Aug 26 2 Guys and a Bible

Good evening, and welcome to Two Guys and a Bible. I am William Bell, and tonight Don Preston is not going to be with us because he is having some medical issues that he informed me of today. As a matter of fact, I was going to my post-op operation, not operation, but post-op visit, and about that time I received a message that he was having some medical complications and was in need of some attention for a condition that he seems to be struggling with, and so that's the reason why he isn't here. I think also that he was attempting to have Larry Siegel to join me tonight, but I haven't heard from Larry, so I'm not sure if Larry got the message. I just sent him a link not long ago, and I'm not sure whether Larry will be joining us tonight, but if not, we certainly look forward to studying with you on this subject tonight. As we said, Don Preston is having some medical issues, and we asked for your prayers on his behalf. He seemed that it might be either painful or serious or both, so at any rate, whatever the situation is, we want to keep him in our prayers. Also, I want to make mention of the fact, and this is some good news, that we have just came in today as well. I received a phone call from a gentleman out in the California area, and he mentioned that he had been listening to some of the All Things Fulfilled studies on the YouTube channel, and had been following that for some time, and that he had written actually about three books. He's a former dispensationalist, and it's always encouraging when you hear from these gentlemen who are outside, and in terms of their understanding, and then they, along the way, are able to grasp these concepts and then make a change, what I would consider to be a relatively drastic change, you might say, from where they were. It's like a 180-degree turn in some ways, even though many of the things and concepts they are familiar with, but they understand a different way of viewing them, and so that has led him into a journey of preterism, and he wanted to share some of his information with me. I was actually on my way out to the doctor at the time that he called, but we did have enough conversation to kind of greet and meet and greet, so to speak, over the phone, and sounds like a very pleasant guy. I'm looking forward to meeting and talking with him more by phone, and possibly, you know, one day we'll hopefully meet in person, but that's a, you know, that's more positive news, and we always like to hear that kind of information as we are continuing to study and continuing to spread the news. One other thing I will say, there's a gentleman who sent me another podcast from Gary DeMar and Kim Burgess, and of course, you know, Gary DeMar has his own podcast, and I was rather thrilled to hear the content of what they were discussing, which was 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. I don't know how old that broadcast is, but I did get a chance to listen to it, and was quite both pleased and intrigued that the focus of it was 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, and to see them dealing with those concepts, you know, for a long time. We have, in some way, tried to encourage Gary DeMar to look at these things from a different perspective, and, you know, we saw him in the driver's seat on the podcast, so to speak, trying to encourage other people to look at it from this perspective, and thanks to Mike Sullivan, who had done a lot of the background research for Gary on that subject matter, and that certainly has had an important underpinning and undergirding for the foundations that they're looking at now, and I think it's just going to be that much more important. I'm sure it's not making any of the enemies of the fulfilled view of eschatology happy that you have men of such caliber who are beginning to understand and beginning to teach and express these things, especially someone with the influence and the experience of Gary DeMar. You know, he has a wide influence on people with his ministry and has, over the years, been helpful in so many ways, and so many people know who he is, etc. Now, I don't know where they are totally in terms of their views, but to see the direction that they're going, at least on 1 Thessalonians 4, was quite revealing and I appreciate it very much. One of those things was his correlations, Ken Burgess's correlations with Exodus 19, and so many other concepts about the kingdom, and as they discuss those things related to the air, all of the things that, you know, we've been saying over time, they've been delving into, and so that was excellent. It was very, very good. So that's pretty much, you know, what I have as far as some preliminary announcements for you tonight. I hadn't really thought very much about what I would delve into for the study because I was expecting Larry to be here and, of course, you know, I just got the opportunity at the last minute, but we have been discussing the promise of Abraham. We've been talking about the promise of Abraham in a series of broadcasts. Of course, you know, we had one where Don, a couple of weeks ago, was unable to get on the air because of some technical issues on his part, and then the following week, we did a review of the debate, and right at the very end of the debate, we had some thunderstorm issues in our area that caused me to go off the air the last maybe 10, 15 minutes of the broadcast, and, oh, maybe just five. I'm not really sure how much time that was left in the broadcast, but we were getting very close to the end, and so Don just kind of finished that out on his own, and however, we got that fixed. Now I'm dealing with another issue. You could probably see my face shining a little bit, and that's probably because, you know, I had an air conditioner go out just the couple days. You know, we've been having several thunderstorms here, so I don't know whether that was one of the things that triggered it. I talked to my AC repairman who was there, and