Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20060430.htm

CHRIST'S PROPHETIC INSTRUCTION ON THE KIND OF MINISTRY HE BLESSES TODAY
Part II: Christ's Call To Expound Scripture Via A Consistently Normal, Dispensational Interpretation
(Revelation 3:14b(a) with 2 Corinthians 1:18-20 et al.)
  1. Introduction
    1. In prophetically addressing us believers in our current Evangelical era of Church History, our Lord implies a great lack exists of effective ministry to His godly believers in Evangelicalism.
    2. Revelation 3:14b(a) shows us Christ's All-Sufficiency for meeting this need today as follows:
  2. Christ's Call To Expound Scripture With A Consistently Normal, Dispensational Interpretation.
    1. [This present lesson series presupposes that in this year of 2006, we are living in the era of Church History that Christ predicted would occur as the 7th era of Church History, the era of the Laodicean Church (cf. our series on "Christ's Prophetic Message To Contemporary Evangelicals: Part I - Identifying Revelation 3:14-22 As Christ's Message To Contemporary Evangelicals (1950 to now!)."]
    2. In that series, Jesus introduced Himself in Rev. 3:14b(a) as "the Amen" showing "Christ's All-Sufficiency in discipling today's godly believers just opposite the futile attempts by Calvinist and Arminian pastors respectively . . ," Ibid., "Part II: A - Christ's All-Sufficiency For Discipling The Godly," II, B.
    3. Well, the words, "the Amen" appear outside Revelation 3:14b(a) only in two other N. T. passages; we study one of them, 2 Corinthians 1:18-20, in depth here to find Christ calls us to expound Scripture with a consistently, normal and hence dispensational interpretation showing He fulfills the promises to Abraham:
      1. In 2 Cor. 1:18-20, Paul taught that for "the Amen" to occur, a speaker must decisively (not "yes and no") assert that Christ fulfilled God's Old Testament promises; Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 557.
      2. Elsewhere, Paul revealed that holding Christ fulfilled God's Old Testament promises makes one affirm (a) dispensational theology, the view that God has worked in different eras with different arrangements for believers, and (b) this especially in reference to the end of the Mosaic Law's jurisdiction for the Church era believer and (c) a life lived in the power of the Holy Spirit (as follows):
        1. Galatians 3:10-4:7 reveals the believer in Christ has been redeemed from the curse of the Mosaic Law that the promise of the Holy Spirit, the initial promise given to Abraham back in Genesis 12:3b, might come upon the Gentiles through Christ, cf. esp. Galatians 3:13-14.
        2. Then, Ephesians 2:11-3:6 reveals Christ's death abolished the enmity between Jew and Gentile, an enmity formed by the Law, to create of the two in the current era one new man in Christ, 2:11-16.
        3. Romans 11:25-29 reveals God is not finished with the Jew due to the presence of the dispensation of the Church; rather, God will yet save Israel spiritually to fulfill His Old Testament promises to her, a salvation after the "fulness of the Gentiles be come in" in the end times, esp. Rom. 11:25-26.
      3. Of significance, and in connection to Christ's critique in the Revelation 3:14-22 context, we note that Calvinists (esp. Covenant Theology/Reformed) fail to claim Christ fulfills the Abrahamic Covenants; this leads to their failure to hold to dispensational shifts in God's dealings with men as the Church is equated with Israel, and that has led to a failure to hold to a consistently normal (literal, grammatical and historical) method of interpretation, C. C. Ryrie, Dispensationalism Today, p. 86-109, 177-191; J. D. Pentecost, Things To Come, p. 66. They thus fail to assert Christ ended the rule of the Law for Jew and Gentile at the cross, that He instituted the dispensation of the Church and offers spiritual victory in life and service by grace through a life lived by faith in the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God!
      4. In summary, for CHRIST to move His godly listeners to say "the Amen", the speaker must (a) aim to communicate to the mind [the former lesson] (b) in decisive manner (c) the exposition of Bible truth (d) through the consistent use of the normal (literal, grammatical, historical) method of interpretation (e) the dispensational (f) facts of Christ's fulfillment of the promises to Abraham! When THAT happens, there will be great "Amens" spoken by the hearers and blessing in the Body of Christ!
Lesson Application: (1) May all of us who teach or preach to God's people aim in the Holy Spirit's power (a) to convey to the MIND of the hearer [the last lesson] (b) in decisive fashion (c) what the Bible teaches (d) as understood via the normal, or literal, grammatical, historical method of interpretation, (e) the dispensational view of Scripture that (f) upholds how our Lord Jesus Christ fulfills the promises to Abraham. (2) In so doing, Christ HIMSELF will cause the godly to give "the Amen" to the ministry!