All right, we're gonna continue where we left off last week and go into some other things. And tonight, really the contrast, we'll see the difference between confusion and clarity in Bible study. Because what happens when you don't rightly divide the word of truth, you create confusion. And really, if you were to summarize in a very kind of short, broad statement why we have so many cults and schisms and isms out there in Christianity. It's because of a failure to rightly divide the Word of Truth, misappropriation of Scripture. And so we talked about it some last week, the idea of rightly dividing and how that gives us precision in Bible study. And then tonight, we're gonna continue along those lines and see how it brings clarity instead of confusion. Let's talk about a little bit tonight, the animal sacrifices versus the sacrifice of Christ. Let's go to the book of Hebrews and we may have hit this last time, I can't remember, Hebrews chapter number 10. But this kind of leads into the next one that I'll talk about, Hebrews chapter number 10. And I may have mentioned John the Baptist when he was out there baptizing folks. You remember how that people would come out to be baptized and they came out confessing their sins. But then here comes a man that doesn't have to confess his sins. You ever think about that? Jesus, he didn't have to confess sins. So he comes out there and there's nothing for him to confess. So John points and says, behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And so John, maybe John and Mary, and then the Mary that anointed Christ for his burial, they might've been the only two that really understood the purpose of Christ. The disciples sure didn't understand it. They were looking for a king, not a savior on a cross. And so John points to that and says, behold, the Lamb points to him and says, behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. But when we look in contrast from the Old Testament to the New Testament, we see a sacrificial system with the blood of animals, bulls and goats replaced with the blood of Christ. So look in Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10 verse number 11, speaking of Old Testament priests. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. So that's the difference. All those Old Testament sacrifices, they couldn't take away sins. There was atonement made, there was forgiveness, but God couldn't clear him. A good reference for that is Exodus 34, verse eight. And he says, God's long-suffering, merciful, and gracious, forgiving iniquity and sin, and that by can no means clear the guilty. He could forgive him, but he couldn't clear him. So it's kind of like saying, okay, I forgive you. That's one thing, and that's great, but you're still gonna have to pay all those fines. And the contrast to that is saying, Will you forgive me? Forgive you of what? I don't show that you did anything because the record's been cleared. When he pulls up your record, there's nothing on it. It's the spotless record of Jesus Christ. That's a big difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament church age. You want to get that. And that leads me to talk a little bit about salvation in the Old Testament compared to salvation in the New Testament. Go to the book of Ezekiel, chapter 18. The theological word for salvation is soteriology. It's just a big word. It comes from a Greek word, sozo, which means to save. It's the study of salvation. And as good as some of the classical dispensationalists was, like C.I. Schofield, if you have a Schofield reference Bible, and some of those others, Clarence Larkin wrote the definitive book on rightly dividing. 1918 maybe, 1921 I think it was expanded. But those are classic dispensationalists and as good as they were, they really dropped the ball when it concerns soteriology. And here's the thing, what is the big deal for rightly dividing the word of truth if everybody throughout the whole Bible is saved the same way? What's the big deal? When you think about it like this, I gave you a quote from the Westminster Confession and talked about Reformed theology a little bit last week. And basically what Reformed theology says is there's only one people of God. In the Old Testament, they were called Israel. In the New Testament, they're called the Church. And they have always been saved by faith and the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And that is a bald-faced lie. It's not Bible. People in the Old Testament were not saved by putting their faith in the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ had not been shed yet. That thing goes back to what's called Calvinism. The idea that God made a covenant before anybody was ever born and he chose who was gonna be saved or not because according to them, the lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. There's that misquote from Revelation 13. You compare Revelation 13 to Revelation 17. It's the book of the life of the lamb slain from the foundation. The book of life goes back from the foundation of the world. Jesus didn't die before the world showed up because he's born in time. People lose their brains, man. And so that Calvinism comes in and they say, well, people have to be saved the same way all through the whole Bible, by faith in Jesus Christ. Well, how are you gonna explain that? You say, well, Peter and