Person & Work of the Holy Spirit
Mike Doyle · Jul 28, 2013
Holy Spirit (2013), No. 29
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926357481842

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

Randy, I think you got to question six. Now, I want to start today by maybe the class is called The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit. We've arrived at the lecture in which he's going to talk about the work of the Holy Spirit in the church. In order for him to explain, the work of the Holy Spirit in the church, he found it necessary to be careful to distinguish the church from Israel. Because in today's Christian society, most, especially Reformed covenant people, really think that the church is just an extension of Israel. And if you think that, then you're going to miss an awful lot of the work of the Holy Spirit in the church, which is very different than the work he does, or did in Israel, and will do in the millennial kingdom. And one of the distinctions that we need to keep in mind about Israel and the church is that God feels and has dealt with the nation of Israel as a nation.

There was not individual focus at that point. Now he did focus on individual guys, but it was all, and men and women, but it was all for the benefit of the entire nation. And when one man went down, so did the whole nation go with him. In the church age, he deals with each one of us individually and puts us into the body of Christ and deals with us there. But it's an individual thing, not a national thing.

So there are lots of differences that we'll talk about today, hopefully, so that when next week we begin to talk about baptism and then about the spiritual gifts and other things, that they are not an extension of Israel. The body of Christ is an entirely new thing. And the work of the Spirit in the body of Christ is totally different than anything he did in the nation of Israel. So that's why we're trying to make a distinguishment.

So, question six says, what two things did Paul learn in Christ's statement on the road to Damascus? Paul is knocked to the ground and the Lord Jesus says to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? What two things that were brand new did Paul learn from that statement? that he was glorified and that his people were identified with him. The person that he met was the glorified Lord Jesus Christ. It's really important to distinguish between that and the Lord Jesus that all the other twelve disciples knew. They never saw him glorified, except on two of them on the Mount of Transfiguration, but that wasn't even matching what Paul saw on the road to Damascus. with the Lord Jesus Christ is a glorified man.

The second thing is that he didn't understand all of it, but he recognized that, why are you persecuting me? That there was some union between those who are members of the body of Christ and Christ himself. He didn't say, why are you persecuting my boys, or my gang, or my posse, or my buddies, or my people. He said, me. Why are you persecuting me?

Those two things are really important to understand because it influences all of his writings, everything he does going forward. Those two things would never have been said or are ever said about the nation of Israel. Israel and the Lord Jesus Christ aren't organically linked.

I think the most important thing in that for us is that it shows that we are in Christ. We are part of Him and He's part of us. It's one. It's not just the church that's one, it's Christ and the church are one. 16 chapters down the road, 3 John chapter 17, and he talks about that, that they may be one father as we are one, that they may be one in us.

And that understanding must be a spiritual revelation to us, not an intellectual one, a spiritual one. Don and I were walking this morning and talking about the difference in revelation through your spirit and just the accumulation of biblical knowledge, there's a difference. You know things spiritually because you are spiritually alive and you are united to Christ that you may not even be able to verbalize for a while. But you know they are true. And they are of spiritual significance. So how are the Jews and Gentiles alike? And the reference is page 48 of the last paragraph. And the answer is pretty simple. The Jews and the Gentiles, how are they alike?

They're all under sin. Right? Now that's much different than saying that they all committed sins. You understand that? If I say you're under sin, you're under the dominion of the thing sin itself. It controls you. It isn't something you decide to do or not to do. Do non-believers get to choose whether they are not going to sin? No, they don't. They only get to choose what sin to commit, because they don't live by faith.

So, the Jew is under sin just like the Gentile. Now, the Jew, this is probably, well I'm going to ask it anyway. Who sinned more, the Gentiles or the Jews? The gentiles because they had no, well not necessarily because law brings out sinfulness. I think they were probably better than the nation. How many think the Jews probably sin more? How many think the Gentiles did?

Come on you cowards, raise your hands. No. What's the law designed to do? To make sin exceedingly sinful. So you take a bunch of stiff-necked Jews, when you lay the mosaic law on them, 620-some things they're supposed to do, who do you think sinned more? They did. Because the Gentiles went merrily along. I mean, what did they know? Yeah, they were sinning.

