We all get to heaven, let's sing it. Here we go, let's sing. Sing the wondrous love of Jesus Sing His mercy and His grace In the mansions bright and blessed He'll prepare for us a place When we all get to heaven One day a rejoicing that will be When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout the victory. You're doing good on the second. While we walk the pilgrim pathway, clouds will overspread the sky. But when traveling days are over, not a shadow, not a sign, when we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be! So, let us then be true and faithful. what a day of rejoicing that You're doing well. day of rejoicing Jesus will sing and shout the victory. Great singing. Page 149. Page 149. We'll sing when we see Christ. The Course says, but it will be worth it all when we see Jesus. And that is the truth there tonight. Page 149. Let's sing it out. Give it all you got. Of times, a day seems long, I've tried a time. Christ will soon in God's when we see Jesus our trials will seem so small On the second. Sometimes the sky looks dark With not a ray of light We're tossed and driven off Yes, I know. Jesus. our trials will seem so small And one glimpse of His dear face All sorrow will erase So bravely run the race You're doing well on the last. Now, give it all we got tonight. We'll soon be and we'll will show the joys of heaven a harp will hold the crowd and the singer will be finished and we'll lay those burdens down and it will be worth it they'll seem so small Amen. Great singing. You can go That was a lesson, that was good. Nothing like New Year. All right, this is the month of February. January, I prep you to teach the Old Testament on Wednesdays, alternating each month. So this is February. I'm going to be in the New Testament for the next four weeks and then go back to the Old Testament. We're going to begin the book of Matthew tonight. The book of Matthew. Next week will be the book of Mark and so on. We work some nice days before Wednesdays for Gospel writers. So let's go there to Matthew. Now, the New Testament begins with four gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And there's a definite reason why you have these four gospel writers to begin the New Testament. And they record the life of Jesus, and they give different aspects about him. And so this is a real good time for us to remember some things about the book of John, of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Now, I want you to know, first of all, as we start, that Matthew was written to an audience of Jews. That was his focus, that was his emphasis, to reach the Jewish people. And you can find that to be true because in the book of Matthew, the author himself is a Jewish tax collector. And he, in Matthew 9, was said to be called Levi at one time. And Matthew had many quotations and references to the Old Testament. All of this is to bear out the fact that Matthew is a very Jewish book, a very, very Jewish book. And so a man named Graham Scroggie wrote a book called The Guide to the Gospels, wrote this. Matthew quotes from the Old Testament scriptures 76 times. That's pretty impressive. It makes a point, it emphasizes certain things when a man quotes from a source. He quotes from the Old Testament seven, six times. And then he also refers to 25 out of 39 Old Testament books, which is to say the book of Matthew is a very Jewish book. It's about a man who is a Jew trying to convince, persuade, reach out to his own people about the Messiah that they were looking for. The word fulfilled is used 12 times in the book of Matthew. Look at chapter one as an example. We'll get to look at some more verses in just a little bit, but Matthew chapter one, the word fulfilled is also very important, and it indicates to us, again, this is a very Jewish book. Matthew 1, 22. And all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which is spoken of by the Lord, by the prophet saying, and so on, okay? So that's just one verse to say, Jewish book, Jewish book, Jewish book. So some of the things in Matthew speak about Jewish culture, Jewish people, Jewish heritage, Jewish, Jewish, Jewish. Very important to know that. Now he writes of Jesus as the son of David in chapter one, chapter nine, and chapter 12. He's the son of David. His human ancestry linked to David, the lineage of the Messiah goes back to David. He's a Jewish Messiah that's gonna be there. And he's the son of David who would forever sit on the throne of David one day. So he's portraying Jesus Christ as the qualified, the bona fide Messiah to come to the right lineage. Now, Matthew describes his miraculous virgin birth in chapter one, which I'm sure you're familiar with, but the virgin birth of Christ is described in great detail in chapter one, verses 18 through 25. He also says that he's the eternal son of God. Matthew's a very Jewish book. Now, he wrote about the kingdom of heaven. Turn to Matthew chapter three. Matthew emphasizes the Jewish Messiah, the Jewish people, and it emphasizes that he came to bring the Jewish kingdom of heaven. Matthew chapter three, look at verse number one and verse number two. 