he said sometimes when the, you know, units go off as a result of these thunderstorms, and then they try to kick back on as, you know, maybe the capacitor tries to or whatever, he said you get some low voltage, and that low voltage can sometimes damage the compressor or relays, etc. in there, so he's got to pick up some parts. Hopefully, he'll come back on tomorrow, and the one that covers my office will work. There are three units here, and the other two work, but I don't work where they are. Those are the pleasure rooms. This is the work room, and so now I have to work in the heat, and I do have a couple of fans in here. One overhead and one on the floor. The one on the floor makes a little bit too much noise. I hear it coming through the microphone, so while I can work with it, I don't want to record with it, and so that's the situation. Now, as we look at the premise of Abraham, some of this, of course, is review that we've talked about before, and, you know, sometimes when Dunn's not here, I try not to go too far ahead because I know that, you know, we're going to cover a lot of this material together. I don't mind about going back sometimes and looking at some things that we've talked about so that, you know, they kind of just serve as a reminder and try to keep them, you know, as simple as we possibly can, especially for those who may be new, and I know that sometimes can be a little bit challenging to the people who, you know, have all of this stuff down, and you know it all like the back of your hand, and you feel like you, you know, you want to drink deep from the well, but we have pretty much as many people or more sometimes saying, can you simplify that stuff for us a little bit? Can you, you know, break it down to where we can get it? Just like the old preachers used to say, if you can put it where the calves can get it, well, the cows can get it too. So, that's kind of the idea of, you know, the way we'll look at some of this evening in going back over some of those things, and we hope that doesn't inconvenience you too much as we look at it. Now, one of the things that we started out with in terms of the premise of Abraham was that the premise of Abraham is actually the promise that God made in the Garden. It was a promise of life, a promise of life from the dead. And in understanding that, we understand that it was not a premise of physical life, because so many have tried to impose the death of Adam as physical death. And they suggest that the death that occurred in the Garden was physical death, but that's not the death that occurred. We're talking about the death that separates man from God. And so, we're dealing with the death that is caused by sin, and that was the death that we see occurring in the Garden, because God told Adam, in the day that you eat, you would surely die. And, of course, that occurred. Now, we do know that there are some who take a dispensational viewpoint on that in terms of the time frame. And, you know, we have these time statements that we talk about all the time in our discussions of imminence, of shortly to come to pass, of things being at hand so much, and, you know, mellow things about to occur. And we sort of really, you know, put that on the hearts and the minds of those who want to take the time frame of eschatology and sort of turn it inside out and say that these words don't mean what they actually say. These words can't mean that these events were shortly to come to pass, because that would mean that Christ has already come. That would mean that the resurrection has already been fulfilled. That would mean that, you know, we are living in the time of the new heaven and new earth, in the age to come, that was spoken of in the Bible as future, that we're no longer living in the last days. Well, hello, that's exactly what situation we have, and we are not, because of those particular time statements. And so when we hear, when we make those statements, and then we have those who say, well, you know, a day is what the Lord is a thousand years, and so what he meant was, you know, a thousand years for a day and not, you know, a day in terms of the time, you know, in which Adam ate, and therefore trying to twist that and turn that into, you know, almost a thousand years. You know, we know Adam, according to Genesis chapter 5, died, and the Bible says he was 930 years old. I said, well, that couldn't have been physical death. Well, you know, the Bible also says that Adam's eyes were opened, and I wonder if it took 930 years for his eyes to be opened. He was certainly judged after he sinned. It didn't take 930 years for God to judge him and to cast him out of the garden. All of those things were, you know, events that occurred immediately after the sin had occurred, and therefore even the remedy, you know, imagine it taking God 930 years to clothe them with skins, you know, to demonstrate some type of sacrifice on behalf of them. So, it wouldn't make sense as we look at all of the different aspects of what would have occurred and what did occur in the garden scenario for Adam based on trying to stretch that out into a literal thousand years. It just doesn't work. But that is the same promise because, and as you will see and as we've discussed, that promise is the promise that's carried through all the way to the time of the New Testament. You know, when you look, for example, in Genesis chapter 3, and the verse is 15, where we have the promise being made to Adam and to Eve concerning the seed of the woman, notice that the text says, verses 14 and 15, so the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you shall go and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Now, of course, you know, he's speaking to the serpent on that, but notice that the scripture says that he was going to put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed, and he will bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Well, we have a text that seems to be, and I certainly