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Thank you for that, ladies. Well, I have a few questions. The first question that I was asked was about the genealogy. And so I know that a lot of people, when they are reading the Bible through, when they come to genealogies, they skip them because it's so hard to pronounce these names. But they're very important. They're very important for a number of reasons.
The first reason is to show the inerrancy and infallibility of the scripture and to show us that indeed Christ did descend from Adam and from David. And second of all, that God is interested in names, that he loves names. He's filled his word with names. And many of these names are hard to read because they're Hebrew names. And some of them that, you know, we really don't, wouldn't really know exactly how to pronounce them, seen as Biblical Hebrew and Biblical Greek as dead languages. They are languages that are not spoken. Modern Hebrew is not quite Biblical Hebrew. Close, but not quite.
But anyway, we do believe that they're very important. The Puritans believed that these genealogies were very important. And in fact, we learned some things. You can actually preach through the genealogies and can, you know, for example, Rahab is in the line, the lineage of Jesus. And if Rahab had, I mean, you know, who would have thought that such a woman, would be in the lineage. And the Moabitess, Ruth, is in the lineage. And so it's important to know these things.
Now, here is the difficulty. You have two of these. You have one in Matthew in the beginning. And actually, Matthew starts his gospel with the genealogy. And so Matthew 1, the book of the generations of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. And he starts with Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob. Well, I'm not going to read them all to you, but you see the genealogy. Now, the question comes in verse 6. So this is Matthew chapter 1, verse 6. And Jesse begat David. Of course, you know, before that, Verse 5 says, and Solomon begat Boaz, that's Boaz. See, but sometime from the Old Testament to the New Testament, because it's coming from Hebrew into Greek, the spellings are a little differently. For example, the spellings are different, that in the Old Testament, Emmanuel, you see, is spelled with an I, in the New Testament with an E, so you have to, But it's just a spelling thing. It's from one language to another.
But this is Boaz, and Boaz of Rehob. All right, so Solomon begat Boaz in the New Testament, King James Version, Rehob, but that is Rehab. So the CH and the H sometimes is, you know, it's hard to distinguish. And so, but this was Rahab. And then Boaz begat Obed of Ruth, you see. And Boaz was married to Ruth, right? And they gave this and had the son Obed. And Obed begat Jesse. Now it's interesting that they dropped the names of the women there. They put the name of the women in, then they dropped the name of the women out. but they wanted you to see that Rahab was part of this and that Ruth was part of this. And Jesse begat David the king, and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah or Uriah, we would say. But in the Greek, you'll notice if you're reading King James or some other version that there will be italics here. So Solomon of Hur, of Uriah. And of course, it mentions Hur, but not by name. And of course, what's it mentioning? Who's it mentioning? Well, it's mentioning Bathsheba. And Solomon begat, and then it goes down. And so David the king begat Solomon. of Bathsheba.
Now, if you go to Luke, and Luke doesn't start his genealogy until the third chapter, and he doesn't even start it at the beginning of the third chapter. He starts it in verse 23, and you'll notice, and Jesus himself began to be about 30 years of age, being as was supposed the son of Joseph, which was the son of Hali, which was the son of Mathath, which was the son of Levi, which was the son of Melchi, which was the son, now you see it's a little different, you see, Matthew is saying this one beget this one, and now Luke is saying, okay, so, and you'll notice that it goes all the way to Adam, verse 38,
All right, well, the issue is in verse 31, which was the son of Meliah, which was the son of Manan, which was the son of Matathah, or Matathah, which was the son of Nathan, not Solomon, which was the son of David.
Okay, so what is the explanation of this? Well, the simple explanation is simply this, that Matthew is running the lineage of Joseph, the one who was espoused to Mary, and that Luke is given the genealogy of Mary.
Though you say, well, but it starts with, you know, Joseph, that's right, which was, according to those who have studied history and the history of genealogies, the Puritans who look very deeply in these things, because they're very concerned about these things, said that even though it mentioned Joseph, which would have been the, the way they would have done it even if they were running the genealogy of Mary. And they're running the genealogy of Mary.
