In Jesus' name, amen. So before we begin, a little quiz for you. Why is my clicker not working again? This has happened to me. Can you click on the presentation? That's it. Do you know? Why is this not working? Unbelievable. Right. Next slide, please, Claydon. Thank you, isn't it good to have an assistant when technology fails you? Some pastors have to do this whole show themselves. What's this? Jigsaw, who likes jigsaws? Shame on you, no. That doesn't look like a particularly difficult jigsaw, does it? Okay, let me give you the piece, next one please. Okay, there's the piece, what would you do with that piece? You'd fit it in, would you? What would you do to it? Turn it round. And then it would stick it in. Seems pretty simple, doesn't it? Missing piece of the puzzle. Next slide, please. What's wrong? It doesn't fit. It doesn't fit. Now, puzzlers. Those that love puzzles. Those that are aficionados in the puzzle world. Is that an acceptable puzzle? Why? It's not right, is it? Looks like a puzzle. It's got most of the bits of the puzzle. But actually, it's defective, isn't it? It's not right. So you would take that piece, and no matter how hard you try, you wouldn't be able to get it to fit in perfectly. Therefore, the jigsaw wouldn't be complete. You would never be able to complete it. And no matter how hard you try, it would be a square peg round hole, wouldn't it? What would you have to do if you really wanted to get that to fit? You'd have to cut bits off it, you'd have to shape it, you'd have to become the designer of the puzzle, right? You'd have to stand over it and go, actually, it's not gonna fit, therefore I will change it and shape it and mold it and make it fit. Next slide, please. How many of you remember this show? Now, I say this show because I know it's been remade, but it's not as good as the original, all right? I don't care what you say. Catchphrase, do you remember Roy Walker? Do you remember what happened in catchphrase? No? Yes, okay, good, you're with me. What happened in catchphrase? Come on. Right, you had to, well, first of all, they played a little scene that was a well-known phrase, and you had to guess it, right? And what would he say? Say what you see. Say what you see. And they would try and guess, and they would get to it. And then once they'd done that, then that would get them to the big main prize board. Remember, it was all covered up with different ties, and they would hit the buzzer, and a tie would be removed, and then they had to guess. And this will go on, and piece by piece it will be revealed. And as every piece was revealed, they get a little bit closer to the answer. And you remember when they would say something that was nearly there? He would say, it's good, but it's not right, it's not right. When it comes to the word of God, it is a jigsaw puzzle. It has many pieces. But God as the author and inspirer of this word, it is His word. Remember, it's God-breathed, theionoustos in the Greek, literally the breath of God, it's his word. He is the ultimate designer, and God doesn't design defects. His work is perfect. His word is perfect. His word is forever settled in heaven. And what we have to do is see the pieces as God has laid them out, and when we see the pieces as God has laid them out, we're able to put them together, the unfortunate thing in the church today, and I know people say, well, everybody thinks they're right, but you have to have a conviction, but you have to be able to back your conviction up, not from your opinion, not from your tradition, but from the word of God. And I absolutely believe that what I'm gonna say, I can back up from the word of God. I have a strong conviction that God has his pieces together and if we mix them and we mess them, we will not get the full revelation of what God is saying and what God is showing us. We'll look at it and just like those contestants in Catchphrase, we'll come up with these answers that might be good, but they're not right. They're not right. And we don't want to be nearly right when it comes to the Word of God. It's far too important to be trivial with. It's far too important to say, as some will say, well, don't really worry about those things. God'll sort all these things out. Let's just worry about this little thing and ignore the rest of the counsel of God. I wanna say to you this morning, church, I can't, by my own conviction, do that. Who are we to say, Lord, this bit of what you said is more precious than that bit? Who are we to say, Lord, you know, when you spoke in the gospels, that's all we need and nothing else? Who are we? This is God breathing. We believe here in verbal plenary inspiration. What does that mean? Verbal, words, plenary, awe. Inspiration, I've told you what that means. It simply means from the beginning to the end, it is the word of God. And we have to have a reverence for it. And we have to get the right things in the right places. Next slide please. 