The Time Is Fulfilled

Well, good afternoon, everyone. Again, thank you very much for being here, and welcome to this Kingdom of God seminar. Very, very exciting subject to talk about and look into. I wanted to mention here, I did just type up a...I'm not going to be using PowerPoint today. I know last time, about a month ago, we used PowerPoint, but I did the old-fashioned way, have more concentration on just what's being said. But I did type up an outline of the two segments that I'll be giving today.

The first one, the time is fulfilled, is the front and back page of the handout, and the second page is the...on the front and back is the Kingdom of God is at hand. A summary with all the pertinent points and scriptures. And I have about 20 copies of that or so back on the information table in the lobby.

So you can pick that up after services if you haven't...don't have one now. But with all the problems the world is now facing, and there are a lot of problems in the world, there really is no problem. There is no more important subject when you really understand it than the Kingdom of God.

God's coming to the Kingdom, and our role in that is really, when you think about it, it's the only solution to mankind's problems. A lot of problems in the world today. And mankind has been trying to solve those problems for many decades here, centuries actually, and has not made very good progress. Four months ago...oh, thank you. That helps. Four months ago, our two segments on the Kingdom of God focused on...and I'll just review this quickly...what is the Kingdom of God, the first one, and why the Kingdom of God is needed now and the world we live in today.

And just to quickly review that, the Kingdom of God is an actual kingdom that Christ is actually going to set up and establish on this earth when he returns. It's going to replace the governments of the world we have today that cannot solve man's problems. Daniel 2.44 actually makes that plan. I'll be covering that in the second segment, but it says that God is going to set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people. It shall break in pieces, consume all those kingdoms, and it shall stand forever, it says.

So it presents it there prophetically in the book of Daniel's being a literal kingdom that's going to be set up. And when it says the kingdom shall not be left to other people, it means that the governmental leaders are not going to be chosen or appointed by men, or be self-appointed, as many of them are today. So who then will the leaders in this coming kingdom of God be when it's established? Well, Daniel 7.27 also gives us the answer to that question, where it says, "...then the kingdoms and dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms shall be given to the saints of the Most High." The people God is calling and preparing now to reign with Christ when he returns.

But the second question we addressed last time was simply, why is the kingdom of God needed now? And I think all you have to do is look around the world we live in today. Watch the news any given night, and you'll see all the problems around the world, and they just keep escalating, and there seems to be no solution in sight. And there's wars and war wars and violence and killings and so on.

A man has not been able, under all the governments and all the efforts they've made, to find a way to lasting peace. So when you understand that, there's only one solution due to mankind's problems that can bring lasting peace, and that is Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God.

Now, the key passage that we've been focusing on in these kingdom of God seminars is Mark 1. So I want to just turn there and review that. Mark 1, verses 14 and 15. And of course, this is the very beginning now of Jesus Christ's earthly ministry. He's about 30 years old, and he's in the flesh. He's God in the flesh, and he comes. And this is after John the Baptist was put in prison.

It says in verse 14, Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. So the very first thing he starts preaching at the very beginning of his ministry is the gospel of the kingdom of God. And yet, very few people really understand what that gospel or good news message really is and what it pertains to. But that was a very central core part of Christ's message, or gospel. And in fact, if you look up kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven in the four gospels, numerous times, four or 50, 60 times, it's mentioned there.

It's a central part of the gospel message in all four gospels. And then verse 15, saying, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. So during this first of today's two segments, I want to focus on Christ's words, the time is fulfilled, right here in Mark 1.15. What did that mean when Christ said this? Christ made this statement nearly about 2,000 years ago, almost 2,000 years ago now.

But what did that mean when he made that statement 2,000 years ago? And what does it mean today? How could it have been at hand 2,000 years ago? It hasn't come yet. And how could it still be at hand today? What does that really mean? So this first segment are going to lay the groundwork actually for the second segment, which will be on the second statement he made here, the kingdom of God is at hand. And what that meant 2,000 years ago, and also what it means today.

So the title of this first segment then today is, The Time is Fulfilled. Now again, Christ made that statement almost 2,000 years ago. So what did that mean 2,000 years ago? What did he mean, the time is fulfilled? Well, to really understand what that meant, we really have to go back 6,000 years to the time of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. I'm going to review a lot of this. We'll read some scriptures as well. But after God created all the plants and animals, he said this is recorded in Genesis 1.26, which is really a key scripture. And in Genesis 1.26, God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness.

