What Shall I Do - Part Twenty Three Apr 30, 2023 by: John Herbert | Series: What Shall I Do... Audio Study Notes PDF https://s3.amazonaws.com/cornerstonejax/sermonfiles/T059_20230430.mp3 Refresh A Recap from the Sermon Ge 1:28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion..... Today we will begin to look at the mandate given for rulership. The full text of this message can be found by clicking the PDF button. Sunday April 30th 2023 What Shall I Do…….. Part 23 1). Ge 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. As we have seen in our previous studies, everything to do with the restoration of the material creation, the creation of Man, and rulership, is contained within the seven days, seven thousand years that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit had established in the opening thirty-four verses of Genesis. a). Neither the present heavens and earth, nor the rulership connected with them will extend beyond the Seventh Day – Isa 65:17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. 2 Pe 3:13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, [in Isaiah 65] look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, the focus for our Christian life cannot extend beyond the Seventh Day either. b). It is an irrevocable truth, that our presently possessed salvation will go with us into the endless ages, but as we have seen, the endless ages are not God’s focus and nor are they the purpose for which God gave us the free gift of spiritual life. All that we need to be concerned with is centered upon, and inexorably moving toward the conclusion of time, the salvation of the soul, rulership, and a marriage relationship, the Seventh Day. c). God always acts with precision with respect to the time He has set in place. And in anticipation of the coming Seventh Day, we know with absolute certainty that the Lord will return for His Church precisely at the end of the two days, two thousand years of this dispensation. He will not be late. And we are almost there. d). With this in mind, our diligence and focus upon our appearance at Christ’s Judgment Seat and the Seventh Day beyond it is of paramount importance – Heb 4:11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. 2 Pe 3:14 Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; 15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation….. Let’s look again at the verses concerning God’s the creation of mankind as seen in the foundation - Ge 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” As we saw last week, there is the clearly stated purpose for Man’s creation, ‘let them have dominion’, a ‘dominion’, rulership, that we now know is focused exclusively on the Seventh Day. And alongside this clearly stated purpose there was a clearly stated mandate, that had to be accomplished before rulership could begin. The mandate, which is given in v28, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it, was given to Adam before the events in the Garden that brought about Man’s fall. e). In their unfallen state then, Adam and the Woman were to be fruitful, and this would have literally been with respect to procreation, allowing them to multiply in numbers and fill the earth with those just like themselves, in order to subdue it, resulting in dominion in the place of Satan and his angels. f). In their unfallen condition their offspring could only have been in the same image and likeness as their parents, who were themselves in the image and likeness of God. The earth then, was to be filled with individuals just like the unfallen Adam and his wife. And we should note again that this mandate had to be fulfilled before Adam, with the Woman, could rule. g). This of course did not happen because of the serpent’s deception of the Woman in the Garden, causing the fall of the Man and the Woman before procreation according to Genesis 1:28 began. And as we know, following the fall, Adam and the Woman brought forth children born with the image and likeness of fallen Adam, no longer the image and likeness of God – Ge 5:3 And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. And in this fallen condition, dominion could not be exercised apart from the process of redemption that would be brought about over six days, six-thousand years of God’s work culminating in the glorious Seventh Day. 2). We will remember a significant event that followed on from all that took place in the Garden – Ge 6:1 Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose…. 7 So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. Through the corruption of the human bloodlines the earth was being filled with those in the image and likeness of the fallen angels, those who would be likeminded with Satan. And this could not continue for obvious reasons - Ge 6:13 And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Following the flood of Noah there was a new beginning that paralleled the one at the beginning of Genesis but with important differences - Ge 9:1 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. The eight who came from the ark were to be fruitful through procreation, thereby multiplying and filling the earth with the offspring of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. But no mention was made of subduing the earth and having dominion, this would come later. Shem, Ham, and Japheth and their offspring would fill the earth, and all of us would trace our lineage back to one of these three sons. Satan and his angels continued to rule, but that mandated to Adam in the beginning remained in place. a). Through the lineage of Shem, we come to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - Isa 43:1 But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. In Jacob God brought about a creation that paralleled that of Adam. This creation distinguished Jacob and his offspring, the twelve sons, the nation of Israel from the rest of the human race. Instead of the singular Adam, the Jewish people as a whole would be adopted as a firstborn son, a son of God through creation, for the purpose of rulership. b). And in conjunction with this creation in Jacob, let’s look at what God said to Jacob concerning his name change, from – Ge 35:9 Then God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Padan Aram, and blessed him. 10 And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel. 11 Also God said to him: “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body. 12 The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land.” We see the same words spoken to Noah and his sons, ‘be fruitful and multiply’, and this multiplication would again be with a view to numbers, generations of Jews who would comprise the firstborn son having the same purpose and focus as God who created the nation – Acts 7:14 Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and all his relatives to him, seventy-five people. 