would suggest that they are definitely correlations, the one with the other, this one being prophetic, that one being very near its fulfillment because of the time statements we just mentioned, where he says, and the God of peace shall crush Satan under your feet shortly. Now, I've had people object or push back a little bit on the use of the term crush in there, where they're saying that it doesn't really correlate with the word that's used in Genesis. But I think if you look up the term in the Hebrew, you will see that they do relate. And there are, you know, it has more than one definition or connotation of that particular word. And one of them, however, does indicate, you know, that it's a crushing, a piercing, so to speak. And so the God of peace shall crush Satan under your feet shortly. That's Romans 16 and verse 20. And indicating that the event that would fulfill Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15 would be occurring shortly after the time of the writing of the book of Romans, which would have been around late 50s to early 60s AD, just about a decade or so before the fall of Jerusalem. And that demonstrating to us that this would be the time in which this would be fulfilled as far as that goes, and also discussing the end of death. Well, that also helps to define the nature of the death of Adam. Because if you look at it where, you know, we're told in the Bible that Satan has the power of death. And if God was going to crush Satan under their feet shortly, the one who had the power of death, according to Hebrews chapter 2, verses 14 and 15, then it means that whatever that death was, and whatever that power was, that is expressed here in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15, going back to Genesis 2, 16 and 17, was going to be crushed in a very short period of time. Now, how could that be physical death? Physical death has continued all the way from the time of the garden, through the time of the fall of the temple of Jerusalem in 70 AD, and even beyond to this very day. As a matter of fact, it's my understanding that physical death was already a reality for mankind even before the events of Genesis 3. In other words, that's not where physical death was created, that's not where it began, it was already a reality before then. And I think as we look at Genesis more from a different perspective, that becomes very obvious indeed, and it's something that certainly doesn't sit well with a futuristic perspective of the coming of Christ or a physical definition of death. But if it was going to be crushed shortly, and not only that, I mean, you've got passages, for example, in 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 10, that talks about he has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. And again, in 1 Corinthians 15, which is also dealing with the promise of Abraham and Genesis as well, you know, 1 Corinthians 15 includes both of those concepts. And so, you know, he says in verse 26 of 1 Corinthians 15, that the last enemy which is being destroyed, and that is a present tense verb there, the last enemy which is being destroyed. Now, we know that I think it's the aorist that's used in 2 Timothy chapter 1, it's past tense, but that's an already but not yet, it's not consummated. And so when we look in 1 Corinthians 15, that's that same process that's alluded to in Revelation in Romans chapter 16, verse 20, they're talking about the same death. God shall crush Satan under your feet shortly. And again, in 1 Corinthians 15, 26, the last enemy which is being destroyed is death. So notice in that context, you also have statements regarding Adam. He says, well, since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. And as in Adam all die, even so in Christ, all should be made alive. So from that perspective, we would have to see the interconnectivity in both of those passages, and therefore, just totally eliminating this concept of it referring to physical death. And we have, you know, the diehard futurists who are going to just, you know, they're going to maybe scream physical death, perhaps to the top of their lungs and until the day that they die, some of them, but it's not going to change the imminent time statements that we find in the scripture. And that's why they have to redefine them or attempt to redefine them or claim that they don't mean what they mean, which demonstrates the very extreme lengths to which they will go in order to sort of, you know, force feed that paradigm and that viewpoint into the minds of some. And maybe difficult for some to overcome, but you just have to look at it from those particular time statements. But the text in Romans and the imminence of that event, again, serves to demonstrate the foundation for the sin and the death of Adam in Genesis 2, 16 and 17, and also in Genesis 3 and verse 15, they cannot be separated. Now, since we're talking about the remedy for the death, this is where it's picked up in the life of Abraham from Genesis chapter 12, verses one through four. So let's go there for a moment. And particularly we could, you know, hone in on verse 12. But if we looked in Genesis chapter 12, you will see that the promise of Abraham just picks up on the promise that God made to Adam. And verse 12, he says, the Lord said to Abram, get out of your country and from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. And I will cause or curse him, excuse me, who curses you and in you, all families of the earth shall be blessed. Now, here we have this promise from God. Again, you know, focusing on the promise of Abraham. And by no means are we seeking to minimize the fact that God did promise the descendants of Abraham land. Yes, of course he did. We have references to that in chapter 13, as he says in verse eight, this is after the, you know, the conflict with Lot and Abraham, but also we have, and you see that beginning in verse 14, right after this conflict where the, you know, the uncle and the son and the nephew