I hate double-minded men, but I love your law. You are my refuge and my shield. I have put my hope in your word. Away from me, you evildoers, that I may keep the commands of my God. Sustain me according to your promise, and I will live. Do not let my hopes be dashed. Uphold me, and I will be delivered. I will always have regard for your decrees. Uphold me, and I will be delivered. You reject... Who is that guy interrupting me? You reject all who stray from your decrees. For their deceitfulness is in vain all the wicked of the earth you discard like dross Therefore I love your statutes my fresh flesh trembles in fear of you. I will I stand in awe of your laws That nice stuff Very nice. Okay. Let's see. We got to go to the Psalms and move this over and That's done. Okay. Next week is Psalm 119, 121. All right. We got some, there's Susan Garrett right on time. I can't, I can't, can't say she's not here. I mean, she's only 15 seconds late, so. All right. Let's see here. We're going to cancel that because I don't know what that means. Mother abuse, yes. Okay, so we got to December 19th is the day-to-day. This is entitled Cards and Dice. Hugh Latimer, English reformer, was asked to preach on December 19th, 1529 at St. Edwards in Cambridge. The students loved playing cards, so Latimer decided to preach about the cards God deals us using the example of John the Baptist. He suggested that we must all answer the question the Jews asked John, who are you? Without Christ, the answer is, I am under condemnation because of sin. But through repentance and forgiveness, we can answer, I am a Christian. Then, as we study the New Testament, it is like turning over cards one at a time to learn how God wants us to live. Latimer ascended the little hexagonal pulpit, his clear voice peeled out the scripture in Latin, translated it into English, then plunged into a sermon. A friar named Buckingham preached a counter-sermon using the idea of a pair of dice. He called it Cinque Quatre, five four, saying that God's dice have landed with five on one and four on the other. He attacked the Reformation using five scripture passages and four church doctors, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory. Buckingham ridiculed Latimer's call for English translations of scripture. The common man will not understand the figurative language of scripture. Buckingham asserted. For example, when the Bible speaks of plucking out one's eyes, someone may do it literally. Latimer assured Buckingham that the English were smart enough to understand metaphors. To laughter, he said, for example, when a painter pictures a fox in a friar's cowl, no one supposes an actual fox preaching. What he means is the hypocrisy, craft, and subtle dissimulation that often lie hidden in a friar's cowl. John Fox later said Friar Buckingham with this sermon was so dashed that never after he durst peep out of the pulpit against Master Latimer. Now that God has accepted us because Christ sacrificed his life's blood, we will also be kept safe from God's anger. Even when we were God's enemies, he made peace with us because his son died for us. Yet something even greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, we will be saved by his son's life. Yeah, that's very Catholic-y thinking. We need to interpret the Bible for you because you can't understand it. To this day, I've heard people say that on YouTube. But they're not priests. That's exactly right. They are not. They are not. Hello, Miss Garrett. How are you tonight? Very good to see you. Let's see here. I'll say this again. I can say it one more time before next week. December 27th at 1 p.m. National Cemetery is Burke's internment if you want to go to that. That's next Friday. And then languages in subtitles are available. I don't know which subtitles, but several of the people, I think Maya was spearheading it, but several of the people online have been working on that. And now if you want to see or listen to the superior word or read it, I guess, in a different language, she's got them on there. And so that's available now. They went through everything, I guess. made everything available with subtitles, so Denise has lung cancer, found another nodule, also praying she seeks Jesus. Dawson, the little seven month old child that we were praying for before, He cannot be around any children, because if he does, he could get RSV. He can't be around cats or dogs. He's just in a very weakened state, so keep little Dawson in prayer. Bob Jones. was in driving and a truck ran a red light and hit him. He's in an induced coma. He's got brain trauma and so we want to keep Bob Jones in prayer. Then I have one other person I want to mention. I'm just going to read a portion of this. He sent me an email today. He's a person that attends online and I just want to reassure you through his words to me. This is a person that is, he's in hospice and he's dying of a leiomyosarcoma, a very rare cancer with no cure. He's got many tumors, he's losing weight by the week, two pounds a week. I want to read just a little portion of what he said. I'll read this. I've left my own home and moved in with my mother who was helping me along. We lost her husband, my father, six months ago and she's not handling everything as well as I would hope. She's the one I pray for, not myself. He goes down here a little further and he says he's got family members that he's praying his affliction will bring them to Christ. In other words, everything he said, everything he said in this email, which is quite extensive, uplifted me like I have not been uplifted in a long time. So my hat is off to this individual for his testimony, even in his time of moving on to the next realm. Just unbelievable. So keep Kent in prayer for strength right up until the day the Lord takes him home. And we would just pray he would do that without any, you know, extra pain or affliction if the Lord would be merciful on him. And, you know, of course, we can pray for his total healing and the Lord can do that. And I think that that's one of the things we can add into that. But he's not unhappy about his situation at all. He's more concerned about other people. Finally, Kenya. Pastor Silas in Kenya needs $825, and that will take care of the Christmas, food, and school items for back to school. So if anybody wants to help out there, send me an email. I can tell you how you can get him money. And that's Kenya. We've been taking care of them for years and years, and they have a need. So there you go with that. Having said that, Heavenly Father, We're very grateful to you for all you've done for us, and we lift up all these people that have the needs, including Pastor Silas with all of his needs for the upcoming turn of the year. But we certainly pray for all of the people individually that are having afflictions and, you know, that are facing disasters or even induced comas. We lift them up to you collectively, Lord, knowing that you can do all things, and you have a plan for each one of them, whether it's you know, to bring them home or whether it's to heal them, we would pray that they would have a understanding and a saving knowledge of Jesus in the process or bring somebody else to that knowledge so that you will be glorified, especially through that. And we thank you for this class. We thank you for the book of 2 Timothy, and we're looking forward to