15 So Jacob went down to Egypt; and he died, he and our fathers……..17 “But when the time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt…….. A land was also promised for Jacob’s descendants, which parallels the Garden from which Adam and the Woman were to have originally populated the earth before the fall. c). However, before subduing the earth and dominion, could come into view, there first had to be redemption. And redemption is what we see on the night of the first Passover, when God’s adopted firstborn son was delivered from the kingdom of Satan, pictured in their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt – Ex 19:4 ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 6 And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.” In the phrase, ‘above all people’ in v5 we will again see rulership. But all, as we know, was conditional, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then….. And an integral part of the nation’s obedience had to do with subduing the land from which they were to rule the earth – Nu 33:51 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you have crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 52 then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their engraved stones, destroy all their molded images, and demolish all their high places; 53 you shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land and dwell in it, for I have given you the land to possess. So then, with respect to the Jews, we see creation, the mandate to be fruitful and multiply and rulership, with fruitfulness, multiplication and rulership being contingent upon faithful obedience. d). The Jews were to be a people separated to the service of their God, who through their faithful obedience would be likeminded with Him in the conduct of their lives and the fulfillment of His purpose for them. They were to be fruitful through their faithful obedience and fill the earth in the sense of converting the Gentiles to be of one mind with them and their God – Isa 43:10 “You are My witnesses,” says the LORD, “And My servant whom I have chosen, That you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, Nor shall there be after Me. 11 I, even I, am the LORD, And besides Me there is no savior. 12 I have declared and saved, I have proclaimed, And there was no foreign god among you; Therefore you are My witnesses,” These verses from Isaiah look prophetically to Israel at the end of the tribulation and their role during the Millennial Kingdom, but it also forms the commission given to the nation at its inception, to be God’s witnesses to the Gentile nations, just as we see in the type through the command given to Jonah – Jon 1:1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” 3 But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. And also, through the type of Jonah, we know that this commission was ignored. Hence the call to repentance at the Lord’s first advent – Mt 3:8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance….. And in conjunction with this, they as God’s witnesses, were to take His Word to the Gentile nations. And it was the absence of fruitfulness with respect to their unbelief and disobedience that resulted in the Kingdom of the heavens being taken from the nation at the Lord’s first Advent – Mk 12:1 Then He began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. 2 Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers. 3 And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. 5 And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some. 6 Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 But those vinedressers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard. 9 “Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others. The parable that Jesus gave concerning the landowner and his vineyard makes perfectly clear that God had sought fruit from His people throughout their history, and equally clear is the fact that fruit was not found. The Lord gave them an account of their own history with respect to this and revealed what they were about to do to the landowner’s Son, who had found no fruit when he came to them either. e). If we go back a few verses to Mark Chapter 11, the fruitless condition of the nation at the Lord’s first advent is given – Mk 11:12 Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. 13 And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 In response Jesus said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you with respect to the age.” And His disciples heard it…………20 Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. 21 And Peter, remembering, said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.” With respect to the Kingdom of the heavens the Jewish people could no longer produce fruit. And this effectively marked the taking of the Kingdom of the heavens from Israel, just as the Lord had said, “Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others. The same thing that we see confirmed in – Mt 21:43 “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. National Israel remained fruitless through unbelief and disobedience, with respect to the Kingdom of the heavens. But that is not to say that they produced no fruit, only that it was the wrong fruit – Isa 5:3 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard. 4 What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, Did it bring forth wild grapes? And the nature of the wild grapes can be seen in - Mt 23:15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of Gehenna as yourselves. According to the Scripture, the Gentile who was ‘won’ to become a proselyte, became twice as bad as those who had proselytized him, with of course the same consequences for him as the rest of the nation. f). And in this example, we can find the diametric opposites that come out of fruit bearing. Correct fruit bearing will produce a son of the Kingdom, just as we see in the Matthew 13 Parables, whereas incorrect fruit bearing produces a son of Gehenna. 