And basically what I say, that is basically the specific purpose statement for the entire Bible. That's God's purpose for mankind, is to create mankind in his image and likeness, spiritually speaking. Become like God and have the character of God and the mind of God developed in us. But God then created Adam and Eve and he placed him, as we know, in the Garden of Eden. He then gave them in that garden two choices, as symbolized by the two trees of the garden. It was a tree of life and there was what is called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And when you understand it, those really, those two trees symbolized two choices that mankind had.

Two ways of life, if you will. The tree of life symbolized following God and God's directions. But God said, God's laws, God's commands. And the tree of the knowledge of good and evil basically symbolized just deciding, man deciding for himself, which way, how he's going to live his life, apart from God. And deciding for himself what was good and what is evil, what is right and wrong, doing what's right in his own eyes. That basically is what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil symbolized.

And then Satan, symbolized by the serpent in Genesis 3, he comes along and he entices Eve, said, don't listen to God, follow, and basically what he's telling us, follow the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Because God had told him that if you partake of that way, he said, in the day, to partake of that, you're on the road that's going to lead to death. But Satan comes along and says, no, no, you won't die.

Go ahead and you want to be in control of your own life. You choose for yourself how you're going to live your life. Don't listen to God. That's basically what Satan was saying to Eve. So he then enticed Eve to follow the way of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the way of rejecting God and rejecting what God had said, basically the way of sin and disobedience to God and doing what's right in our own eyes. Of course, Proverbs 14, 12, I'll just read, it's a very interesting proverb, but Proverbs 14, 12 said, there is a way that seems right to a man.

But the end thereof is death. It's a way of death, at least to death. And, of course, that's the way mankind has gone, going the way that seems right in his own eyes, which really is the way that was symbolized by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil back in the Garden of Eden. Of course, when God confronted Adam later, after this, after Eve was enticed by Satan, when God confronted Adam, he blamed Eve, and then aimed, I should, Eve blamed the serpent or Satan.

So then God confronted the serpent or Satan. I want to read this here in Genesis 3, a couple of verses here, Genesis 3, verses 14 and 15, where actually God confronts the serpent or Satan. And the Lord said to the woman, or excuse me, verse 14, so Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.

And then in verse 15, and a lot of your Bibles will have a little star next to it, because this is a prophecy, first prophecy in the Bible of a coming Messiah. And then God says to the Satan, the serpent, And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed, And ye shall bruise your head, and ye shall bruise his heel. Now there's a great deal to that. But this ends the first prophecy of a coming Messiah, or Savior. He prophesies to God, and he tells Satan what's going to happen.

Christ as the Word who was with God and was God, it tells us in John 1.1, who became flesh and dwelled among us, as it tells us in John 1.14. Christ would become the seed of the woman. He would be a physical descendant of Eve, the first woman, as all human beings are. He'd become in the flesh. And Christ as a seed of Eve, as a descendant, physical descendant of Eve in one sense, even though he was God in the flesh, says here he was going to be wounded or bruised by Satan.

He says, You, Satan, shall bruise his heel. That was the prophecy of Christ. For Christ in turn here, it says, would bruise or crush Satan's head. He, Christ, shall bruise your head. Or as the Apostle Paul put it in Romans 1620, he puts it this way, he says, The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. Satan was going to be crushed eventually and taken out of commission. But here then in Genesis 3, verses 14 and 15, is a prophecy that a Savior would come to die for mankind, to pay the death penalty for mankind's sins, for following his own way and rejecting God, and then prophecy that eventually Satan would be crushed and be permanently put out of commission, which would then pave the way for the kingdom of God, as God originally intended.

But now here's a really puzzling question. This is a very interesting question to ask at this point. You have to ask and say, mankind had to wait. How long did mankind have to wait before Christ came into flesh to fulfill this prophecy of dying for mankind? And basically putting Satan out of commission, replacing Satan, qualifying for that. How? Mankind had to wait 4,000 years. It was 4,000 years of history from the time of the Garden of Eden, what you read here in Genesis 3, until Christ comes.

Why wait 4,000 years? Why didn't Christ come, you know, very quickly after that to pay the death penalty for mankind?