getting into it. And we just pray that it will be a blessing for many people. So Lord, give us wisdom in your word. Give us the ability to faithfully pursue it all the days of our lives. And we thank you for all you've done for us. how we love you, Lord. We thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Do you have that with you, that thing? Yes, let me bring that over here so I can... One more thing before we actually get into Timothy. I just... I'm so excited about this that I have to tell you. This is a movie that a friend sent to me. She attends online. I say she, but she's the one that always messages me, but her husband does too. But she's the one that messages. So anyway, they sent this to me. It's called It Happened on Fifth Avenue. I don't know if you've ever seen this movie, okay? It is old. It's an old black and white. And, you know, it's not really a Christmassy movie, even though it has Christmas stuff behind it. It's more, I mean, you know, anyway. But I will add this to what I do every year at Christmas. I've always loved A Christmas Carol. I will watch every episode. George C. Scott did one. They've got him going back to the 20s and they've got new. I watch all of them. It's the most wonderful story of redemption. And I always include in the one with Bill Murray. It's called Scrooged. Thank you. And he makes it fun. Henry Winkler did a great job of a Christmas story. I can watch every episode and feel good about it. But I will add this in. It's called It Happened on Fifth Avenue. Hideko and I watched it last night. It was so endearing. She laughed through the whole thing. I haven't seen her that happy in so long. And so I recommend this highly if anybody in the church wants to see it. I know you're gonna see it first because you showed up first and I talked about it. But please, if you just want to be, just have a really nice time. And it has, you can't go wrong with Alan Hale. He's Skipper on Gilligan's Island. He was a young guy in this movie, so it's real old. Anyway, I had to throw that in in case you need something to just kind of bless you without all the stuff that is in movies today that is just pointless. Stuff in movies? Yeah, just things that detract from the movie. Anyway, so here we are. We're in 1 Timothy, I'm sorry, 2 Timothy, and we're going to go ahead and get started. Let's see here. Turn to my page and then I'll let you go ahead and read while I'm turning. Oh, we're actually going to do a verse? Because usually you'll do a lead in. Oh, I don't know. Whatever you do, I don't care. It's fine. I'm ready when you are. Please, please go. Okay. 2 Timothy 1. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, according to the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus. Okay, that's almost identical. Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus. It might have even been word for word. So, somebody plagiarize something else. Yeah, so here we go. Welcome to the book of 2 Timothy. It is the second of three, what type of epistles? Pastoral. Pastoral, thank you. And it is compromised, not compromised, it is comprised of 83 verses. Now, I type this as a daily commentary, so this reflects my daily commentary notes. Thus, it is exactly 30 verses shorter than 1 Timothy, and it will take us one day at a time, just as we get up each day to go out and about our business, a smidgen under three months to analyze it. Or, if you're in this class, it'll take about... How long did the last one take? It did. It took, I think you said it was 11 months. It took 11 months and one day. 11 months and one day. So this will take probably about nine months, maybe eight. It'll be shorter because it's a 30 verses shorter. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So let's see here. It is hoped that you will be blessed as each verse brings marvelous insights into this beautiful epistle from the mind of God and through the hand of Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. Paul, you know, he got his calling and he didn't believe he was under law and he thought the law was the end all of it and I'm gonna earn my way to heaven and God's gonna be so proud of me and pat me on the back and then he met the risen Lord and you know it just what a difference, what a change in a person And, you know, free will. Before we even get into 2 Timothy, we can talk about whether Calvinism is right or not, and it's obviously not. Paul said, I could have been disobedient to the vision, right? God gave him the choice. He gives all of us the choice. Calvinists dwell on, what verse is it that Calvinism, they dwell on? This is the verse that solidifies that you don't have free will. It's John chapter 6, and I'll give you a hint. It's after verse 43, but before verse 45. Anybody? What's that? No. No. John 6 verse 44. Nobody guessed that. I gave a couple good hints, and nobody guessed it. Let's see here. John 6 44 says, Am I in John 6? Okay, it's not John 6, 44. What is the verse that I'm looking for? Hang on a minute. 44, do not murder among no one. Oh here, yes, 44. I was looking at 43. It helps to look at the right verse. 44, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up at the last day. closed. We have no free will. We can't call on God without the Father joining us. Okay, that's not what it's saying at all. The context of Jesus' words is based on what he is building up to in the book of John. Chapter 5 is very clear where he says, let me read you a couple of them. The 5, I think it's 39, it says here, you search the scriptures. For in them you think you have eternal life, and these are they which testify of me. But you are not willing to come to me that you have life." He says you have free will. You aren't willing. So what is the witness that draws us to Jesus? It's right there. It's the Word of God. And he says it again, down in verse 47 or 46. For if you believe Moses, you would believe me. For he wrote about me. Once again, that's free will. And that is what John 6, 44 is based on. No one can come to the Father unless he draws him. The Scriptures are what draw him. And if you don't believe the Scriptures, then you're not going to believe the Father who gave us the Word. Okay? Now, understand that it also says that the Spirit gives the Word, et cetera, so it's an action from the Godhead, okay? But that is the context of John 6, 44. I have faith because I believe the Scriptures, and therefore I am saved, okay? And if you want proof of this, if you want absolute proof that John 6, 44 is not speaking of you not having free will, by any way, shape, or form, all you need to do is go to John chapter 12. Now, I ask this every single time that I get to John 12, and I ask this question and I don't think I've ever had anybody get this wrong, but I need to ask again, just to see if, am I in John 12? Yes, I am. Okay, now give me just a second, because I think it's 20 something, but give me a second here, and it says, okay, that's not what I'm looking for, and there's, that's not what I'm looking, give me just one second here. John 12, and I, oh, there it is. Okay, it's verse 32. Now, before I read you John 12, 32, does John 12 come after or before John 6? Anybody? Okay, you got it. I think everybody here got it right again. This is amazing. Class after class, people seem to get that. Okay, John 12, verse 32 says, and I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to