hardwired.

No switches, just completely connected. And here's an example. In houses around here where they have, say, radon issues or moisture issues, they will have a motor with a fan that is just simply hardwired into the circuitry. And there isn't a turn it off or turn it on, it's just running all the time. This is the way the sin nature operates in the unbeliever. It's just running all the time. It's wired in that way. No switches, no option. If a person says, well I don't want to do that. No, sorry. It is hardwired. It is wired without any option to disconnect in the unbeliever.

So the believer is no longer an absolute slave to the sin nature as the unbeliever is. So the flesh is the expression of the sin, or the sin nature, through the earthly body. So what you see is the term flesh, significantly used in Galatians chapter 5, is the sin nature as it operates through the body. Number two, the believer died in relationship to the law of Moses.

In any principle of law, So let's ask this question. How many Jews do we have in the room? And I put the hand up, not because I'm Jewish. No Jews in the room, right? So who was the Law of Moses given to? To the Jews. Specifically to the nation of Jews. It was not given to the Gentiles. As a matter of fact, that becomes the issue here in Acts 15 that we look at. that the law of Moses was not given to the Gentile. It was given exclusively to the Jews.

As a matter of fact, there's an awful lot of it that a Gentile just can't even take on. Like, which tribe are you in? Well, none of them. Well, then those laws fall out, right? You're not going to be a priest, you're not going to be a Levite, you're not going to be of the line of Judah, which is the line of kings, just nothing. So you can't be any of those. So the law doesn't even apply to the Gentiles just in those regards. But the law of Moses, all 613, not intended for the Gentile.

And that's in fact the issue in Acts 15, isn't it? That what the law-favoring people were saying was, well, the Gentiles have to essentially be converted into Jews. Or else they can't be saved. How about that? You've got to be converted to a Jew to be saved. That was what they were saying. The apostles and the leaders of the founding church there in Jerusalem said, no, we're not going to go there.

So as we look at this, died in relationship to the Law of Moses, we actually didn't die in relationship to the Law of Moses if we're not Jews. But we dive to the principle of law. The principle of law is spelled out in Romans chapter 2. This is the Gentiles and the principle of law. So let's ask one question. Here's Adam. He's in the garden. Is he under the principle of law or the principle of grace? How many laws do you have?

One. Don't eat that tree. Eat anything else, but not that. Just one. So he's under the principle of law. How many laws does it take to be under the principle of law? One. Isn't that something? That law is that immense. Grace has to be complete and total in order to be under the principle of grace. The law of Moses says multiple times that the Lord is gracious. So it is already a mixture of law and grace. God is not proposing for the church to have another mixture of law and grace.

Stan? How would you define principle? Very good question. We use the word principle and I say, wait a minute, is that that guy down at the office at school? No, not that one. So a principle is either a fundamental truth, or the way things work, or both. Get that in your head. So, a fundamental truth, the way things work, or both. So, let's take something very observable and basic. One of the principles of living here on planet Earth is that you breathe the atmosphere. Is that the way things work? Yes. Yep. Is that a fundamental truth? Yes. Yep. So that's a principle that is the way things work and a fundamental truth if you're going to live here on planet Earth. Can you do the same on the moon? No, I just can't go there on the moon and expect to have the same thing operate. Why? That's not the way things work on the moon.

And that's fundamentally true. So before they sent people there, they figured that out. Okay, so any principle of law, this means no part of the law of Moses is applicable as the law of the believer who is part of the body of Christ, or any other principle of law as a way of doing it. Now, when we say no principle of law, does that mean all of a sudden, hey, nothing matters anymore? Any morality, you know, is just optional. The point is, Job was written before the law ever existed, and he was blameless, so there was a requirement. So he was blameless, and he wasn't under the law of Moses, certainly.

Here are all the people who became believers on the day of Pentecost. How many was that, do you remember? 3,000 became believers. Were they Jews, Gentiles? Jews. From anything that we know, from whatever is written, Jews. If Gentiles were included, we have no indication of that. So here are these 3,000 Jews. They had been under the Law of Moses. Now, it would take them a while to learn that they were no longer under law, but from that very day, they were positionally separated from the Law of Moses. So, then finally, number three, the believer died in relationship to the world and its basic principles.

So when we say the world, what does that mean? The world system, right? I haven't died to the world yet. Eventually that will happen one way or another, but I haven't died to the world physically yet. But when we say the world, by this we mean the cosmos, the world system.

Ephesians 2 verses 1 through 3 describes that world system and how it operates very well. When you say basic principles, remember what a principle is? It's a fundamental truth for the way things work, or both. And so, does the world have a way that it works? It certainly does. The world has a way that it works.

