Rightly dividing. There are certain principles for Bible study. You have to look at the ethnic contact, the application. You have to discriminate who's talking to who, who the spokesman is. All through time, God has spokesmans. In the Old Testament, Noah, let me class an example. He was a preacher of righteousness, the scripture said. So he preached for years that God is going to destroy this world with a flood. It hadn't rained before. So they said, well what's rain? What's a flood? And man's heart was so calloused towards the truth of the Word of God. Remember when Adam and Eve left the garden they spent 120, well they could have spent 100 years in the garden. We looked at the timeline. Fellowshipping with God they were completely innocent when they sinned they died spiritually, but they knew God I mean they were the original creation and their sons The first son killed the other son Just out of the garden so you can see how wicked man can become When he falls away from God, I mean there's no limit to what man can do you look at history some of the war some of the the persecutions that religion does to people because they don't believe what they want them to believe. Look at Islam today. If you lived in the Middle East and you were a Christian, I can't even imagine what that would be like, because you could give your life just to meet on a Sunday. If they catch you, you're done. And I take this country so much for granted at times, just the freedom and liberty that we have. to meet and to teach the Word of God. And you think of all the different religions today. I think of one religion. My sister lived in Toledo years ago, and we were going to go visit her. We got off of the interstate, and right at that exit, this giant billboard, it said, if you meet on Sunday, you have taken the mark of the beast, seventh day advanced. Now, I don't know if they push that as much as they used to, but that's, in my lifetime, that's only been 25, 30 years ago. They believe that we are all going to hell. Think about what that said. They preach the Sabbath. You must worship on the Sabbath. So as far as they're concerned, we're going to hell. Do they try to reach us with the truth? I've never had a Seventh-day Adventist knock on my door. If it's that important, they ought to be going door to door and telling people, man, you're wrong. You're going to hell unless you meet on Sabbath. Is that true? Well, there was a period of time where meeting on the Sabbath was true. Is that true today? No. How about the nation of Israel under the law? You keep the law. Well, let's turn to Deuteronomy chapter four. Let's go back to Deuteronomy. Rightly dividing is so important. Actually, it's chapter six. Look at verse 4, Here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. Thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. Thou shalt write them upon the post of thy house and on thy gates. Verse 12, then beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him and shalt swear by his name. You shall not go after other gods of the gods of the people which are around about you. the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you, lest the anger of the Lord and thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth. You shall not tempt the Lord your God, as you have tempted Him in Massa." So you can just get a glimpse of what the Law is going to do to the nation of Israel. Now look at verse 22, The Lord showed signs and wonders great and sore upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household before our eyes. And he brought us out from vents that he might bring us in to give us the land which he swore unto our fathers. And the Lord God commanded us to do all these statutes to fear the Lord our God for our good always that He might preserve us alive as it is at this day. And it shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God as He has commanded us." You see that? It shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments. law you earned God's righteousness by doing the commandments. If you strayed from the commandments you were under the wrath of God. Well today in the Church Age the law is given as a schoolmaster to show us that we cannot keep it. We've got an entire Old Testament showing Israel what a mess they were. Why? Because they were sinners just like we are. They could not keep the law. They why God planned to send His Son to pay the debt that we owe to the wages of sin and death. And when He completed that He said it is finished, He died, was buried, and rose again. The commandment that we have today as the priests of the Gospel to the entire world. He did not pick a certain group before the foundation of the world and neglect them to be saved and all the rest damned to hell. He said go into all the world and preach the Gospel. Whosoever believes shall be saved, whoever believes not shall not be saved. So our righteousness today is a gift of God. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. We have no righteousness of our own. Jews had no righteousness of their own. That whole Old Testament law foreshowed the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ the only righteous man that ever lived. So, you can see the difference between the Jew and the Church. Law and grace we just looked at that. Who Christ is. Christ came He was introduced as the King of Israel. They preached the Kingdom of Heaven. Here we go into the rightly divining. The Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God. Some people teach, most people teach they are the same thing. They were both here at the same time. They were both on this earth when the Lord Jesus Christ showed up. In fact go to Matthew chapter 3 and Keep your spot in Matthew 3 and go to 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy 2 is one loaded chapter. Starts off with Paul encouraging Timothy to endure hardness in verse 3 as a good soldier. He says, consider what I say. We are to follow the apostle Paul. He's the apostle of the church, apostle of the Gentiles. And we're going to look at that as we go through this. And the Lord give the understanding of all things. Consider what I say, Paul says. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. So when he says, consider what I say, I just put God in the eye because it's God's word. He's just using Paul to write it. He says, remember that Jesus Christ at the seat of David, see, a Jew, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, wherein I suffered trouble as an evildoer, even as unto bonds. But the word of God is not bound. Now remember the Jews were just as mad at Paul as they were at Christ. They crucified Christ and they wanted to kill Paul too. And then he says, I endure all things for the elect's sake. also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." Well that elect is Israel according to Isaiah and all throughout the New Testament. The elect is Israel. There are two elect the way I read the scripture. The Lord Jesus Christ is God's elect and And Israel was His chosen nation. He chose the nation of Israel to bring that seed into the world that He promised Abraham. Of course, we looked at that when we went through Galatians. That promised seed that God made, the promise to Abraham. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And through those three came the twelve tribes of Israel, and Israel is God's chosen nation. And then he says, we won't read it all, look at verse 13. If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself. Everything we have today is based on the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The faithfulness of God to fulfill all the promises he made. He said, he that is except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. When you're born again, when you become a child of God by faith in the finished work of Christ, you are born again, you are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. As you go through life, there's times your faith is up and down, there's times you wonder what's going to happen, you worry, you fear, God's not giving us the spirit of fear, but of love, and of power, and of sound mind. So our faithfulness, and some people, I mean, it knocks them out of the race at times. I speak from my own personal example. If God wasn't faithful I wouldn't be here today. The Lord says, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Israel just say, it shall be our righteousness if we keep God's Law. You stop keeping that Law you lose your righteousness. That's the way the Lord set up in that Old Testament. But now the righteousness we have is a gift of God. We live in a period of time, the Church Age, never been a time like it from in the beginning never been a time like it. where the gospel has been given, and when you realize what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us as sinners, how complete a perfect payment that he made at Calvary. And he keeps us, we are kept by the power of God through faith. He says, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. I've sealed you to the day of redemption. That's not true with Israel. We go back and we look at the gospels, you're gonna see things in there that is just contrary to what we believe today. And you have to rightly divide this. And I'll tell you what, it took me 46 years to get here, and I figure I'm about 2% on the level of knowledge that I need right now to teach this book. I don't feel competent to do this. I don't. I pray, Lord, you help me. You've shown me a lot of things. Please don't let me go off on a tangent and tell them what I think. Please exalt your word above everything I say. It's all about the word of God. Look at verse 15. He says, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Now, you know, we're a real unique church. We believe in one God, one faith, one Lord, one way, and we believe in one Bible. Boy, that eliminates you from 90, who knows, percent of churches today. I watch scholarship at times on YouTube. There's one guy, his name is James White. He wrote a book called The King James Only Controversy. And constantly through his book, as he criticizes this book and raises his elevation of knowledge in the original languages and how smart he is, He'll say periodically, the King James is a good translation, but he has no use for this book. The other day, I'm watching YouTube, I watch a lot of preaching and teaching. And you know, YouTube has this algorithm that what you watch, that's what they feed you. Well, I saw a video by James Whiteness's, How We Got Our Bible. I had to chuckle because there's not a Bible on the face of this earth that he can pick up and say, this is the Word of God. He doesn't believe that. I can pick this book up and say, this is the Word of God. I believe that. I believe that God's Word is so important to him that he said he would preserve it from this generation forever. All the versions that James pushes, that verse doesn't say that in his Bible. And since his scholarship is so superior to anything God could ever do, he says, that doesn't belong in the Bible. It should say this. Well, God said, I'll preserve my word. He also said God was manifest in