myself. So, he's explaining something in John 6, which is completely misunderstood by Calvinists, and then they ignore John 12, 32, which comes after John 6, 44. So, I just thought I'd throw that in so that you understand that Paul had free will to not come to Jesus, even after he saw Him, which would be the stupidest thing in the world, but he was not disobedient to the vision. he accepted what he saw, he believed the word, and he was saved. And then from there he became the apostle to the Gentiles. He was called specifically for this purpose. As a matter of fact, because we're speaking about Paul and his epistle, which is now for the pastors, it's for everybody, but it's specifically designed for the ordination of deacons and pastors and their conduct. But We will go to Paul's, can we help you? Yes, probably. We just had somebody show up, but just a couple minutes late, so we'll let him go this time. Okay, in John, I'm sorry, in Acts, and then it says there, Paul saw at the time, he journeyed and came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord? Then the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads. So he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what do you want me to do? Then the Lord said to him, arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do. That's all it took to change his life. forever. And that has changed the life of so many countless millions, even billions of people, that it's hard to imagine. He is the apostle to the Gentiles. This was his calling. As a matter of fact, what we're going to do is we're going to go even further in Acts 9, just so that you can understand why this is such a crucial moment, is it says, Acts 9, give me just one second here, you will be told what you must do. And he said, Okay, that's not what I'm looking for. Oh, I'm in John 9. Well, it always helps to be in the right book. You know, I get the wrong verse, I get the wrong Acts, and anyway, it says here in Acts 9, 15. I'll go back and give you the whole context. 13, then Ananias answered, Lord I've heard from many about this man how much harm he has done to your servants in Jerusalem and here he is authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name. Verse 15, but the Lord said to him, go for he is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before the Gentiles kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake." He is specifically called to the Gentiles first, also to, as he said, kings and to the people of Israel, but his main calling is the Gentiles. And so this is sets up what we have in the book of 2 Timothy. He is giving his wisdom based on his time in Christ to a young protege so that this person will be properly ready. I mean, he's actually in the position of pastor, but he will be ready to continue and to be, you know, rightly handle his affairs and then to pass that on down throughout the years. And, you know, nowadays when we ordain people, we ordain people that shouldn't even be in the pulpit. For a variety of reasons, the Word of God is neglected, it is ignored, it is mocked and ridiculed by the people that are being ordained into supposed Christian churches. So, it's important that we understand what this epistle is telling us and to hold fast to it. Anyway... You were in that same verse. from Acts two days ago from your daily writing. Oh, is that right? Yeah, about just like all the evil people around us and you know the Lord could just snuff them out, but why? Because we were once them. Yeah, that's right. We were once them. That's exactly right. I, you know, I post these things and there's so many going on that I just, well, anyway. That's why I'm here. Yeah, thank you. Much appreciated. Let's see here. So we got, yes, it is hoped that you will be blessed as each verse brings marvelous insights into this beautiful epistle. I read that. Paul begins the epistle by identifying himself. He is Paul. Okay, anybody know what the name Paul means? You know, Saul is Shaul, which is asked for. It's the same name as the king of Israel. Paul, he calls himself, Luke only addresses him as Paul after Acts. I can't remember the chapter, but when he goes on his first missionary journey, he goes to Crete. He goes all the way through the island. He gets to the very end of the island where they're about to depart. And while he is there, he speaks with a person called Sergius Paulus. And after that, he's called Paul after that. And so what it appears to be is he said, he was the first Gentile that we know of that was converted by Paul. And so Paul said, I am going, this is speculation, but I'm going to take his name as my own name. Okay. And so when the Gentile, you know, because Jewish people, when they're out in the dispersion would have a different name than their Jewish name. So they had two names quite often. And so, anyway, that's Charlie Gehr's speculation, but I think it's probably valid, because after that he's always called Paul, with the exception of when he refers to himself at his conversion, and he will say, Saul, Saul, and he'll speak that. But other than that, Luke always identifies him after that meeting with Sergius Paulus, which we have a Sergius right back there as well. That became his name. Paul means small, okay? And I think maybe, did you say that? Somebody said that? You did? You wrote it. Oh, okay. This is just speculation. Once again, this is Charlie's speculation, but he probably said this person is a convert. I'm going to take his name, but it's a fitting name. because he was Mr. Big and now he is Small in his own eyes, okay? And so that's just speculation on my point. Don't make a brain squiggle on that or anything, but that's just me thinking that through. Why would he choose that name, Small? Instead of asked for, he's just Small. He's, you know, unimportant. But just a guess. Have no idea. Anyway, so let's see here. He is Paul. He is the apostle to the Gentiles. He is Timothy's mentor and the one with whom Timothy had traveled and fellowshiped in a close and personal relationship. He met Timothy while he was traveling. He was overtaken by this young man, his knowledge of Scripture. He was raised by Eunice, his grandmother. Is that right, Eunice? Anyway, and he was raised in the Word. Okay, and Paul was just so excited about this guy, obviously, because he stayed with him even until his old age, writing him letters and sharing with him. But, he next identifies his apostleship with the words, an apostle of Jesus Christ. That's his designation of himself. Apostle means? A messenger. No. Sent one. That's right. Messenger would be the word agalos, which is usually translated as angel. That's right. In Hebrew it would be malach or malachim, angels or messengers. Quite often they translate it as angel when it should not be. For example, in the book of Hebrews, and I think in Peter's words in Acts maybe, but in the book of Hebrews it says that the word was received by angels. speaking of Mount Sinai. And that's incorrect. It wasn't received by angels. It was received by the messengers, plural, who are Moses and Aaron. They were the messengers who received that word and sent it on to the others. So it wasn't received by angels. It was received by messengers. And so you got to be careful with the word angel because then all of a sudden you get all these doctrines of people with Nephilim videos and all