And so we see that it goes through Nathan and not Solomon. Now, and that Nathan or the, Okay, so you have Solomon, you have Nathan.
Well, Matthew is given to a Jewish audience and is concerned about the royal lineage of Christ. Christ is king. Luke is running more of a Gentile and much broader. And so Luke is giving, instead of the royal lineage, the natural lineage.
Because Joseph really had nothing to do with it, right? But why were they in Bethlehem? Okay, because Joseph, you see, was, you know, he had to go to Bethlehem because he was in the lineage of David that had to get him to Bethlehem.
And so that is the standard understanding of why these things are different. I think the simplest explanation is Luke, and you know, Luke gives us much more detail about Mary than Matthew does.
In fact, Matthew starts the story with the angel dealing with Matthew. I'm sorry, dealing with Joseph. The angel's dealing with Joseph, not with Mary. Well, Luke has the angel dealing with Mary.
Now, there seems to be, some understanding in the scholarship of this that Luke got much of his detail, though confirmed by the spirit of God, but got much of the detail about this birth from Mary because he actually was able to spend some time to interview Mary.
Well, I don't know if the Lord used that or not. He may have. I don't think it would be a problem. But they were very concerned, the Puritans were very concerned to guard the, wanted to guard the inerrancy and infallibility of the scripture.
And Luke may have been concerned with the curse that was on, on the royal family, and so he wanted to be sure that the family was not, or that from Mary, since Mary was the one used of the Lord to give Christ his humanity. that they would be concerned, you know, about the curse that was on Jeconiah, which is in, I think it's in, Jeremiah chapter 33, let me make sure that that's right. And so didn't, yeah, I'm sorry, 22, 2230, that's why I thought it was 33. Okay, so 2230, it says that, Let me see if I can just break in. Verse 26, and I will cast thee out and thy mother that bare thee into another country where we were not born, where ye were not born, and there shall ye die. But to the land whereunto they desire to return, hither shall they not return. Is this man Caniah, or Jet Caniah, A despised broken idol, is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? Wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into the land which are not. O earth, O earth, O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord. Thus said the Lord, write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days. For no man of his seed shall prosper. sitting upon the throne of David and ruling anymore Judah.
And so that curse there would discount Jeconiah, and so Luke, of the spirit of the Lord, gave him the natural lineage, because actually he didn't come from Joseph, but the The kingly line, since Joseph was supposed to be his father, the kingly line would come to Joseph, but the natural line would come through Mary. Did that explain anything to you? Okay. So simple explanation. Matthew's given Joseph. Luke is given Mary's genealogy.
Okay. Then there was another question concerning seeing the face of God. Okay, so, okay, so Exodus 3311, you'll just, we're doing Bible drill tonight. Exodus 3311, let me see, I might need to break in a little sooner to that. Let me see. Well, verse nine, and it came to pass as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle and the Lord talked with Moses. So this cloud came and all the people saw the cloud, the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle, the door and all the people rose up and worshiped every man in his tent. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.
And then verse 12 says, and Moses said unto the Lord, see thou sayest unto me, bring up this people, and how hast thou not let me know whom thou wilt send with me? Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. So again, I know thee by name. But the Lord can, you know, when he has Moses on the mountain there, Moses, and he said to Moses, you know, what do you want? And Moses said, I want all your goodness to pass by me. And he says to Moses, no man shall see my face. and live, right? So no man can see his face and live, and yet he speaks to him face to face.
