Extending the Sunday school time when we get back into one service in the morning and then the Sunday school hour. Continue to pray. This week is the week where they'll be supposedly issuing the permit for our build and we'll be able to begin building. As you see, some of the equipment is already beginning to arrive, and they are planning to start that right after the new year. We've had a couple meetings just this past week, and they went really well. A recent meeting with the bank went really well, and they've given us some good numbers, some good focusing points. So anyway, things are going really well in that aspect. Continue to pray. We gave some updates concerning that last Sunday night after the evening service. But just letting you know, keep praying if you would. Nothing is uncertain with the township until we have papers in hand. Not making a negative statement, just saying so many things are up in the air until you get papers in hand. I did put out there, I'm encouraging you to begin to consider now what you'll be studying in God's Word coming up in the coming year. And one of the things that I encourage you to possibly consider is doing a study of the life of David. And you could go through like 1st and 2nd Samuel, reading the life of David. There's other passages as well, but you get a good overview of his life and reading 1st and 2nd Samuel. And then maybe then going back and reading it and putting the Psalms in or doing the Psalms separately. And I have two sheets out there. We had some of these already and a number of people have taken them, but these are the Psalms and when they are thought to be written during the life of David. And again, this one, I think this one would be a little more accurate, but this one's good as well. It's gonna tell you the various Psalms, and then it's gonna, there's an increased number of Psalms. The Psalm numbers are in yellow on this sheet. I apologize it's smaller, but Christie and Pastor Seth had to do that to make it more clear. But you can read when this psalm was written and have an idea of where he was. He was a king of Judah during that time, or he was a king of the whole nation of Israel, or he was young during that period of time. Some of them are written during the transition. So these are out there on the Welcome Center. You're more than welcome to take one of these. and use it as a study guide. Again, it could take you a couple months to go through this, especially if you go through and study all the Psalms. I enjoy studying the Psalms, knowing the backgrounds, knowing what is going on in the life of David. I think it gives more meaning to the Psalm itself. Last week, I talked about the synagogues and how important they were in the ministry of the gospel, in the life of Christ, and then into the church age. as the apostles were using the synagogues as well, and even Gentiles were saying, will you come back to the synagogue next week and teach us also? And so it wasn't just a Jewish place of knowing the scriptures, it was also for the Gentiles. I am putting together a more in-depth study of that in case some people would like to, some people really enjoyed that information on the synagogue. I'm putting together a more in-depth study on the synagogues that you could go through and use it kind of like a devotional as well. And so I'm trying to give some resources into your hands. And this is one to do the study of the life of David. I'll do one on synagogues. I'll do some others throughout the year. You might want to read also through the Bible in a chronological order. You can buy chronological Bibles. Rhys is one of the most popular and most conservative of those writers. And you're going to find Job all the way up there in the beginning, because when it transpired, and that might throw you off a little bit, because you're used to Job being, you know, half, almost halfway through the Old Testament. But there is a great chronological Bibles like Reese you can purchase. But also Christie I believe it was printed out some read through the Bible charts that is you take your own Bible and just flip to the passages and it will take you to read through the Bible in a chronological order. Again some of that's a little bit subjective You're going to look at two or three of them and none of them are going to be identical to one another. It's a little subjective of exactly when things happen, but sometimes it gives you a lot more understanding when you put things into a chronological order. It's going to have the prophets prophesying during the day of Esther or Ezra or Nehemiah and so forth. And so really interesting, again, another, maybe next year you'd like to read through the Bible in that order, and we'll make that available for you. I believe that's out there on the sheet, or excuse me, on the Welcome Center as well. We've been spending a couple of weeks looking into the world into which Christ came. In the fullness of time, God sent forth his son made of a virgin and to redeem them that are under the law, so forth. The time in which Christ came is very interesting. I'm going through this because I think sometimes we would believe that when I mention scribes, I know what the scribes are, but the scribes changed. during the 400 years of silence between the Old and the New Testaments. There was a new group of people, the Pharisees. They were not ever mentioned in the Old Testament. They popped up, began to come to a position during that intertestamental period. There's Sadducees. And so there's a number of people that we're a little bit unfamiliar with. And so we're going to spend a little bit of time looking at that again today. I printed them back on the sheet. They were at the back of last week's sheet. Maybe you weren't here, you didn't get it. I have it there for you today because we're gonna get to that, I think, actually today. Now, this past week was what? Anybody know? Happy, what would they say? Happy? Happy Hanukkah. Is