that kind of stuff. law came down, some angel sweeping down and giving them, it's not what happened. The description of how the law was received is right in Exodus, and it's not speaking of angels. Speaking of messengers the same word agalos. Okay, so Apostle means sent one that is correct. He is the Apostle to the Gentiles so He is the one with whom Timothy had traveled and fellowshiped in a close and personal manner manner. Oh, yeah. He's an Apostle in Jesus Christ He is a messenger of the Lord having been called by him personally to perform this weighty duty Which has been so amazingly fruitful for the past 2,000 years Okay Anytime you hear the term apostle, that's all it means. It means sent one. If somebody says, I'm an apostle of Jesus and he's on YouTube, I wouldn't watch him, okay, because he's not an apostle of Jesus. Jesus is the one who sends his apostles. You can't make a claim on something that is not actually happened. They can say I'm a preacher for Jesus, whatever, but he is not an apostle of Jesus. He may be an apostle of the church that sent him. You know, I could say, I could take you guys and say, you're going off to Kenya, and we're going to commission you for that. You are apostles of the Superior Word Church. That would be fine. Why somebody would do that, I don't know, but you could do that. Why have a title like that? We're just here, we're visiting missionaries, and that's good enough. But, the only apostles of Jesus Christ are those who were designated by Jesus Christ. Paul is the one, as he says, born out of due time. He was an exception to the regular apostolic selection process. But then he gives the qualifications. Have I not seen the Lord Jesus? That is one of the qualifications. You have to have seen the Lord Jesus. The rest of them saw him throughout his ministry. Paul did not. Paul was called by him. He was designated as a sent one, as we saw in Acts chapter 9. And then he was instructed by Jesus. He received his revelations, etc., by the Lord, and so he is an apostle of Jesus Christ. He's not using a title inappropriately. He was the one that was called as an apostle just out of its due season, or due whatever. He is a messenger of the Lord, having been called by him personally. This is his one claim to the authority of writing a letter of doctrine. and it is with this authority that he thus writes. One of my friends emailed me with questions about the Council of Nicaea, and there was a question as to, you know, was the Bible manipulated? How did we get the canon of Scripture? I am not a specialist on the Council of Nicaea, okay, and I couldn't answer many questions about that, but One of the things that I, you know, it's like about 350 AD. It was where the final canon of scripture was decided upon. And the individual that emailed me said, well, it appears no matter which way you divide it, there is a contradiction or not contradiction, but there's manipulation of the process. And my answer to that is the same thing as everything else. We have translations of the Bible. that are translated by man, okay? But it's still a translation of the Bible. God has allowed us to get our hands on his Word. The typology for this, which Jim knows very well, is found right in the Ark of the Covenant, okay? The typology of the building of the Ark of the Covenant shows us the manipulation of man's hands on the compilation of the Word of God. And yet it's the Word of God. There are times where the canon of Scripture is manipulated by man. We've got churches that will add in the Book of Enoch. We've got the Catholic Church, which at the Council of Trent in the 1400s added in what? The Apocrypha. They said, well, we're adding this in. This is now canon in Scripture. Jerome, who translated the Latin Vulgate, said, that'll never be a canon of Scripture over my dead body. And so they waited for his dead body to be dead for 1,100 years, and then they did it. The point that I make about this is, we know that this is the Word of God. We know because it's internally supporting itself. We see that in typology, we see it in all kinds of kiastic structures, we see it, and there's so many ways that the Word of God confirms itself. I tell people, just as you should be confident that God is capable of sending Jesus and getting that message out to the world, He is also competent and capable of giving us a Word that is His Word, even if we have had our hands on it, okay? The process of Scripture being given to us is a long—it's taken 3,500 years, right? From 1,400 years—I'm sorry, not 3,500 years— It took from 1450 AD about for Moses to start compiling it. It was compiled all the way through, and yet in the book of Jeremiah, they want to stone Jeremiah. And then he says, well, do what you want with me. I'm speaking the word of the Lord, and I'm in your hands. And one of them stood up, or some of them, and they came forward. They said, well, we can't stone him. He's speaking in the name of the Lord. Did not, who was it? who was it that said Zion will be plowed like a field? The prophet Micah, I think, is who they cite. Anyway, they say Zion will be plowed like a field. They knew that that was Scripture by the time that Jeremiah was alive. They knew that that was Scripture, and they knew what wasn't Scripture. Somehow God has kept the books of the Bible reliable enough so that when they are finally decided on, they know that it is. Okay, and they also know when manipulation has taken place to put in something that doesn't belong there, like the book of Enoch. Okay, so you've got these aberrant sects that will have these inappropriate books, but the overall Bible is internally supportive of itself, and not only in the typology and the chiastic structures and all of those other things, but also people referring to other books of the Bible in such a way that they confirm the canonicity of it. Okay, we have a reliable word, okay, and I will go so far, I've said this before and some people disagree and that's fine, but I would go so far as to say that the chapter divisions in the Bible, which were actually done by Hugo Sancto de Caro, and I think it was in the 1030s, did the chapter divisions. I would say that they are inspired by God. The process that he used, another guy actually did chapter divisions and they rejected those. They went with Santo de Caro's chapter divisions. And then I would go even further and I would say that the verse divisions are definitely inspired. I've got patterns, so many patterns laid out that confirm this. I've read you many of them. The book of Matthew, when we started it, I placed a lot of them there. That's only a smattering. Thousands of interconnecting proofs that the verse divisions, which came out under the hand of Robert Stephanas in 1560, the first time it was published was in the Geneva Bible, confirms that he was somehow inspired to do that. They are so wonderfully precise that they give us patterns that just, they boil over from Scripture. So God was slowly revealing these things to us. We have new revelations come out of Scripture all the time. To this day, people are finding something that has never been seen before. God is slowly opening this Word to us. And so I'm fully convinced that this is the Word of God, that the Apostle Paul was a valid Apostle of Jesus Christ, and I say that because there are people that deny Paul's authority and his writings. And