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. Now, why is it called the kingdom of heaven is at hand? What does John the Baptist preach and why did Jesus preach the kingdom of heaven is at hand? Well, it's because the king from heaven was present. The king from heaven is right with you. John talks about him being with us, with them, with the disciples, and that we handled him, the word of life, and we had a fellowship and a contact with the son of God from heaven. So the son of God came from heaven, the Messiah came, and he came to present to the Jewish nation a kingdom they had long hoped for, that they wanted to see come. And so the kingdom of heaven, Repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now 32 times, 32 times, 32 times, the book of Matthew refers to the kingdom of heaven. Can I say again, this is a very Jewish book. May I say again that this book emphasizes reaching the Jewish people? Because it is. Now that truth is very important as we look at the other gospels later on. And it's very important in the context of the New Testament because of what it emphasizes. We're not careful, we'll take some things addressed to the Jewish people, to us as New Testament Christians or Gentiles, and it may lead to some big time trouble if we take what is not intended for us. One author likened the different things about the Bible, distinctions, to mailing letters. And he says, if you have a letter and it's addressed to Brother Caleb, and this Caleb here gets it, Well, the intent of the letter to this Caleb, the bigger Caleb, the older Caleb, I have things written to him for this Caleb. But this Caleb gets the letter, and he says, oh, Caleb. So opens it, and he says, oh, wow, I'm supposed to do all these things? Oh, wow, really? New car? Wow, no kidding. Lamborghini? Yellow? No, oh, no kidding. And so he says, ma, ma, I'm going to get a new Lamborghini, because the letter says so. Whose letter to? It's to Caleb. That's me, right? but it's a different catalog. So the idea is that when you know some of the background about a book, you know that some things are specifically for a group of people, and it's not to be taken for you, it's not your letter. Although you learn from it, you get lessons from it spiritually, but the statements, the import, the emphasis of the book, very Jewish, Jewish people, and he is talking about the kingdom of heaven. Now in Acts chapter one, turn over there with me, In chapter one of Acts, I want you to see that the nation of Israel, the Jews, longed for, looked for a kingdom to come, brought by their Messiah. Acts chapter one. Now we know that this is the chapter that talks about the ascension of Christ. And Jesus has been on earth for 40 days after his resurrection. He's about to go back home where he came from. Now he will rise bodily, literally, from the earth and go up. So if you look up here for just a second at this very attention-getting fluorescent orange marker, Jesus was taught in Acts chapter 1, and as he talked for the very last time on earth before he went to heaven, he rises up from the ground, and he goes up, and they're all doing this. And then in chapter 1 it says this, in verse number... verse number... Verse number six. When they, therefore, were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, would thou at this time restore again the king to Israel? And then he talks about how he will send the Holy Spirit. Verse number eight. And then he was taking up verse number nine and so on. Now, you want to see that they were asking again about the kingdom to come. Yeah. The king had come. He was rejected. The nation of Israel forfeited their kingdom at this time, and he went back to heaven. Now, would that be the end of the story? No, because he will return and set up the kingdom of heaven on earth. So, Revelation closes like that. So, for now, the Israelites, the Jews, the Hebrews are set aside, and God is building a different group of people, a spiritual body called the body of Christ. And so, Jew and Gentile, is in this spiritual body, and we are all one in Christ if we're born again. So he came to present the kingdom of Adam, and the Jews longed for that, and they didn't see that fulfilled because of the rejection of the Messiah. And then also notice this, the mission of the 12 disciples, or the apostles, was definitely very Jewish. Turn to Matthew chapter 10. The commission of the disciples, very, very Jewish. Matthew chapter 10. I find this chapter really, really interesting, and this is a very important thing to see when you are in the prisons, when Hugh is in the prisons teaching the Bible. You have all kinds of folk coming in besides someone from our church. They teach all kinds of different things about the Bible. Sometimes it's not true. And people take things that's not addressed to them and take it as their own. And all kinds of bad practices come out because they have misappropriated a letter not intended for them. Now, let's look at Matthew chapter 10. And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unfeigned spirits. to cast them out and to heal all men of sickness and all men of disease. Verse 2, now the names of the 12 apostles are these, and he names them verse 2, verse 3, and verse 4. Then in verse number 5, 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 ye not. So do not go into all the world to preach the gospel to every creature, only go to one kind of person. A Jew, that's where you go to, you 12. You got that? They said, yes, we got that. Don't go to anybody else. Now, later on, that will change. But for now, that's where they go, verse six. 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. So once again, it's a very Jewish book. The emphasis is on the king being present. The emphasis is on receiving your king. receive the kingdom that he brings with him. Now, as they preach that message, look at verse number eight. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils, freely have received, free to give. Now, who stopped there? I want you to see what he told his disciples on this commission about going to the Jewish people, his people, the Hebrew nation. He says, as you go, I will empower you to do certain things. You can do certain things. It'd be spectacular things. It'd be supernatural things. It'd be powerful things, abnormal things that you would do. These things are to convince my people, the Jew, that I have commissioned, I have sent you. You're sent ones from me. And I want you to convince the people that I am here. They need to have things to believe. If you look at 1 Corinthians, just think about 1 Corinthians 1, 22, the Jews require a sign to believe. From the very beginning, from the very beginning, Jews always required a side to believe. They couldn't just believe because God said something. They could have heard the voice of God, but they still wouldn't believe. They have to see something demonstrated in front of them and say, oh, no joke, God is talking to me. He really wants to do, they have to have something to prove it. Let's think back a little bit, go back to the book of Exodus, you might think about this man, who would be the deliverer of Israel from Egypt. You know his name, starts with an M. Muhammad. No, sorry, wrong one. Wrong one. Moses. And he gets his attention by a burning bush. That's pretty dramatic. Then he tells him, I'm gonna send you back to Egypt and lead them out. He says, they're not gonna believe me, Lord. The Lord says, okay, what's in your hand? He says, a rod. He said, throw that thing back to the snake, pick it back up. And Moses said, are you joking me? Pick it up. He says, pick it up. Picks up, turns back into a rock. That was a sign, a sign to Moses, a Jew, that God was actually calling him to do something. He says, well, you know, Lord, they won't believe what I say. And they won't believe that I am coming. He has to have something to believe, something supernatural, evidence to fall back and say, oh, Gideon, what did he have to have to believe? God was communicating to him. the fleece, the whip, the draught, something like that. In the Old Testament, you have many people, the Jews, needing something to believe. The Jews require signs, so when the Lord commissioned the twelve to go to the nation of Israel to convince them, He says, okay, I know what they're like. I know what they're like. You need to do these things to convince them of what I am saying to you. Now, this is why this is important. If you say you believe the Bible, And people do believe what they say, a lot of Christians do. If they read Matthew chapter 10, they would think automatically, whoa, if I am called by God to serve him, he'll give me power against unclean spirits, verse number one. I can cast out unclean spirits, I can cast out demons and devils. I can heal all manner of sickness and all manner of diseases. And I can, verse number eight, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead even. I can do all these things, but that would be a wrong application one day. It wouldn't be wrong, because that was not addressed to the church. This was given to the Jews at that time. Math is a very Jewish book. And so they had unusual abilities and gifts and power that God gave to them for the purpose of reaching the Jewish people. Some people are very stubborn. Some Gentiles are very stubborn. And sometimes people are convinced because something happens that's a little bit different, out of the ordinary, and they just, they see it. Now, that's not what you go by, that's not what people need to really see and to experience to come to Christ, because the just shall live by faith, and the hearing of the word of God is what people need to have. Though one came from the dead, they will not believe. Luke 16, therefore, to try to take what is not ours today preaching, The message is different. The people are different. We are just to give the Gospels. Yes. To tell about the death, progression, resurrection, ship log, et cetera. We're not to look for signs and wonders and spiritual things like that. Every day, in the TV and cable and everything else too, you have people that are trying to duplicate what the apostle did. And there are many people that are very persuaded by what they see and what they hear. The healers that talk about the leg growing, the leg growing, the ones that talk about gold dust falling from the ceiling. I recently read about a guy who repented of his scamming people. He worked for an evangelist who purported that he could pray and God would send gold dust on the ceiling. And he talked about how it went up there in the ceiling, the false ceiling, the air duct would drop, you know, all this fake stuff to convince people today that the speaker can do miracles and do all these things. Not long ago, which is really like in the 70s, that's not too long ago, speaking about relative to eternity, people are sending out flyers to all the residents of Hawaii, there's an evangelist coming to town, and he will fill your mouth with gold fillings. Not silver, but gold. Came through the mail, this is before the internet. I was living in Kaneohe at the time. Everyone got a flyer, a mail out. And this guy had come to Hawaii several times to the Blaisdell Arena, full house, 10,000 people. And this guy said he could produce, he could get God