had to split up because of the strife between their herdsmen. But in verse 14, after the split occurred and after, you know, they decided who was going, where it says in the Lord said to Abraham, after Lot had separated from him, lift up your eyes now and look from the place where you are northward, southward, eastward, and westward for all the land, which you see, I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth. So that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered, arise and walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you. Then Abraham moved his tent and went and dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron and built an altar to the Lord there. Now, when we get to the New Testament, we'll see a lot more said about the land and about Abraham there. When you really look at it and understand it in Acts chapter seven, God said that, and as Stephen reports, that God didn't give Abraham so much of that land as a place to put under his foot because that land would be given to his descendants. And of course it was. Abraham inherited the land through his descendants. That was the physical land of Canaan, the land that we have so much conflict over today. And it was given to them on a conditional basis. You can see that from Leviticus 25 and there are many other passages. And God told him, he says, if you be disobedient, like the people who are there, then I will vomit you out of the land. And of course they were. And that's the reason we've got several prophecies in Deuteronomy and Leviticus and many other places in the Old Testament where God told them that. And of course that was the end result of them. When he took the land away from them in 70 AD, that was the ultimate of their being expelled from the land in fulfillment of these Old Testament prophecies. However, that's different from the prophecy that was made in Genesis chapter 12. And we'll go back to that for a moment because this is the one that's taken up in the New Testament and which demonstrates that there was something that Abraham was looking for that he did not receive during the time of his descendants when they were carried off into Egypt, such as related in Genesis chapter 15. And as we see in the book of Exodus, as they're journeying to the or as they're sojourning in the land, having journeyed there from the time of the patriarchs in Canaan, but then as they were led into that land under the conquest of Joshua and thereafter, and you know, when they settled in it, we see something different in Genesis chapter 12. And so the text again says, I will bless those who bless you. This is verse three, and I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all families of the earth will be blessed. Now, the one thing that we should definitely do is allow the scriptures to interpret the scriptures, allow those who were the first recipients of the fulfillment of these blessings, to tell us what they meant. We can surmise all day long. We can listen to people on the radio, on the television. We can watch all of their charts about, you know, the land, et cetera, and read all of their books. But those are just the opinions of men. They do not represent divinely inspired scripture. And because of that, we have to be a little bit more discerning in our assessment of the scripture. So when we take this text and we see it applied, one, we will see it applied in harmony with what happened in the correlation between Genesis 3.15 and Romans 16. Because as we said earlier, that text was pointing to the time of the fall of the temple in Jerusalem and the destruction of the city of Jerusalem. That was the fulfillment of it. And you can see evidence of that in the book of Revelation, in Revelation chapter 12 and other passages in that book. But when we look at Genesis 12 and verse three, we have something different that is expressed to us. And so let's go to a few passages and kind of see if we can get an idea of that. One, if we're talking about the promise of Abraham and we begin to look in the scriptures of the New Testament, which are several passages or has several passages that talk about, you know, Abraham, one of them, of course, is a text that aligns Abraham with the coming of the kingdom. And so that means that we cannot separate Abraham from the time of the coming of the, what we would call the eternal kingdom, the everlasting kingdom or age during kingdom, however you want to view that. And that would take us to a text like Matthew chapter eight verses 11 and 12. Now in Matthew eight, Jesus is having this conversation with the centurion and he is talking about the faith that he found among them or, you know, about him. Let's just start here in verse. Oh, let's see. Matthew eight. Let's start in verse seven. Maybe we'll back up a little bit more. Now, when Jesus had entered Capernaum, the centurion came to him pleading with him saying, Lord, my servant is lying at home, paralyzed, dreadfully tormented. And Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I'm not worthy that you should come under my roof, but only speak a word and my servant will be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, go. And he goes to another come and he comes into my servant, do this. And he does it. When Jesus heard it, he marveled and said to those who followed assuredly, I say to you, I've not found such great faith, not even in Israel. But then he says, I will say to you that many will come from east and west and sit down. Now notice, and we'll sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. So now we have a text that connects Abraham with the kingdom of heaven. That's not the land of Palestine. That can't be the land promise that we looked at in Genesis 13, 14 and following, and which we also find in Genesis 15. This has to be referring to Genesis chapter 12, and we'll give you more evidence of that as we move forward. But notice he says, many will come from east and west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now