The law stimulates your sin nature to be more aggressive. But sin is sin, right? I mean, you might be more aggressive about it, but it's still... Well, if you're on your sin, you know, and I probably was, sort of a trick question. If you're on your sin, is there ever a time that you're not sinning? Because what is sin? Sin is missing the mark.

Not getting up to the line. It isn't doing a bunch of bad things. It's just missing the mark. Well, did the Gentiles ever make it to the mark? No. Did the Jews ever make it to the mark? Some did. Some did. Those that lived by faith. Abraham was encountered righteous. Why? Because he made the mark? No, because he believed God. So what relationship did the Gentiles have to God's law?

Gentiles had none. I was going to say it should be a really long answer. None. They had absolutely no relationship to the Mosaic law whatsoever. Why is that question important for us to understand? Maybe that even without the law, there's still some. It has more to do with the separation of Israel and the church. If you buy into the precept that the church is just an extension of Israel, then you have to say that the Gentiles through being an extension of Israel were somehow under a law system, a Mosaic law system.

No, they weren't. They had absolutely nothing to do with it whatsoever. And Romans 5 actually answers the question. Romans 5, I think it's 13, how come people died even though from Adam to Moses they didn't sin? Like Adam's sin, they didn't break the law, how come people were still dying? Because they had sin natures. So what were the Jews in desperate need of to reconcile themselves to God?

Grace. But it's more than that. That's exactly right. They needed the death of Christ. Why did they need the death of Christ? Why then? What's that? To get out of the law. Yeah, to get out of the law. But why the death of Christ? Why do they need so bad? It's a sacrifice taken from Christ. It's a sacrifice. It's a sacrifice death to the old nature. It's the only remedy God offered. See that? Christ's work on the cross is the only remedy for sin that God offered. He didn't offer any other.

Well that was important that the Jews were in desperate need but also the Gentiles. Well the Gentiles. Everybody. Actually everybody. Another trick question. The point being is that every human being needs to avail themselves of the cross of Christ. There is no other way. There's no other way.

Because what did the death of Christ do for God? What did it do for Him? Not for you, but for God. It satisfied Him about sin. And it gave Him, since He, God, can't look at sin, right? Then it was the only way for Him to be able to have a relationship with us because otherwise, unless He like specifically kind of decided to have a relationship I guess with somebody? His holiness who couldn't. Why do you think there's the veil in the temple?

There had to be a separation between sinful man and a holy God. The only way to get through that veil or to fix that problem was the death of Christ. He's the only one who could have done it and by dying he's the only one that went through the proper procedure. Now the Jews knew that there had to be a death to cover the sins, they knew that system, but they didn't know that the death of Christ would cover sins of all men for all time. Does Paul suggest Did the Jew or Gentile concern himself or herself with earthly ethnicity inside of the church? No. All are equal. Neither Jew nor Greek.

What are you, Presbyterian? We're in Christ. Which makes you a Republican, right? What does it mean to be in Christ? I just can't line up with anybody. What does it mean to be in Christ? You're a new person. Now you're a sane person. A brand new being. Creation. A brand new being. To have his mind. What else? New creation. You're a brand new creation. Now think about that. If you go back to Genesis 1 and you read about how God created, the heavens and the earth in six days and all that he did. You're no longer part of that. He's not talking about you there.

You're a brand new creation and a new creation that's suited out for a new creation that has started when Christ rose from the dead. You know that we say that Christ was the being through which God brought in the creation, or he's the one who did the creating, but he is the new creation. Understand the difference? He is the new creation. So if you're a member of the new creation, you know, all your ethnicity has gone away. There are no Czechs in Christ. There's no Irish. There's no German. There's no black. There's no white. There's no Jew. There's no gentile. There's no male or female.

Ready for the joke? There was a guy that went to church here that really was upset by that. He's since gone home to be with the Lord, so now he knows the answer. Because he wanted to be a man for all eternity. And he read that there isn't a male or female in Christ, and he didn't want to be a girl. He didn't want to be a bride. So he said, show him that verse. He said, I don't know, but I still want to be a man.

I mean it's amazing if you spend a little time contemplating what it means to be a new creation in Christ. That means that when you look in the mirror everything you see isn't who you are. Everything. You don't have in Christ XY chromosomes. or Y's or X's or any of that. When you get a new body it won't even have blood in it. Because you won't need it. So being members of a new creation all of the distinguishing characteristics of who earthly people are go away.