Why didn't he come into flesh soon after mankind's sin to die for mankind? Why did he wait 4,000 years before the time was fulfilled, if you will, for that to take place? Well, you stop and look at the history of the Old Testament, and during those 4,000 years, a number of things had to happen before the time was fulfilled for Christ to come into flesh. What happened after the Garden of Eden? Well, after the Garden of Eden, you read the history just in the first six, seven chapters of Genesis. What God did, and he said, okay, I'm going to let man go his own way. I'll let him choose for himself what's right and what's wrong. I'll let him follow the way of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. See where that leads. Let's see what happens if mankind just totally ignores God, rejects God, and just decides to let him go his own way. So God did. He allowed mankind to write in blood what the result would be for mankind choosing for himself what's right and wrong and going his own way. And the result of that is recorded in Genesis 6, which is now up to about 1,650 years or so after the Garden of Eden. So for 1,600 years or over and more now, God has allowed mankind to go his own way. And what does that result in? Genesis 6, verse 5, Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. This result of mankind just rejecting God, going his own way. In fact, it got so bad, it says, The Lord was sorry that he'd made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart. God looked down, he saw all the violence and suffering that mankind was bringing upon himself, and he was very, very grieved, he says here. He said, God was actually grieved in his heart.

In fact, verse 11 then says, The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. You became filled with violence. That's the result of mankind just choosing for himself how to live his own life. Apart from God, or rejecting God. So that's the end result then of disobeying God. Man was reaching the point of destroying all life from off the face of the earth. It got so violent. It got to the point where God had to intervene to save mankind from himself. That's how bad it got.

So God then destroyed the earth with the flood, but he spared Noah and his family. He found one man and one family that was still willing to live by faith and follow God. As we read in Genesis 6, verse 8. This then is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. And Noah walked with God. He was one of the only men on the face of the earth, probably the only man on the face of the earth at that time. He was still walking with God. He was going contrary to the entire society of the world. He was still walking with God and obeying God.

So God spared Noah and his family. Then after the flood, God called Abraham and his descendants to make them into a great nation of his people, as you read in Genesis 2, verse 12. He called all the Abrahams and made of you a great nation and bless your descendants. This was then carried out down through Moses and the people of Israel, descendants of Abraham. Israel being descendants of Jacob, Jacob's name was changed to Israel after he wrestled with God and prevailed with God.

And then Israel, of course, was a grandson of Abraham, or Jacob who became Israel, was a grandson of Abraham. And God then gave those descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or Israel. He gave them the Ten Commandments in Mount Sinai in Exodus 20. And then he told them ahead of time, what would happen if they kept his commandments and followed him? What kind of example they would be to the world? And we read that in Exodus chapter 19. Exodus 19, verse 5, where God tells Moses to tell the descendants of Abraham to kill the Israelites. He said, In other words, And these are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel, God tells Moses. If you follow me, if you obey me, if you pay my laws and keep my covenant, then you will be a holy nation of people, a special treasure to me. Well, we know what happened. They were to be a special nation to show what would happen if you had a nation of people that actually did follow and obey God, and follow the way of the Tree of Life, in other words. But then you read the history of the Old Testament.

Papally proved that they were totally unable to do that. They were not able to follow God and keep his commandments. When you read the history, I'm just going to summarize it. They eventually split into two kingdoms. Israel did. You have the northern kingdom of Israel, ten tribes, and the southern kingdom of Judah. Judah and Levi and Benjamin.

Both of which eventually went into captivity because they could not follow and obey God.

They utterly failed to become a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, even though that was what God wanted them to be. And he gave them his ten commandments to do that. But something was missing. Again, all this is history that leads up to the fullness of the time coming and the time to be fulfilled.

So that didn't work. Mankind, even with God's commandments, there was something missing.

Another means of accomplishing becoming a kingdom of priests and a holy nation would have to be utilized.

And that means we'd have to be through Jesus Christ.