And there are other times, you know, at the Oak of Mamre there and Genesis when the three came to, when they came to the tent of Abraham, these three, well, actually angels, the angel, two of them were angels that went to Sodom, you know, and so they were there at the Oak of Mamre, and it, And he came to speak to Abraham, you see. And Abraham, this is in the 18th chapter of Genesis, he's pleading for the city, for Sodom. And verse 20 says, so this would be 1820, Genesis 1820. And the Lord said, because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grievous, I'll go down now. and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which has come unto me. And if not, I will know. And the men turned their faces from thence and went toward Sodom. So these men came to, let me see if I can go back in the chapter and pick up. Well, verse one says, and the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre. And he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day, and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood by him. And when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed himself down toward the ground and said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant. water I pray you be fetched and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree and I will fetch a morsel of bread and comfort ye your hearts after that you shall pass on for therefore are ye come to your servant and they said so do as thou has said and Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah and told her to make ready these things. And he ran to the herd and said, kill a calf. And they took butter. So they're doing, they're putting on a real feast here.
And they said unto him, these three men, where is Sarah, thy wife? And he said, behold, in the tent. And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life. And lo, Sarah, thy wife, shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent, which was behind him. Now, Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age, and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. Therefore, there's no way that she could conceive because it's physically impossible. Therefore, Sarah laughed within herself, saying, after I'm waxed old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord, being old also?
And the Lord said unto Abraham, wherefore did Sarah laugh? Now you'll notice in verse 13, the word Lord, it's in all caps. This is, this is the name Jehovah. This is the Tetragrammat or Yahweh. Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, shall I surely bear a child which am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? At that time appointed, I will return unto thee. According to the time of life, Sarah shall have a son. Then Sarah denied, saying, I laugh not. But she was afraid. And he said, nay, but thou didst laugh.
And the men rose up from thence and looked towards Sodom, and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way. And the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, that they shall keep the way of the Lord. and do justice and judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. And the Lord said, because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grievous, I'll go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it which has come upon me, and if not, I will know.
And the men turned their face toward and went to, or from thence, I'm sorry, and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before the Lord." So these two men, but then you know the rest of the story, right? When they went there, they were angels. And you know the wickedness of Sodom, the perversity, and Lot was going to even give his daughters to them, but they didn't want the daughters, they wanted the men. And so he, and so they were angels and this was the Lord.
Okay, so he's sitting in there talking to the Lord. Yet the Bible says no man can see my face and live. And yet it says that they're, that he is speaking to him as a man face to face. Well, then you go to muddy it up just a little bit more. You go to 1 John chapter 4 and where verse 13 says, hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his spirit and we have seen and do testify that the father sent the son into the world.
Um, and that, um, uh, let me see. No verse 12 verse 11 says beloved. If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us and his love is perfected in us, whereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he's given us of his spirit. We have seen and we have seen and do testify that the father sent the son to be the savior of the world.
What did they see? Well, they saw the son is what they've seen.
Okay, so then we go to the book of Hebrews, just to, you know, I just want to get all this out before I give you a full answer to this. And so you go to the first chapter of Hebrews, and God, who at sundress times divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom he also made the world, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sin, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, being made so much better than angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they, and unto which of the angels hath said he at any time, thou art my son, this day I have begotten thee.
And again, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, and let all the angels of God worship him. And of the angels he saith, who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire, But unto the son, he said, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness. And the scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. And thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore, God, even thy God, hath appointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
And so here, no man has seen God. Who did, when the angel of the Lord came to Hagar, who did she see? When Moses was in the mountain, who did he see when he, or he's there face to face, who did he see? When Abraham was standing in the tent door of Mamre, who did he see? When God came to Moses, who did he see?
You see, again, it says of Moses that that Moses is not just a regular prophet. You know, they were calling into question his authority. You know, Moses is not a regular prophet. What prophet has, I spoke to them in dreams, but I've spoken to Moses face to face.
Okay, so again, the simple answer to this is that they saw Christ. Not the Father. See, there's a contradistinction between when it says God and the Son, when it uses God and the Son, there's a contradistinction there. God is the Father. Christ is the Son. God has always revealed himself in Christ.