They just go away. I've always been a real fan of Star Trek. And one of the things about the original Star Trek is they travel around to these different planets And there was always something the same about every planet. You know what it was? There was always male and female, and there was always sin. The Kleons sinned. Every planet they went to with these creatures, they might look different, but they all had sin, and they were always male and female. New creation in Christ, none of that's true. It's kind of neat when you think about it.

2 Corinthians 5.17 If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. And the word new here is, or the word become here is kainos, which means kind and quality. Brand new. Never been those kinds of human beings before. And we're all in one body, the body of the Lord Jesus. I'm going to get through this part and you're going to be teaching next week. Question 11.

In reading Ephesians 2, 20-22, is the new temple in Christ about an earthly meeting place or something else? So let's read Ephesians 2, 20-22. Having been built up on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you are also built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. So the question is, is what has just been described just a new place to get together and have a meeting?

Or is it something else? Was this too tough a question? Well, it's the latter answer, but I don't know how you... Well, right off it says, the house is looked at in the past, as I've quoted, in two ways. The first way, it's built upon the foundation, fiddly framed together and growing into a holy temple in the Lord.

And it's not yet completed, but will, in the glory, form its habitation. So in this metaphor, it's a building that's under construction, so to speak. The second thing is, but it's also spoken of as a present building and a present habitation of God through the spirit. In this aspect, the church we have, I think, the side of order, government discipline, holiness that becomes God's house. Thus, the church is not only the body of Christ, but the habitation of God. trying to make that simple.

You know, sorry to interrupt, but it almost sounds like, in a way, position and condition, too, right? It's a position that we all enjoy by being in Christ. Now, by being in Christ doesn't mean that you get led into the classroom and that's your seat, and that's your seat, and that's your seat. It's not like that. You're literally part of the structure. You're one of the bricks, so to speak.

You know in Revelation there's a discussion about when the rapture happens that the spirit of God, the spirit will leave the earth and the influence that he's had during the church age will be gone. Yet he's still going to be here, still orchestrating things. So what really happens?

There is the body of Christ in which every one of us is a member of. Each one of us contains the Holy Spirit. cumulatively as members of the structure or the temple, the Holy Spirit who is God and dwells in our body of believers. So everybody in this room individually contains the Spirit and we as a body contain the Spirit. So if you lift this body out of here, what goes? The Spirit goes with you. So the temple leaves.

The interesting thing is that When the Lord talks about or Paul talks about a structure, he uses a metaphor like a building, we like to think of bricks and mortar and sticks. But when you talk about a spiritual body, we are all members or part of the material that goes into the building. The Lord Jesus is the cornerstone.

Within every brick of the building, so to speak, indwells the resurrected life of Christ via the Holy Spirit. And then there's an accumulative effect of the Spirit indwelling the entire body. And there isn't anything material about it, it's all spiritual. Bruce?

I think often times, because of previous indoctrination, we think of the church as the structure that we're sitting in right now. In reality, we are the church. We are the church. That's exactly right. We just happen to meet in this particular site. Yeah.

Well, you know, we even act in other places. Believers didn't, you know, build these megachurches. They met in people's houses, you know, or wherever they could. It's like this building is just something that killed us before rain. Say that again. This building is just something that shields the church from the rain. That's right. No it doesn't, and it's very interesting, the body of Christ that's functioning correctly within this first creation, just the function of it has a profound effect on them, on all those who are not members, on all those who don't belong.

So then what happens to them? They're either drawn to Christ or they reject Him. They only have two choices. They don't ever get better. They either say, wow, you know, there's life and I'm drawn to Him or I reject Him. There's no middle ground with Christ. If you've never heard the gospel and someone presents it to you or you read it for the first time, you know what it demands? A decision. Now. right now. You either believe it or you reject it. Even the I'll think it over till tomorrow is a rejection. Okay, but if they accept it, they won't have the Holy Spirit. You said it's all taken up. There's nothing here. That's right.

But the Spirit of God, when the church leaves, will still be here orchestrating things. But now he shifts to the nation of Israel because then Israel comes back in the fold. believe, will they be involved by the Spirit? Everybody hear the question? If your neighbor, Ruby Goldstein, we get raptured out, he hears the gospel message that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the Messiah, and he says, I believe that. Is he involved by the Holy Spirit? What do you think?