And by the way, what does the world want to do to you? Make you politically correct. Yes, the world wants to press you into its mold and it has various pressures to do that. Here's again, Romans 12, 1 and 2 describes that pressure and what God intends as an alternate.

So the believer died in relationship to the world and its basic principles are the fundamental truths of the world and the way the world works. And scripture, by the way, tells you the fundamental truths about the world and the way the world works, including political correctness. So these no longer have a claim on the believer.

So let's look at this, let's kind of back our way through that. Can a believer work in cooperation with and under the control of the sin nature? Yes. So that can be the case. And so we're not saying that all of a sudden it's locked in, right? But rather, we're talking about our position. We'll talk more as we go on about position and condition.

The believer died in relationship to the law of Moses or the principle of law. Does that mean that the law of Moses or the principle of law just go away? No, it does not. We die in relationship to those things. It doesn't mean that those things go away any more than the sin nature just goes away. And then finally, the believer died in relationship to the world. When he died in relationship to the world, it doesn't make the world go away. We die in relationship to it.

So let's look at the top of page three. So we have there, there's a diagram that helps us look at in Adam, before faith in Christ, and in Christ, after faith in Christ. So we have the cross there as not only reality, but one side versus the other. In Adam, before faith in Christ, a person is separated from Christ and joined to the sin, the sin nature, the principle of law, and the world. In faith, After faith in Christ, in Christ, he is joined to Christ. And by the way, that word for joined is the same word as married in the prior verse. That's something else we're going to talk about. So joined to Christ, separated from the sin nature, separated from the principle of law, and separated from the world. So we have a complete switch in Adam and in Christ. So it is important to see that our death with Christ on the cross does not terminate or annihilate the sin, the sin nature, the law, or the world. It doesn't make any of those go away.

By the way, wouldn't that be easier? How about if God just said, look, I'm just going to make the sin nature, if you believe the sin nature is just going to go away, and there's no principle of law, and there's no world, I'm just going to get rid of those problems for you, and life will be a whole lot easier, right? So why doesn't God just do that?

You'd have to kill us physically. Yes, physically we're still here, and these things continue to exist and we continue to have to deal with. And so it is because we are physically here in these bodies and in this world that these things still exist even though we've died in relationship to them. Okay, so what we see then is we've been buried, raised, and on Page 4. Rays has continued on.

So we've been buried with Christ. Why the burial? Why doesn't God just say, look, Christ died on the cross and we're just going to pull him off of there and have him resurrected and we're done. Enough of this burial stuff. Here, Nicodemus spent a lot of money to bury Christ with a hundred pounds of burial goods. Do you realize that that was so rare? It was a king's burial to have that much weight in burial cloth and aloes and all the spices and everything. That was, for common people, an unheard of weight of burial materials. Why didn't God just bypass that whole thing? Take Christ down off the cross.

He's dead, isn't he? And resurrect him right there. Why doesn't that happen? It's an important step in the process because if he had just been resurrected before the burial, I think he could have thought that he didn't really die. Yeah, no, it could be, well, he must have just sort of swooned and, you know, he's come back and, you know, isn't it nice that he recovered? Yeah, it would be easy for people to just think that, you know. Yeah, Stan? It primarily sets him apart as a very unique and one-of-a-kind situation. Okay, so here he is crucified and buried Certainly buried under unique circumstances. So being buried is certifying, yes, he truly is dead. He truly is dead.

We didn't just go through a sort of, okay, he died and just kind of recovered pretty well. We thought he died, but he recovered pretty well as soon as we took the nails out and got him off the cross. That's not how it happened. The burial was a certification that he did, in fact, die. And we most certainly, and that's one way to put it, in fact, or most certainly, we most certainly were buried with him, certifying that we, in fact, died too. We weren't crucified with Christ and then just suddenly recovered.

It does happen that people medically die and then come back to life. It does happen that people look like they're goners and then recover. I can think of several different instances where that occurred to people, both people I've known personally as well as reading about things.

But not if it had been buried for three days. But not if buried for three days, yeah. Especially not in a tomb with a large stone, because it was a large stone, Scripture specifies that. A large stone with a hundred pounds of burial material all wrapped around it. That's not something you just recover from, right?

So most definitely, and also one more thing, the centurion told Pilate what about Jesus? That he was really dead. That Pilate would not grant permission until the centurion said, yep, he's really dead. He stuck a sword in his side. Yep, put the spear, you mean, in his side, put the spear in his side and what came out? the blood and water separated, things had already gotten to a place, he was definitely dead. He didn't put it in and blood came running out as blood and water separated.

And then we have finally then being raised with him, being resurrected with him, and so that being resurrected with Him, why is that important? How about if God just says, well you've been crucified and buried and that's good enough. Is it good enough? No, it's not. And so it is absolutely essential that we are raised with Him.

