Has God Indeed Said - Part 6

2 Pe 3:3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”

The promise of His coming will be the subject of our study today.

The full text of this message and supplementary questions can be found on the website.

Transcript

Sunday October 10th 2021
Has God Indeed Said
Part 6



1). Ge 3:1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.  

We have seen from our previous weeks of study how the encounter between the Woman and the serpent in the Garden established the unchangeable foundational type for the method of Satan’s attack against those to whom rulership in the Seventh Day is offered, those pictured in the Woman.
a). And we see this attack on the ‘Woman’, both with respect to Israel, the wife of Jehovah, during OT days, and with Christians, those called to be Christ’s wife during the Millennial Kingdom, within this dispensation – 2 Pe 2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.

And with respect to both Israel and the one new man in Christ, Satan has plied his deceptive trade through those who are eternally saved, false prophets in the OT and false teachers within the Church, who introduced a false and corrupting message contrary to that which God has indeed said Jer 23:16 Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless; They speak a vision of their own heart, Not from the mouth of the LORD. 17 They continually say to those who despise Me, “The LORD has said, ‘You shall have peace” ’; And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, ‘No evil shall come upon you.’ ” [You will not surely die]

And we find this same deception continuing through the Israel’s religious leaders, those who sat in Moses’ seat, who taught from the prophets, at the Lord’s first advent – Jn 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

Mt 15: 7 Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: 8 ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. 9 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

And as we have seen so many times, falsehood and deception, brought forth from below, began its corrupting work with respect to the Word of the Kingdom, from the beginning of our dispensation as a woman placed leaven in three measures of meal – 1 Ti 4:1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, 3 forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

And as we have studied over the weeks, we have seen that there has been a continual challenge to God’s Word, just as we saw in the Garden, ‘Has God indeed said?’ And we have seen how this same question, presented in different words, has struck at the heart of God’s foundational revelation to us, seeking to destroy the past in order to pervert the future – 
2 Pe 3:1 Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), 2 that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, 3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”

The ‘scoffers’ question in relation to the promise of His coming is founded on the blatant lie that the heavens and the earth have continued and will continue, uninterrupted since their initial creation. And we have seen, through the Scriptures, not only the enormity of this lie, but also the all-pervading nature of this deception and the havoc it has wrought within Christendom, especially as we come to the close of this dispensation and the very event that the ‘scoffers’ reject.

2).  In answer to the ‘scoffers’ question, ‘Where is the promise of His coming?’ We would have to say that the promise is everywhere, from Genesis to Revelation.  And from the vantage point of the Word of the Kingdom we might ask the rhetorical question in reply, ‘Where isn’t the promise of His coming?’
a). And it is through the words of Jesus Himself, the One whose coming is denied, that we are given the key to understanding this ever-present promise. - Lu 24:25 Then He said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 "Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?" 27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

‘Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.’ And Moses, as we know, began in Genesis – Ge 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

And here at the very beginning of God’s revelation to us, is the promise of His coming.
b). Hopefully, it is well established in our understanding by now that in the second half of Genesis 1:2 God embarked on a process of restoration for the ruined creation, which culminated with a man formed from the dust of the ground on the sixth day, for the purpose of ruling over the restored material creation on the Seventh Day.
c). The focus here, as it is throughout Scripture, is the Seventh Day and God’s purpose for it, and through the Man and rulership in the Seventh Day we find the promise of His coming.
d). It is through this foundational picture that we have the promise of another sixth day, the six thousandth year from Adam’s creation, out of which another man, the one new man in Christ, comprising those who are alive at the time and those taken from the dust of the earth, will be taken into the heavens for judgment before the identified faithful will rule with Christ in the Seventh Day – 1 Th 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

And so, the promise of His coming as seen in foundation, will be fulfilled.
e). The promise is seen again in – Ge 3:15 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.” 

The promise of the coming of the Seed of the Woman was given to the serpent, and so, because of what the promise portends for him, it is not surprising that it is this that Satan has sought to destroy.
f). The Seed of the Woman is the promised Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, but let’s keep in mind that the Christ’s redeeming work has a scope that extends beyond eternal salvation of itself. A work that includes the redemption and restoration of national Israel, the complete restoration of fallen mankind, spirit, soul and body and the restoration of the earth presently under a curse, which will bring God’s purpose for the ages to completion – Ro 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. 23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. 24 For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

All of this will be accomplished through His coming. And this complete redemptive work has both a timeframe and a purpose – 1 Co 15:20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming. 24 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. 27 For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. 28 Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.

Isa 65:17 ¶ "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.

2Pe 3:13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Re 21:1 ¶ Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.

And as we know, it will be from the new earth that the Father and the Son, along with all the eternally redeemed from the previously finished seven thousand years, will rule the universe. The very rulership that Satan had desired, that had inspired his rebellion. And as all of this will be fulfilled because of the Lord’s coming, again, it is no wonder that it is this promise that is the focus for Satan’s deception.
g). Through the Scriptures we have had revealed to us the fulfillment of God’s plans and purposes for the Seventh Day, finalized through the events of Christ’s second coming. 
h). And when we speak about Christ’s second coming, we need to understand this to be progressive action, rather than a one-time event. Encompassed in this phrase, ‘the second coming’, would be all the events from the resurrection/rapture of the Church, through the redemption of the inheritance (the Great Tribulation) to the Christ literally setting foot again on the earth, to overthrow Gentile world power and to establish His Kingdom.