all the apostles, they were saved by faith in Jesus Christ and they were disciples for three and a half years. I beg to differ with you. Don't you have to believe in the resurrection to be saved? Peter did not believe in the resurrection. After spending three and a half years with Jesus, he didn't believe in it. None of them did. Even when they were told he rose from the dead. So you want to tell me they're saved by faith in the blood of Jesus Christ when they didn't believe in the resurrection? You see the mess people get into when they go stumbling through theology instead of through the Bible. And so nonetheless, the classical dispensationalists, they dropped the ball because they didn't put an emphasis on that, although the layman did. And what happened is you had people that would read Scofield and people that would read their Bibles, and they just kind of took these kind of things for granted, but the scholars had a lot of pressure from the Calvinists because all of your major seminaries are Calvinist-controlled. And they have a lot of pressure from that, and so they don't want to sound like they're degrading the blood of Jesus. I mean, how dare you say someone in the Old Testament was not saved by faith in the blood of Jesus? That sounds awful. If it's true, it's true. If it's false, it's false. I don't care what it sounds like. And so I wanna give you these things. Look at Ezekiel chapter number 18. You wanna understand under the Old Testament law specifically. Now we know the law came about 1500 BC. There's a lot goes on before the law. And we know that the Old Testament law had no application specifically for Gentiles. However, the majority of the Old Testament deals with the Old Testament law. So that's what we're concerned with. When you look at that Old Testament law, what you find is a system of faith and works, not just faith. As a matter of fact, the word faith only shows up this many times in the Old Testament, twice. That doesn't mean Old Testament saints did not have faith because we read Hebrews chapter 11 and they certainly had faith. But what that shows you when you look specifically here in Ezekiel chapter number 18, you're going to see that specifically, let's pick it up around verse number five. we're gonna see that a man's works determined whether he was considered righteous or wicked. Look in verse five. But if a man be just and do that which is lawful and right, and hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled his neighbor's wife, neither hath come near to a minstreless woman, and hath not oppressed any, but hath restored to the debtor his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment. He that hath not given forth upon usury, neither hath taken any increase, that hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity, and hath executed true judgment between man and man, hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept my judgments to deal truly. He is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord God. You say, what is that? There's some faith certainly in there, but the majority of what you read was works, what the guy did. If the guy did right, he's considered righteous. If he did wrong, he's considered wicked. Then he goes on to talk about his son. If he begots a son that's a robber, verse 10, shedder of blood, that doeth like any one of these things, and that doeth not any of those duties, but even hath eaten upon the mountains, and defiled his neighbor's wife, hath depressed the poor, needy, and spoiled by violence, hath not restored the pledge, and hath lifted up his eyes to the idols, hath committed abomination, hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase, shall he then live? He shall not live, he hath done all these abominations, he shall surely die, his blood shall be upon him. So what he's saying is, look, the son doesn't get credit for what his dad does, and the dad doesn't get bad credit for what his son does. If you keep reading down through here, he keeps going through this over and over. Notice verse number 20, the soul that sinneth It shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. Well, what happens, verse 21? If the wicked shall turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my statutes, works. Well, preacher, I didn't think you could keep God's commandments. Well, you just read that you could. So you're confusing sinlessness with keeping God's commandments. Job was a perfect and upright man, but he wasn't sinless. Zacchaeus and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist, the Bible says they kept the commandments of God and walked in all the ordinances of the Lord blameless. They weren't sinless. So you're confusing the two. So if the guy does right, he turns from all the sins that he did and he does lawful and right, he shall surely live and his transgressions will not be mentioned, verse 22. Have I any pleasure in the death? Have I any pleasure, verse number 23, at all that the wicked shall die? Look in verse 24. But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? You say, well, sure, because he's saved. And everybody in the Bible has eternal security. Chapter and verse, or is that just your Baptist theology? The Baptist can go jump in the lake as far as I'm concerned. I don't care what the Baptist teach. I care what the Bible says. Saul lost the Holy