Well, better question, does he have life? He has life, but he's not in Christ. He's not in Christ, not a member of the body of Christ, but he has life. And what's the spirit? He's the giver of all life. So that he has life. Is he saved? Is he a saint?

Absolutely. But he's not saved to membership in the body of Christ. Because once the church goes, it's over. More than church age. Oh, yeah. We had the revelation class yesterday. So yeah, this is something we talked about. You're not going to trick me into disagreeing with Vern. There was so much information I can't even remember.

So the Holy Spirit is the one that is the giver of life. So your neighbor who in the tribulation believes in Jesus, he does have life, the spirit doesn't dwell in him like he dwells in you. The spirit in his totality dwells in you. You're a temple individually and we are a temple collectively.

How do you describe and go on with that very long before you run out of words? Is it the law written on their hearts that saves them? The law will be written on the hearts of the Jews who enter the millennial kingdom. So let's do a timeline. Let's say 45 seconds from now the rapture happens.

7 years and 45 seconds from now the Lord Jesus returns to establish his kingdom which is the millennial kingdom. there will be Jews who enter into that kingdom and they will all be saints every one of them and they will all have the promises of Jeremiah and Ezekiel true of them they will have the law written on their hearts they won't have to teach each other anything because they will all know and they will all know Christ as their Messiah how about the Gentile that lives next door to them?

No. But if he becomes a Jew he could What's that? He became a Jew during that millennium reign. But he can become a millennial saint. He can believe in Jesus as the Savior. And he will be saved. He doesn't become a Jew, he becomes a millennial kingdom saint. Will the Jews be the witnesses to those Jews?

That's right. And if you want, as a Gentile, you want to see who Jesus is, you've got to go through the Jews to do it. So you have a class system. Yes, you do. Guess what? We've got a King too. OK, I thought that was it. They're all going to be the same.

And now we have different stepping stones. This is during a millennial kingdom, a thousand year reign of Christ on the earth. He will be ruling and reigning in Jerusalem. All of us will be ruling and reigning with him somewhere, probably on the earth someplace. You get Castle Rock.

How about Moses and Abraham? How do they fit into that picture? Abraham was the first one called out by God and given promises and the Bible clearly says that because he believed God he was accounted righteous. Did that change? Did he enter into the body of Christ? No, because the body of Christ didn't even exist then. So is he a saint? Meaning, is he a set-apart one who will be, well, put it another way, who won't go to hell, who will be involved in the Millennial Kingdom? Yeah, he will. And only because he believed God. The laws will be written on his heart? No. Was Abraham a Jew? No. No, he wasn't. He wasn't a Jew. He's the father of the Jewish nation. But he himself wasn't a Jew. He's a Gentile. Who's the first Jew? Jacob. Jacob. Yeah. Who was the first Jew? Jacob. Israel. Yeah.

Reinhold says the church is not only the body of Christ, but it's the habitation of God. That's cool, isn't it? And then he says, what privilege, what responsibility? You know, we walk around doing whatever we do every day. Do you ever think about the fact that I'm walking down Colfax Avenue and I'm the habitation of God himself?

Isaac was not a Jew, neither. No, he wasn't. Jacob. Jacob. Why not Isaac, if Abraham was circumcised? Because the nation itself didn't start until you got to Isaac and his 12 sons or Jacob and his 12 sons. And he changed Jacob's name to Israel. All right. Romans 11. Wait a minute. If the father is Abraham and then he has a son, Isaac, who has a son, Jacob. Okay.

So how could they all of a sudden become Jewish? Because God designated changed his name from Jacob to Israel and his 12 sons became the head of the 12 tribes of Israel. The nation didn't start until Jacob. Isn't that when he wrestled with God and Jacob's ladder and all that? But I thought it was bloodlines. Okay, so all of a sudden. You thought it was what? Bloodlines. If Abraham Has Isaac who has a son by the name of Jacob, etc, etc? Let's talk about terms. Was Abraham part of Israel? No, because Israel wasn't in existence yet. Was Isaac part of Israel? No, because Israel wasn't in existence yet.