ask yourself this question, when Israel possessed the land that had been promised to Abraham based on the physical land promises, did God cast them out at that time? No, he didn't. It's very clear that this prophecy was yet future at the time Jesus spoke of it. And the Israelites were already in possession of the land. Now, at some point in history, back in 721 BC, we see where the Assyrians had cast out the northern kingdom. And now we're looking at the southern kingdom who are on the verge of being cast out. But there are, you know, a few decades before that actually occurs. But for the most part, they are in possession of the land. They are dwelling in the land. True, their sovereignty has been infringed upon by Rome, but nevertheless, they are occupying the land. They have had the land promise for centuries. And yet here is Jesus connecting the promise of Abraham by saying, many will come from the east and the west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now let's talk about the kingdom for just a moment. Since this is the promise that relates back to Genesis 3, 15, and is the remedy for the death that occurred in Genesis 2, 16, and 17, and fulfills the promise of Genesis chapter 12 and verse 3. Well, what's the nature of the kingdom? It cannot be the kingdom that they already possess. Look at what the text says. The sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. Now, let me parallel another passage with that while we're on the thought. When we turn to Matthew chapter 21, we have the parable of the vine dressers. And in that parable, the scripture talks about the owner of the vineyard who leased it out to the vine dressers, and he sent his servants to work in the vineyard. But in sending them in the vineyard to work, they began to get ideas of usurping the authority of the owner of the vineyard so that they themselves could take it over. And in so doing, what they were wanting to do was to perpetuate the ownership of that vineyard way beyond its time in terms of their remaining in power, their remaining in some authority, particularly the chief priest, et cetera. But notice in Matthew chapter 21, when the landowner sent them how they treated the servants. It says that when the time, verse 34, drew near, he sent his servants to the vine dressers that they might receive its fruit. And the vine dressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. And again, he sent other servants more than the first, and they did likewise to them. Then last of all, he sent his son to them saying, they will respect my son. But when the vine dressers saw the son, they said among themselves, this is the heir. Wait a minute. That's back to Abraham because the premise of Abraham was all about Abraham's heir. Genesis 15, out of your own body, will I give you a son? This Eleazar, the steward, he's not going to be your heir, but one who comes from your own body through your own lineage. And now we're down to that point. And he says, this is the heir. Let us kill him and seize his inheritance. So this is the inheritance. This is the land, if you please, that God was going to give to Abraham. So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine dressers? They said to him, he will destroy those wicked men miserably. See, that's the crushing of the head of the serpent and lease his vineyard to other vine dressers who will render him the fruits in their season. Jesus said to them, have you never read the scriptures? The stone, which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore, I say to you, now watch the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. And whoever falls on this stone will be broken, but on whomever it falls, it will grind into powder. And when the chief priests and Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking of them. So here is a taking away of the kingdom from them and giving it to a nation that would bring forth its fruit. So in Matthew 8, 11, as we go back there, where the text says that many will come from the East, the West, the North, and the South, and sit down with Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, that's the inheritance that God had promised Abraham. And then he says, but the sons of the kingdom will be cast into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So now let's look a little bit at the nature of this kingdom. We're told number one, that it could only be entered by faith from John chapter three, Nicodemus came, who was a ruler of the Jews, by the way, came to Jesus by night and said, Rabbi, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who comes from God where no man can do these miracles, which you do accept God is with him. And Jesus said to him, unless a man was born again or born anew, he could not see the kingdom of God. Wait a minute. They saw the land, didn't they? They saw the kings of the land when they had them. They saw the chief priests and the rulers of the land, many of whom were priests, kings as well. They saw all the apertures of the land in terms of the buildings, the temple and everything that related to it. They saw the citizens of the land. They could see that kingdom. They knew its territorial boundaries so much so that they had to protect and guard those boundaries and not let the ancient landmarks be removed. And so they understood that. But he said that in terms of the nature of the kingdom, they couldn't see the kingdom unless they were born anew. And the scripture talks about how they were born anew. It says, except they were born of water and the spirit, they could not enter into the kingdom of God. So they didn't enter it the way they entered the kingdom. I got a new headset on and it's messing with my ears and my head. I don't like to have these things on. But nevertheless, we can see from Nicodemus' statement, of course, he was a ruler of the Jews. He was in the land that God had promised them. And yet here was the kingdom that he could not enter except from being born again, born