And through the establishment of the New Testament church, we'd be made up of individuals who would then receive the help of God's Holy Spirit. There had to be a change. People had to be changed. But just having an outward change was not enough. The change had to start on the inside. There had to be something happening on the inside. Man's heart was going to have to be converted. And man was going to have to be converted from the inside out, so to speak. And for that to happen, Jesus Christ had to come. Before the time could be fulfilled for that to happen, the world had to be prepared. He had all this history now of the Old Testament, but then before Christ could actually come to fulfill the way it means for this to really be happen, the world had to be prepared for that first. Now, as you know, the House of Israel, the northern ten tribes, they fell into captivity to Babylon, or to Assyria, excuse me, to Assyria in 721, about 2721 B.C. In the southern house of Judah, the southern kingdom fell in 586 to the Babylonian Empire. Then right not long after that, the Old Testament period comes to a close, around 450 B.C., around the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. Now, several things then had to happen between the close of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament before the time could be fulfilled for Christ to come in the flesh.

Now, the apostle Paul alludes to that in his letter to the Church of Galatia. I'll turn to Galatians 4.

Look at two verses here. Galatians 4, verses 4 and 5.

Verse 4, he says, when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons, and we might receive sonship. You are able to be in God's family, come like God.

Christ was born under the law in the same sense that every human being is born under the law. We're subject to certain laws, and if we don't follow those laws, there are going to be certain consequences. Of course, the number one law that we're all human beings are under is, eventually we're going to die.

And fleshy human beings, we all are subject to death. And Christ, when He came into the flights, and He also was going to be born under that same law, He was going to be subject to death as well. We can hold our place here for a minute in terms to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2, beginning in verse 5, Apostle Paul says, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who will be in the form of God. Because He was. He was God in the flesh. He did not consider robbery to be equal with God, because He was God. But He made Himself of no reputation, and He took on the form of a bondservant, coming in the likeness of men.

And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. He was subject to death. He had to die as a human being.

So that's what it means when Paul in Galatians 4, 4 says, He is born under the law. Christ is God in the flesh. He became subject to the same laws that we are, and He was subject to death as a human being. Now back in Galatians 4 again, seeing that again, when the fools of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, all those who were subject to death, as we all are as human beings, especially because of sin, because sin results in death. The wages of sin is death. Do I receive the adoption of sons who have received sonship to be in God's family? Then instead of death, we might receive the gift of eternal life as the sons and daughters of God, in other words. But what had to happen before God could send forth His Son? God could not send forth His Son, Paul says, here until the fullness of the time had come. What does that mean? What had to happen? See, certain conditions had to first be in place before Christ came in the flesh. Things had to happen between the time of the close of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament before that fullness of time would come for Christ to come in the flesh.

But first, why did Christ send forth His Son? Well, excuse me, why did God send forth His Son? Let's look at that first. Why did He have to come in the flesh? Why did He come in the flesh? Now, that's very interesting to look at because most people think, well, He came to be our Savior. Absolutely. That's the first reason He came, but there's really four reasons why He came. First, He came to be our Savior because, as Paul tells us in Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God's eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So Christ had to come to pay the wages of sin for us. He had to die in our place and our stead, and He lived a perfect life. He was a perfect sacrifice because He never sinned. He became, as the Apostle John put it in Revelation 13, 8, He became the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world. Why from the foundation of the world? So His sacrifice goes all the way back to cover the sins of all the mankind, even all the way back to Adam and Eve, and all those who followed Adam and Eve, going all the way back 6,000 years to the Garden of Eden. Christ died to be the Savior of all mankind, going all the way back to Adam and Eve. So the first purpose for which Christ came in the flesh was to be our Savior. But that's not all. There's more to it than that. He also came, as we're told specifically, and I'll read the Scripture in a moment, He also came to destroy the works of the devil, to destroy the works of Satan.

Or as prophesied in Genesis 3.15 to crush Satan's head.

And the Apostle John clearly tells us that in 1 John 3 verse 8, and I'll just read it, 1 John 3 verse 8, where Apostle John says, For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil. So that's another purpose for which Christ came, to destroy the works of Satan. Because those works produce sin. And Christ destroyed those works by living a sinless life in our stead, never once giving in to the temptation of sin. Also, when Christ returns, He will destroy all the works of the devil by removing Satan once and for all, and putting him out of commission permanently.

But a second purpose for which Christ then came was to destroy the works of the devil. But there's a third reason too, it's very important, He came to be our High Priest. We're told that in Hebrews chapter 4.

Hebrews 4, beginning in verse 14, It says, Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.

He knows what it's like to be in the flesh. He had to struggle against the poles of the flesh like we do. But He was in all points tempted as we are, and yet He never, never sinned. He never once broke any of God's laws.

