Oxford Bible Church - Living in the Last Days (audio)

A major way God, the Lawgiver, governs this world and expresses His authority is through the DIVINE INSTITUTIONS, which are spheres of delegated human authority in the earth. He governs through human beings, who carry His authority, in 7 distinct realms: (1) FREE-WILL – our God-given authority over our own life, (2) WORK, (3) MARRIAGE (between a man and a woman), (4) FAMILY (this includes their children), (5) Human GOVERNMENT, (6) the NATION STATE, and (7) the CHURCH. These define the distinct realms of delegated authority that God entrusts to man. The first 4 Divine Institutions were introduced by God at the beginning before the Fall of man.

The opposite spirit to God’s Spirit is the spirit of lawlessness, which rejects God’s Law in this world, especially through the Divine Institutions. The Bible predicts that in the end-times the spirit of lawlessness will increase in the world and even infect many in the Church. Lawlessness is not just breaking God's Law of God, but it is to reject the Law of God itself. It is rebellion against God's authority and right to govern the world. The spirit of lawlessness attacks and seeks to undermine true authority, especially as embodied in and expressed through the Divine Institutions, as defined by God’s Word.

A big part of our submission to God is submitting to the human authorities in our life, for they carry the authority of God. All authority comes from God. Only God has absolute authority, but He delegates His authority to man, so man is meant to exercise authority under God, in His Name. God entrusts man with authority and holds him accountable for how he uses it. We are called to honour and submit to God’s delegated authorities, even though they are imperfect. The spirit of lawlessness seeks to overthrow God's delegated authorities, often using their failures or imagined failures as a basis and excuse. You cannot submit to God without also submitting to His delegated authorities. A major key to success in life is to understand and honour God-ordained authority (Ephesians 6:1-3).

The Divine Institutions are real structures, built into man’s social existence, designed, initiated and ordained by God, revealed through His Word, and they apply to all mankind. God designed the Divine Institutions for our good, to provide stability, peace, blessing and prosperity. Satan works through the spirit of lawlessness to attack and undermine all the Divine Institutions. It is vital to understand the Divine Institutions and respect, defend and uphold them, not violate them.

In this Series, we will study all 7 of the Divine Institutions, and in this teaching (Part 1), we study the first and fundamental Divine Institution: FREE-WILL.

Hilary shares from the story of the forgiven sinful woman, who responds by worshipping and loving Jesus extravagantly (Luke 7:36-47). She is given as an example of the truth that the one who is FORGIVEN much, LOVES much. A big reason that we don't love Jesus more and deeply appreciate His forgiveness is because we don't know how just how much we've been forgiven ourselves. We need to understand the magnitude of our un-payable sin-debt (represented by the 10,000 talents in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant in Matthew 18:21-35), that we owed the Lord, which He has forgiven; then we will be able to forgive the much smaller sin-debt that others owe us. This Parable also reveals that if we will not forgive others, we cut ourselves off from God’s forgiveness, life, blessing and grace, and as a result, we come under the power of sin and the curse. We then feel oppressed, imprisoned and suffer torment (Matthew 6:15, 18:34-35, Mark 11:26).

Jesus Christ gave His Divine Blood to pay the price in full for all of mankind's sin, offering us His full forgiveness as a free gift. In the light of His amazing grace and mercy toward us, it is a serious sin for believers to harbour unforgiveness and bitterness toward others. It cuts us off from the grace and blessing of God and opens the door to sickness, mental torment, oppression and bondage, and we can only be set free through forgiving those who have sinned against us.

Hilary shares from the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant (Matthew 18:21-35), the great importance of forgiveness and the serious dangers of unforgiveness.

Our sin took Jesus to the Cross. Our forgiveness didn't come cheap, it cost God everything. In taking our place, Jesus bore the punishment we deserved and paid the price for our sins. If we meditate on the Cross, seeing what He suffered for our forgiveness, it makes it easier for us to forgive others. Since we’ve received such mercy, we must show mercy, and forgive others fully and freely. Christ is saying to us: "Look how much I'm willing to forgive you, therefore what right do you have to be bitter and unforgiving with your fellow servants, when I have so fully and freely forgiven you?"

Many Messianic Prophecies in the Old Testament speak of the Coming Messiah as being both GOD and MAN (the unique God-man). The New Testament proclaims that all these Prophecies were fulfilled in the Person of Jesus Christ, and claims that He is both fully Man and fully God, and because He is God, He is able to save us, if we call upon His Name, and He is worthy of our full and absolute love, loyalty, submission, wholehearted worship and devoted service. In this video we continue our study of these God-man Prophecies from Job, Isaiah, Psalms, Zechariah and Malachi.