Okay, so the word Lord is a tetragrammon, right? which means the four letters, tetra, four, grama, letters. They didn't name that name. They didn't speak that name because they didn't want to blaspheme that name. But it was these four letters. Now, depending on what Hebrew school you went to, it's either a yod or a jod. The Germans called it a jod. And then the next letter was a he. The third letter was either a va or a wa, the Germans called it a wa, and then he. So here's what you have. You have either J-H-V-H, or you have Y-H-W-H. So you either have Jehovah, and they took the word Adonai, which is the lesser word for Lord, you'll see it in the Old Testament, the capital, the first letter is a capital, the rest of them are lowercase, That's Adonai. The four uppercase letters, L-O-R-D, all in capital, that is the translation of this Tetragrammon that they didn't pronounce. They pronounced it Adonai. And if Adonai and the Tetragrammon came together, they pronounced it Lord God. But they never, but we, following the Germans, putting the vowels under it.
As the Germans developed the pointing system of Hebrew, we put the Adonai vowels under it, and it's Jehovah. The more modern understanding, you know, probably surely late in the 20th century, mid to late 20th century, they began to change it which everything at the 20th century went away from tradition, you know, whatever. So they pronounced it Yahweh. Y'all have heard both of those, right? Same word.
Now, so what is this word? What is, what are these four letters where they are an infinitive construct I'm sure that helped you, of the Hebrew or the noun, maybe I just say the noun, of the Hebrew verb hayah. You can see hayah in that. So it's H-Y-H. But when they put it in the noun form, it became, as I said, Jehovah or Yahweh, which is the one, the being one. When you bring that to the New Testament, and Jesus, especially in the Gospel of John, uses ego, I, me, in the Greek, ego, I, me. I am ego, I, me. So why would, and when Jesus called himself, I am, the Jews knew exactly what he was doing. So, ego I me, I am the good shepherd. Ego I me, I am the vine, the branches. Okay, so ego I me, I am the bread of life. So we see that that word Lord surely points to Jesus Christ.
And I think the third question, which deals with very, I guess somewhat, maybe I should say somewhat controversial, not for us, but somewhat controversial in the modern understanding. I want you to know that probably somewhere in the middle of the 20th century, maybe toward the late 70s, the charismatic movement began to take off. And what that did, the charismatic movement, actually charisma comes, you know, that is grace, and so the grace gives. That's where charismatic came from. It basically, the charismatic movement brought Pentecostal theology to mainstream, to the mainstream church. And because Baptists were so deficit in teaching their people theology, when this charismatic movement struck, it was filled with a lot of emotion and a lot of excitement. And so it decimated many Baptist churches. In fact, I know that in Jones County, that happened as well. There were people, longtime members of Baptist Church that wound up in these charismatic neo, which means new Pentecostal churches.
And so, actually, the Pentecostal movement began. There were some hints of it in the late 19th century. A guy named Edward Irving, and they were called Irvingites in England, so he, And Ian Murray was very gracious to Edward Irving. He believed he was a Christian. He said, but no man has brought such harm to the Savior that he loves than Edward Irving. Well, then the Azusa Street Revival was in Los Angeles, California, Azusa Street Baptist Church. A woman spoke in tongue. And then from there it grew and it became a phenomenon. And then it took about 50 to 60 years for it to get into mainstream. But the charismatic movement brought it into mainstream. And really changed the paradigms that is the structures of worship. That's why you're getting a lot of this modern contemporary music in churches. It's really an outgrowth of these things.
And really, I don't guess there's anything terribly wrong with singing these songs, maybe with an upbeat melody. But I think the worst thing that happened was that it robbed a generation of hymnody. So they don't know these hymns anymore. But I mean, we sang at Mendenhall today, how sweet and awful is the place with Christ within the doors, why everlasting love displays the choices of her stores. You know, then it says, you know, I come with a thankful heart, but why was I made? you know, to be a guest and enters while there's room, when others made a wretched choice and would rather starve than come. T'was the same love that spread the feast that sweetly drew me in, else I would have died and perished in my sin. I would have refused. and perished in my sin. I long to see thy churches filled with all the chosen race, with one voice, one heart, one mind, singing thy amazing grace.