2 Timothy 2.15 says, study to show thyself approved, do thy best, be diligent. A workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." Notice what Paul says to Timothy, study, do thy best, get into the word of God. so that you won't be ashamed. And then he says, rightly dividing the word of truth. What does that mean in what we're talking about? Get the puzzle pieces right. And when you get the puzzle pieces right, you can put it back together and you will see exactly what I'm showing you. You won't come up with an answer that's good but not right. You'll come up with what I have decreed, with what I am doing, and what I will do. And there will be no, no defects in that picture. So what I'm saying here as we begin this study, I'm saying that rightly dividing the word of truth is so important. How do we get to what God has originally intended? How do we get to the correct interpretation of scripture? Really it depends on what method of interpretation you use, what hermeneutic, that's the kind of theological language that we use. Listen to what Mark Hitchcock says in his book, The End. He puts it like this. The watershed issue in understanding all Scripture is the method of interpretation one adopts. Now, I've said this before and I'll say it again. When I talk about interpretation, it means when we go to a passage, what is that passage saying? And there can only be one interpretation. There can't be two interpretations of one passage. There can be many applications. Application is what does it mean to us? What does it mean to this situation? How can this truth that's being taught be applied in our current context? But interpretation is one. It can only be one. Rari says interpretation is one, application is manifold or many. That means God's word is precise. There may be many applications, but there's only one true interpretation. It's important to understand this as a student of scripture, that there are different things happening at different times and at different places, but they are all connected. It's a bit like a medical student. We have a medical student here. who looks at the body. And the human body has many different parts, does it not? It has different systems within it, does it not? You have your breathing system, the digestive system, you have the veins, all this sort of stuff. And they could be studied independently. And they have their own independent functions, and they work. And the student of medicine, those that are trained to be doctors, will work in maybe cadavers and bodies, and they'll look at this and examine this. That's how we get these medical advances, where they'll look at the breathing system, they'll look at the digestive system, and work all its pieces in parts. But they are never separated from the whole. It is still the body. But what kind of doctors would we have if they just looked at the body from the outside perspective and never dug in and never examined in detail these little pieces, understanding that they weren't separate, understanding that they fitted perfectly in the ecosystem of the body? You know, if you look at any type of medicine and just look at what they're finding is, you will see how amazing the body is. All of these parts that work together in the whole, And it's the same with the Word of God. There are different aspects, there are different things, there are different people groups within the Word of God, still connected in the whole, but we have to dig in, we have to understand them, we have to get these pieces in place. If we don't, guess what, folks? We're not gonna get to the right interpretation. And if we haven't got the right interpretation, We haven't really got anything. We've got our opinions, we've got our thoughts, but that's not what we want. We want to know what God says. So the book of Matthew is so important that we rightly divide the word of truth and we rightly get the book of Matthew in its context. And if we don't, we're led to all sorts of erroneous doctrines and teachings because we don't have the book of Matthew laid down in its correct order. I'll give you a couple of examples really, in Matthew chapter 24 particularly, in the Olivet Discourse, Matthew 24 verse 13. This is what the word of God says. It says, but he that shall endure until the end, the same shall be saved. Now we just take that verse, and we remove interpretation, and we look at it and we go, he that endures to the end, the same shall be saved. And then somebody comes along and they start to tell you, you know, that your salvation is dependent on the things that you do. And you say, well, no, no, no, no, no, no. I've been told that the salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone and nothing else. But this person says, no, but look at what the scripture says. Scripture says, those that endure to the end shall be saved. And you're like, hmm. Yeah, I mean, that does make a little bit of sense. That's what the verse says. And then this person comes along and says, and more than that, your works aren't just about saving you, but the good that you do in this world, the works that you do in this world will usher in the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. That Jesus is waiting to return. He's perched on his, forgive me, Lord, perched on his throne on tippy toes, waiting to return But he's not doing it because we haven't made the world ready for him yet. Right? Well, where's that? And this person will say, well, look at Matthew 24 verse 14. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations. And then shall the end come. So just in these two verses, If you don't have an underlying method of interpreting scripture and getting in the whole counsel of God, somebody, if they're skillful enough, can lead you down a path where they can start to make you think that your salvation depends on your works, and also the return of the Lord depends on you taking the gospel to the whole world and cleaning this world up before he returns. That's dominion theology, and it's prevalent in the New Apostolic Reformation. That's just two verses. Now, there are others in Matthew. That's just two. So what are we to do? How do we get to the right interpretation? If the right interpretation is crucial, before we start undertaking this journey through the gospel of Matthew, how do we get to the right interpretation? Well, we have to have some rules of engagement. We have to have some rules of interpretation. Next slide, please. Again, this has been said, and I'll say it again, and it's one of the great rules of interpretation, in fact, it's probably the golden rule of interpretation. When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, take no other sense, to do so would be nonsense. When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, take no other sense. Take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning, unless the facts of the immediate context point us to something else. Keep it in its literal, historical, grammatical context. Next slide, please. This is the interpretation method that we're gonna employ through the book of Matthew. Literal, unless God's word tells us otherwise. Why? Because that's how God created us. That's how he created the world. We live in a literal world unless we're told otherwise. Isn't it interesting that in today's post-modern age, that we're trying to remove what is literal into the metaphysical, that two plus two can equal six, that biological sex is now a thing of the past, and actually you can decide whatever one of the hundred-odd genders you wanna be. It's interesting that the word of God has been allegorized over the years, and we're told, oh, you take God's word too literally. Like it's a damning thing. Like we're stupid for doing that. But that's how God created us. He created us with language. And literalism is a foundation of how we function in the world today. So what we do is we stick to that. If God says it, that settles it. If there is something that indicates that it is a metaphor or a simile, then we adopt that language. If it's poetic, we adopt that language, but we don't do it until we are indicated to do it by the word of God. Historical, we put it in its context. Its context. When was it written? Who was it written to? What is the author saying? What's going on in the world at that time? What are the conditions, politically, socially, economically, all that sort of stuff, spiritually? We put it in the right historical, literal, and indeed grammatical, which is probably my weakest point. But we look at what it's saying. What do the words mean, the verbs, the adjectives, the present tense, all that sort of stuff. And then when we do that, we get out the other side, interpretation. What is being said? What's the authorial intent as it is written? But onto this, we don't just leave it there. We add some little things. We add the law of first mention, which is very helpful in Scripture. The law of first mention is simply this, that the first mention of a fundamental word or a fundamental concept usually, 99% of the time, sets the tone for what that means throughout the whole of Scripture. We've got the law of double reference. What does that mean? It means that, especially in the Old Testament, when you're seeing the prophets and they're speaking about an event, they will be speaking about a current event, something that's happening at that time, and then they will switch and point to a far greater event in the future. So they're talking about something current, but then they'll move and they'll speak about something foreshadowing, either the first comment or the second comment of the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll see this throughout scripture. It's a law of recurrence. So when we see something repeated, we know that it's pointing something out, or it'll use this method where the scripture will talk about something, lay it out, and then it'll go back and give it a little bit more detail. The greatest example of this is right in the book of Genesis. So you get the creation account in chapter one, chapter two, and then you go back into the sixth day and there's some more detail given. Here's another little rule that we put in here. So important, so important. Obscure passages must be interpreted in the light of plain ones. Has to be, has to be. Example. That Matthew verse, those that endure to the end shall be saved. Now, if that's all we had in the regards salvation, not that that's talking about spirit salvation, but even if it was, if that's all that we had, well, it's a different thing. But we don't take that one verse and teach a works-based salvation in the midst of everything else that says it's paid in full, it's done. It's so important. And to do this, we have to compare Scripture with Scripture, the full counsel of God. full counsel of God. We have to study the Word. So, with all that said, by way of introduction, when we get to the book of Matthew, what are some of the themes and thoughts that we want to see? So to begin, we're going to go to the last book of the Old Testament, The last book of the Old Testament is Malachi. And our Old Testament structure is different from what the Jews had. If you want to go to the next slide, please, Caden. The Jews had the Tanakh. You may have heard this. This is the Old Testament. And Tanakh gets its name from the law, the prophets, and their writings. Torah, the law, that's the T-A. The Nevim, that's the prophets, that's the N-A. And the K-H, the Ketuvim, that's the writings. So