that the Jewish way of saying Merry Christmas? Becky, you say no. I won't put Becky on the spot. So what is Hanukkah? Can somebody give me a little bit of a description of a history of Hanukkah? It is going to happen. This is actually going to start during the intertestamental period of time. So I thought, ah, the two worlds are colliding. I might as well collide with them. So this is why sometimes my series get longer, but I'm hoping not to put a lot of time here. What's Hanukkah? What was happening? Just somebody, anybody brief history of what is? Okay, celebration of light, correct. It would be called the dedication of lights or the celebration of lights, the feast of dedication. Someone else? Brother Richard. Okay. And it lasted. How many days did it last? Eight days, eight days. This is a feast of dedication. It would be an eight day feast. They would have a vial of oil for all eight days typically, but there was only one vial of oil. And so as they poured it in to the menorah, the lamp stand, it ended up burning for the entirety of the eight days. And so it was a celebration then of the Lord preserving, just kind of like with the Old Testament stories and all, when the Lord preserves something far beyond its time. What is happening in the world that needed this to happen? Well, you have a guy named Antiochus Epiphanes. He declared himself the Messiah. for Israel, and he wanted to come in. It was at the end of the Grecian rule, so we're around 167, 170 something in that period of time. And there's going to be the Assyrians and the Egyptians. And so he is going to come in and wage war. He is also then going to come into the temple in Jerusalem. What's he got? Anybody know or remember one of the things that he did in the temple of Jerusalem? Becky? Yeah, he offered a pig that which was unclean for a Jewish person, offered it upon the altar, then took the blood of that pig and spread it upon the altars that were outside of the temple. He also took people captive. He sold slaves. He killed some. I think he killed 40,000, sold 40,000 more slaves. And so he defiled the temple. And so there's going to be a man named Maccabees, he's going to lead the Maccabean revolt or rebellion to kind of free Israel from the tyranny of this man. He is going to actually give them freedom from about 163 to, I remember in the 60s, 67 BC, I believe it was. So around a hundred years, he is going to allow the Jewish people to enjoy some freedom. And so they're going to begin to celebrate. Now that also means cooking with oil. Potato cakes became really popular. Jelly doughnuts. Some of you, that's your fancy, that they are really popular during the time of this feast of dedication that takes place. So when you hear somebody say, Happy Hanukkah, they are not saying Merry Christmas. And it ended on this past Friday, the 15th. And the dates are slightly different every year because they go according to the Jewish calendar and not the Gregorian calendar. They're gonna go along with the Jewish calendar. And so those dates will slightly change. So Israel had been about 250 years of captivity during those silent years. And then they had some freedom then after the revolt that was led. And anyway, and that's what they are celebrating. You're gonna hear about the diaspora. I'm just gonna mention this briefly. I don't know if there's any information that on your sheet. That was the scattering of the Jewish people. Jewish people have been used to being in the wilderness, but not often by themselves. And they would be scattered, they would be scattered repeatedly. So you might read in some books about the diaspora that is merely talking about the scattering of the Jews that has taken place. And so you're gonna read about that throughout various history. Would you turn in your Bibles to Matthew 23? I'm gonna make mention of several different religious groups. Now I think we would all agree there's a difference between religion and spirituality correct Religion is an adherence to I don't want to say it Liturgical things, I don't know. I don't want to put it that way What's that? Tradition. You could do. I wanted to say religion is an adherence to religious practices, but that's kind of cheating. But doing that which religion presents. Spirituality is giving obedience and to the working of the spirit in your life. I'm going to say the world into which Christ came. was not spiritual, but they were religious. There was a lot of wrong things happening, but a lot of them were still strongly trying to adhere to the law. and would hold men to the standard of the law. Of course, then adding their own standards as well. So one of the things that we're going to find as we get into the New Testament is they're going to be establishing their own standard. One great place to find that is Mark chapter seven. You might want to jot that down. Another good place to understand it is going to be found in Matthew 23 that we'll look at in just a minute. Now the Old Testament had priests, the New Testament had priests as well, but the priests were different. The priests in the New Testament were more political figures than they were religious figures. They actually were political figures on behalf of Rome and kind of became go-betweens. A priest was always a go-between. represent man before God and God before man. Now they would represent the Romans before the Jews in some of their positions of leadership as a priest. So as you read about priests, you're gonna find the Lord rebuking them frequently because of their misguided and wrong emphasis as priests in the New Testament. You're also going to have scribes. We'll talk about this briefly at this point. Scribes were, many of them became part of the Pharisees that rose up during the intertestamental period of time. The Lord's 33 times, I believe, speaks to the scribes and Pharisees together. And as you're reading through the scriptures, you're gonna find that many of the scribes were