It's the same mentality as this. Was the good thief, which is an oxymoron, On the cross, did he, is he in Christ in the body of Christ? No, he's not. Why not? Because the body of Christ didn't exist then. When did it start? The Pentecost. Does that mean that, you know, he gets a second class, he's got to go to Arvada because it isn't as cool as Lodo? No. Is he going to be saved for all eternity? Absolutely. Has he been in this place called paradise for 2,000 years enjoying Christ? Absolutely he has, but he isn't in Christ. He's not a member of the new creation yet.

Do you see the difference? Well it will be because the new creation when it's brought in, there won't be another one. You see that? When at the end of the millennial kingdom when God recreates the heavens and the earth, he isn't going to save the old one for the guys who want to go there. It's going to be gone. See? Well what is paradise? What is paradise? That's a great question. What's paradise?

Las Vegas? Hawaii? Hawaii, maybe. I guess it's when you're with God. What is paradise? When the Lord Jesus said to that thief, today, right today, you're going to be with me in paradise. What was paradise? Being with God and Christ. He's going to be with Christ. Where's Christ going to be in the heavenlies? You know, in Hebrews, it talks about when he when he makes the distinguishment and talks about the heavenly throne room of God.

And he says, you have you have not been brought to Mount Zion. You've been brought to. What's the other mountain? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And it's not it was where they got the law and it was burned stone and fire. And if you touched it, you died. You said we haven't been brought to that mountain anymore. We've been brought to listen to it. Oh, no. Zion? It can't be a limit. Zion. And they brought to Mount Zion, which is the New Jerusalem. And then he begins to explain who is in the New Jerusalem right now. Here's what he says. There's the innumerable number of angels.

That's one group. They're in section A. In section B is this group called the souls of just men made perfect. The church of the newborn, the first born. Who are the souls of just men made perfect? The thief is one of them. Old testament. Old testament saints. All of those guys. Abraham. Who's the church of the firstborn? All believers who have gone home to be with the Lord. They're different than the souls of just men made perfect. See that? Where are they?

They're in the throne room of grace. There's going to come an event after the Bema Judgment, which all Christians will go to. It's a place of rewards, and you'll all get rewarded for what the Lord Jesus Christ was able to do through you, which has, by the way, been foreordained, so you can't add to it or take away from it. Then the very next event is the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. Who is that? Who is the Lamb? Who is the Bride? Hallelujah, we are. Now, when that wedding feast takes place, we are not only positionally united, but conditionally united to Him for all eternity.

So rather than being the Church of the Firstborn, we will be the Bride of God, the Son of God. Here's how I vision it. You know in all eternity there's the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and they're connected in this triune life in which they're totally satisfied with each other, they love each other and they receive and give love to one another and they didn't need to create, but they did. They're totally satisfied with the three of them. Because we're the bride of Christ, we get plugged into that. And we're the only creatures who do. That's kind of cool. I wish there was a map. This part goes here. This part goes there. You know what I mean? It's so confusing. Well, here's the only map you need. You're heavenly. Everybody else is earthly. Thank you.

So I inserted a question that said, what the church is not. It is not Israel in any way. And I'm going to read this quickly. The ordinary teaching is that God's church is one in all ages, that it began with Abraham and continues through the present dispensation and the millennium, including the saved souls to the last. The church is not that. It is said that the Jewish church was in a broken and fragmentary condition when our Lord came to earth, and that he repaired and established it upon the firm basis of atonement. That's not what the church is.

In proof of this, the following scripture is cited, being itself a quotation from the prophet Amos. And it's a quote from Acts 15, 16, and 17, which has been frequently noticed. The Acts is not a history of the church as such. or the transition from Judaism to Christianity. So somebody read Acts 15, 16, and 17.

Hurry up, you guys with the electronic media. After this I will return and I will rebuild the dwelling of David which has fallen. I will rebuild its ruins and I will set it up. that the rest of men may seek the Lord and all the Gentiles who are called by my name." That's 217. That's good. What's he talking about? The church? Is that the church he's talking about? He's talking about Israel. Israel. Okay. And then he goes through a whole other thing that I'll quickly go through. I think I'm probably getting close on time.

In Romans chapter 11, 16 through 24, he talks about the olive tree and its branches. And from this is argued that the olive tree is the church, and the natural branches are the Jews, and the wild ones are the Gentiles. But notice how such handling of God's word obscures all understanding of scripture. Are tree members of the body of Christ ever broken off?