Then it says in verse 16, So therefore let us come boldly before the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So Christ fully understands mankind's weaknesses because it says here, He was attempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. So He understands the daily struggles that mankind has. He understands everything we have to face personally, and we have to strive to overcome. Of course, one of the things that the Bible makes very clear is that the people that understand God's way are striving to follow Christ and follow God and follow God's laws. That they have to strive to overcome. We all have things we have to overcome. And when striving to overcome, we need God's help, we need Christ's help, and we need a high priest who can understand the struggles we have, who can be an intercessor before us, before the Father, God the Father.

And that's why Christ is our personal high priest. He can reach, He understands, He can make intercession for us. No matter what our problems we have to struggle with, or how many times we fall and fall short, Christ understands. He had a struggle and it's the same thing, only He didn't fall short like we do. He was perfect. He was tempted at all points, yet without sin. And knowing that, then we can always come to the throne of grace that says here that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in our struggles and our time of need. We always understand what our struggles are. We can always go to Christ and ask for help. So the third purpose, then, for which Christ came in the flesh was to be our high priest. And there's a fourth reason as well, and that was to build His church.

Go to Matthew 16. This is actually a Scripture that is often misunderstood. Matthew 16, verse 13. Now start back in verse 13 because it says, When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, What do men say that I the Son of Man am? Now, He was out there in the wilderness. He just fed 5,000 in the wilderness, and now He's in this area of Caesarea Philippi. And if you actually know the geography a little bit, it was by a mountain, this mountainous region. And, of course, we have mountains. You have rivers coming down the mountains, water flowing. And oftentimes, Christ was with His disciples, teaching them. He was outside teaching them. And He could use some of the natural surroundings to teach them some lessons. And so here you have a setting. If you could see the setting that He was in, He was probably by a river. And, of course, in a river what comes down it has pebbles and rocks in the riverbank, and then it has a mountain there behind Him. That was probably the setting here, because that's the kind of what it's like there at that particular region that's mentioned here. And He says, Who do men say that I the Son of Man am? And they said, Well, some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others, Jeremiah, one of the prophets. Verse 15, He says, Well, Who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter answered, and He said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And He answered back to Peter, and said, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in Heaven. God the Father has revealed that to you. Some things about God's truth, even though they seem too obvious to us, they have to be revealed. And then in verse 18, this is the one that oftentimes is misunderstood, He said, I also say to you that you are Peter, and the word Peter is the Greek word petros, which means a small pebble, or a small rock, or a piece of a rock.

And on this rock, it's a different word now, and this word here for rock is petra, which means a large craig of a rock, or mountain of a rock. And I can imagine Christ there at the stream, and He's talking to Peter, He says, Peter, you are Peter, you are a pebble. But look at this mountain here, on this rock I'm going to build my church, because we know, Christ said, my church, He didn't say I'm going to build Peter's church, that's the way a lot of people have taken it, but He didn't say that, He said, I'm going to build my church. And the rock, the petra, the large mass of rock that the church is built on, is Jesus Christ, it's not on the Apostle Peter. And that's basically what He's saying here. On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades, and the gates of hell, so I'll not prevail against it. No matter how small it is, no matter how scattered, it's going to always be there.

So Christ is the rock on which His church is to be built, but He came to build His church.

And everyone who repents and is baptized and receives God's Holy Spirit then is a member of God's church, of which Christ is the head, as Paul tells us in Colossians 1.18, referring to Christ as He is the head of the body, the church. So the fourth reason I should say that Christ came into flight was to build His church. Of course, the church was then given a two-fold responsibility, actually, and I'll just go through this very quickly. One is to help and fulfill the prophecy in Matthew 24, verse 14, where it says, The gospel of the kingdom will preach in all the world as a witness, and then the end will come. But the second responsibility is the direct commission is given in Matthew 28. Matthew 28, the last three verses, verses 18 through 20, where it says, So the church was given the responsibility to help preach the gospel to all nations, and then it was given the commission to help prepare the people that God would then call to repentance.

Only when all those conditions were in place then could the fullness of time come for God to send forth His Son. What other conditions had to be in place? There are actually four over things that happened. It's very interesting. Go back and look at the history between the Old and New Testaments. You see, the four overall things happened that kind of prepared the world for Jesus Christ to come in the flesh.