Pharisees by nature. Now, what did that mean? They're going to believe in a strong observance to the law, but again, they're going to add a lot of their own traditional beliefs as well. And the Lord is going to rebuke them frequently. The scribes, instead of just merely being copyists of the word, also they would be interpreters of the word. It helps somebody to understand the word, the Old Testament law. and what it meant and how it would be interpreted in this situation or that situation. They are now going to mix in a lot of their own laws and their own traditions. The word that Becky brought up, they're gonna use their own traditions and they're actually gonna become like lawyers. Like you think of someone practicing law today, a scribe was going to more emphasize the idea of interpreting the law and especially their traditions more than the preserving of the Old Testament. Now, who did Eric go to? Well, in part he went to the scribes because they still had an alliance and an obedience. They still had a concern regarding the Old Testament and especially the law. But I do want you to understand they greatly changed. I think Scroggie was the best in describing some of the changes that took place in these religious groups during the intertestamental period of time. Look here if you would with me in Matthew 23. And this is one of the Lord's addresses to the scribes and the Pharisees. And I don't know how far I'll go, but I think you'll understand what they were like by a little bit of this reading. Then spake Jesus to the multitude and to his disciples. So notice the crowd to whom he is speaking. There's a multitude of people gathering and also his disciples saying, the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. "'All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, "'that observe and do.'" So he's saying, when talking of the law and their position of sitting in Moses' seat, he says, I'm not telling you, don't listen to them. No, you ought to be still in observance to the law unto which they are given. "'But do not ye after their works, "'for they say and do not.'" This is why the Lord would commonly refer to them as being hypocrites. For they bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be born, and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. So they're not going to observe this law, but they are going to get others to observe their traditions. But all their works they do for to be seen of men, They make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments. What is that speaking of? Okay, you have the various of putting of the law and they would, actually Karen and I, where were we? Way up high, Masada, yeah. We were at Masada and a Jewish gentleman came in with his family and he began to put on the phylacteries and it was the time of day and he would go and he found a quiet place to worship and pray. And his family would gather around in silence. And so in this, this is some of the forms of the word that they would observe here, making broad their phylacteries, making them enlarged so other people would see what they are doing and the borders of their garments. And they love the uppermost rooms at feast and the chief seats in the synagogues, they're gonna be the ones there again to be seen. the greeting in the markets and be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi, loving to hear people calling them out. And he says, but be not ye called Rabbi, for one is your master, even Christ. and all ye are brethren. And he goes on and he just, again, is going to begin to reveal what is really going on and how they are doing things to be seen, how they themselves are not observing their own traditions. And this is repeatedly spoken of by the Lord in the book of Matthew, talks about in chapter 16, talks about in chapter 21, other passages as well. In Matthew 5 it says, For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. I put that in there as a reference to myself to recognize that they are trying to live very righteous lives according to the law. But what is happening is they're going to reject Jesus Christ and being the Messiah. So I wanna transition right into the Pharisees. You have some information there on the Pharisees. I'm not gonna read through that. They really became known as traditionalists. In fact, if you would turn with me to Mark chapter seven, Matthew, Mark chapter seven. Then came together unto him the Pharisees and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem. And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashing hands, they found fault. And the Pharisees and all the Jews, except for the Pharisees and all the Jews, except they washed their hands off, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. So they would frequently be washing of their hands. They would probably have some of that germicide that we now have, probably on their side with a little squirt bottle or something and carrying that around. And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not, and many other things there be, which they have received to hold as the washing of cups and pots and brazen vessels, and of tables. Then the Pharisees and scribes ask him, why walk not the disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashing hands? And they go into this. I found this really interesting. It was with my personal reading of the book of Matthew the last two weeks. I found it interesting because they would often ask the Lord, why are your disciples doing that? Then ask the disciples, why is the Lord doing that? They wouldn't go directly to the source. They would go to someone else. Do you do that in your life? Maybe there could be some deep applications there. I'll leave it alone. I'm not preaching. I'm just teaching. But they would go to the Lord and ask, why are your disciples doing that? And then later go to the disciples and ask, why is your Lord doing that? But in this situation or this case, they would go to