Grace Bible Church
Pastor Robert R. McLaughlin
Rebroadcast Date: 11/16/2021
Original Air Date: 10/30/2016
Dispensation = The Law; Rom 3:19-20.
Opening Event = Israel promises to keep the Law;
Man's Responsibility = Believe and Obey;
Man's Failure = The Law was broken repeatedly-
Man's Tendency = Away from God; Dan 9:4-16.
Closing Event = Man's Judgment -
Personal Salvation; By Grace through Faith-the blood of the Lamb.
It all began the day that they left Egypt.
- A dispensation is a period of time in human history expressed in terms of divine revelation.
- Dispensation is a technical theological term used primarily by the apostle Paul in the presentation of the mystery doctrine of this Church-Age.
- Dispensations are divine categories of human history; therefore, both the divine outline and the divine interpretation of human history.
- Dispensations are the vehicle by which believers living at a specific time in history can orient to God's will, plan, and purpose for their lives.
- The most difficult and subtle plan to learn by a believer is found in the Church-age where the predesigned plan of God is the protocol or the modus operandi (method of operation) for the Church-age.
OT believers were under the ritual plan of God.
TLJC was under the incarnation plan of God.
Every CA believer is under the PPOG with emphasis on the mystery doctrine of the Church-age.
1CO 2:7 but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory;
- A dispensation is defined traditionally as a period of time during which a particular revelation of God's mind and God's will is active and during which time man is tested as to his obedience to that specific manifestation of God's will, purpose, and plan.
Egypt represents a type of the world or the cosmic system.
The Jews or Israel represent a picture of the believer's soul.
The first major problem that the Jews faced which was fear and panic.
ROM 14:23 But he who doubts is condemned and whatever is not from faith is sin.
This principle explains why it is so difficult for many believers when they face disaster, it is the suddenness of it all.
The suddenness intensifies disaster and hinders the believer from concentration on promises and on bible doctrine which has been learned in Bible class under the concept of epignosis.
This fear is designed to destroy what you have learned so that the rate of learning gives way to the rate of forgetting.
Deu 31:6 Be strong and of courageous, do not be afraid because of them, for the lord your god is the one who goes with you, he will not fail you nor forsake you.
******* SAM shield *******
Because they refused to operate in the faith-rest drill, this generation of Jews, with a few exceptions, they were excluded from ever setting foot into the promise land.
It wasn't a matter of their salvation but the fact that they could not handle stress, they could not handle pressure.
They had one major problem which led to many more - fear.
1JO 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected or matured in love.
Plague 1 — Water was turned into blood; fish died;
Plague 2 — frogs.
Plagues 3 and 4 — Flies, biting insects and wild animals.
Plagues 5 and 6 — Diseased livestock and boils.
Plague 7 — Thunder Storms - fiery hail.
Plague 8 — Locusts.
Plague 9 — Darkness for three days.
Plague 10 --- Death of Firstborn
ISA 5:4 "What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?
Adversity is in evitable, stress is optional.
The reason is that so many believers are just not in the spiritual condition to pick up and use the shield of faith.
Psa 56:3 "When I am afraid I will trust in you.
Trust = batach - the word for body slamming or casting all your worries upon the Lord.
True faith always selects something that is stronger than the problems that one faces.
The faith itself is nothing except for the fact that faith itself reaches out and selects a promise from God or better yet, a doctrine to handle the stress.
Doctrine resident in the soul is the faith to have a large area from which to draw.
The suddenness of adversity and even from prosperity, or what appears to be prosperity, causes many believers stress.
The Jews have just been freed from slavery and therefore their big problem is gone.
As they move out from Egypt and they are rejoicing and filled with all kinds of happiness and then all of a sudden a situation filled with a lot of stress comes along.
They wanted to return to slavery even though they had the greatest leader in all of human history leading them.
They would rather be slaves to Egypt (world) then to be free in the desert.
Israel is often a perfect picture of our own soul.
For many believers even today, they do not want freedom, they want security.
The solution is found in the faith-rest drill as a problem solving device.
***** Sam --- use the chart you made on Friday*****
- A sudden disaster, sudden stress.
- Hopeless situation.
This is the first time since the Jews were delivered from the slavery that they needed to use the shield of faith which Moses had been teaching them.
The suddenness of this thing puts them right into panic palace.
The suddenness of the situation has caused them to become emotional and forget all those hours and hours in Bible class.
The rate of forgetting exceeds the rate of learning.
We have at least three exceptions at this time.
Moses, Joshua, and Caleb.
Moses continued to concentrate on doctrine in this disastrous situation while the majority of his congregation is also guilty of the blackout of the soul.
1CO 11:19 For there must also be factions among you, in order that those who are approved may have become evident among you.
The word for looked is the Qal imperfect of the Hebrew verb nasa which means that they kept on staring.
They did not look unto Christ, instead they concentrated on Pharaoh's army.
Heb 12:2 "Looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
By looking I mean to concentrate on Him.
They were concentrating but they were concentrating on Pharaoh's army, they completely forgot the grace of God and the power of God and the marvelous deliverance that they had experienced just a week or so before.
They concentrated on the problem rather than the solution.
"They began to gripe and complain."
REV 12:10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night.
Because the who questions these things, salvation, power, and authority, has come because the who accuses them before our God day and night was cast out of heaven.
If you are in a position of authority, and all of you are in some way because you have authority over your own soul, you better learn to handle accusations because they will come your way, one way or another.
Griping and complaining Christians are not going to be able to handle the shield of faith.
We concentrate on the circumstances of pressure rather than the principles of doctrine.
One of the main distractions in time of pressure is mentioned in verse 10.....emotion.
Prin-People who concentrate on the problem and human viewpoint, always lose out.