3). And all of this is pertinent to us because of what we have read many times in Matthew 21:43. We are well aware that we are part of the nation with a heavenly homeland, to whom the Kingdom will be given, PROVIDING we bring forth its fruits. a). So, let’s ask ourselves the question, the original mandate for rulership given in Genesis 1:28, has that changed? Or does it remain in place? Well, if the purpose for man’s creation remains unchanged, then the mandate by which it is to be realized must remain unchanged as well. And this was certainly true for the nation of Israel as we have seen. b). For ourselves then, the mandate given in Genesis 1:28 remains in place for the second Man, the last Adam, and those who will be His wife. There must be fruitfulness and multiplication in anticipation of subduing the earth and having dominion. And as we have already determined, this is a process that must begin [and end] with redemption - Acts 15:14 Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. Through redemption there is a new creation that parallels the creation in Jacob and the creation of Adam – 2 Co 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. And in perfect keeping with the foundation in Genesis, out of this new creation those who will be Christ’s Bride will be taken. And this has been the work of the Holy Spirit, which began when He was sent for the purpose of procuring a Bride for God’s Son on the Day of Pentecost following the Lord’s ascension. c). And in conjunction with this work of the Holy Spirit, the last Adam is fulfilling the first three parts of the mandate from Genesis 1:28, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. d). Now we will realize that filling the earth as it applies to Christ’s work among Christians should not be understood literally, but figuratively. Over the course of this dispensation, the Lord has been producing likeminded individuals who will in that Day occupy His throne with Him in the New Jerusalem. Just as we have seen in the type given through David - 1 Sa 22:1 David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. So when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. 2 And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So he became captain over them. And there were about four hundred men with him. There must be a contingent of likeminded individuals completely aligned with Christ, in place, before rulership is possible. This is just what we saw in the foundation with Adam. And it is in this sense, gathering together the likeminded, that we should understand the last Adam filling the earth during the course of this dispensation. And this process of ‘filling the earth’ will continue to the end of the dispensation on the one hand and on the other hand – Ps 110:1 The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” 2 The LORD shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies! Christ is to sit at God’s right hand until his enemies, the kingdom of Satan is subdued, and then He will rule. We will continue with this next time if we remain, and the Lord is willing, and we have prayed. What Shall I Do - Part Twenty Three Apr 30, 2023 Speaker: John Herbert Series: What Shall I Do... Category: Sunday Morning https://s3.amazonaws.com/cornerstonejax/sermonfiles/T059_20230430.mp3 Download Audio x
Refresh A Recap from the Sermon Ge 1:28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion..... Today we will begin to look at the mandate given for rulership. The full text of this message can be found by clicking the PDF button. Sunday April 30th 2023 What Shall I Do…….. Part 23 1). Ge 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. As we have seen in our previous studies, everything to do with the restoration of the material creation, the creation of Man, and rulership, is contained within the seven days, seven thousand years that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit had established in the opening thirty-four verses of Genesis. a). Neither the present heavens and earth, nor the rulership connected with them will extend beyond the Seventh Day – Isa 65:17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. 2 Pe 3:13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, [in Isaiah 65] look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, the focus for our Christian life cannot extend beyond the Seventh Day either. b). It is an irrevocable truth, that our presently possessed salvation will go with us into the endless ages, but as we have seen, the endless ages are not God’s focus and nor are they the purpose for which God gave us the free gift of spiritual life. All that we need to be concerned with is centered upon, and inexorably moving toward the conclusion of time, the salvation of the soul, rulership, and a marriage relationship, the Seventh Day. c). God always acts with precision with respect to the time He has set in place. And in anticipation of the coming Seventh Day, we know with absolute certainty that the Lord will return for His Church precisely at the end of the two days, two thousand years of this dispensation. He will not be late. And we are almost there. d). With this in mind, our diligence and focus upon our appearance at Christ’s Judgment Seat and the Seventh Day beyond it is of paramount importance – Heb 4:11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. 