the order that the Hebrew Old Testament is in is different to what we have. Their last book there is 2 Chronicles, I believe. But here's what we have to remember. Who has the full counsel of God? Did the Jews in the Old Testament have the full counsel of God? No, they didn't. Do we have it here today in our hands? Yes, we do. God has finished speaking his authoritative word. We have the full counsel of God. Speaking a little bit about this at the men's dinner yesterday, but just saying that we are very privileged to be in the age that we're in and the time that we're in. I think personally, as one who preaches in prophecy a lot, I feel privileged to be able to speak in a time where we have seen amazing moves of God, amazing moves of God. Israel on the map, that is an amazing move of God after 2,000 years, give or take. we can look with the full counsel of God and go, oh my goodness me Lord, how amazing you are. So when we look in the Old Testament, our last book is Malachi. Chronologically, it's the last book in order that is written. And I want to turn your attention to chapter four and verse number four of Malachi. Chapter four and verse four. These are the last words of the Old Testament. These are the last prophetic words that are recorded as being from God before we enter into the incarnation, the return of Christ, John the Baptist. It says this in verse 4, For you have turned the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." So here we have the last prophetic words of the prophet from the Old Testament, Malachi. Following this, next slide please, there are 400 years of silence. 400 years of silence, nothing from God prophetically, nothing. Now, does that mean that things weren't happening in and around Israel? Absolutely, there was. Does that mean that things weren't happening in the world? Absolutely, there were things happening in the world. There's tremendous change, tremendous shift, and this is all preparing for the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. The world is changing, the regimes are toppling, Romans are coming into power, all sorts of things are happening. But 400 years of silence. Now in the once in every five years that me and Claire have an argument, well maybe once in every 10 years, our marriage is so perfect. Once in every 10 years we have an argument. And usually I've done something and been victimized for it. That's what usually happens. And then somehow it becomes my fault. This is generally the case. So I'll get the cold shoulder. And to be honest, the Lord has been good. We generally don't often fall out with each other for that long. I'm not good at doing it. We tend to just say all we want within about three seconds of anger. Even when we're not speaking for a day, it feels like a lifetime. 400 years of silence. What would Israel have been thinking? And remember, they've been persecuted, they've tried to uprise and revolt, and they've been heavily beaten down. The Romans have their foot up on their neck. God is silent. Do you think that the people of Israel are crying out to God at that point? I'm sure they are. Where have you gone, Lord? What's happening? What about the covenants? Let's look at this next slide. There's all these covenantal promises. The Abrahamic covenant, the land covenant, the seed covenant. What are you doing, God? You've promised, you've made all these promises. Where are you? Silence, silence. The people on their knees, broken. Has Jehovah abandoned us? Is he gone? Have we delved to such depths of iniquity that he's not going to forgive us again? Have the sins of our past been too much for God? And he's done. What's God doing? Might have been the cry. The answer, God was doing whatever he pleased. And it was pleasing that he was doing it. God was working his plan and his purposes, not thwarted by man's inability to keep theirs. God's covenantal promises that were unconditional stood, not on the name of Israel, not on the name of Abraham, but upon the name of God himself. 400 years and nothing. And then what happens? The voice of one that cries in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. That's Isaiah chapter 40 in verse three. I want you to turn to Matthew chapter three. Let's put it up on the screen. Matthew chapter three, verses one and two there. 400 years of silence and then John the Baptist appears. Matthew 3 verse 1, In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight. 400 years of silence, 400 years of nothing. God is not sending the prophets any longer. And then John the Baptist appears in the wilderness. saying, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Silence is broken by John the Baptist. I wanna turn you to Matthew chapter 11, and I want you to see what Jesus says about John the Baptist. Matthew chapter 11 and verse number seven. Notice what Jesus says, and as he departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitude concerning John, what went ye out into the wilderness to say a reed shaken with the wind? But what ye went out for to say a man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. But what went ye out For to see a prophet, yes, and I say unto you, and more than a prophet, for this is he of whom it is written, behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Verily, or truly, I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist. Notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. So here, Jesus gives us his endorsement of John the Baptist. He says he's the greatest. None born of women hath risen that was greater than John the Baptist. Not just a prophet, more than a prophet. He wasn't just pronouncing doom upon the people. He wasn't just speaking into their context. He was declaring that the kingdom was at hand. After 400 years of nothing, not a notion, not a speck about the Messiah, about the king and the kingdom that was to come, John the Baptist comes in and he says, the kingdom is at hand. Remember our words from Malachi? the last words of the Old Testament before that silence. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great day and dreadful day of the Lord. Jesus has told us. Verse 14 of Matthew 11, and if he will receive it, this is Elijah, which was for to come. Jesus identifies John the Baptist as the prophesied Elijah, the one that would come in the spirit of Elijah before the day of the Lord. So the kingdom is at hand. That's what John the Baptist is preaching. Look back in Matthew chapter three and verse two. I want to be clear on this. Matthew chapter three and verse two. Here's John's message. Here's John the Baptist. The one that Jesus says is greater than all that came before. The one who's broke the silence that has been sent by God. The cry in the wilderness. It says, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This was the message that God had sent to break the silence. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This is the message that Jesus preached. Turn to chapter four of Matthew in verse number 17. This was the message that Jesus preached. Chapter four, verse 17. We know this comes after Jesus' temptation, His victory. Verse 17. Look at verse 23 of the same chapter. Jesus went out about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching what? The gospel of the kingdom, healing all manner of sicknesses and all manner of diseases amongst the people. So it's the message of John the Baptist, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's the message of that he goes about and says, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's the message of the gospel of the kingdom. That's what's going forth from John the Baptist and from Jesus. Turn to Matthew chapter 10 and we'll see what Jesus sent his disciples out to preach. Matthew chapter 10 and verse number one. And when he called unto him his 12 disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. Now the names of the 12 apostles are these. The first, Simon, which is called Peter. Andrew, his brother. James, the son of Debatee. John, his brother. Philip and Bartholomew. Thomas and Matthew, the publican. James, the son of Alphaeus and Labaius, whose surname was Thaddeus. Simon, the Canaanite. And Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. These 12 Jesus sent forth and commanded them saying, go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any city of the Samaritans enter you not, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand. John the Baptist breaks the silence with the gospel of the kingdom. Jesus comes to Israel and preaches the gospel of the kingdom. Jesus sends his disciples out, and notice he sends them not to the Gentiles, not to the Samaritans, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel with the message, what? Repent, for the kingdom is at hand. Let's look at the message that Paul preached, because remember, you know, scripture's consistent. We're gonna get this message throughout. Turn to Acts chapter 20, verse number 24. Acts 20 and verse number 24. Here we have Paul preaching, repent for the kingdom is at hand. Acts chapter 20, verse 24. Here's what the word of God says. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I may finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify of the, The gospel of the grace of God. It must be a wrong reference. I'm looking for the kingdom. 1 Corinthians, go there, chapter nine. Do me a favor and go to 1 Corinthians chapter nine, verse 17. Again, I just want to prove this point that Paul is speaking of the gospel of the kingdom. Acts 20, 24, wasn't it? He says the gospel of the grace of God. Maybe it changes. 1 Corinthians 9, verse 17. Here we go, we're gonna get the gospel of the kingdom. 1 Corinthians 9, 17. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward, but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me. No, that's not really kingdom either. Ephesians, go to Ephesians. We'll get there. Ephesians three. How many strikes did I get before I'm out? Ephesians chapter three, verse two. If you've heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which is given me to you, Lord. Nope, no kingdom gospel there either. What's Paul doing? I'll tell you what he's doing. Colossians 1, 25. Now notice Paul says something very important here. It sets his apostleship apart from those that have come before. Colossians chapter one, verse 25. Paul says this, wherefore I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. You see, what I'm trying to point out to you there is something's changed when Paul is in his ministry, the church aid ministry. That when John the Baptist came to Israel, it was repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. When Jesus came to Israel, it was repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. When Jesus sent his disciples to Israel, it was repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. It's the gospel of the kingdom. But when we enter into the church age, we transition from Jew to Gentile, the book of Acts, this book of transition, and we move into the New Testament teaching. Paul uniquely qualified to teach in the church. He is no longer using the language of the gospel of the kingdom. And the language that he uses is what we would refer to as the gospel of grace. He says it over and over again, a dispensation of the grace of God. A dispensation of God which is given unto me to you, he says in Acts, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. 