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MISSION STATEMENT

THE ANALOGY OF FAITH AND THE INCARNATION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST



Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant,
though he be lord of all;
But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the
world:
But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a
woman, made under the law,
To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of
sons.

Galatians 4: 1 - 5

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should
be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew
him not.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall
be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see
him as he is.
And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression
of the law.
And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.

I John 3: 1 - 5

eo-orthodoxy has an elder sister named Dispensationalism. Veiled in the much fair
speech of pseudo-conservative theology, these two lewd women, these sister harlots,
these notorious theological whores, Neo-orthodoxy and Dispensationalism, have
prostituted the covenant truth of Scripture to the debased ideology of an effeminate age.
And the Church has gone after them "as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the
correction of the stocks".
Dispensationalism is by far the more subtle of the two. For while Neo-orthodoxy has concealed her real
nature with comparative clumsiness, Dispensationalism has painted her face so cleverly that her true
complexion is never perceived by many of the Church's most erudite believers. Indeed, the alluring
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dance of Dispensationalism, with her double veil of pseudo-conservativism and pseudo-literalism has
cost many a poor Baptist his head, or at least his two eyes of good sense and discernment. I know of
one such Samson here in Indiana that has been so shorn of his understanding through her subtlety that
to his immeasurable shame he has even openly and repeatedly denied that Christ is the King of the
Church! Others have been so intoxicated by the wine of her fornications that they have taught multiple
ways of salvations or forsaken the Old Testament and the two ordinances, baptism and the Lord's
Supper, under the drunken delusion that they are "only for national Israel"!

This harlot's method of seduction is consistently the same. Her first act is to seize the unsuspecting
victim by the pressure point of literalism. Once her finger is upon this area so sensitive, so tender to the
heart of any sincere child of God, she then rushes him or her with a number of unsubstantiated,
unfounded, unbiblical and illogical propositions about literalism and allegorism based on a carnal,
rationalistic outlook grounded in the presuppositions of human reasoning. By the time she has finished
weaving her web of manmade definitions about the mind of the poor saint, they will oftentimes have
become so confused and hypnotized by her "much fair speech" and fast talking arguments, that from
that moment on, they will be her complete and total bondservants, with their former allegiance to God's
Word entirely enslaved to the a priori formulas of this extra-biblical theological Mistress.

Thus, as with Neo-orthodoxy, the deception of Dispensationalism lies in its veneer of seemingly
conservative and orthodox language that has been redefined to mean what the Dispensationalist
scholar predetermines that it must mean, based on his presupposed and superimposed concept of
literalism. The analogy of faith, the doctrine that, as God's "quick and powerful" Word (Hebrews 4: 12),
Scripture, not man or human culture, interprets Scripture, is discarded, and the Dispensationalist
exegete is subsequently exalted to that throne which belongs alone to our true Illuminator, God the
Holy Spirit. As with Lower Criticism then, the mind of man, with its flawed rationalism, becomes the
final authority, instead of God or God's Word.

Thus it is absolutely vital that we reclaim that set of definitions which Scripture itself gives utterance to
as the impenetrable fortress of our theology. In the face of Dispensationalist rationalism, the retreat of
the Baptist Federalist must always be back to the authority of God's Word and the definitions that it
establishes, over and against the erroneous definitions of fallible human reasoning. It is only there
within the perimeters of those Scriptural definitions that sound doctrine will find safe haven and be
preserved against the downgrade of the Dispensational chaos matrix. Outside of the safety of those
perimeters, there is neither shelter nor soundness.
Perhaps no passages in the whole of God's Word provide greater bulwarks for Biblical Baptist
Covenantalism than do the epistles of Romans, Galatians, Ephesians and I John. John especially, with
the ungarnished vocabulary and syntax of an aged Galilean fisherman, speaks so plainly to us, that the
subtle, serpentine Dispensationalist is left without an hair's breadth of room to wiggle and spin the
meaning of the passage. So it is to John, who, even more so than Paul, uses "great plainness of speech"
(II Corinthians 3: 1 2- 14), that we will look primarily today to allow Scripture to define and interpret
Scripture.

I. THE CONTEXTUALIZING SCRIPTURE

We will, however, look first to Galatians 4: 1 - 5, which gives us some very specific statements about the
context of Christ's incarnation. This passage establishes two aspects of context surrounding the birth of
Christ which carry important implications for the broader body of theology. These are, first, the
chronological context of Christ's birth, and, second, the covenantal context of Christ's birth.