Now, compare that to people need the Lord, people need the Lord, people need the Lord, people need the Lord. At the end of broken dreams, he's the open door. What does that mean? I can tell you, you know what Isaac Watts was writing. And again, you know, what Wesley was writing, and can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood? Died he for me? Who calls to Spain for me? Who him to death pursued? Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, should die for me? Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I woke the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose up, went forth and followed thee. See, that's what we lost. You know, rock of ages cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy wounded side which flow or riven side which flow be of sin the double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure. That's what we lost for a lot of hoopla.
Well, Dylan's got a line in one of his songs that says, well, it don't count unless it sails. And this stuff sails. It sails. It attracts. But what you do is you fill your churches up with people that have no understanding of biblical theology. And the preachers are surely not going to wreck the mood by coming in there with a hard sermon exegeting a passage of scripture. So it concentrated, now there are tongues in the book of Acts, right? Acts chapter 2, they spoke in tongues. But what was those tongues in Acts chapter 2? Well, those tongues in Acts chapter 2 were people hearing the gospel in their own language. They were known languages. Now, so the question is, Were the men speaking in tongues or did the people hear in tongues? Well, it was both. It was both. Now, I don't know exactly how it worked out, but the people that were not given the ability to hear thought it was gibberish. Those who were given the ability to hear heard it in their own language. It wasn't ecstatic utterances. It wasn't, you know, and I've, and when it first came out, I was a young man and I wanted everything the Bible had, so I looked and investigated. I don't think that there's another person in the world that I know anything about that studied this stuff more than I have to look into it. And I've listened to people speak. I remember there was a guy, a pastor out of New Orleans, and I can't even remember his name, but I do remember his cadence and his speaking tongue. I remember that. And so these languages kind of sound a little bit kind phonetic, which would make you think the kind of African phonetic kind of languages. But it's always that kind of thing. And so they brought back, you know, into the worship services the languages, all right. So there are in the Book of Acts, but those are easily dismissed because that was people hearing them in their own language. I guarantee if you go to a Charismatic or Pentecostal church and you sit and they break out into tongues, you're not going to hear French and Spanish and Latin and German. You're not going to hear that. But that's what they heard. And they even made comment, right? How do we hear them in our own voice? And so, and again, you've heard me preach this. What that says about preaching is that preaching is a speaking and hearing miracle. The preacher has to speak with the authority of the scripture and with the authority of the spirit. And people can't hear it unless the spirit gives them hearing. So it's a miracle. Preaching, all true preaching is a miracle of speaking and a miracle of hearing. That's what, Acts chapter two teaches us.
And again, I could take you through that, we don't have time. Let's just, the passages of scripture that are honed in upon more than those is 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14. Now, I surely can't stand up here in the little time we have and exegete these passages of scripture for you, but I do want you, let's just begin to read them. Now, concerning spiritual, And you'll notice it says gifts in italics. Well, really it's just the word. It's the, you know, it is the word that comes off of the word for spirit, pneuma. So it could better be translated. Now concerning spirituals, brethren, I would not have you ignorant And you know that ye were Gentiles carried away with these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore, I give to you understanding that no man speaketh by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus occurs." Well, he starts. Well, again, if you would go, let's just break into it, verse 18. And now hath God set the members, every one of them, in the body as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where would the body, and now are they many members, yet one body, but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee, nor, again, the head to the feet, I have no need of thee. So they were promoting, it looks like in Corinth, they were promoting their gift above other and saying that everyone had to have the same gift. And then he, verse 29, well, verse, let's just see verse 27. Now, are ye the body of Christ and members in particular? And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets. Well, in Africa, there are men that claim to be apostles and prophets. which are different than pastors. And they have a, they really have a hierarchy, and they teach this hierarchy. And hath God set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, government, diversity of tongues, are all apostles, are all prophets, are all teachers, are all workers of miracles. Have all the gift of healing. Do all speak with tongues? What is the obvious answer to these questions? No, no, no, no. Everybody's not an apostle. Everybody's not a prophet. Everybody doesn't have the ability to do miracles. Everybody doesn't have the gifts of healing or help serve governments, whatever all of this may mean. They're not all this, okay. but covet earnestly the best gifts, and I'm going to show unto you a better way, a more excellent way. And then he starts talking about love. I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not loved charity. That word is agape. I become a sounding brass, on and on and on. I'll just jump up. You know, he talks about charity, and then He starts in verse 9, for we know in part and we prophesy in part. Well, let me go back up to verse 8. Charity never faileth. Love, agape, never faileth. But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, and when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face, now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known. Now abideth faith, hope, and charity. Faith, hope, and love, agape. Pistis is the Greek word for faith. Elpidas is the Greek word for hope. And agape is the Greek word for charity. Faith, hope, and charity, or love. These three, but the greatest of these is charity.