why would they do that? Because he's the one that blows away all of the law observance. of it. You take out Paul and you can get everybody to go back under the law of Moses. And so they dismiss him as if he's a heretic. There are websites out there that actually say that Paul is the antichrist, etc., etc. Okay, Paul is a apostle of Jesus Christ. He was selected by the Lord He is, what he writes is authoritative for the church age. It is the marching orders of the church. He sets doctrine for it. That's not to say that Peter and James, et cetera, don't, but they are a different context written to a different group of people, okay? Peter opens to the The Jews, he says, to the 12 tribes of the dispersion. James, maybe it's James that says that. But anyway, they both specifically say, we are writing to the Jewish people, James and Peter. Their introductory comments indicate that. That doesn't mean that what they say is not applicable to us, but it is directed towards a different audience, just as is the book of, begins with H, ends with S, Hebrews. It's to the Hebrews. It's written to the Hebrews. It is telling them something that they have missed in Jesus Christ. Now, once again, I've said this many times, but I am convinced that Paul wrote the book of Hebrews. There are all kinds of internal structures to prove this, and there are all kinds of logical reasons why, plus there are the words of Peter that speaks of the letter that Paul wrote to the Hebrew people, and we don't have any letter that Paul wrote to the Hebrew people, and my it's Hebrews. Okay, but to put Paul's name on it would immediately disqualify it in the eyes of the Jews, and so it would not have been right for his name to be signed on it. It makes total sense that someday Hebrews is going to open the eyes of the Jewish people to the understanding of what they have missed and why Jesus Christ is more important. Yes. Well, James is more direct with what he says. He goes, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes scattered among the nations. But 1 Peter 1 says to God's elect strangers in the world scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, and a bunch of other places. But go to 2 Peter. He's addressing them there, but in 2 Peter he gets more specific. 2 Peter. One more page, Jim. You're almost there. Okay, Simon Peter, a servant to an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who throughout the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, have received faith and precious, as precious as ours. Grace, peace to you, abundance throughout the knowledge of God. Okay, then I'm thinking of something else, but anyway, let me see what I'm thinking of, because, oh yeah, he's writing, I'm thinking of maybe, give me one second here, to Peter, and he says here, right here, therefore brethren blameless, and he references Paul's letter according to the wisdom that he has written to you, as also in all his epistles speaking in them of things. I'm not sure what I'm thinking of right here, but if you say that that's how he addressed one Peter, he's, oh no, he does. One Peter, to the pilgrims of the dispersion. The dispersion, that means that, okay, so however they term that, it's misleading because it's to the pilgrims of the dispersion, meaning Jewish people that have been dispersed. Okay. Strangers in the world. Okay. Okay. There you go. Kind of vague. Yeah. So, but he's writing to the pilgrims of the dispersion, meaning Jewish people. So there you go. So I was right and I had that on my head. Okay. And then he says in his second letter, Paul's letters. He references them, telling the Jews, don't be scared of Paul's letters. They are scripture. He specifically says they're just as all other scripture. People twist them to their own destruction or whatever he says. So anyway, setting all this up so that we understand that that Paul is a valid apostle, that his words belong in the Bible, and if you come across people that dispute that, I would stay far away from them. I wouldn't even get into a conversation with them because they are already so far into their own heads being right about their doctrine that they're just going to make you angry. You know, you can tell them, I know that that's not correct, I know that you are wrong in this, and your theology is lacking, and I wouldn't get into any long discussions with people that already believe that they have to be under the law. Okay, get rid of the book of Galatians. That solves some problems. Get rid of Colossians. That solves some. Just get rid of Paul altogether. Okay, that's what we're going to do, and it'll take care of all of the issues that we don't need to suffer under, and we're just going to go back under the law, and we're going to work our way to heaven. And that means absolutely nothing. Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. Judaizers in the past, Hebrew roots today, it's all the same thing. It's all the same bad doctrine. Stay away from that. That is the one thing that Paul argues against more than anything. And guess what? We've seen it in typology. All the way through Joshua, all the way through Judges, the typology tells us to stay away from law observance. I'm talking about typology. I'm not talking about, you know, them under law and they have to be, you know, it's a stepping stone leading them to understand why they need the Messiah. Anyway, okay, so Next, I read that he is a messenger of the Lord, having been called to him personally to perform this weighty duty, which has been so amazingly fruitful for the past 2,000 years. This is his one claim to the authority of writing a letter of doctrine, and it is with this authority that he thus writes. After this, he notes that his apostleship is by the will of God. We saw that in Acts chapter 9. Jesus Christ came and revealed himself to him. He told Ananias, here is what he's going to do, and then Paul writes about how he got his doctrine, where it came from. Not just his doctrine as a Pharisee, but of the New Testament doctrine. The Lord showing him from the Old Testament all the things that point to him as the Messiah of Israel and the Christ of the nations. So, it's by the will of God. This is the same phrase that he uses in 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, and Colossians. It is what further defines his calling and which affirms his authority. It is by the will of God. It is also a note of humility in that he was selected and therefore it was not of his own merits. By saying this is by the will of God, he didn't do anything to deserve it. God chose. He accepted the calling and he placed himself under the burden and he, as he says elsewhere, I worked harder than all of them. He expended himself for the cause of Jesus Christ. Instead, it was by the sovereign decision of God that he was so designated an apostle. His selection was nothing he had sought after, and in fact he actually worked as hard as he could against any knowledge of Jesus Christ. I am going to stamp this name out. It's going to cease to exist, and we're going to continue to be Israel under the law and be the heroes of the universe someday. It didn't happen that way. His selection was nothing. Wait a minute. Yes. By the sovereign will of God, it was nothing he sought after and it was entirely unmerited. As a matter of fact, when you're fighting against Jesus and he has to come