the flesh. His version says not. God should not be in that verse. It should say he was manifest in the flesh. Well, he was manifest in the flesh, and he, and he, and he. What good is that? all about God, right? I mean He's the one that paid for our sin debt. God, the Word of God, the Lamb of God, God manifests in the flesh. There are three that bear record in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. That's one of my favorite verses in the Bible. Scholarship says that, it shouldn't be in the Bible. Where is this scholarship coming from? It's not from the Spirit of God, it can't be. Pray for these people. Pray that they'll really repent and see that God gave us a perfect book. He's a perfect Savior. The Word of God made flesh. He's a perfect, He's God. You think God could preserve His Word perfect in the English language? I believe He did. I think we all do. Boy, that irritates me. I get in the flesh a little bit when I start thinking stuff like this. But who would want to change God's Word? Yea, hath God said. Just put that question up there. Did he really say that or should that not be in the Bible? I smell a snake. It's not people. It's not people. They're not the enemy. And when it comes to rightly dividing, man, you've got every kind of idea in the world today as to what the truth is. You got people today that will tell you that was really big when I first got saved. If you don't speak in tongues, you don't have the Holy Spirit. That's proof that the Holy Spirit has come into you because they spoke in tongues when the Holy Spirit came in Acts chapter two. the tongues they spoke in were languages. They didn't just jibber-jabber, they spoke a language. Now, I don't know if the Apostles were speaking the languages and they heard them in their own language, or they were speaking Hebrew and all the people marveled that didn't understand Hebrew that they were hearing the message. I don't know, it was a miracle. It doesn't really say distinctly. But that was a miracle. Is it possible today? Yeah, I guess it is. If God needs to I mean, I went with Walt the other day. They go out and there's a bus that comes through and stops out in Evendale, Springdale, and they all speak Spanish. Yeah, I don't know any Spanish, but I would imagine if the situation was right and God had you one-on-one with somebody that didn't speak your language, you would be able to communicate with them. If God deemed it necessary. A Spanish track is a good way to communicate. still does things today. He still heals. He does all kinds of miracles today. It's a miracle that I'm here today. I mean just come right down to it. The miracle of the new birth, my goodness that's the greatest miracle on the face of this earth. When Christ was here, Matthew 3, that's where we were going, When he came on the scene, John the Baptist, spokesman, we talked about Noah being a spokesman. Then it was Moses, God picked Moses. He was a spokesman for Israel. Then Joshua after Moses. For a period of time it was the kings, especially King David. He was the greatest king that Israel had. And God made a covenant with King David that upon his throne always be a leader. Well, throughout the Old Testament the kingship ended, but there's coming a leader. The Lord Jesus Christ is the King of Israel. He's coming back and He's going to rule and reign from the throne of David just like the Old Testament prophesied about. It will happen. Now, when the Lord Jesus Christ first showed up John came before Him. He was God's spokesman at the time. It says, in those days, verse 3, John the Baptist, King John the Baptist, in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 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, and make his path straight." Now stop right there and let's go back to Isaiah 40. And we'll look at this prophecy that he just quoted. Isaiah 40, verse 1. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, and her iniquity is pardoned. For she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it." Look at verse 9. O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee unto the high mountain. O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength lifted up. Be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah, behold your God. Behold, the Lord God will come with a strong hand. and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with his arms and carry them in his bosom. He shall gently lead those that are with young. That is a direct reference of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the good shepherd. He was the Lord. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Notice how that spell, capital L-O-R-D, that is Jehovah himself. Behold, the Lord God will come with a strong hand. And the Lord Jesus Christ was introduced by John the Baptist. Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Now this was pretty shocking to most people. The ones that believed came forward and got baptized. Now remember, all through the Old Testament, there was always a remnant of Israel that believed God. And there was always a remnant of Israel that didn't believe God. And when you died in the Old Testament, I guess if you didn't believe God, you went to hell. If you believe God, you went to paradise, waiting for the Redeemer, waiting for the Messiah to come. And God gave John a certain amount of discernment. Look at Matthew 3, verse 4. same John had his raiment of camel's hair and a leather girdle about his loins, and his meat was locust and wild honey." He would leave an impression on somebody, wouldn't he? You see a guy like this? He was impressive. And they went out to him, Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region round about Jordan, and they were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. And And when he saw many of the scribes, or the Pharisees and the Sadducees come unto his baptism, he said unto them, hello brethren, I'm good to see you. No, he said, oh you generation of vipers, who have warned you to flee from the wrath that come? Bring forth therefore fruits, meet for repentance. John did not have that casual attitude when it came to false believers, did he? These were the religious people of the day. They came out to see what was going on. gave John the discernment to know that their heart was evil, rotten. They had nothing to do with the Lord Jesus Christ and they proved it because they were the ones that three and a half years later convinced the vast majority of Israel to go against Christ and crucify Him. So, he pointed them out right off the bat. So, that set a boundary. I mean John set the boundary right there, you're on God's side repent and be baptized, the Messiah is coming, here He is the King is here, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. And then they question Him. Look at verse 11. He says, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. There's three baptisms in one verse right there. One is water. He says, I baptize you with water under repentance, but he that comes after me shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. There's two and three. Now look at what these are. Whose fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly purge his floor. Now what he's talking about is gathering weed into the garner. They would, fresh wheat, they'd throw it up in the air and a breeze would blow the chaff off to the side and the weed they would gather into the garner. That's a picture of those that believe God. He's going to gather them and put them into his paradise, gather his people. And he said, look what he says, whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. you've got the baptism of water that John preached, repentance. You've got the baptism of the Holy Ghost which will come in the future. And the baptism of fire which will come in the future. The Holy Ghost will put you in Christ. The baptism of fire will put you in Hell. And he explains it right there in verse 12. Now there are people that don't believe that. Well, it is written. Now when the Lord Jesus Christ shows up and Jesus is led into the wilderness and tempted by the devil in chapter 4, and after 40 days he comes out of the wilderness. In verse 12 of chapter 4, now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee. So some time has passed now, John has been preaching repentance and finally that Herod, he preached that Herod shouldn't be living with his brother's wife, so Herod locked him into jail. And John was so convinced that the kingdom was coming that after a while, spending time in jail, he sent people to, Jesus said, are you the one that we're to look for? Or should we wait for another? Because I'm preaching the kingdom and the kingdom is when you take over and you set up your kingdom and Israel is in the land and all the nations are under you and you're ruling from the throne of David. I'm in jail. This doesn't look like a kingdom message to me. Are you the real one? I mean, he was doubting. You ever doubt? You ever have any doubts? God is faithful. After leaving Nazareth, verse 13, he came and dwelt at Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast on the border of Zebulun and Nephilim, that it might be fulfilled another prophecy being fulfilled that was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, The land of Zebulun and the land of Nephilim, by the way of the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, Now He came to His own, He came to the Jews, but the Gentiles are mentioned here. The people which sat in darkness saw great light, and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death is sprung up. From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So now the Lord Jesus Christ is preaching the kingdom. Now did He come to set up His kingdom? No. He came to die for the sins of the world. That's the whole purpose for His birth, sinless life, was to die for the sins of the world. He was the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. he did is he came to present the Kingdom that the entire Old Testament talked about. We looked at some of those verses last week in Isaiah where the lion and the lamb will lie down together, the child will play by the den of a snake and it won't bother them. There will be perfect peace, they'll beat their weapons into plowshares and there will be world peace and the King will reign from the throne on Jerusalem. And that is going to happen. And that's what John the Baptist was introducing and that's what Christ was telling the here I am the King is here. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. God knew that Israel would reject Him as a whole. He's God. He knows the end from the beginning. Nothing ever sneaks up on God. He knew this was going to happen. But what He did is He came to present the Kingdom. He's God in the flesh. So, the Kingdom of God was here. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. They're different. They are different. And when he was here he was preaching the kingdom. And he was exposing the Pharisees and the scribes and the unbelievers for their unbelief. They refused to believe him. And eventually they crucified him. Now the whole message was what Christ was here was who he is. He's the son of God. He's the king of Israel. Believe who he is. He came to his own. about it, after the resurrection, the Apostles, through the book of Acts, the early part of the book of Acts, they preached who Christ was. He was the Messiah, the King of Israel. He came and you crucified Him, you murdered Him, but God raised Him from the dead. And if you'll repent and be baptized, God will save you. Still talking to Israel. Who He is. Well, as time progresses, as you go through Acts, finally gets sent to the Gentiles. And we've looked at that, how God had to show Peter all these visions about eating unclean things. Peter didn't know it. The Apostles didn't know it. But Christ had opened the door for whosoever will. He just hadn't revealed it yet. Remember this is a timeline. We're going back to 0 AD when Christ was born, down through time. All of this is happening before Christ dies, you know, his lifetime, right after he dies, we're getting into the book of Acts, and we're going to try to lay this all out in the future and rightly divide it and see how this is happening. And remember, for three and a half years, he told the apostles, do not go to the Gentiles. Go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach the King is here, the kingdom of heaven's at hand. He knew that they were going to reject Him. He knew He was going to die for the sins of the world. He's God. He knows everything that's going to happen. But He had the Apostles doing what He told them to do. Don't go to the Gentiles, just go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel because you're my chosen people and preach the kingdom that's at hand. the death, burial, and resurrection, the apostles are still going to nobody but the Israelites for like what six, seven chapters, eight chapters? They don't go to anybody but to the Jews. And finally God had to forcibly show Peter, look Pete, just go, don't doubt anything, just go with these Gentiles that I'm sending to your front door. I got a guy up in wherever Cornelius was, I want you to give him the gospel. I want you to tell him what I've done. So Peter, finally, he goes and he says, I perceive God's no respecter of persons. So you see how things are changing from Israel only. Now we're going to the Gentiles. And Peter preaches to the Gentiles. And before he gets to repent, be baptized, the Holy Spirit falls on the Gentiles. Well, how did they know that? Because they heard them speak in tongues, probably Hebrew and magnify God. And Peter says, well, I perceive God's in every spirit or persons. Whoever believes on Him, the Holy Spirit comes on them. early in the book of Acts repent and be baptized you'll get the Holy Spirit. Now the Holy Spirit falls on these Gentiles before water baptism and then they get baptized. And then two chapters later the Apostle Paul who was Saul of Tarsus the greatest enemy Israel had ever seen when it comes to the Church, the new believers. He was going house to house taking families, breaking them apart, torturing people, killing them for the cause of Christ. And God saves this man and and makes him the apostle to the Gentiles. So you can see how things are changing. And you can't go back to Matthew and get New Testament doctrine for today. You have to understand where we're at in the timeline and who is our apostle, who is our spokesman? It's the apostle Paul, he is the apostle of the Gentiles. My watch broke this morning. Turn to Romans 15. We'll try to go into some more details in the future, but just to kind of lay the groundwork. And look at Romans 11 on the way by to 15. Romans 11 verse 13. Now here was the greatest enemy that Israel, the church I should say, the young church, which was made up of Jews, ever saw of Tarsus. I mean this guy made the Inquisition look like kindergarten. Look what he says here. For I speak to you Gentiles, that's Romans 11, 13, and as much as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify my office. Now turn to Romans 15. Remember, Jesus Christ came unto his own, and his own received him not. That's about as far as we got in the Gospel of John. He came to his own. That was Israel. Look at verse 8. Now, this is Paul writing God's Word through the Apostle Paul. He says, Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision. the Jews for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. Keep your spot there and go back to Matthew chapter 10. The Lord Jesus Christ lists all His Apostles who He's called in the first four verses, and in verse four it says, and Simon the Canaanite, that was number 11, and Judas Iscariot who also betrayed Him, that was number 12. 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, 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. The king is here, he's ready to set up the kingdom if you will accept him. And he knew ahead of time they were gonna reject him. The apostles didn't know that. So for three and a half years, they're preaching the king is here and he's gonna set up his kingdom and they crucified him. During his lifetime, they were preaching who Christ was. The king is here, the Messiah, the promised Messiah of the Old Testament. Afterwards they preached who he was. He came and you crucified him, but God raised him from the dead. Paul gets saved. He goes from beyond just preaching who Christ is because now he's going to the entire world, especially the Gentiles, and he's preaching what Christ has done. The apostles up to this point had no idea what the death, burial, and resurrection was. Well, we're in chapter 