A. THE CHRONOLOGICAL CONTEXT OT THE INCARNATION OF JESUS CHRIST

The chronological aspect of Christ's incarnation is that of "the fulness of time":

"But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the
law,
To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." (Galatians 4: 4 -
5)

In other words, we are living in "the fulness of time" right now, and have been for many hundreds of
years! We are not waiting for some future fulness involving a degrading retrogression to a geographical,
earthly Temple in Jerusalem and the vulgar shadow of offering animal blood "which can never take
away sins" (Hebrews 10: 11)! "By one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified"
(Hebrews 10: 14)! To dredge up then the ineffectual shadows and typological offerings of the Old
Testament and to revert to them when the spotless Lamb of God has already blotted "out the
handwriting of ordinances which was against us" (Colossians 2: 13 - 15), thereby reconciling believers to
God (II Corinthians 5: 18 - 21) and condemning the lost world (John 3: 18 - 19; 16: 8 - 11) is nothing less
than to tread under foot the Son of God, to count the blood of the covenant wherewith we are
sanctified an unholy thing, and to do despite unto the Spirit of Grace (Hebrews 10: 29)! Yet this is the
very blasphemous heresy which Dispensationalism so prides itself in, based on a pseudo-literal,
eisegetical interpretation of Revelation 20: 1 - 4, which says absolutely nothing about a rebuilt Temple
or renewed Temple sacrifices during the millennial reign of Christ! This is rightly rebuked as blasphemy,
heresy and the abominable sin of adding to God's Word!

The Biblical truth that we are living in the fulness of time right now is affirmed by numerous Scriptures.
It was affirmed by the Apostle Peter's quotation of the book of Joel on the Day of Pentecost as recorded
in Acts 2:

"And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your
sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall
dream dreams:
And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall
prophesy:
And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of
smoke:
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the
Lord come:
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

It was affirmed again by the author of Hebrews in the opening statements of that great Covenantal
treatise:

"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom
also he made the worlds;
Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by
the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
Majesty on high;
Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name
than they."

The same offer reaffirms this again in chapter nine:

"For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into
heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:
Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with
blood of others;
For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the
world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."

John the Beloved affirmed it again in the second chapter of his first epistle:

"Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there
many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time."

The Holy Spirit could not have made it any plainer, any more literal. "It is the last time". So to conjure
up this elaborate scheme wherein a whole other "age" or "dispensation" awaits us after the rapture of
the Church, including a degrading retrogression to an earthly Temple in Jerusalem and a renewal of
vulgar animal sacrifices is to flatly contradict the plain utterances of Scripture as divinely given by the
inspiration of God's Holy Spirit (II Timothy 3: 16; I Peter 1: 21). In the name of Almighty God, we do
solemnly protest to those Dispensational authorities now reading this that they are guilty before him of
adding to his holy Word and that his severe chastisement now hovers above them as a result of their
wicked presumption. And with equal solemnity we do exhort them to humble themselves and repent of
this their great wickedness, to forsake the blasphemous heresy of Dispensationalism and to restore that
which they have robbed God's people of, namely, the precious Covenantal truth and promises of
Scripture in both the New and the Old Testaments.

B. THE COVENANTAL CONTEXT OF THE INCARNATION OF JESUS CHRIST

We notice secondly that the Lord Jesus Christ was made "under the law, to redeem them that were
under the law" (Galatians 4: 3 - 5). Here we see our Saviour's incarnation viewed within its Covenantal
context. This was necessary so that Christ might claim the blessings contained within the Old Covenant.
You recall of course that the Old Covenant contained not only a curse, but also a blessing (Deuteronomy
27: 1 - 30: 20). By his perfect obedience, the Last Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 15: 45)
accomplished that which no other sin-conceived son of the first Adam (Psalm 51: 5; I Corinthians 15: 45 -
50) has ever done. He completely satisfied the demands of the Old Covenant. That means that Christ
rightfully claimed all of the blessings that were contained therein. They became his rightful entitlement
according to the promise of God contained in the Old Covenant. No one could refuse them to him, and
God the Father must honor those promises of blessing every bit as much as the promise that "the soul
that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezekiel 18: 4)! But through the great substitutionary transaction that took
place upon the cross of Calvary, the curse of the Law fell upon our Lord Jesus Christ and he was "made a
curse for us" (Galatians 3: 13), while the blessings which his righteousness and even his genealogical
lineage entitled him to became the inheritance of all "them that believe". Now we read the wonderful
birthright of every born again child of God in Galatians 3: 7 - 29! "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye
Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Glory to God!

