Msg #2016 Stewardship 404

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

Be “like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding;... Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching:... for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.” (Luke 12:36-37,40). Jesus taught some powerful principles about stewardship. A steward is given resources and responsibilities for a period of time and is then held accountable for his actions. The Apostle Paul calls such a period of stewardship a dispensation (1Cor 9:17, Eph 1:10, 3:2, and Col 1:25) which, in his Greek, is the same root word as stewardship. The clearest dispensation is found in the Garden of Eden where man was given resources and responsibilities and he clearly failed. Cain failed, was the first first degree murderer, and the second dispensation ends with God repenting that he had made man. The covenant with Noah failed at the Tower of Babel. A Bible student freed from Roman Catholic, Protestant, Reformed, Calvinistic Covenant /Replacement theology can clearly distinguish seven of these Bible dispensations. The Apostle Paul says to Gentiles, “If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; … Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit...” (Eph 3:2-5). Catholics, Roman or Protestant, in bondage to Covenant Theology, cannot see Bible dispensationalism. They cannot discern Israel's place in God's plan, a promise land that must be delivered, what is going on in the last days of this dispensation, nor the details of the upcoming Kingdom dispensation. In Ephesians the Bible declares that in “the dispensation of grace” Gentiles are “fellowheirs and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel ...” (3:6). It is not a Gentile takeover as Rome declares, nor is it exclusively Gentiles as hyper-dispensationalist contend. The Bible is really very clear on this point, and on the various dispensational (stewardship) ages that God walks mankind through before the last “dispensation of the fullness of times” (1:10), and the end of the world. A study of these seven dispensations might be called Stewardship 404, and is pertinent in the last days of this dispensation of grace we call the church age. While you are locked away at home you should do such an eyeopening study. God bless.

An Essay for week #16 Apr 19, 2020

Msg in audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs200419.mp3

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