Now, why would charity be the greatest of these? Well, you may not have an answer exactly for that, but obviously, charity is better than faith and hope. In what way? Now, I want you to know that there's going to be no faith and no hope, no faith, no hope in heaven. So, if you look in the book of Romans, well, that's, let me see, that's not the verse I was looking for. Get back to the book of Romans here. Romans 8, 24 says, for we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? For if we hope for that which we see not, then we do with patience wait for it. Okay, and so faith is defined in terms of hope. What is faith? Right? I meant you know the book of Hebrews defines, right? You know, what is faith? And so faith is the substance, I'm sorry, chapter 11, verse 1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for. So faith is defined in terms of hope, the evidence of things not seen. So these are things not seen. So in heaven, will there be hope and faith? No, because we're going to see it. We don't have to hope for it. We don't have to have faith in it. We will see it. Very important to the understanding of this passage. All right. It says that love does not fail. But where there be prophecies, they shall fail. Meaning that there going to be a day when there's no need for prophecy. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. And whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. All right, so, for we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. Okay, so now what is this perfect thing? So when the perfect thing shows up, the prophecy, the tongues, and the knowledge shall pass away. Now, this is not, knowledge in the sense of understanding things. Will we have more or less knowledge in heaven? Come on. We'll have more knowledge, right? This is the spiritual gift of the word of knowledge, you see. There's some that have this gift of the word of knowledge. If I can, okay, and so it says that there are, verse 6 of chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians, there are diversity of operations with the same God. Manifestation of the spirit is given to every man. For to one is given by the spirit the word of wisdom. To another, the word of knowledge by the same spirit. the word of knowledge.
It's very important to understand the context of these and to follow this context because if you don't, you're going to make the error of Pentecostalism and they have to teach you to speak in tongues. They'll get you down there and teach you how to do that. But if it's of the spirit, would somebody have to teach you to speak in tongues or would it just happen?
But you'll notice that he names three things. This is not just willy-nilly. He's naming three things. What does he name that shall pass away? Well, prophecy, tongues, and knowledge, meaning the word of knowledge. What do these have in common? These are revelatory gifts, right? Prophecy gives a revelation. Tongues gives a revelation with the interpretation, right? and a revelation is given by the word of wisdom or the word of knowledge.
Now, obviously, the word of wisdom was something different than the word of knowledge because they're both talked about. It's very important that you're talking about revelatory gifts, all right? So if these things that are passing away are revelatory gifts, then what is this perfect thing that does away with these revelatory gifts?
But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part shall be done away. This is often interpreted as being heaven, right? Right? I mean, y'all have heard that. Surely you've heard that. I mean, if you've been to a funeral sermon, you know, they'll say, for now we see through a glass darkly. but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known. So they said, well, this is heaven. Okay, let's try that interpretation in this context, all right? The perfect is when Jesus returns and everything is put back right, right? And we won't need these things anymore, right? Right?
There are abiding gifts and passing gifts. You see it in the context. You see it in the context. Prophecy shall fail. Tongue shall cease. Knowledge shall be done away with. Charity never fails. But prophecy shall fail, tongues shall cease, and knowledge shall vanish away when the perfect comes. But then there are abiding gifts. When the perfect comes, what's going to be abiding? Faith, hope, and love. So you have passing gifts and abiding gifts. The abiding gifts need to abide after the passing gifts pass, right? You all following that? Abiding gifts have to abide after passing gifts have passed.