the Lord. And again, what the Lord is going to accuse them of is holding their traditions above. He does that in verses, I believe, 6 to 13. And where they're making, look at his final A comment regarding that verse 13, making the word of God of none effect through your traditions, which ye have delivered and many such like things do ye. And so he is making this accusation against them. You've made the scriptures of none effect because of all your traditions. and you're emphasizing your traditions over the law. And so you're gonna begin to notice one of the mindset or the heart of these Pharisees. So they're very traditional. They are keeping a strict observance of the law, but adding to that many other traditions that they are watching over people to make sure they observe. And again, very often, They are not doing those things they themselves. So we go from the Pharisees to the Sadducees. Now they are Sadducee. This is an old joke. There's three things they don't believe in and I put that I believe at the end. They have denied the resurrection, and that's according to Matthew and some other passages. They've rejected the immortality of the soul and also the existence of spirits. Those are three things they're going to deny. They were not religious as they were political. They're actually more of a political group than a religious group. And as a political group, they were not nearly as strict as the Pharisees. They were not trying to hold up the law. Again, that's not the life they were living. They would only agree with the Pharisees when it came to having a common enemy, which was the Lord. and the Lord would have to rebuke them. Otherwise, they were always at odds with the Pharisees. Read through the scriptures, read through some other books, you'll understand that better. So when you read about the Sadducees, you're not really reading about a religious group of people, you're reading about a political group of people and their allegiance to Rome, but they also had these beliefs. They didn't believe in the resurrection. They didn't believe in the immortality of the soul. and they didn't believe in the existence of spirits. And so they rejected those and the Lord would often rebuke them along with the Pharisees as well. Then you have the publicans. What's a publican? They were a what? Tax collector. Why were they considered sinners? Aren't all tax collectors sinners? Oh no, that wasn't the point. Why? Why were they considered such sinners? Yeah, what they were taught, corruption was a short word answer by Anthony. Pastor Terry said they exacted more than they needed to and what they would often do, anything they could get above the tax was theirs to keep. And so they would actually go out and try to get someone to pay more than what their taxes, which were due. And then they were able to, they would keep that which was given in excess. It only returned to the government of Rome, that which the government of Rome was requiring. And so they were known as the sinners and they were known as people that they didn't think that God should be in the midst of them. He would often be in the midst of publicans and sinners. The scriptures was talking about, who did he call who was a publican? Matthew also called Levi. And when these men would get right with the Lord, many of them would try to in some way pay people back for that which they have taken from them. I have no idea what that looked like because they basically were taking from everyone. But I did hear read writings in which many of them, when they got under conviction, became children of the Lord, would try to pay back maybe to them that they extorted the most amount from. I am not exactly sure. Then you have the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin is a group of 70 men that would sit in judgment. They were elders, which I don't know that I really elongated on the elders in this section. I don't believe I did at all. Turn, if you would, in the book of Acts. Go to Acts chapter 26 with me a second. But they presided over the high priest, consisted of chief priests, the orders of Abiah. There are 24 priestly courses. And these men would serve. They were represented by, I have in there the notes, scribes, elders, and represented the laity. They are thought to be possibly an extension of the 70 elders or the 70 men that ruled along with Moses. And they were held on to and continued to serve in that sense, just like the elders with Moses did. Paul would call himself what? What group did he fit into? Okay. You can learn that from the book of Philippians. We won't turn there. Philippians chapter three. He said he was a Hebrew of Hebrews and is touching the law, a Pharisee. What did that mean? Well, it meant that he was doing everything to live in the most righteous life that he could according to the law. And in fact, look here in Acts chapter 26, his testimony, the words of his testimony in verse number five, which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify that after the most straightest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee. And so he said, I was living a very pharisaical life. I guess you could say it that way. He had a zeal, but not according to righteousness that he would testify later of his own brethren in the book of Romans, Romans nine and 10, beginning of both of those chapters, he talks about the great burden he has for his own people. And he said they had a zeal, but not according to knowledge. And Paul was one of those men that lived that type of a lifestyle. I believe that's why he was so burdened for those people. So Paul, in that straight, he lived in the straightest of those sects. And he was one of the Pharisees, which was working with a close observance to the law. Now, if you would turn with me to the book of Matthew, and let's go to Matthew chapter 12. I'm gonna refer to a couple other passages. All of these groups that I've just mentioned, the Lord rebuked. and rebuked