2 Pe 3:14 Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; 15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation….. Let’s look again at the verses concerning God’s the creation of mankind as seen in the foundation - Ge 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” As we saw last week, there is the clearly stated purpose for Man’s creation, ‘let them have dominion’, a ‘dominion’, rulership, that we now know is focused exclusively on the Seventh Day. And alongside this clearly stated purpose there was a clearly stated mandate, that had to be accomplished before rulership could begin. The mandate, which is given in v28, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it, was given to Adam before the events in the Garden that brought about Man’s fall. e). In their unfallen state then, Adam and the Woman were to be fruitful, and this would have literally been with respect to procreation, allowing them to multiply in numbers and fill the earth with those just like themselves, in order to subdue it, resulting in dominion in the place of Satan and his angels. f). In their unfallen condition their offspring could only have been in the same image and likeness as their parents, who were themselves in the image and likeness of God. The earth then, was to be filled with individuals just like the unfallen Adam and his wife. And we should note again that this mandate had to be fulfilled before Adam, with the Woman, could rule. g). This of course did not happen because of the serpent’s deception of the Woman in the Garden, causing the fall of the Man and the Woman before procreation according to Genesis 1:28 began. And as we know, following the fall, Adam and the Woman brought forth children born with the image and likeness of fallen Adam, no longer the image and likeness of God – Ge 5:3 And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. And in this fallen condition, dominion could not be exercised apart from the process of redemption that would be brought about over six days, six-thousand years of God’s work culminating in the glorious Seventh Day. 2). We will remember a significant event that followed on from all that took place in the Garden – Ge 6:1 Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose…. 7 So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. Through the corruption of the human bloodlines the earth was being filled with those in the image and likeness of the fallen angels, those who would be likeminded with Satan. And this could not continue for obvious reasons - Ge 6:13 And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Following the flood of Noah there was a new beginning that paralleled the one at the beginning of Genesis but with important differences - Ge 9:1 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. The eight who came from the ark were to be fruitful through procreation, thereby multiplying and filling the earth with the offspring of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. But no mention was made of subduing the earth and having dominion, this would come later. Shem, Ham, and Japheth and their offspring would fill the earth, and all of us would trace our lineage back to one of these three sons. Satan and his angels continued to rule, but that mandated to Adam in the beginning remained in place. a). Through the lineage of Shem, we come to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - Isa 43:1 But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. In Jacob God brought about a creation that paralleled that of Adam. This creation distinguished Jacob and his offspring, the twelve sons, the nation of Israel from the rest of the human race. Instead of the singular Adam, the Jewish people as a whole would be adopted as a firstborn son, a son of God through creation, for the purpose of rulership. b). And in conjunction with this creation in Jacob, let’s look at what God said to Jacob concerning his name change, from – Ge 35:9 Then God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Padan Aram, and blessed him. 10 And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel. 11 Also God said to him: “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body. 12 The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land.” We see the same words spoken to Noah and his sons, ‘be fruitful and multiply’, and this multiplication would again be with a view to numbers, generations of Jews who would comprise the firstborn son having the same purpose and focus as God who created the nation – Acts 7:14 Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and all his relatives to him, seventy-five people. 15 So Jacob went down to Egypt; and he died, he and our fathers……..17 “But when the time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt…….. A land was also promised for Jacob’s descendants, which parallels the Garden from which Adam and the Woman were to have originally populated the earth before the fall. c). However, before subduing the earth and dominion, could come into view, there first had to be redemption. And redemption is what we see on the night of the first Passover, when God’s adopted firstborn son was delivered from the kingdom of Satan, pictured in their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt – Ex 19:4 ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 6 And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.” In the phrase, ‘above all people’ in v5 we will again see rulership. But all, as we know, was conditional, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then….. And an integral part of the nation’s obedience had to do with subduing the land from which they were to rule the earth – Nu 33:51 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you have crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 52 then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their engraved stones, destroy all their molded images, and demolish all their high places; 53 you shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land and dwell in it, for I have given you the land to possess. So then, with respect to the Jews, we see creation, the mandate to be fruitful and multiply and rulership, with fruitfulness, multiplication and rulership being contingent upon faithful obedience. d). The Jews were to be a people separated to the service of their God, who through their faithful obedience would be likeminded with Him in the conduct of their lives and the fulfillment of His purpose for them. They were to be fruitful through their faithful obedience and fill the earth in the sense of converting the Gentiles to be of one mind with them and their God – Isa 43:10 “You are My witnesses,” says the LORD, “And My servant whom I have chosen, That you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, Nor shall there be after Me. 11 I, even I, am the LORD, And besides Me there is no savior. 