But there is more. The Lord Jesus Christ was "made under the law" for a purpose. What was it? It was
"to redeem them that were under the law". That was his mission. That was why he came. That's why
he had to be "made under the law". The Bible tells us that "where no law is, there is no transgression"
(Romans 4: 15). In order to be a valid substitute and become our new Federal Head (I Corinthians 15:
22, 45 - 49), Jesus Christ had to live under the same legal demands as those that he would substitute
himself for. Otherwise, the sinless character of his life would have been inapplicable in terms of either
blessing or cursing, because without the law, "there is no transgression". Consequently, God the Father,
in his wisdom, ordained that Christ would be "made under the law", so that justice would be perfectly
satisfied when he shed his blood and died as our substitute on the cross of Calvary.

II. THE CONTROLLING STATEMENT

And this is where Biblical definitions are so necessary. This is why it is absolutely essential that we abide
by the Biblical definition, rather than by a foreign, manmade definition. Because Biblical definitions
delineate foundational doctrinal truth.

What is the Biblical definition at the center of all this? What is the controlling statement of Scripture
that is absolutely vital to the atoning work of Christ and completely fatal to Dispensational theory?
What will dictate whether we submit to Biblical Covenantalism or follow the childish fantasies of
Dispensationalism?

It is the definition of sin. What is God's definition of sin? It is not "missing the mark". That is a foreign
definition, a manmade definition. It is not the definition that God the Holy Spirit has given us by
inspiration. The Biblical definition of sin, given to us by inspiration of the Holy Ghost and preserved for
us in the Textus Receptus and the Authorized King James Bible is this: "sin is the transgression of the
law" (I John 3: 4).
If we will submit to this Biblical definition of sin, the definition inspired by God the Holy Spirit and
preserved providentially for us in the Textus Receptus and the Authorized King James Bible, then the
entire scheme of so-called "dispensations" collapses. How can there be an "Age of Grace" when there is
no sin because there is no Law to transgress (Romans 4: 15)? Can you not see that God's Law is the
essential context, the Covenantal context, which gives Grace its very meaning and depth, that makes
Grace so beautiful and wonderful ? Take that Covenantal context away, banish it to the theological
dustbin of some bygone "dispensation", and what do we have? What does Grace even mean anymore?
How can we have Grace when we aren't guilty of anything? How can we have Grace when we haven't
transgressed anything, because there is no Law to transgress? Can you not see, beloved, that Law and
Grace operate in simultaneous harmony with one another and not apart from one another? Can you
not see that the very severity of the Law is so much more the greater glory of Grace? Why would you
strip Grace of its radiance, its luster, its glory, its beauty, by extracting it from its necessary context?
Why would you reduce the "marvelous grace of our loving Lord" to a meaningless nothingness?

III. THE COMPLETE SCOPE

Now notice the great extent of Grace in Christ's incarnation. What does John tell us that Christ came to
do? "He was manifested to take away our sins", he tells us (I John 3: 5).

Now taking away "our sins" is something very different from taking away God's Law. If he had taken
away God's Law, if he had banished it to the theological dustbin of some bygone "dispensation", then
there would be no sins, no transgression of God's Law to take away (Romans 4: 15). But, instead of
taking away God's Law, which is "holy, and just, and good" (Romans 7: 12), he fulfilled it (Matthew 5:
17), established it (Romans 3: 31), magnified it and made it honourable (Isaiah 42: 21).

But perhaps we might answer that Christ was manifested to justify us from our sins. That is true, and
thank God that it is true, because we can never justify ourselves. But John goes even further than that.
"He was manifested to take away our sins" (I John 3: 5).

Do you see how John shows us the complete scope of Christ's redemptive work with this simple phrase?
By inspiration of the Holy Ghost, John encapsulates our deliverance from the penalty of sin on the one
hand and our deliverance from the power of sin on the other hand within five little words: "to take away
our sin" (I John 3: 5). God be praised, he doesn't just forgive us and leave us under the power of sin! He
forgives us, he justifies us, but then he also sanctifies us! He says, "sin shall not have dominion over you"
(Romans 6: 14). This is part of what the Puritans referred to as "the Golden Chain of Redemption",
found in Romans 8:

"For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he
might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified:
and whom he justified, them he also glorified."

Praise God, it all comes together in one package! We don't just get part of it, we get it all!
Predestination, Calling, Justification, and Glorification, the full birthright of every child of God!

CONCLUSION

That's why Jesus came. That's why he was "manifested". That's why he was "made of a woman, made
under the law". He came to justify us, it's true, and thank God that he did. But the incarnation of Christ
had an even greater purpose than that: to take away our sins, our transgressions of the Law, the Old
Covenant. He came to sanctify us, to give us victory over them, so that "sin shall not have dominion
over" us (Romans 6: 14). John's old friend and fellow-fisherman, the Apostle Peter out it well when he
said it like this:

"God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his
iniquities" (Acts 3: 26).

Amen and amen.

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