Spirit. Samson lost the Holy Spirit. David prayed for God not to take the Holy Spirit after he committed murder and adultery, two sins that there was no sacrifice for. That's not New Testament salvation. You can't make the whole Bible a Baptist Bible. Verse 24, he doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, and them shall he die. You say, well, that's just talking about the physical life of the person. They have excuses. And I'm saying this because I'm quoting actual guys that try to defend this Baptist saved the same all throughout the Bible junk. If that's the case, okay, physical life. If a guy dies wicked, where does he go? Psalm 917, the wicked shall be turned into hell. Okay, he used to be righteous, but then he started committing these sins, that's physical death. Okay, he dies physically. The wicked shall be turned into hell. He used to be righteous, now he's wicked, he goes to hell because he did bad works instead of good works. That's the Old Testament law. And you can't force that into the New Testament. Go over to the book of Deuteronomy. Let me show it to you again. We could give you verse after verse. Psalms has a lot of them, but just for the sake of time, Deuteronomy chapter 6. Look at the last verse in the chapter. Deuteronomy chapter 6. This is the great chapter on the Great Commandment. Genesis, I mean Deuteronomy 6, 4 and 5, there's the great commandment, loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, might. Notice the very last of the chapter. Look in verse 25. This is not New Testament salvation. Deuteronomy 6, 25, and it shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God as he hath commanded us. So personal righteousness was attributed to a man when he obeyed God's laws. He had to have faith, obviously, in what God said, but he had to do those things. If he didn't do those things, it didn't work. His salvation was no good. Now come to the New Testament, I'll show you some things here. Let's look at this. Let's go to Romans 3 because this will be a great contrast. between what we just read. Under the Old Testament law, a man had to have faith, but he had to have works. If his righteousness didn't line up, then he was not considered righteous because it was his righteousness. You say, what about Abraham? Abraham's before the law. We'll talk about him in a minute when we go to James 2 and Romans 4. But notice in Romans chapter number 3, look at the contrast of this. Pick it up in verse number 21. But now the righteousness of God without the law was manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Now back up to verse number 20, you see that by the deeds of the law, there should no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. So there's not justification like we have it in the New Testament sins. The justifying that God did in the Old Testament was based on whether a person was righteous or whether they would wicked what they did based on the Old Testament law. But that Old Testament law could not make anybody righteous. It was the righteous deeds that they did because an Old Testament Gentile, if he didn't even have the law and he did that which was right, he was considered a righteous person. Look at verse 21, but now the righteousness of God, that's a key phrase in the New Testament. The righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded by what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is not Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Big difference between Old and New Testament. In John chapter one, verse number 17, the Bible says, the law came by Moses, but grace and truth by Jesus Christ. Big contrast. Old Testament, New Testament. Notice, if you will, come over to the book of Galatians. Galatians develops the argument in the church age that you're justified by faith without the deeds of the law. But he makes some comments about the law here that we would do well to take heed. Look in Galatians chapter number three, verse number 10. Galatians chapter three, verse number 10. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. For the just shall live by faith, and the law is not of faith. Look at that, the law is not of faith. But the man that doeth them shall live in them. That's a quotation from Leviticus. So it's a big difference between the Old and New Testament. Notice in Galatians chapter 3 verse 24, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith has come we are no longer under a schoolmaster for you are all children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. Now come over to chapter 5 of Galatians. Now let's look at this. Here's a contrast. I want you to see a couple of things in Galatians and we'll go to Ephesians. Look in verse 16. Galatians 5.16, this I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would. But if you be led of the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, and he goes through this whole list. adultery, fornication, uncleanness, witchcraft, envy, murder, drunkenness. Verse 21, they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Then he says the fruit of the spirit. So he's telling Christians to not follow the works of the flesh, but to follow the fruit of the spirit. So here's the confusion if you don't rightly divide the word of truth. The confusion comes in. Under the Old Testament, if a man is wicked and he does these things