them because they were holding on to a strict sense of religion. For most of them, not true of the Sadducees, they would hold on to a strict sense of religion, but they would not be spiritual at all. Again, they're not being led of the spirit. They're not truly living under the, they were living under the letter of the law, not the spirit of the law. And the Lord is going to present to them grace and truth, which came by Jesus Christ. God who at sundry times, it says in the book of Hebrews, in sundry times and diverse manners spake in time 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. And it goes on there in Hebrews chapter one. So there's this period of time has come in where now Christ is speaking and he is trying to impact their lives. by grace and truth being presented to them. Let's just kind of unearth a little bit more about these people groups. The Pharisees would often come to him tempting him. They're trying to present to him something in the law and then show how, trying to expose how he would answer that. So they're trying to show how he would not keep his own law or keep the law of the Old Testament. And I want you to pick it up here in Matthew chapter 12, verse number one, right from the beginning. And at that time, Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the corn and his disciples were in hunger and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Why do thy disciples," now again, do you see what they're doing here? Why do thy disciples, they didn't go to the disciples and ask, why are you doing this? He's going to the Lord, trying to find something against him. Why do thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath day? Just real quick, I don't know what made me think of it while reading there, but the disciples of John the Baptist also began to become somewhat fairer sake all at times. Sometimes they would actually join together with the scribes or even the Pharisees and begin to question the Lord. I think they really struggled at one point because of the ministry of Christ. Just something to note, you might notice it in your reading, that at times they went together. I forget, there's a passage, the scripture mentions how they went together, but I forget the passage at this time. And why do thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day? But he said unto them, verse number three, again, I'm in Matthew chapter 12, have you not read what David did when he was an hungered and they that were with him, how they entered into the house of God and they did eat the showbread, which was not lawful for them to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for priests. Or have you not read in the law how that on the Sabbath days the priest and the temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless? Now how did the priest profane the Sabbath? Anybody know? Becky? Yeah, basically their ministry is labor, and they would be laboring on the Sabbath. I have one verse here of number, but in Numbers chapter 28, and on the Sabbath day, two lambs of the first year without spot and two tenths deals of flour for meat offering mingled with oil and so forth, drink offering. It goes on to say, on the Sabbath day, they were still doing these things. So the Lord is saying, well, wait a second, weren't the priests defiling the Sabbath? They were working on the Sabbath. And so the Lord is coming back using the law and using Old Testament. He said, didn't you read about David? When they were hungered and they went into the house of God, it says there, and they ate from the table of showbread. They weren't to eat of that. Only the priests would eat from that. And then what about the priests? Don't they work on the Sabbath day? Haven't you read your own Old Testament? Verse number eight, I'll pick it up there. For the son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day. And when he was departed thence, he went into their synagogue and behold, there was a man there which had a withered hand and they asked him saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days? That they might, now look at that, the reason why they're asking that, they might accuse him. And so he's gonna go on and say, well, aren't you to do good on the Sabbath? I mean, is there a law against doing good on the Sabbath? And this is what he's bringing them to. So what is the Lord doing? The Lord is putting spirit to the letter of the law. The Lord is saying, you know, we use the law in that sense as a guide, but you have to think through and use the scriptures themselves. And so they were trying to do a strict observance to the law. Again, this is the Pharisees. This is why we call them Pharisaical. They would do a strict observance to the law with no permission of anything else. And the Lord himself has said, didn't you even read your own Old Testaments? of how at times the Lord allowed this in these unique situations. So again, these people groups were not at all spiritual. They were just trying to get people to conform to the law and not change their lives. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So I've got to stop. I actually ran out of time. I didn't realize it got this late. Two minutes over, I apologize for that. But anyway, There was such a world of chaos in which he came to. A lot of religion, but not much spirituality. You might say it's a lot like the world in which we live. Dear Father, we come to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Felt like I really had to rush through this, but Father, the world in which Christ came was definitely not a world in line with you. And while they were holding to the law, they were not in obedience to what you wanted. So God, help us because we might get off track in our own lives and be strict observers of what you've said without any spirit to the law at all. And guide us, Father, to understand your word to its fullest capacity. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.