3). And if we return once more to the foundation in Genesis, we can find the promise of His coming once again.
a). To look at this we will read from Acts, from Stephen’s account of the foundation in Genesis, as he attempted to show Israel’s religious leaders, from their own Scriptures, what is taught there – Ac 7:11 "Now a famine and great trouble came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers found no sustenance. 12 "But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. 13 "And the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known to the Pharaoh. 14 "Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and all his relatives to him, seventy-five people.

Having first been rejected by His brothers it is the second time that Joseph is made known to his brothers.  And this second time is when they were delivered from the famine and the family of Jacob was blessed. Not only then was Christ’s coming at His first advent and His subsequent rejection established through the type, but also the certainty of a time of ‘great trouble’ ‘over all the land’, which will only be ended when the One pictured through Joseph, is made known to his brothers a second time.
b). The type has been set in the account of Joseph, which prophetically looks to the certainty of the fulfillment of the antitype. Here again, is the promise of His coming.
c). And Stephen continued - Acts 7:35 "This Moses whom they rejected, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge?' is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 "He brought them out, after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years.

Again, it is Moses who was rejected by his brothers the first time who was then received a second time to be Israel’s deliverer; delivering them from the bondage of Egypt to take them to the land of promise at the head of the nations.
d). The type has been set in the account of Moses, which prophetically looks to the certainty of the antitype being fulfilled, which it must be, as both the accounts of Joseph and Moses follow that laid out in the first thirty-four verses of Scripture. Here again, is the promise of His coming.
e). And having laid out this foundation, through the types, for Israel’s religious leaders, Stephen then brought the matter to its conclusion – 
Acts 7:51 ¶ "You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. 52 "Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, 53 who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”

Israel’s religious leaders had done exactly as their fathers had done, and from the foundational types, Stephen had shown them that a time of ‘great trouble’ awaited them unless and until they received the One whom they had killed, a second time. We know the religious leaders’ response – 
Acts 7:54 When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. 55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, 56 and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” 57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; 58 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

The scene described here is extraordinary. The types had been revealed and Israel’s action with respect to the crucified Christ had been explained within their context. The religious leaders were at a climactic point of decision that could have brought the immediate return of the Christ, whom Stephen saw ‘standing at the right hand if God’ within the glory of God. But rather than enact national repentance in response, the religious leaders chose to kill Stephen. The heavens were shut, and the Christ did not return.
f). However, the type has been set. In their rejection of Stephen’s message is the certainty of the time of ‘great trouble’ that must follow their rejection of the Christ the first time, and also the certainty of the nation’s deliverance and restoration when they receive the One, they had rejected, a second time – Zec 12:9 It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 10 “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.

Here again, is the promise of His coming.

4). Let’s continue with the nation of Israel and return to the days of Moses Le 23:1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘The feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts. 3 ‘Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings. 4 ‘These are the feasts of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. 5 On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the LORD'S Passover.

It is in the Book of Leviticus that Moses recorded the seven feasts that God gave to Israel as a prophetic calendar. And as we look at v3, we can see the direct connection between these feasts and the foundational pattern of six days of work followed by a seventh day of rest established in Genesis.
a). And in conjunction with this we will remember that the Sabbath had been given to Israel as a sign - Ex 31:13 "Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: 'Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you. 14 'You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. 15 'Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. 16 'Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. 17 'It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.'"

The feasts recorded in Leviticus began with Passover, they began with God’s provision of death and shed blood, the place where all redemption must begin. A beginning point that corresponded to the light shining in the darkness on Day One of the Genesis account of the restoration of the ruined creation. And the Jewish feasts concluded with the seventh, Tabernacles – Le 23:33 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 34 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the LORD. 35 On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. 36 For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it. 37 “These are the feasts of the LORD which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire to the LORD, a burnt offering and a grain offering, a sacrifice and drink offerings, everything on its day— 38 besides the Sabbaths of the LORD, besides your gifts, besides all your vows, and besides all your freewill offerings which you give to the LORD. 39 ‘Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the LORD for seven days; on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest. 40 And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. 41 You shall keep it as a feast to the LORD for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, 43 that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.’ ” 44 So Moses declared to the children of Israel the feasts of the LORD.

Just as Passover corresponded to Day One in the Genesis account of restoration, so Tabernacles corresponded to the Seventh Day, the Day of Rest, pointing to the time when Israel would dwell in the land of promise at the head of the nations with God in their midst. It pointed to the Millennial Kingdom. It is the Feast of Tabernacles and what it pictures, that will explain Peter’s words on the mount of transfiguration – Mt 17:1 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; 2 and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. 3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. 4 Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

To return to the feasts of Israel. The fulfillment of Passover has begun but still awaits completion. In killing their King, the nation of Israel unknowingly killed the Passover Lamb. Death and shed blood, God’s provision for sin, are complete, awaiting the application of the blood at the end of the tribulation, when they will look on Him whom they pierced.
b). Just as Day One in Genesis inevitably led to Day Seven, so the Passover must inevitably lead to the fulfillment Tabernacles. 
c). The pattern is set, the types are set, certainty is guaranteed. Here again, is the promise of His coming – Isa 46:9 Remember the former things of old,For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’

If we remain and the Lord is willing, and we have prayed, we will continue next time.