Ephesians 1, 18-23 It is a massive and unparalleled magnitude of that resurrection life. So I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, literally having been enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward, and actually into, us who believe. Surpassing greatness. Why the word surpassing in there?

How about just barely adequate greatness? Skimpy greatness? Wimpy greatness? Any of that? No, so this is the surpassing power, and when I say surpassing, To anglicize it, hyperbolo is to superthrow or overthrow. So it's way over the top greatness. So it's not wimpy skimpy greatness. It's not just a tad bit. It is way over the top greatness. To who? To us. You. Okay, so think about it.

Here's the resurrection of Christ. How powerful was that? It's the greatest expression of power ever, right? And that same power... Yeah, so if you were to look at it, what are some things we look at as, boy, this is really powerful. This is bigger than that. It is of immense magnitude and it is to us who believe. And what did we do? Did we believe in some sort of super belief? Not really, no. So working out of the strength of his might, which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him in his right hand in the heavenly places.

So we'll talk about that more next time. Above all, rule and authority and power and dominion, every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. By the way, this age, when did this age start? The one we're in now. In a cult. The church age, yes. So certainly in the church age, the language that both Paul and Jesus use actually rather consistently. This age is the age, when he's talking like this, this age is talking about the age from the time Adam fell until the Messiah comes. The age to come is when the Messiah comes and reigns on earth.

So we've got this age and the age to come. not only in this age, but also in the one to come, the one to come being the Millennial Kingdom age, the Messiah's age. So he put all things in subjection under his feet, whose feet? He gave him his head over all things in the church, which is his body. The fullness of him fills all in all. So we will look next time at ascension and seating, because this begins to get there, but it's not the full expression of it. So the surpassing greatness of the power of Christ's resurrection is the measure of the magnitude of that new life that was not just enacted at that past point in time, but is being right now directed into the life of each believer.

So how do you know that? Do you feel like you've drunk about 20 cups of coffee all at once? How do we know that this is true? Scripture. By Scripture. It's faith in the facts, not because... I mean, sometimes, have you ever felt sleepy? Ever felt like, boy, you know, I'm kind of tired. Right? You may not feel all sorts of energetic, but spiritually speaking, that's there. Right? Spiritually speaking, that's there. And so we believe it based on what scripture lays out. Stan?

Well, I was going to say, that's why when I think about the fact that he went up with his body, That's physical, and yet everything else we're talking about, like rule of authority, power, dominion, and all the rest of this is spiritual. So that adds a physical component to what seems like everything else being spiritual. It's hard for me to conceive of a physical body in heaven at this point in time, along with all the other spiritual aspects of what scripture is talking about. Yeah, it's important for us to think, okay, what is spiritually true, and then what is physically true, right? And both of those are reality. Both of those are reality. And what's he talking about at any point in time here in Scripture, right? So, let's pray, and we'll continue on next week.

What did you define as the present age? From when Messiah came until... From the time Adam sinned, and this is the language of both Jesus and Paul, is the present age is the time from when Adam fell until Messiah comes. That's the present age. Yeah, and Paul even expands that in Galatians, the present evil age, right? And it's one of the reasons we know it's not just the church age, although there is significance to that, right?

But this is the present evil age, which started when Adam fell. By the way, before things get better, what are they going to be? Worse. And evil will be definitely the characteristic of the end of this present evil age. The Antichrist will look like he's really got things under control. until the end, when he isn't. He doesn't. He never does.

So the present age, the present evil age, this age, those are the terms that you'll see in scripture, and then the age to come, the Messiah's age, beginning when Christ returns, ending the present evil age. That's a very good question in terms of getting it clear. So those are terms that Jesus uses and Paul, and they have some variation in the way they express that. It's like here, this age, in Galatians, the present evil age, and then the age to come, the Messiah's age, when Christ comes again and rules on earth. King of the Jews and King of Kings and Lord of Lords over the Gentile nations. The age to come. So basically it's the period of sin.

Yes, and so will sin be completely out of the picture when Christ comes to reign again? Not completely, right? There will be a substantial restoration of things, but sin will not be out of the picture entirely until this present heavens and earth is done. But at that point, during that time, Satan will be bound, and there will be no world system because Christ will be at the head of the ruling of the earth. No world system. So if our three enemies are the world, the flesh, and the devil, you won't have the world, you won't have the devil, you still have the flesh, which is the sin nature in operation through the body.

Let's pray, because we've run out of time. Thank you, Lord, for what you've made clear in your word. Thank you that as we continue through these dear and precious truths, these unfathomable riches, you've revealed marvelous and wonderful things for us. We certainly recognize that these riches are unfathomable, but we also don't want to just pass on exploring the depths of them. We ask that you would guide and lead us through it as we walk our way through these passages. So we just pray for the rest of our time today together as a church body. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.