that are listed in Galatians chapter five, that guy's gonna die and go to hell. But we know from a plethora of other verses, which we won't go through tonight, that a New Testament Christian is sealed and secure and has eternal life. And there's nothing that can affect his salvation. And Paul's warning these Christians about these very sins that an Old Testament person, if he did, he'd die and go to hell. That shows you a stark contrast between the Old and New Testament. Look over at the book of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter five. But here's what the Baptists do, or Calvinists, or whatever, they come in and they'll say, well, if you do those things, you never were saved to begin with. So then, every few years, you have an evangelist come in, maybe he's kind of a camp meeting preacher. A lot of the camp meeting preachers, they wouldn't know theology if the book dropped off the shelf and hit them with it. but they're up there preaching all this Calvinism, they don't even believe in Calvinism, and they're saying, well, if what you got won't get you to church on Sunday night, ah, what makes you think it's gonna get you to heaven, ah? That's good preaching to a lot of people, but that is absolute foolishness. Well, when I got saved, I put my cigarettes down the first night. Bless God, if God ain't giving you victory over this, you probably ain't never been saved to start with. Then what they do is, all of a sudden, the piano player gets saved, the preacher's wife gets saved, the secretary gets saved, four deacons get saved, and half the church gets saved because they never were saved to start with. Happens all over this country. They had revival. No, they had a bunch of what we call retreads. Y'all know those, Brother Ricky knows what I'm talking about, those trucks. You're riding down the road, you see those retreads come off. They just keep the same tire and they keep treading it. A person got saved, but what happened is, we're gonna see it here in Ephesians 5, they did some sins that are certainly not approvable. Of course, when they do those retread services, they never talk about covetousness or gluttony. Most of the time, the preachers are 400 pounds anyway. That's why they gotta breathe like they breathe, you know. Bless God. Y'all heard him preaching, I'd like to hear some of it. It's exciting. Mays Jackson was one of my favorite, man. The truck driver special. And he'd get to preaching and talking, and he actually could preach, you know, but half those guys can't preach their way out of a wet paper sack. But look in Ephesians chapter number 5, look at the command of Christians, verse 16, I mean verse 18. And be not drunk with wine. You mean a Christian could get drunk? Yeah, you mean a Christian can gossip? You ever look at the sin of gossip in Romans 1 and see what else is in the list in Romans 1 with gossip? Homosexuality. See, the Baptist retread preacher's not gonna talk about that. Bless God, if you didn't give up your gossip the day that you got saved, I doubt you've ever been saved. Why don't they talk about, you know, your laziness? You haven't preached but five messages in the last 35 years because you can't study the Bible. I don't have a whole lot of patience for that. Evangelists, they have about 15 messages and the rest of the time they spend eating at everybody's house. I'm just having fun with it. Just give me some liberty. I know some of those guys are good. I look and some of them are just ignorant. Hey, you can get away with it sitting in the pew, but if you stand behind the pulpit, you're supposed to know what you're talking about. Just because you don't like a certain preacher, you're not gonna read his books and learn something, is not gonna be an excuse of the judgment seat of Christ. Amen, amen. So you wanna understand that. Now here, this leads into the next thing. I already gave it to you, so let's just go to Judges 16. We won't go to 1 Samuel. Look in Judges 16. This is one of, Two known cases that are very vivid and clear in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, under the law, the Holy Spirit of God came in people and on people, but the Holy Spirit of God also left people. Look in Judges chapter 16, then we'll look over in the New Testament. Here's Samson, Judges chapter 16, come down, if you will, to verse number 20. Judges 16, 20, and she said, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep and said, I will go out as at other times before and shake myself. And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him. It's the same thing with Saul. And for the reference on that, if you want it, 1 Samuel 16 verse 14. And the other reference is Psalm 51, that's when David said, I pray you take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Now in Ephesians chapter one, turn over if you're still in Ephesians, Ephesians one and Ephesians four, these are two great verses that show that a New Testament believer in the church age, the Holy Spirit resides forever. Ephesians one and Ephesians four. So the work of the Holy Spirit's different. Now, the interesting thing about some Bible teachers is they will admit that. They will admit, if you've got a Scofield Bible, you'll find some things about the difference of the work of the Holy Spirit between the Old and New Testament. That's pretty good, but here's my