15, look at verse eight. He says, now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision, was a minister of the Jews for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. Remember the promises made to the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? I'm gonna make you a great nation and I'm gonna give you a land and whosoever, you're going to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth, that was the Lord Jesus Christ, and I'm going to give you this land from the Nile River all the way to the River Euphrates, a huge piece of land, not what they have today. But it was all based on land and a king that would come all through that Old Testament prophesied a king coming, and the Lord Jesus Christ shows up, the king is here, blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord, blessed be the king of Israel. That's what they said on the day of what we call Palm Sunday. Three days later they were crucifying Him. But He was the King that was coming. But now, look what Paul says in verse 16. He said that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ. Gentiles. See Jesus went to the circumcision to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. You're going to get this land that's one of the promises. But now that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles ministering the Gospel of God and offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable and sanctified by the Holy Ghost. So, Paul is a minister to the Gentiles for Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was a minister to the circumcision to the Jews. What time does anybody have? I didn't know if that's right or not. 1041. 1041. OK, I've got a few minutes. I just lost my train of thought. They derail quite often at this age. Promise made to the fathers. Isn't that something? But anyway, the gospel that we preach today is not the gospel of the kingdom. Nobody preaches the gospel of the kingdom today. The gospel that saves today is that you're all sinners, you're born under sin, you sin by nature, by choice, by birth, and that God became a man, lived a perfect, sinless life. He said, I've come not to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law. The law demanded perfect righteousness. could do it. So, God became a man. God manifested in the flesh, lived that perfect sinless life. The wages of sin is death. The Old Testament was all animal sacrifices. There's only one death that could pay for the sins of the world, and that would be a man's death. Because by one man came sin, by one man also came the salvation of the world. The first Adam, the last Adam. Not the second Adam, the last Adam. There's only two. The original creation, who sinned and disobeyed God, sin passed upon all men for that all have sinned. Lord Jesus Christ, the last Adam, who had to become a man in order to pay that debt. And he had to be God in order to be qualified to pay it because man, everyone that was ever born were all sinners. So, God became a man. What a mystery. That's one of the mysteries that was revealed to Paul. We'll end with this. Look at Acts chapter 1. I remember for three and a half years, they preached the kingdom is at hand, the king is here. Jesus told them, he says, I'm gonna be turned over to the Gentiles, they're gonna crucify me, and I'm gonna raise again the third day. And even Peter said, not so, Lord, we're not gonna let that happen to you. You're the king, you're here. Get thee behind me, Satan. They had no idea what was gonna take place in the future. When they killed Christ, he said, three days and three nights, I'm coming out of the tomb, weren't at the tomb waiting for him. They were hidden in the upper room totally discouraged. Their king is dead. The king that came to set up the kingdom, he's dead. The two on the road to Emmaus, what a classic example. They're walking along man it looked like they had been sucking on persimmons. They're so down on the heart and the Lord just joins up with them and He kind of hides His identity. How come you're so sad? Well don't you know, Luke 24 He says, thought it was He that was going to restore Israel. We thought it was Him that was going to set up the Kingdom and put us where He promised in the Old Testament and rule and reign from the throne of David. Now He's dead, it's been three days. And the Lord opened unto them the Scriptures. Man, what a Bible study that was. That whole Old Testament He gave them the revelation of who He was. And they headed back to Jerusalem to tell them that they saw the Messiah and the Thomas says, I ain't believing nothing unless I see him. I actually touch him. I'm not going to believe it. For three and a half years, he told them he was going to be crucified, died, and rise again. I think it was a combination of God hiding it from them and them not believing the scriptures. Because when he came out of the tomb, he rebuked those two on the road to Emmaus for not believing all that was written. It's all through that Old Testament what's going to happen. They didn't believe it. also says that if the princes of this earth would have known what Christ was going to do they wouldn't have crucified Him. So, it might be a combination of both. A little bit of God kind of hiding it from them, and them not believing it because their King is here, He's ready for the Kingdom. So, Acts chapter 1, we're going to stop with this. Verse 3, to whom he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them 40 days, and speaking of things pertaining to the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of