1 Corinthians, a dispensation of the gospel is committed to me. Something has changed. What's changed? It's no longer the gospel of the kingdom. Because the gospel of the kingdom has nothing to do with the church. Contextually, nothing to do with it. Nothing to do with it. The gospel of the kingdom is firmly rooted in the covenantal promises given to Israel. The kingdom that is promised in the gospel of the kingdom is an earthly one. And those promises that are earthly belong to Israel. As the church today, as partakers of the gospel of grace, our promises are heavenly. They're not earthly. And when we get these two things confused, there's terrible trouble. I was on Facebook, and anytime I go on Facebook, it drives me nuts. But again, verses from Jeremiah. God will go before you, he will fight your battles, he will make you prosperous, all this sort of stuff. Listen, if you're a Christian and the church say it's today, God has promised to be with you, he's promised to never leave you, forsake you, but he's also promised that you will be persecuted if you live for him. He's also promised that he will make a way for you to, if not escape, to bear it, but he doesn't promise to remove it. He doesn't promise that if you're a good Christian and you obey his commands, that he will destroy every enemy in front of you. That's not what God says in the church age. But to Israel, that's what he did say. And he did mean that. Now, here's the thing that's leveled at somebody like me that says the gospel of the kingdom, the gospel of grace, there are other gospels in the Bible, what does the word gospel mean? Good news, right? It's good news. It's not the gospel that saves us. The gospel is the good news of the one who saves us. So what people come along and say, oh, you're teaching another way of salvation, pastor, and I can't have that. No, no, no, that's not what it says. Salvation is always through grace alone and Christ alone and nothing else. Always, always. We don't teach a different way of salvation, we just teach a different emphasis. The gospel of grace for the church has a different emphasis as the gospel of the kingdom did for Israel. Very different. And when we get those things confused, we start to muddy things and we start to bring things that were never for us, never meant to be applied to us, and we then put them into our context and we get all sorts of things mixed up. That's why in Matthew 24 it says, the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached unto all nations and they in the end shall come. You know that you're not given the gospel of the kingdom to preach. There are people today that are preaching the gospel of the kingdom, an earthly thing where the Lord will come back and he'll fix everything and turn this into utopia. That's not what we preach. We preach the gospel of grace. That yes, the Lord is coming back. Yes, he will set up his kingdom. But actually, his wrath is set upon you, and in his grace and his goodness, Jesus Christ stepped into your place so that you may go free. We don't preach a different gospel. We preach a different emphasis, and we get it correct. So when we look at Matthew 24 and we understand the gospel of the kingdom is very Jewish-centric, it's given to Israel. When we understand that the book of Matthew is really written to the Jew and highlights the rejection of that king that would set up that kingdom. When we get into Matthew 24 and we see the gospel of the kingdom, we understand this has something to do with Israel, something to do with the end time. Well, that fits perfectly with what's happening in the world today. Fits perfectly with the revelation when we did it. Revelation 7, 144,000 of Israel. What are they, evangelists? What do they take? What gospel do they go out and preach? gospel of the kingdom. It all fits, and we don't have any issues. So we have to understand Matthew in its context. The gospels present four different aspects of Christ. Let's go to the next slide. We don't want to spend too much time on this, but this is the four faces that are presented. This imagery appears throughout Scripture. Matthew presents Christ as king. This brings us to the lion of the tribe of Judah. This is important. through a progressive revelation of God. Mark presents him as the servant. That's why Mark doesn't deal with any genealogy. He gets straight in there as the servant, the suffering servant. It's a very doing gospel. This is the ox, the cattle. Luke presents Christ as man. And again, the genealogy there traces all the way back to Adam. Luke will present details of Christ's humanity that the other gospel writers don't write. It's Luke that tells us that Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, under the pressure, sweated drops of blood. Remember, Luke's a doctor. Presents Christ as man. And then John, that supreme one that soars over them all in terms of the deity of Christ. How does John begin? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Presents the deity. This imagery of these four faces is replete through scripture. You'll see it in Revelation, and the beasts of Zohar, they're gathered around the throne that they have these four faces. You see it in Ezekiel. You see it when you go all the way back to Israel as they marched in the wilderness after the Exodus. Those 12 tribes as they marched were split into four groups of three. Each group of three had a tribe at the head of the group as they marched, and their banner, their insignia, would march through the wilderness so they would they would be ordered and how they went. The camp of Judah that had three tribes would march with Judah as the lead. with the ensign, the banner, the lion, tribe of Judah. Following them would be a group of three led by Ephraim, the figure of which the banner is an ox. The next three that came along would be the camp of Reuben. The standard, the flag, was a man. The next one that came along was Dan. That standard was an eagle. All through Scripture, you'll see these four faces, these four aspects reminding us that God is over all of this. In the Noahic Covenant in Genesis 9, for those of you that know that, this covenant that's given to all mankind, listen to what it says, Genesis 9 verse 9, I establish my covenant with you and your seed after you, with every living creature that is with you, of the vole, of the cattle, of every beast of the earth, from all that go out of the ark to every beast of the earth." What you'll see there is those four faces. It's a covenant with man. It's a covenant with the birds, the fowl. It's a covenant with the cattle, the ox. And it's a covenant with every beast of the earth, the lion, class. Man, birds, cattle, beasts. These four faces present these four aspects of the work of Christ over all creation. But Matthew particularly speaks into Jesus as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, into that messianic hope given to Israel. Turn quickly as we close, and we're nearly done, to Matthew chapter 15. Next slide, please, kid. Matthew chapter 15. Here's what you wanna remember. Matthew 15 verse 21. When Jesus came. He came unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Matthew 15 verse 21. Then Jesus went thence and departed unto the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts and greeted him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thy son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. But he answered her not a word. A Gentile comes unto him. He answers her not a word. His disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for she cries after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent, but onto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Turn to John chapter one and verse 11. Here's what John tells us. He came onto his own and his own received him not. Folks, the book of Matthew is that account, that he came unto his own and his own received him not. The gospel of the kingdom with Israel front and center is of supreme importance in understanding Matthew's gospel, but also the rest of Scripture. It will avoid the confusion that comes. It will avoid the puzzle not fitting together as we've seen. And this happens, folks, it happens. Let me give you an example. Little book that I was given to have a look at. I don't know if you've read this or seen this or know this. It's called God's Big Picture. by Vaughan Roberts, published by IVP. And it's meant to be a quick overview of God's big picture. And I picked it up and I looked at it and I started to read some of it. And it said, you know, one theme that we can read through this is that there's the gospel and the kingdom. And this is the overarching theme that goes over it. And I'm like, The gospel and the kingdom? Number one, that's a misunderstanding. The gospel is various forms of what the good news God has given. We're making that synonymous with salvation. Salvation sits over all, but the good news that comes, comes in different times, different explanations. The good news for Israel when John the Baptist came was, The kingdom's at hand. It's there. All those promises that God has made you, Israel, they'll be fulfilled if you just accept them. Of course they didn't accept them. And the privilege that was given to Israel moves to the church. And we have our own instructions. We have our own promises. We're to take the gospel of grace. Salvation sits over it all, but it's a different amethyst. So I'm reading this. And then I started to read through it. And I'm like, it's good, but it's not right. It's not right. Because the promises that have been given, specifically given to Israel, this author just sweeps them under the carpet and said, oh, they're done. The theme really is just God working with humanity as a whole, and it's all the same, and will all roads basically lead to heaven. I know how many pages that is. I know how many copies have been sold of that. How many people have picked it up and went, oh, that's good. Folks, we're to rightly divide the word of God. Because honestly, being good isn't enough. We have to be right. And if we want to be right, we have to go to this book and we have to see what God is saying and what he has for us. Now, as we unpack the gospel of Matthew, that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna keep it in its kingdom context. And hopefully by the end of it, we have a puzzle that fits together perfectly. So that we don't say it's good, but it's not right. We say it's good and it's right. And our God keeps his promises.