to put goat fillings in your mouth. That's pretty fantastic. Problem is, gullible people believed it. And he could not produce real goat in people's mouths. It's just crazy, and yet, the idea is that they're taking something addressed to the apostles, they have ability to do not that though, but not that, but they did some spectacular physical things, but not that, and it wasn't meant for us to do today. It's not meant for us to preach that, to promote that, not even talk about prosperity. If you give, God's gonna give you, not even that. So, in John chapter one, in John chapter one, look at verse number seven. It's a very Jewish book. And the reason the Jews did not get their kingdom is because of this scripture in John chapter 1, verse number 7. The same came for witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. He was not that light, John the Baptist was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. You got a capital L there in your Bible? You got the right Bible? Verse number nine, that was the true light, which lighted every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own did this, received him not. Now, that's the reason why they didn't get the kingdom. Rejected the Lord as a nation. Now, the disciples, of course, again, were given supernatural power for that purpose. And in Luke chapter 10, here's another scripture that bears witness to the fact that it's a very Jewish book. Luke chapter 10, here's what the disciples did on a mission trip. They were so excited, oh boy, It comes down to verse number 17. Hate to tell you this, but sometimes the Bible clears things up. Some people rather stay in the muddy, muddy waters in confusion and take things that's not theirs, but the Bible clears things up. And when that happens, the one who gives the Bible and clears things up, they are accused of being party poopers. No, we're not. We're just telling what the Bible says. We're actually dividing the word of truth. Luke chapter 10, verse number 17. Here's an example. of the Jews, of the Jews, disciples trying to reach the Jews, and the Jews had power to do some things. Look at verse number 17. And the seven, he returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. Well, that's pretty exciting. I command you to come out, and they come out. That's pretty exciting. I would try that today. I would talk to a devil today or an unclean spirit today. Not me. I respect. I'm fearful. The Lord can rebuke them. Not me. Verse number 17. No, let's see. Verse number 17. Verse number 18. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as light and fall from heaven. Verse 19. Behold, I give unto you. You who? Who is the you? Well, these are the seven that he gave the power to and also the 12. In other words, the time frame, the time element is very important. This was given to these disciples in the first century when Jesus was in the flesh on earth. This is not a commission I can take for myself today. I can take a spiritual application, but I cannot take this literally and say, I have the power to do that. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions. Let me put it like this. Let's replace serpents and scorpions. Now serpents, I assume, would be poisonous. Poisonous. Scorpions, I assume scorpions are literal scorpions. And I assume that if you get bit by either one, it's gonna cause you some problems. But let's change it to another creature. How about a, what's that giant reptile that got a poisonous bite and it eats anything? There's an Indonesia. It's a giant leopard, excuse me. Komodo dragons. Oh boy, you ever see this guy? They're so ugly. These Komodo dragons, their mouth can stretch and open like that, and they can swallow huge animals. They devour the whole thing, bones and all. But that's got poison in their saliva, and you can get ewe. Animal can get bit, and it'll take maybe a week straight to die, fall, get weakened, lose their strength. because of the poisonous saliva, and it takes a little while, but then that'll happen. So you might kick off the Komodo dragon's bite, but then you got bit, and he drew blood, and you're gonna die. Can you imagine if you got bit by a Komodo dragon? Would you be able to claim healing at a healing service? I think not. You better go to the doctor, go to the ER, do something like that. Get some medical attention. You know, God gave us doctors for a reason. Even God gave us good medicine for a reason. There are some Christians who are anti-everything. They're anti-medicine, anti-government, anti-everything. Well, this is going to get done somewhere in this life, you know? A Christian is in this world, not of the world, and he is wanting to keep us from the evil. So we live here for a reason, and we're going to be subject to a lot of things in this world. And if I get bit by some creature, I'm gonna cry uncle, I'm gonna cry. My personal pain is like that, very low. I can't handle a lot of stuff. I get a splinter, I'm paralyzed. Could be just a quarter of an inch. Some people are very strong, high pressure, but you know, I'm not able to heal a sick. Boy, if I could, I would. I would if I could. I'd go over there and I'd pray and I'd raise them up from Queens, Kapi'olani, the VA, Tripler, Kulkini, especially Kulkini. I'd go there, I'd lay my hands, I'd go in all the time. I wouldn't have to advertise, I'd be so famous. People come to me, I wouldn't have to go to them. I wouldn't have to advertise, I'd just go and do it. And I would give friends