In this dispensation … the Church Age … the temple, “not made with hands”, is that invisible, supernatural, indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer in Jesus Christ. The temple in this age is the believer! “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” [I Corinthians 3:16]

The Kingdom of God is present in this dispensation. [The Kingdom of Heaven is future.] When you and I get “saved by the blood of the Lamb”, we are born again, or spiritually made alive according to Ephesians chapter two, and added to the body of Christ becoming members of "the church of the firstborn." [Hebrews 12:23]

We, at that moment, are “translated” into the kingdom of his dear Son. “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son”. [Colossians 1:13]

Grace For The Gentile Dog!

Up until the time that Jesus Christ came to this Earth the Gentiles [those of the nations] were strangers [or outsiders] to the promises of God. Jesus Christ very clearly brings this home ... to you and me ... by recording in the Scripture his dealing with the Syrophenician woman. In the Gospel of John chapter four, It says this “woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation”. Are you ready for this? Jesus calls her a DOG! “But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.” [Matthew 15:26]

The Scripture tells us she knew “salvation was of the Jews.” [John 4:22b] [Jesus Christ was ministering to the house of Israel.] Salvation is of the Jews! Amen! [To be called a dog … is to be called a low-life. To be called a dog by Jesus Christ is an authoritative judgment … for he is GOD. God in the flesh called us Gentiles “dogs”.] What did she do? What could she do? She knew that she could do only one thing as an outsider. She “came and fell at his feet,” believing that Jesus Christ could heal her daughter. “Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt.”

A new dispensation was being revealed here! [Matthew 15:28a] “Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also.” [Romans 2:29] She came by grace through faith! [That is what happened to me thirty-one years ago. Rick St.James was saved “by grace through faith”.]

What about you my friend?

What is your situation?

Where are you are going?

What will you do with Jesus Christ?

That is the real question!

As a fellow Gentile [one of the nations ... not a Jew], have you come to Jesus Christ by faith as this Syrophenician woman did?

The Kingdom Of God

In the present age, which is the age of the church, the KINGDOM is present in the Kingdom of God form, which is always SPIRITUAL and moral in its constitution.

The kingdom that Jesus referred to in John 18:36 is not the same kingdom that his disciples were thinking of in Acts 1:6. One was a “spiritual and moral” kingdom and the other was “physical and political” kingdom.

Understand the time you live in. Get your bearings! In this dispensation it is given unto us to individually respond in obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and receive by FAITH the Son of God as our personal Lord and Savior. “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” [John 1:12]

The very moment that a person “trusts” Jesus Christ for his SO GREAT SALVATION [Hebrews 2] then God declares him or her to be JUSTIFIED in Romans 5:1. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We, then, are become the adopted sons of God by being BORN AGAIN [John 3], and added “to the general assembly and church of the first born” of Hebrews 12. The spiritual nature of the “Kingdom of God” is seen in Colossians 1:13. “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.”

Have you been “quickened” or SPIRITUALLY made alive? [Ephesians 2:1-6] Have you “trusted” Jesus Christ for your salvation from eternal HELL FIRE? Here is a warning to you! The God of the Bible is a “narrow” God because salvation comes through only His Son … Jesus Christ. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” [Acts 4:12]

We, as believers, are they, "upon whom the ends the world are come." We are they, which are "partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust" [2 Peter 1:4].

The apostle Paul gave to us [by the Holy Ghost] this truth in Colossians 1:26-27. "Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you the hope of glory:"

There it is! This mystery of us [the Gentiles] having been "graffed in" [Romans 11:19] is now revealed. This thing of "Christ in you" is for us, but was unknown to the Old Testament saints.

In I Peter 1:10, the Scripture saith: "of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you".

The Old Testament saints had only the prophets. They only had what God gave to Israel through Moses and the prophets. These truths ... of the believer being "in Christ", ... of the New Testament church being the body of Christ ... of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the believer, and of all believers being in a priesthood, were unknown to the Old Testament saints.

Next: The New Testament Bishop