No. Can't be. And in turn, is the position of others only conditional upon their faithfulness? No. So also that we have been learning from Ephesians would be destroyed or a no. And in turn, is the position of others conditioned upon their faith? Answer, no. But how simple it is when you see that not the church, now listen to this, but the privileges of grace Theology is in the line of privilege throughout the world's history of grace. Can a Christian be broken off from living under grace?

No. Can he conditionally move himself out of the umbrella of grace? Yes he can. Yes he can. He can? You can move yourself out of the stream of grace by sinning. Now, positionally it doesn't change, but conditionally it can't. Does that mean that God is just going to write you off? Because you're positionally placed under grace, there's the work of the Spirit to restore you into the, I'm going to say it this way, into the river of grace, so that you can experience it moment by moment.

To me, in question 12, the word branch, It should be tree and branch causes great confusion to me and it makes this explanation not make sense. Branches came off the tree. And there's a difference. So isn't it supposed to be tree? We're talking about the tree here. Yeah, we are. Okay. Well, the olive tree and its branches and the branches refer to us. in the context that Israel is a branch, right? Is the church a branch? Sure it is.

When you say that the olive tree is not Israel, it's not the church, it is the privileges of grace, understand the difference? That the tree he's talking about are the privileges you have in grace. That's a different thing. He says, this began with Abraham, was continued to successors who were ever broken off because of their unbelief, and has now passed on to Christendom, with the multitudes of Gentiles enjoying the privileges to which they had been previously strangers. Do the Gentiles enjoy the privileges of grace now? Sure they do. They have the opportunity to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. They didn't have that before. The church isn't touched itself. but profession and responsibility are.

Unfaithful Christendom, and by the way when you read a Brethren guy like this and he uses the term Christendom, do you know what he means by that? You probably need to know that term because they use it, Christendom is the word that they use to describe the apostate church. It's all these people who say they are members But the life of Christ isn't really in them, or they don't walk in what they are.

So I could say, I can't cover up the mic. I could say that Catholicism is Christendom. You see, why? Because they do not teach salvation by grace through faith. Are they religious and wear the banner of Christianity? Yes, they do. But the brethren would call them Christendom Okay?

You alright with that? I was just going to go, sorry to beat it to death, but I was going to go back to your analogy about grace as like a stream. Like what if, to me that makes it seem limited. So what if it's like we're an environment of grace, but we decide to hold our breath. Perfect. I like that. That's really good. If you hold your breath, you're not availing yourself of what's there. Sure. That's good.

13. What does Rideout quote as the destiny of Israel?

What he quotes is, And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established at the top of the mountains, and shall be established above the hills, and all the nations shall flow into it. And many people shall go and say, Come on, yea, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of God of Jacob. And he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. And out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

And he shall judge among the nations and shall rebuke many people. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. Isaiah 2, 2-4. That is the destiny of Israel. Hold that right there. Next question. What verse does Rideau quote as the destiny of the church?

And there came unto me one of seven angels, which had seven vials full of seven last plagues, and talked to me, saying, Come hither, and I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, And her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, like as crystal. And I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city has no need of sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. See the difference in destinies? The destiny of the church is different than the destiny of Israel. So today you get to pick. Which one do you want to go? What destiny do you want? The bride. Absolutely you want the bride.

I've often said this, if you buy into Israel being and the church being the same thing and you want the blessings and the destiny that God has promised to the nation of Israel, as a Christian you qualify for spiritual handicap parking. Because what God has promised to Israel handicaps you as a Christian. You see that?

Because your blessings are unlimited. And I mean totally unlimited. To think that you're going to be the bride of the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity. The union that we're going to have for all eternity with that person, you can't get that into your head. That's what's happening, that's what's going to happen. And it's already begun because you are now already united to him. What verse in Revelation did you just read? Actually I read from Revelation 21 verses 22 and 23.

Let's quote their father, how we thank you. We've been taught that the word grace is charis, which means you do it all. And our response to grace is grace, caress, and thank you. And it's difficult for us to do anything other than thank you when we begin to enter into the grace that you've provided for us today and the grace that you've provided for us in the future. Thank you, Father. We pray in your son's precious name. Amen.