anew. And John 1, you know, talks about those to whom Jesus came and he said of them that they did not receive him, but as many as received him to them, he gave the power or the authority to become the sons of God who were born, not of blood, nor of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. So this is a new birth. This is a new kind of birth that doesn't involve physical procreation that put them into the land that they were in. And so when they were asking Jesus about the timing of the kingdom and when it would appear, he told them that the kingdom does not come with observation. And he said that the kingdom of God was with you. Don't look here, don't look there, etc. For the kingdom of God is with you or in your midst. And there he was in their presence. So we have to see the kingdom of God is totally different in nature. It's not something that came with observation. And if the kingdom of God is the inheritance of Abraham, we cannot be looking at an inheritance that comes through physical visibility that is with your natural eyesight. And that helps to define the nature of the kingdom, but it defines the nature of the inheritance, which is the fulfillment of that promise of Now, let's go to another text that adds some weight to that. Obviously, when we look in the gospel of John, in John chapter 18, for example, you have Jesus about to be crucified and Pilate questioning him and saying, are you a king or not? And Jesus says, oh, yes, I am. And he says, well, if you are a king, are you trying to overthrow the government? Are you trying to cause insurrection, etc.? And Jesus had to tell Pilate, that's not the kind of kingdom that I'm involved with. That's not the nature of my kingdom. He says, if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now is my kingdom not from here. And so even though the chief priests had delivered him to them or to Pilate, and he was in his custody, he was saying, look, that's not the nature of my kingdom. And so that can't be the nature of the promise that God made to Abraham. Now, let me really hone in on a passage that quotes from Genesis 12, that really nails down the nature of the promise. It focuses on the death that's in Genesis chapter 2, 16 and 17, and also chapter 3, because we're talking about the reversal of the death that occurred in the garden, the reversal of the death of Adam, the crushing of the power of the Satan, the fulfillment of the inheritance in the third chapter of the book of Acts. And by the way, in the third chapter, we're talking about all the prophets who spoke on the subject. So it's not just one text that we have in Genesis chapter 12, but this is the entire catalog of the prophets in terms of what they were looking forward to, what they had been inspired to teach while they were in the land. And therefore what they were hoping for could not have been what they already had. You know, it's kind of like the conversation in John chapter 8, when Jesus made the statement saying to his disciples, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. And so they retorted, we are Abraham's seed and we've never been in bondage to any man. Well, you know, at that very time they were in bondage under the Roman government, but Jesus was trying to teach them about a different exile. You know, maybe they were there to say, well, we never, you know, we're still in our land. We're not exiled, whatever their thoughts and intentions were in terms of their statement. Jesus was there to tell them that they were in a different kind of exile, a deeper exile than having been cast into, you know, Babylon or Syria or any other foreign land, you know, Egypt or any of them that they were in the greatest of exiles, the same exile into which Adam was cast when he was cast out of the garden, an exile that could not be remedied by placing you in some geographical location. And that's why I had the conversation earlier in John chapter 4, when he said to the woman in Samaria, as she conversed with him saying, our fathers worshiped on this mountain and you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said, woman, the time is coming. And now is when you will need the worship in this mountain, nor even in Jerusalem. He says, worship is decentralized. Now it's no longer geocentric. He said, God was seeking the true worshipers and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. God is a spirit and those who worship must worship in spirit and in truth. And he was talking about the two temples, the difference in the two temples, the nature of the two temples. So not in Mount Gerizim, but neither in Jerusalem where they had the physical temple. Jesus said, this is going to be altogether a different temple. And what was the purpose of the temple? It was for atonement to remove the cause of death through sin by the sacrifices. And in John 8, Jesus responds to them. And when they said, we are Abraham's descendants making their claim to an inheritance, that's what they were trying to do. We've never been in abundance to anyone. How can you say you will be made free? Jesus said, most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin and a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. He's letting them know you're going to be cast out of this land. That's not the ultimate promise of Abraham and no forcible re-entry into the land by anyone at any time later than the time they've been kicked out will satisfy this text. So you can just send 1948 up in a puff of smoke because it has nothing to do with these scriptures. He said, therefore, if the son makes you free, you should be free indeed. And then he goes on to tell them, you know, how they are not truly the sons of Abraham because they want to kill him and they're doing the deeds of their father. And that's why they, all those who didn't obey him or didn't repent were be kicked out of the land. But back to Acts chapter three in Acts three, where Peter directly quotes from Genesis chapter 12, he says this, and