and people, and some of the best Christians you and I know may have gotten sick and maybe psychiatric illness, Don't you wish you could have healed them? Don't you wish your prayers would have gotten through? Don't you wish no one, an apostle, could have done? The disciples came back very excited, these Jewish disciples. And he gave them power, verse 19, to trill in serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. That's a pretty, pretty powerful ability that he gave them. And nothing shall by any means hurt you. They didn't even afford it for Magnum? Let's not be silly, but nothing shall hurt you. No bite, no sting, no nothing like that. Okay, it's not truth, is it? No, it's not. Look at verse 20. Here's how he says this now, and this spills over into the New Testament. This spills over into the Christian's life. Notwithstanding, in this, rejoice not. Don't rejoice when the spirits are subject unto you, verse 20, but rather rejoice. Ah, there's something else to be happy about. There's something more exciting than being able to cast out demons and heal the sick and raise the dead. By the way, whoever claims to have risen and raised the dead today, they haven't done it. There's no evidence of that. They haven't proven that. Those healers in Africa and some of those nations, they got all kinds of things going on. And a lot of them say they have raised the dead. And they show videos of that on YouTube. You know it's really fake. And if you're going to believe that, you're very gullible. Let me borrow money from you. If you're that gullible. Because you never get paid back. The spirits are sad to come to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. That might be a better thing to be happy about. Big difference here. So all I'm trying to explain to you is that when you read the book of Matthew, it's a very Jewish book. And there are some things in here to be cautious about. and not take for yourself doctrinally, is a very unique book. To use a modern term, targeting. The disciples, the apostles, targeting Jewish people. Jesus came to target Jewish people's home and his Jewish brethren. Now, the summary of the four gospels, and I will say the summary for Matthew tonight, without many details to be given because it's not the purpose, is kind of like this. If you get arrested, If you get arrested, they do one thing for you at the station. After you get arrested, they're gonna book you. They're gonna take a picture of you from the waist up, or at least the chest up. They'll take a picture of you, front view, profile this side, profile this side, not the back of your head, but they'll get three shots of you, front and side views, profiles. They use that for identification for potential victims or other authorities researching or investigating the crime, They want to identify that perpetrator absolutely correctly, no mistakes made. So they take a picture, the physical appearance of the man, so that no one who has a hand in this investigation, or no victim, no witness, can ever make a mistake. They make it very clear by the picture. Now that reminds me, in a limited way, that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all took pictures of one Jesus Christ, the Messiah. This view, this view, this view, and I'll just say, because there's four of them, that view too. So you're gonna look at the Gospels and see a complete picture, a whole picture, not just one view, of this man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you read the Gospel, you're gonna say, oh, and that accounts for why some Gospel writers have different things to say about the same incident, about the same event. They're giving a different viewpoint. It's a mugshot, if I can say it like that, for the Lord Jesus Christ. a mugshot. You get a complete identification about him. So every gospel writer, I take it like that. And that's what you find in the book of Matthew. A very Jewish book. Be careful when you read it. Believe what you read. It's true. But don't take things that's not yours. Right. That's called being a thief. Alright, so we'll go to Mark next time. And then the next time, we'll go all through John. I'm pretty excited about going through this like this because We just need to remember some of these things that we probably already know, but we need to remember them, otherwise we're gonna forget them. We need to be reminded. All right, let's pray. Father, I thank you for the word of God. I pray that you bless it through our minds and through our hearts. Thank you, Lord, for giving it to us, and thank you that we believe it, and we should believe what you say and what you've written. Lord, we don't want to get caught up in false doctrine. I apologize for doing a doctrine that, by the spite of man, We see that so much in this world. So many Christians are persuaded to believe false things. They get so disappointed. Christianity gets a bad name. You get a bad name. The church gets a bad name when people believe things wrongly and try to do things that's not for them to do. And I pray to help us to be straight in our doctrine. Help us, Lord, to be kind in our treatment of people. Help us, Lord, to walk this walk and live in this world honoring you. and being good neighbors. I pray to bless the church, bless Brother Caleb's church back in Alaska. Thank you for them being with us tonight. And we appreciate you letting us be other believers from all over the world. What a blessing it is to know other Christians.