So is it heaven? Well, it can't be heaven because there's no hope and faith in heaven. So there has to be a point Where all three of these abide, even after those three pass, that can't be heaven. So what is the perfect? Well, it's the Word of God. Isn't it interesting that these are revelatory gifts that are passing? What is the perfect? It is the word of God.
Now, I surely think verse 12 would fit in heaven. Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face, I think that would be. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known. Well, that would fit for heaven. But here's the question, would that fit for the word of God? Before the Word of God, what were they seeing through? A glass darkly. Did they know themselves? No. But when the Word of God comes, is it clear? When we read the Word of God, are we looking through a glass darkly? Are we diminishing? In order to have that interpretation, you have to diminish the Word of God. Are we diminishing the Word of God?
They're revelatory. or passing, when the perfect revelation comes, which is the word of God. Why would we need to go back to a child and start listening to people speak in tongues with interpretation? Because a prophecy that's made today, a tongue that is spoken today and interpreted, and a word of knowledge that is spoken today must agree with this book, right? If someone speaks a word, prophesies a prophecy, or speaks a tongue and it's interpreted that adds to this word, what should we do with it? Disregard it.
If something comes, did I say add to the word first? If something comes to take away from the word, what are we supposed to do with it? Disregard it. And if something comes that says the word, we don't need it. because we have the perfect. Now, just to put one more nail, since I have five more minutes, just to put one more nail in this, the Bible, you would think, is a book filled with people doing miracles, right? You would think that the Bible's filled with people doing miracles.
Now, that's not to say that there wasn't miraculous happenings all through history, and even today there's miraculous happenings. but people doing miracles, people prophesying, people being prophets on and on and on. Or apostles. Now there are three times in the Bible when there were miracles. I'm talking about a man doing miracles, who was the first man in the Bible that could do miracles? Moses. And why was he doing miracles? To show that he was of God. And what did Moses give us in Revelation? The law of God.
The next people was Elijah and Elisha. What were they? Well, they were prophets, right? And they were considered the great Elijah, surely the great prophet. Elijah and Elisha could do prophecy. I'm sorry, could do miracles, the law. and the prophets. That's revelation, right? That makes up this revelation. And then what's the third group? Jesus Christ and his apostles. What did they give us? The gospel, the apostles' doctrine. The apostles' doctrine, the law, and the prophets comprise this book, Pudding, Pudding, the book of Psalms in both law and prophecy. I mean, in the sense that they gave a prophecy of the coming of Christ, you see.
So this book is filled with, and these miracles came at every turn, at every turn, The miracles came when revelation was given. Is there any new revelation? No. If you claim to have new revelation, you're a heretic. We don't need any new revelation. God has spoken finally in Christ. In this book, So it's amazing to me that these people are talking about tongues and again, you know. If God's speaking to these people, I had an old pastor friend of mine says, you know what, those people that say God spoke to them the most are the people that God speaks to the least. If God really spoke to you, wouldn't he say, hey, I am sovereign. and you can't lose this salvation.
But why do all the Pentecostals and Charismatics believe you can lose your salvation? You think God's speaking to these people? No. We sang the song about the prophets, right? At Christmas, God has spoken through his prophet. The word is delivered. They were tongues before there was the canonized scripture. But after the scripture came, no need for it, because we have it. Now, will the charismatic in a Pentecostal sit down and listen to you explain that? They won't. In fact, Dr. Council, who would come listen to me preach every Sunday night, because he liked my preaching. He didn't agree with much of it, but he liked it, right?
Dr. Council said, let me tell you one thing, Pastor Kimbrough, he was always greatly respectful of me, called me Pastor Kimbrough. A good experience will undo a doctrine every day of the week. There you have it. That's heresy. All right. Well, I'm glad we didn't have another question. We'd be here at eight o'clock. Let's pray. Father, thank you.
Questions and Answers
| Sermon ID | 1526130353233 |
| Duration | 1:03:23 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Language | English |
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