this is also in response to the question raised by the apostles in Acts chapter one, when they asked the question, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And his response was this. It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the father has put in his own power, thereby linking the restoration of what of the kingdom to the end time to the time that was only put in the father's authority, the day and hour that no one knew as he had expressed in Zechariah 14 and through the types and shadows of the feast of trumpets, but also in first Thessalonians five as well. And so here's what Peter says in this context, our time is getting away from us. So I'm not sure how much of this I will get through, but he said, as he is speaking to them in Acts chapter three, concerning the coming of the Lord, as he goes back and brings in all of the prophets saying, this is what they all talked about. And remember, they all were in the land, at least at some point in time, some of them went into captivity, but for the most part, they had been in the land. So he said in Acts chapter three, now notice, first of all, look at the fact that he connects repentance with this and tells them to repent and be converted verse 19 in order that their sins would be blotted out. That's very important in terms of the context, repent therefore, and be converted that your sins may be blotted out. He didn't say repent and be converted so that you can remain in the land, but he said that your sins may be blotted out when so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send Jesus Christ who was preached to you before. So here is that seed of the woman from Genesis three 15, of which the Bible speaks that is coming at the time of the restoration of all things at the time and seasons that were only put in the father's authority and power, which could not have been the physical land. He gave him a timeframe where God would have given him that he says, you're going to be a stranger or, you know, in bondage in a strange land, but after 400 years or so, I'm going to deliver you out of that. So he gave him a timeframe for their deliverance out of Egyptian bondage into this land. He didn't say it was a day, an hour that no man knew. He gave him pretty much a timeframe when that was going to happen. He said, it's in the fourth generation. So that was a long time ago when that land was given. However, here, he says it's going to be in that day where you have the times and the seasons, which were only put in the father's authority that connects it with the Parisia with the end times events. That's when this land would be given. And so he says that he would send Jesus Christ who was preached to you before whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God had spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets. Since the age began for Moses truly said to the fathers, the Lord, your God will raise up for you a profit like, or from your brethren, like me from your brethren, him shall you hear in all things, whatever he says to you. And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. That's Matthew 8, 11, and 12. The sons of the kingdom will be cast out because they were the followers of darkness rather than the followers of Jesus Christ. And he says, you are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant, which God made with our fathers watch saying to Abraham and in your seed, all families of the earth shall be blessed. But what was the blessing? It was a blessing to reverse the curse of sin and death in that occurred with Adam. He says to you first having raised up his servant, Jesus sent him to bless you. Now watch this in giving you the land, the physical land. Nope. He says in turning away every one of you from your iniquities. That's the promise of Abraham. That's why it connects back to the death of Adam. He says, it's turning every one of you away from your iniquities. That's not physical death. I'll end on this text. In Hebrews, the 11th chapter, Hebrews chapter 11, the Bible talks about a land that Abraham was looking forward to. And in verse 13, as he talks about the Patriarchs who had been dwelling in the land of Canaan already, the Bible says these all died, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, we're assured of them, embrace them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the land. They knew that the land that they were sojourning in was not the promise, was not the inheritance for those who say such things, declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly, if they had been called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is a heavenly country or land. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared a city for them. So you see the land that they were looking for was that land of righteousness, that land of holiness, that land of forgiveness from sin, that land where they had atonement that would enable them to have access into the presence of God. That's what Adam lost in the beginning. He didn't lose his physical life. From all indications, he died a natural death. That wasn't his punishment. If it is, then everybody who dies physically today is punished for his life, no matter how he lives. How much sense does that make? And that in view of the atonement of Christ, why do we still die? Peter said, it was turning every one of you away from your iniquities. And my good friends, ladies and gentlemen, that's all the time that we have. I'm looking forward, hopefully to Don being back with us on next week. Hope that you got something beneficial from the lesson. I'm very sorry that my good friend, Larry Siegel, couldn't have been here to join me on the message today. So, we would have two guys in the Bible instead of one guy, but I know in spirit, they both are here. And so, we appreciate that very much. Continue to pray for Don and we look forward to being with you on next week. With that, I want to say good evening to you. God bless and good night.