and say, why are you fighting against me? When he asks to say that, that shows you that whose calling is absolutely unmerited. All right, having said that, Paul notes elsewhere that it is a calling, oh, here it is, that he could have ignored, thus demonstrating free will is included in the matter. that is found in Acts 26 verse 19 where he says that he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. The implication is that he could have been disobedient to the heavenly vision. He could have said, you know what, I just, I've had, you know, too much sun today. This trip to Damascus has just worn me out. I'm just, you know, whatever. He could have made up any excuse he wanted and he could have just spent the rest of his life saying, you know what, I'm sure that wasn't real. I'm absolutely certain, you know, but he didn't. He was obedient to the calling and he continued to be obedient to the calling all the way through. A very faithful person as recorded by Luke. Luke, you know, just shows the unbelievable nature of how he was willing to travel here and here and here and just go on and on and on with his ministry to make sure that the word got out to the people of the world. Did you all see there was a inscription that they found just this week, or maybe it's an older inscription, but they finally They finally released it. No, no, no, no. This is something that they found. It was something that people carried around with them. It was on a piece of silver, real thin, like, you know, real thin. And then they roll it up. Okay. I don't know what you call those. It's like what they have on the door or the, what do they call it? Thank you. And they put the little scroll in there. Well, this is like a teeny little silver thing and they could not open it because it would have destroyed it. So they had to use the MRI or laser or something. They were able to read through this rolled up scroll and they were able to pull out the letters and the letters on there indicate that it's the first time that Christianity is mentioned without any hint of Judaism. In other words, it stands alone as a Christian doctrine, okay, not something that it doesn't have the Old Testament name of the Lord. And I think it was found in Germany, and it goes way, way back to like 200 AD. I can't remember. I wish I had the details. I have it at home because I was going to put it on the Prophecy Update maybe, but It is the first, and what does it say? It acknowledges Titus. Titus. So, a person that is addressed in Scripture is acknowledged, and then on top of that, then it says to our great Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, or something like that, and it's in Latin. Anyway, I'm sorry that I've forgotten some of the details. As always, it was a long and busy and difficult week, but very interesting, and it's one of those things that just will continue to edify you, because people will say, well, Titus doesn't belong in the Bible, or the pastoral epistles don't belong in the Bible, and here we have something that confirms Titus right there in extra-biblical writings. First time, the oldest inscription, etc. So it's really great. Just wonderful stuff that we have going on. Not everything in the Bible has been archaeologically confirmed, okay? Obviously, there's 10 million things in the Bible, but everything that has been found in archaeology has confirmed the Bible. Nothing has ever come against the Bible in archaeology. Nobody can come up and say this refutes the Bible. It's not true. That's not happened, okay? Now, people will make up stuff and then you find out later that, yeah, and then people, Christians do this too. They make stuff up and then they say, well, see, this is, you know, the something of Joshua and then you find out that it's not. It's just something that somebody made up and they got their two minutes of fame and now they're, you know, they're shown to be false. These kind of things happen. But Christians as well, or supposed Christians, they want the spotlight, just like these people that want to dispute the Bible. But there is nothing that refutes Scripture that we have found, ever. And in 2,000 years of people, they've spent a lot of time trying to refute the Bible. I assure you of that. So, be confident that what you have in your hands is the Word of God. I'm going to read the beginning of what the USA Today said about it. Yeah, go ahead. Okay, it said, a small silver amulet found by a skeleton in a nearly 2,000-year-old grave in Frankfurt, Germany, may offer a few insights into the early spread of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire. German officials announced a discovery last week, a small piece of silver foil, less than 1 1⁄2 inches in size, found in a grave that dates between 230 to 270 A.D. Well, my facts are right so far. Keep going. A grave with 18 lines of religious text. It represents the earliest known evidence of Christianity north of the Alps. predating other archaeological evidence of the spread of the religion throughout the region by decades. Great, great, see, wonderful stuff. So I love that that happens and there's always these little confirmations of things when people are doubting, you know, what happens they find a clay bulla and what is it? It's got the name of Baruch, the scribe of Jeremiah there. We know that Baruch actually existed because they found archaeological evidence to prove it. We found Hezekiah's name in tunnels that the Bible said he dug, and so forth. I mean, we've got all of this information out there that confirms the Bible. It's a reliable word. You know, you can question things in life. I mean, I understand. We have a right to question it. I questioned evolution constantly when I became a Christian, because that was what I believed, right? And I finally just said, well, you know what, the Bible says this, and I'm just going to take it on faith, and then I'll get the evidence later. And the evidence has come. Every single thing that I had a question about, somebody has a, not just a reasonable, but a probable answer for that, okay? Not people just making stuff up, but real sincere doctors of archaeology, people that have spent their entire life studying this, will say this supports the biblical narrative, okay, and it goes on and on. We have a sure word. Be confident of that, okay. So, he wasn't disobedient to the heavenly vision. He then states, according to the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus, The words according to are not speaking of what has transpired in him, but in that which he is called to proclaim according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus. In other words, it is the subject matter which he dealt with as an apostle. The NET Bible gives us the correct sense of what is being said, okay, from Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to further the promise of life in Christ Jesus. Now, that's a paraphrase, but it's explaining what other people may take as wrong. You know, you read something, you say, I have to tell you, when you cling to just one one copy of scripture, you are really causing yourself a lot of harm. I just am adamant about that. Yesterday, was it yesterday or two days ago? It always happens this way. They're the most arrogant, boisterous, and angry people I've ever seen in my life, but King James only people. One of them emailed me and it was right