Number one, one thing that happened during that time, the Jews became dispersed throughout... Well, first the Babylonian Empire, and then the Persian Empire, and the Greco-Macedonian Empire, and the Roman Empire. They became dispersed all through that area. And after that time, as they were Jews, they became dispersed. They built synagogues wherever they lived. Thus, by the time of Christ, there were Jewish synagogues in place throughout the entire Roman Empire, most of the civilized and known world at that time. And those Jewish synagogues then became the springboards for Christ and the Apostles to begin preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. And to proclaim that Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah, that many prophets had prophesied of in the Old Testament. And Christ himself, of course, first began preaching and witnessing to the Jews in Jewish synagogues. And that was a place oftentimes where they met, and that's where the whole thing got started. The Jewish synagogues were the launching pads for the establishment of the New Testament Church. So the dispersion of the Jews established Jewish synagogues, which then prepared the world for Christ's first coming, prepared the way for where the truth could be known, that Christ indeed was the Messiah, and so on. Now, a second thing that happened between the Old and New Testaments was Greek became a common language of the world. With Alexander the Great and the Greco-Macedonian Empire came what is called Hellenism, which was just the influence of Greek culture, including the Greek language, which is a language that's very rich in meaning, and which then became the common language spoken throughout the known world at that time. It became a common language. And, of course, as we know, it became also the language of the New Testament. The New Testament, well, most of the New Testament was originally written in Greek. So the common language, the Gospel could now be proclaimed to all nations so that they could then understand that Gospel.

Now, a third thing that happened during between the Old and New Testaments was that Rome, when the Roman Empire came on the scene, it brought kind of a form of peace. And also what the Romans did, they built an extensive system of roads. They built thousands of miles of brick roads to accommodate travel. And the Roman peace was called the Pax Romana. Concord nations within the Roman Empire could...what the Roman Empire did, they allowed their conquered people to retain their culture. It's interesting because as long as it was an ancient culture, an ancient religion, as they would look at it, they'd gone way back for centuries, as long as it was ancient, they could then retain their culture and their religion within the Roman Empire. It was a new religion. They wouldn't allow that, but they allowed old cultures and old religions. They were long established. They would allow that. And they maintained peace between all the nations. They conquered all that territory. They overtook. They then...that broke down boundaries. And the boundaries of nations were dissolved, allowing travel throughout the Roman Empire without having to cross into boundaries of other nations. It was very difficult prior to that. And Roman legions ensured that peace was maintained throughout the Empire. And to accommodate travel and commerce, again, like I said, thousands of miles of roads were built throughout the Roman Empire, which then made it possible for the Gospel to be proclaimed to the entire known world at that time, because you had a system whereby they could trap apostles, and God's messengers could travel to various places throughout the known world at that time. Now, a fourth thing that happened was that...and this is also very interesting to look at, is that during that time, the world, spiritually speaking, became a very dark place. By the time Christ came, the world had become very dark, spiritually speaking. And after the fall of Judah, the known world was conquered by the four succeeding world-ruling empires, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, as prophesied by Daniel in Daniel chapters 2 and 7. Under those empires, people lived under very oppressive governments, for the most part, especially under the Greco-Macedonian Empire and the Roman Empire. With little or no freedom. In fact, as you know, you go back to the history of the Roman Empire, the Roman Empire had thousands and thousands of slaves. Every household just about had slaves. Over half the population were slaves. They'd been conquered and taken in as slaves. So it was a very...people were very oppressed. They had no freedom. And the Greeks, prior to that, had worshipped many gods. And the Roman government went so far as to even incorporate emperor worship.

And even the religion of Judaism was no longer what it had once been. It had become a religion of traditions and commandments of men, which had all been added to the laws of God.

Christ himself pointed that out to the Pharisees recorded in Mark chapter 7. Mark chapter 7, beginning of verse 6 and Mark 7.

Christ said, well did Isaiah, praise the tongue of the Pharisees, well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, has written this people. And they were the religious leaders of their day, who should have known the two God and God's laws and exemplified that. But he says, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain they worship me, teaching us doctrines and commandments of men, because they've added so many things to God's laws, their own commandments and traditions. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men. The washing of pitchers and cups and many other things you do that you've added. So he said to them in verse 9, all too well, you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your own traditions.