The Gospel proclaims that God became a man in the Person of Jesus Christ in order to save us. Jesus Christ is not just a man, but he is fully God, He is God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity, and because He is God, He is worthy of our full devotion, our absolute love and loyalty, the total submission of our heart and life, our wholehearted worship and service. The Deity of Christ is expressed by the main Christian Confession: “Jesus is LORD” (Romans 10:9). This confession expresses our personal submission to Jesus as our Lord and God (John 20:28). It is essential for our salvation to know and believe that Jesus is both fully GOD and fully MAN, because believing in the TRUE JESUS is the KEY to receiving ETERNAL LIFE. The Deity of Christ is the foundational truth that Jesus emphasised in Matthew 16, when He announced the formation of His Church, saying that this is the key revelation that was required for any man to be blessed with eternal life and to become part of His Church.

It was necessary for the Messiah to be God, for His mission was to be the SAVIOUR of mankind, saving us from the dominion of sin, death and hell, and the Bible is clear that ONLY GOD can be our SAVIOUR (Isaiah 43:11): “SALVATION is of the LORD” (Jonah 2:9). The Messianic Prophecies in the Old Testament consistently speak of the Coming Messiah as being both GOD and MAN (the unique God-man). Therefore, when Jesus claimed to be both God and man, He was claiming to be the fulfilment of these Prophecies. Therefore, the New Testament is perfectly consistent with the Old Testament revelation, and it proclaims that all these Prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

After introducing this subject, we study a number of these God-man Prophecies, and in the next video in this Series, we will go on to study even more of these most important Prophecies.

Paul's teaching on head-coverings in Church (1Corinthians 11:1-16) is one of the most complex passages in the New Testament. Derek explains how his argument is on 3 levels:

*(1) The THEOLOGICAL basis: HEADSHIP in Marriage.

*(2) The PRINCIPLE of HEAD-COVERING – a woman should cover her head as a symbol and expression of her SUBMISSION to the HEADSHIP of her man.

*(3) The PRACTICE – what constitutes a COVERING?

This passage also speaks to the issue of whether a man should have long hair.

Hilary shares from Isaiah 53:1-5 how Divine Healing was purchased for us on the Cross, confirmed by Matthew 8:5-17, for: “He took our sicknesses and bore our diseases." The risen Christ has poured out the Holy Spirit for us all to receive. The Spirit dwells within the spirit of every believer and wants to flow out through our hearts as rivers of life-giving water (John 7:37-39), bringing us health and healing (Rev 22:1-3, Ezekiel 47:9,12, Romans 8:11). When we pray in tongues (Acts 2:4), we are allowing this River of Life to flow more abundantly through us. This is confirmed by medical studies that show the positive effects on our bodies of extended praying in tongues. Hilary shares the results of these studies to encourage you to be more faithful in using your God-given prayer language.

When we pray in tongues, a river of life flows out of our spirit (where the Holy Spirit dwells) through our mouth: “out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). This divine river carries life, healing, supernatural power and gifts. Hilary shares the results of medical studies showing that extended praying in tongues activates areas of our brain which release hormones, resulting in increased immunity from sickness, and health for our minds and bodies.

Immediately after the Rapture all believers will stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ. This is not a judgment to determine our eternal salvation (or condemnation), but a judgement of our works to determine our eternal rewards. Derek takes us through the 4 major passages on this Judgement: (1) Romans 14:10-13 (with James 2:12-13, 5:8-9), (2) 2 Corinthians 5:9-11, (3) 1 Corinthians 4:2-5, (4) 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.

We need to live our lives in the constant awareness that at any moment we might find ourselves standing before our Lord Jesus Christ, in order to give an account for how we have lived our Christian lives. He who sees everything, will bring all things to the light, and will examine all things, including the motives of our heart. So, let us be faithful to Christ, and live for His praise and reward, so that we may hear Him say to us: "Well done, you good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:21,23).

Derek's full teaching on this subject is in his book: 'A Panorama of Prophecy' - available on Amazon.

Starting with the promise of Jesus in John 14:1-3 that He will return from Heaven, specifically for believers (His Bride), to take us to be with Him in Heaven, Derek shares the classic passages on the Rapture, especially 1Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 1Corinthians 15:51-58, sharing how there will be 2 blasts of the Trumpet of God.

The first Trumpet will sound causing the dead in Christ to be raised and then rise to meet the Lord in the sky (the dead in Christ will rise first). Then the last Trumpet will sound, causing those in Christ, who are still alive, to be instantly changed in our bodies, so that we will receive immortal bodies. Then we will be caught up (raptured) to meet Christ in the sky, joining those who previously rose at the first Trumpet. In this way, the whole Church will be gathered together to Christ, and from then on, we will always be with the Lord.

Finally, we see the thrice repeated promise of Jesus in the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22:7,12,20: "I am coming quickly (suddenly, without warning)" - a clear statement of the imminence of His Coming in the Rapture.