from the start, you know, just You're going to hell. Yeah, going to hell. He's just completely barbecuing me because I say in the commentary I have on the website that this is not a good translation of the Bible. It's sloppy, okay. And there are some reasons why some of it is incorrect like metallurgy, okay. We know more about metallurgy now than they knew then. We know certain things that are impossible then that they didn't know. We know gemology, certain gems that they identify in the King James Version, which can't be those gems because, for example, diamond, okay, can't be a diamond because they couldn't inscribe on a diamond. We couldn't do that until recently with laser inscriptions. Before that, it couldn't be done. So, we know it's not a diamond. And of course, then they say, well, you know, God allowed it to happen. They make up some goofy thing. But when I say metallurgy, Deuteronomy 8 verse 9, The old version, nowadays it doesn't say diggeth anymore, but the first version said you will diggeth brass out of them thar hills, okay? Whatever. Okay, you can't dig brass out of hills. It is impossible. Brass is an alloy, okay? And so you dig... Copper out of the hills and then you mix it with tin and you have brass. So it's an error. Okay No, they don't they don't use the original because it's it's too sacred to use I guess I don't know anyway So, you know, I know it's just it's the whole thing is just bad. I But here's what they did. I read an article one time about brass in its natural state. And they said, see, this proves the King James Version, is because they believe It's not for certain, but they believe that they have found microscopic brass in a meteoroid. So here's a meteoroid that's flying along. It's got some copper and it's got some tin. And when it hit the atmosphere, it melted and it became brass. It's microscopic in nature. Okay. He said that they would dig brass out of the hills, not get a microscope and look for something that may, they're not sure if it's actually brass or not, but it may exist. They will dig brass out of them thar hills. Okay, so once again, be sure that you don't get captivated by a single translation of scripture because people are fallible. People make mistakes, okay? The Bible is a giant book. For one person to be consistent all the way through the translation is not going to happen. Secondly, to have a group of people that is translating a Bible, it's going to be even worse because this person is translating from his presuppositions and this one is from his presuppositions. This one is from this area where they use this terminology and this one. The NASB has tried to, with their newest version, it's not called the NASB anymore. What's it called, Sergio? The newest one. They've tried to make it more harmonious with this word is translated this way we're going to be consistent all the way through. Okay, it's taken years. Do you know how many versions of the NASB there are? There's like 38 of them. I mean there's so many NASB 1995, NASB 2001. There's so many of them and now there's they got a bible that they are trying. You got a copy of it. Somebody gave it to you that brown bible. Yeah, The N-E-T. N-E-T. They're trying to make it where it's more reliable, but it's also basing it on the Alexandrian text and not on the Byzantine. So once again, you've got these things going on. But don't get captivated by a single translation of Scripture. And the reason why is because it is not going to be an accurate, completely, I'm talking about 100%, completely accurate revelation of God's Word, because only the originals are. And we don't have the originals, okay? They even dispute between Hebrew texts. Now, these disputes can be minor at times. Don't think that there's any corruption in the Word. There's corruption in man who has transmitted the Word, okay? That's some pretty sound advice. Would that be found in any book preface, by chance? Yeah, right in the King James Version preface. It tells you, don't get captivated by a single translation of the Bible, etc., etc. Yes? Yeah, all scripture. Yeah. Isn't the Bible at all. That's right. Absolutely. Yep, yep, yep. So that's very good insight. Oh, I see we've got pizza tonight. So what we're going to do is we're going to finish verse one and then we're going to have pizza. There's a couple reasons why. One is because we couldn't do it last week because they were closed. And so I couldn't get you all pizza. And then secondly, we're in a new book. I was going to close out a book with pizza, but I couldn't do it. So we're starting a book with pizza. And secondly, we've got Christmas coming up very soon. So we might as well have pizza before Christmas. then we can have some before New Year's, maybe. Anyway, so Tangerine, thank you for that. I love you. Okay, so we're gonna do that after I finish. We'll be done in just a minute. I plan on being done at 6, and we'll be done at 6. Sorry about that, people online. We did get through the first verse, or we will get through the first verse, but we've got a little bit of pizza for us, and here. I have two people that have helped out. I don't remember which one sent it first because one of them sent twice and one of them sent it once. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to give Karen Yoakum, who my girlfriend in high school, her name was Twinkle, and she's kind of a famous singer. Anyway, her mother and I have always been friends, and she, that lady understands grace like nobody else. She just, she lives by grace, and so anyway, she sent us $50 for pizza, and then it was more than $50 for the pizza, so we'll add in a little bit from Phil, who also, they do this for you. They want to be a part of the church, they can't be here, and so uh thank uh just when you uh say uh your prayers tonight thank uh karen yokum and phil and his wife for uh uh the pizza today and then we'll have some more from phil for another pizza pizza soon anyway uh thank you guys and then we are going to uh uh finish this up and we'll be done so um let's see here uh next there is an article connected to life okay? Thus it more accurately reads, the life. There is life in mortal human beings. There is life in an electric wire and so forth. Paul is being specific that what his apostleship is called to is a proclamation of the life which is found in Christ Jesus, okay? It isn't the animation of a physical body which will die someday. It is the regeneration of the spirit of man, reconnecting him to God and granting true and eternal life to those who are united to Christ Jesus. That's all pictured in the fig. If you do a study on the fig throughout the Bible, the fig is a picture of the reconnection or the connection to God, either the connection or the lack thereof. In other words, what was it they used to cover up their shame in the Garden of Eden? the leaves of a fig. They were trying to use their own work, and they were trying to reconnect to God through covering themselves, okay? You're going to see that consistently all through the Bible. The fig is not, and I say this in a coming up commentary or maybe a sermon, the fig is not a picture of Israel. That was co-opted by somebody some years ago, and it is a very bad analysis of that. It's not speaking of Israel. It is speaking of a connection to God. So, that is reconnecting him to God, the life. So, as Paul says, this is life in Christ Jesus. He, Jesus, is the possessor of the life. We are in Christ Jesus when we call on Christ Jesus, and that's the terminology that Paul uses again and again and again. You are in. You are no longer out, and he cannot deny himself. You know, people talk about a loss of salvation. They have not studied the concepts as well as the words. The concepts always speak of eternal salvation, okay? There are words that you can say, well, that kind of points to a loss of salvation. I understand when people do that because they haven't taken the entire body of the concepts along with the words and come to an understanding that you are in Christ and you are saved and it is eternal. So, it's just one of those things that I am adamant about is never teaching something that will give somebody a false hope. I'm not going to do that. If you can lose your salvation, as Jim says, you would. Okay? It would be gone. All right? And if it was up to us, it would be gone immediately. I mean, we're so fallen that we just can't get out of our own way. But thank God for Jesus, who we are in. Okay? The life is re-established. It is done. Thank God for Christ Jesus. So, Those who come to him and who are in him are granted that same life. It is a promise which came just after the fall of man in Genesis 3 verse 15. That's known as the Protoevangelium, the first gospel. It's the first hint of the gospel is that God is going to send somebody to redeem man, right after they had fallen, right after they had fallen, and he has spent all of human history working through dispensations to show us every possible permutation of our interactions with him. So, when we get to the end of it, we're going to say, that wouldn't have worked, that wouldn't have worked, that wouldn't have worked, but this works. He's showing us not just what does work, but what doesn't work, so that we won't say, well, what about this, or what about this? It is all about God's grace. We are saved by grace, not by our own deeds, not by this, not by that one thing or another. Man will always fail. Put him under government, what is he going to do? He's going to persecute his own people. He's going to bring death and destruction among people. It's just a fallen world. But God has allowed us these things to show us that we need Jesus so desperately. Anyway, So it is the promise which is referred to throughout the entire Old Testament, anticipating the coming of Messiah. In him is the restoration of all things, and in him is the life of which Paul is called to be a herald to the Gentiles. Life application, 83 verses comprise one Timothy. Is it too much that you would spend a few minutes each day for less than three months, once again, this was on a daily commentary, studying this precious epistle now that you have started, okay? Well, I would change that and say, is it too much to ask that you spend an hour and a half once a week in this epistle with us or with somebody else, okay? And guess what? The great thing about the age that we live in today is that if you can't attend online because you're, you know, working, we got a recorded copy of it. You can watch it. You can listen to it in your car. I mean, there's all kinds of avenues that are available to you to get the Word of God into you. Now, I'm saying that, you know, these are the truths that the Bible proclaims. But what I'm saying could be wrong, because I'm just a guy as well. And so I would ask you to consider what I say, eternal salvation, or whether Paul is actually the antichrist, or whatever, okay? And I would ask you to evaluate that based on other commentaries, based on other preachers, based on your own study, whatever. You know, don't just trust me, but ask the Lord to guide you in his word. Read his word. And you can't know if I'm telling you the truth or not if you don't read the word. It's not possible. You can say, well that guy says so Charlie's wrong, but if you don't know what the Word says, you don't even know if that guy's right. So don't trust me, don't trust him. Know the Word and then make your decision based on that, okay? While asking the Lord to guide you in His Word. Okay, so the reading and studying of scripture is the most important thing that you will do during your day. I can't think of anything more important than that, okay? In knowing God's Word, you can then apply it to your life. and that includes your prayer life. You can't really pray properly if you don't know how to pray properly. Well, the Bible tells us how to do that, right? I mean, people all over the world pray. I've seen Buddhists pray, and I've seen Muslims pray, and I've seen people all over the world pray. Are they doing it right? You can't know unless you read the Bible, okay? If the Bible is true, then you will say, okay, I now know how to pray. So see, even prayer can't be as important as the Word of God, because the Word of God is what shows us how to properly pray, or who to properly pray to, etc. Okay? Prayer is very important, but you need to have it right first, because there are people on their knees pointing the Mecca right now that aren't praying properly. Sorry, okay? So, please make the effort Follow along in the study and know that you will be further along in your theology. Well, how I present it when you are finished with this precious book known as 2 Timothy. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the wonderful gift which is your Word. It is what tells us about Jesus, the greatest gift of all, coming uniting with humanity so that you could redeem us to yourself. There's nothing more precious than that, and we can't learn about that without your word. So thank you for your word. Thank you for the instruction that is given to Timothy by Paul that has been passed down by faithful churches throughout the years so that they can know if they are doing something right or wrong in regards to their leadership, in regards to their doctrine. Lord, Help us to want to have the fire in us to always study your word. Thank you for those who are willing to read it, to study it, to cherish it, and Lord, we lift up all those people that we lifted up at the beginning of the service, and anybody else out there that's having their own struggles and trials, we would lift them up right now as well. Lots of people on the online prayer request, many, many requests this week, and some of them were really disastrous, so please tend to these people, look after them, search all of us out, Lord, and help us to Be right with you, whether it's in a physical or a spiritual relationship. Search us out, Lord, and give us that which will keep us on the straight and narrow path with you. Thank you. We praise you and we exalt you in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, let me back that up and we'll say goodbye to these folks online and then somebody can get the pizza and bring that up. break break break break break okay hang on a sec three two one oh there we are okay everybody we love you have a great great Thursday night great Friday great weekend and we'll see your Sunday we hope we love you bye bye all right we got all that that's good okay you let me get this over here first thank you all right sorry about that all right there we go we got this we got that oh there it is the bible i need the bible in this that way i can put it away for another couple days you're gonna have some pizza with us