So on, verse 9. So at that time, at the time Christ came in the flesh, the world, including the religious leaders of the Jews at that time, had lost sight of the true God and God's ways. The world had become a very dark place spiritually. I mean, the world was at a point where it was crying out for deliverance, from oppression, and from all these things that were taking place. The people had no place to turn for help, as far as governments and man and so on and religion was concerned. The world was ready at that time. It was prepared because it had become so dark, morally and spiritually speaking, it was ready for the light of Jesus Christ.

Isaiah prophesied of that very thing. One final scripture here before I end this segment. That's back in Isaiah chapter 9. Well, actually it prophesied that the world was going to become very dark before Jesus Christ came. And it was going to be ready. It was going to desperately wanting the message of Jesus Christ that He would bring. Isaiah chapter 9, the first two verses, verse 1. Nevertheless, the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed. At the time Christ came, the whole world was in distress. It was under a cloud of gloom with no place for the people to turn to have that oppression lifted. But He said it's not going to be there. The gloom will not be upon her who is distressed. Christ comes and is going to remove that. And when at first He lightly esteemed the land of Zebulun, the land of Naphtali, and afterward more heavily oppressed her, and there became very heavily oppressed by the time of Christ, and that's in the region of Palestine there where Naphtali and Zebulun were, to the tribes of Israel where they had resided. By the way of C, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, of course that's where Christ was, and Galilee of the Galilee, which is under a lot of Gentiles at that time when Christ came, and was very oppressed under a cloud of gloom. But then in verse 2 it says, the people who walked in darkness, and they were, they were in darkness at that time that Christ came. They were coming very dark. The people who walked in darkness had seen a great light.

Of course, that light was the light that Jesus Christ brought.

And those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined. So to review them, four things happened to prepare the world for Christ's first coming. That was, the Jews became dispersed, so Jewish synagogues could be in place throughout the Roman Empire. Greek became the common language. And Roman roads and Roman peace made it possible for wide travel. And the world would become very dark, spiritually, so it would be ready to receive the light of Jesus Christ. So that's what it meant two thousand years ago for the time to be fulfilled. For God to send forth His Son. Now just very quickly, just a few minutes here, what does it mean today? What does the statement of the time is fulfilled mean in regards to our time today? You see, prophecy is dual and has dual fulfillment. It had to be fulfilled back then two thousand years ago, but it also has a fulfillment for today. Well, just as certain things had to be in place for Christ to come two thousand years ago, certain things had to be in place for Christ to come again, this time to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords and to establish the Kingdom of God on the earth.

And when you compare back then two thousand years ago, with now, we can see that once again, the time is close to being fulfilled for those events to take place. I mean, right now you know that God has churches and He has His people scattered throughout the world. There are churches around the world with God's people.

Again, this was two thousand years ago, Greek was a common language. Today, English is pretty much a common language. The majority of people of the world, to some extent, can speak or understand English.

And, of course, right now, knowledge is tremendously increased, far beyond what it was two thousand years ago, whereby people can readily travel around the world, and there can now be instantaneous audio and visual communication to any place in the world, almost instantaneously. We can witness things in Jerusalem, right from here in the state of Washington, as they're happening in Jerusalem, or any other place in the world, just about. You can witness what's going on and what's happening.

And the fourth thing that's parallel is, today, once again, the world is becoming very, very dark, spiritually speaking. It's becoming a very dark place, with mankind now having the capability, actually, as a threat, because we live with an advent of the hydrogen, and, excuse me, the atom and hydrogen bombs in the 1940s and 50s. We know mankind has a capability that he got in the wrong hand to actually destroy life from off the face of the earth. And there's a very, we're concerned about that now. They're concerned about terrorists in Iran getting their hands on something like that, because they know they're crazy enough that they would probably use it, and the whole world could explode. It's becoming a very dark spiritually. And even, you know, people used to keep God's laws, those are kind of being thrown out the window today, too. So the time is nearly fulfilled for God to, once again, send forth his son to save mankind from himself. And this can come to the point where the world again is going to cry out for a savior to intervene before mankind destroys himself.

So that then will conclude Segment 1. The time is fulfilled. I'll conclude there. And we'll now take, let's see, it's, we'll take about a ten-minute break or so, and then we'll come back for Segment 2 on the Kingdom of God as his hand. So we can all be dismissed for now, and then it'll be about two o'clock, or it'll be shortly after two o'clock. We'll try to get started with Segment 2.