12 I have declared and saved, I have proclaimed, And there was no foreign god among you; Therefore you are My witnesses,” These verses from Isaiah look prophetically to Israel at the end of the tribulation and their role during the Millennial Kingdom, but it also forms the commission given to the nation at its inception, to be God’s witnesses to the Gentile nations, just as we see in the type through the command given to Jonah – Jon 1:1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” 3 But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. And also, through the type of Jonah, we know that this commission was ignored. Hence the call to repentance at the Lord’s first advent – Mt 3:8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance….. And in conjunction with this, they as God’s witnesses, were to take His Word to the Gentile nations. And it was the absence of fruitfulness with respect to their unbelief and disobedience that resulted in the Kingdom of the heavens being taken from the nation at the Lord’s first Advent – Mk 12:1 Then He began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. 2 Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers. 3 And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. 5 And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some. 6 Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 But those vinedressers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard. 9 “Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others. The parable that Jesus gave concerning the landowner and his vineyard makes perfectly clear that God had sought fruit from His people throughout their history, and equally clear is the fact that fruit was not found. The Lord gave them an account of their own history with respect to this and revealed what they were about to do to the landowner’s Son, who had found no fruit when he came to them either. e). If we go back a few verses to Mark Chapter 11, the fruitless condition of the nation at the Lord’s first advent is given – Mk 11:12 Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. 13 And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 In response Jesus said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you with respect to the age.” And His disciples heard it…………20 Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. 21 And Peter, remembering, said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.” With respect to the Kingdom of the heavens the Jewish people could no longer produce fruit. And this effectively marked the taking of the Kingdom of the heavens from Israel, just as the Lord had said, “Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others. The same thing that we see confirmed in – Mt 21:43 “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. National Israel remained fruitless through unbelief and disobedience, with respect to the Kingdom of the heavens. But that is not to say that they produced no fruit, only that it was the wrong fruit – Isa 5:3 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard. 4 What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, Did it bring forth wild grapes? And the nature of the wild grapes can be seen in - Mt 23:15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of Gehenna as yourselves. According to the Scripture, the Gentile who was ‘won’ to become a proselyte, became twice as bad as those who had proselytized him, with of course the same consequences for him as the rest of the nation. f). And in this example, we can find the diametric opposites that come out of fruit bearing. Correct fruit bearing will produce a son of the Kingdom, just as we see in the Matthew 13 Parables, whereas incorrect fruit bearing produces a son of Gehenna. 3). And all of this is pertinent to us because of what we have read many times in Matthew 21:43. We are well aware that we are part of the nation with a heavenly homeland, to whom the Kingdom will be given, PROVIDING we bring forth its fruits. a). So, let’s ask ourselves the question, the original mandate for rulership given in Genesis 1:28, has that changed? Or does it remain in place? Well, if the purpose for man’s creation remains unchanged, then the mandate by which it is to be realized must remain unchanged as well. And this was certainly true for the nation of Israel as we have seen. b). For ourselves then, the mandate given in Genesis 1:28 remains in place for the second Man, the last Adam, and those who will be His wife. There must be fruitfulness and multiplication in anticipation of subduing the earth and having dominion. And as we have already determined, this is a process that must begin [and end] with redemption - Acts 15:14 Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. Through redemption there is a new creation that parallels the creation in Jacob and the creation of Adam – 2 Co 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. And in perfect keeping with the foundation in Genesis, out of this new creation those who will be Christ’s Bride will be taken. And this has been the work of the Holy Spirit, which began when He was sent for the purpose of procuring a Bride for God’s Son on the Day of Pentecost following the Lord’s ascension. c). And in conjunction with this work of the Holy Spirit, the last Adam is fulfilling the first three parts of the mandate from Genesis 1:28, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. d). Now we will realize that filling the earth as it applies to Christ’s work among Christians should not be understood literally, but figuratively. Over the course of this dispensation, the Lord has been producing likeminded individuals who will in that Day occupy His throne with Him in the New Jerusalem. Just as we have seen in the type given through David - 1 Sa 22:1 David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. So when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. 2 And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So he became captain over them. And there were about four hundred men with him. There must be a contingent of likeminded individuals completely aligned with Christ, in place, before rulership is possible. This is just what we saw in the foundation with Adam. And it is in this sense, gathering together the likeminded, that we should understand the last Adam filling the earth during the course of this dispensation. And this process of ‘filling the earth’ will continue to the end of the dispensation on the one hand and on the other hand – Ps 110:1 The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” 2 The LORD shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies! Christ is to sit at God’s right hand until his enemies, the kingdom of Satan is subdued, and then He will rule. We will continue with this next time if we remain, and the Lord is willing, and we have prayed.