heaven. And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, you have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. Now we're gonna look at that, we looked at it a couple weeks ago where he promised the Holy Spirit when the Spirit has come he'll lead you and guide you in all truth. He says you'll be baptized not many days hence of the Holy Ghost. Now he's teaching them things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Now look at the only question they ask him during this time. When they therefore were come together they asked of him saying, Lord, at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" For three and a half years they've been preaching the kingdom. The king is here. God's going to set up His kingdom. They've crucified Him. out of the tomb. They finally realized He is alive. They walked with Him for 40 days. He was seen to them many infallible proofs. I mean things, and He's teaching them about the Kingdom of God. As far as the Apostles are concerned they're thinking are you going to set up the Kingdom of God now? And as He finishes talking off He goes. Just picture being there. The Lord Jesus Christ, after all you've been through for three and a half years, seeing the unbelief and all the miracles, and now they crucify him. What was that like to go through that? Peter's denied him. I mean, they scattered. He's come out of the tomb. The joy is so great now that he's alive and walking with him. And after he explains these things, he ascends into heaven. Two angels stand there and say, why are you gazing into the heaven? Boy, did you see what just happened? What do you mean, why are we gazing into the heaven? He said, well, the same Jesus is going to come again in like manner. They're still thinking kingdom. They're looking for him to come right back. He just left. They're looking for him to come right back. They have no idea that Saul of Tarsus, who's their greatest enemy right now, is going to become an apostle to the Gentiles. And remember, we're going through a timeline. It's not happening day after day. This is a timeline. This is over years. And when they died, they were still looking for him to come back. Guess what? Paul was looking for him to come back. Paul was revealed the mystery of the rapture of the church, the mystery of the regathering of Israel into the promised land that's gonna happen in the future. He was given the mystery of godliness. Remember when he was sound asleep in a boat in that storm, the boats filled with water and they woke him up. I mean, this thing is, they're ready to go under. He says, oh, you have little faith. Peace be still. They looked at each other and said, what manner of man is this, that even the winds and the seas obey him? At that time, they didn't fully understand that the Lord Jesus Christ was God Almighty. And when Paul got that mystery of godliness and wrote that in there, God manifest in the flesh. I mean, the knowledge just began to increase and to increase and increase. And as Paul gets saved and starts writing New Testament doctrine, I mean, the church just began to, what they didn't know at the time, all this knowledge is just being given to them over a period of time. And things have really changed from year zero when the king showed up to now when the king is glory and he's coming again. And we're all looking for him to come back. So little by little, we're gonna try to get through this and rightly divide, especially some of the scriptures you see for, for example, going to all the world, preach the gospel. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall not be saved. That's a great question that Provided the way into the kingdom of God because you couldn't get in until the debt was paid for and Well, that's a good question. The Kingdom of Heaven is a literal, physical kingdom that will be with Him on the throne on this earth and Israel in their land and Him ruling and reigning on this earth for a thousand years. It will probably be like Eden during this period of time. But the Kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom. They were both present at the time. In fact, the Pharisees asked about the Kingdom of God. He said, well, the Kingdom of God is within you. It doesn't come with observation. You can't see it. Jesus, Alpha and Omega, King of kings, Lord of lords. Amen. Jesus, Alpha and Omega, King of kings, Lord of lords, beginning and end. And in the middle, Jesus, King of kings, Lord of lords. So, he was a king throughout. He has always been. Always. Amen. So when he was here on earth, he was a king of a kingdom, of his kingdom, whether it be the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God. And he's still king today in heaven, yeah. In either kingdom, he's king. Right. So, well, except a man be born again, that's that spiritual birth. That's within you. Let's, we're running a little late. Let's look at Romans. We'll stop with this. I think it's Romans 14. It's almost like a dictionary description of the kingdom of God. Verse 17, 14, 17 Romans. It says, for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, it's not physical, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. What a description. Comes not with observation. So there's always been a kingdom of God. I mean, people believed God in the past. Well, let's pray, and we'll get into this next week. Father, we thank you, Lord. I pray that you bless this upcoming service, Lord. Bless Brother Bob. Give him the words to preach, and God, speak to our hearts, and thank you for your word. Lord, I ask all these things now in Jesus' name, amen.