problem. My problem is this. When you study the work of salvation, it is directly related to the regenerative power of the Holy Spirit. I mean, if you just take the Holy Spirit out of the salvation equation, you lose a third of what God's doing. And so if you notice that the work, and by the way, Jesus hadn't died yet in the Old Testament, that's a pretty big part of the salvation equation. He hasn't risen from the dead in the Old Testament. That's a pretty big part of the salvation equation. And God hasn't given his son. That's a pretty big part. And God has not been satisfied with the sacrifice. That's a pretty big part of the Old Testament equation too. If you try to look at it that way, well, they admit the work of the Holy Spirit is different in the Old Testament. Well, how in the world are you gonna say that doesn't have an effect on the teaching of soteriology, the study of salvation? To me, that, you check out your brains. Ephesians chapter number one, notice, if you will, in verse number 13, in whom ye also trusted, Christ, verse number 12, and whom you also trusted. After that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. And Jesus gave that promise in John. He said the Holy Spirit will abide with you forever. He doesn't come and go. Whenever you sin, he doesn't leave. Now you might experience a lack of fellowship, but there's a difference in fellowship and your salvation. And you might be distant from your family. That doesn't mean they're not your blood kin anymore, but you might not be talking to them. Chapter number four is another one on the Holy Spirit here. Real quick, and then I'll move on to one more. I don't think I'm going to make it to James. Ephesians chapter four, verse number 30. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. That day of redemption is defined in Romans chapter eight, the redemption of your body, the rapture. So until the Lord takes you either by death or by rapture, you're sealed. You can't lose your salvation in the church age. And that's a big deal, you wanna understand that. Now let's talk real quick, go to Luke chapter 16. and get Luke 16 in one hand and 2 Corinthians 5 in the other. We'll compare what happened when a soul departed at death between the Old and New Testaments. 2 Corinthians 5 and Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16 is not a parable. You'll notice here in the text, Luke chapter 16, beginning down in verse 19. There's no indication that this is a parable because number one, it doesn't say it, and a lot of times it'll say Jesus spake this parable. And number two, never in a parable that we know of, you can go through and read all the parables, does Jesus actually give people's names, never. And so this isn't a parable. If you have a Bible that says the parable above this, the parable of the rich man, you need to take a little marker and just scratch through it. Because the editors of those Bibles didn't have any sense. And I say I'm being as charitable as I can. Because that leads into all of this garbage. And what's taking place now in theology is a lot of your big theologians are starting to believe in annihilation. and they don't believe in eternal torment. They don't believe the soul goes either to heaven or hell at death. I'm talking about supposed orthodox theologians, supposed Christian theologians. When people start air conditioning in hell, there's a problem. So here's the rich man, what happens to him? Verse 19, he's clothed in purple, fine linen, fared sumptuously every day. Verse 20, there was a certain beggar named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores and desiring to be fed from the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried and in hell he lift up his eyes being in torments. So a soul has eyes. Soul has eyes, ears, nose, mouth, feet, hands, all that. The soul looks just like the body. It's inside the body. It's kind of like an inner tube. You have an inner tube inside of a tire. The inner tube's the same shape as the tire. It's kind of like an egg. You have the shell on the outside. The white part's the same shape as the shell. Your soul looks just like your body. That's why in Revelation, they didn't see the souls until they put robes on them, and then there's Caspar the ghost standing there. You wonder why they put robes on ghosts. There you go. So here's the man, he's in hell and he's crying out. Notice what happens here in verse 24. He cried and said, Father Abraham, what's Abraham doing in hell? Well, keep reading. Have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, water. and cool my tongue for I'm tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things. But now he is comforted and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you. So there's a division in there. Between us and you, there's a great gulf fixed, so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou would ascend into my father's house, where I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. So I'm assuming that this is at least 1500 BC, Moses is alive, and this is Abraham's already dead. Of course, Abraham died a lot, Abraham's like 1700 BC. And so Moses is either alive or he's referring to the Old Testament Bible, the law and the Torah and the Nabim and the Kethubim, the prophets. Either way, the man can't go back. And he says, if they go unto the dead, they will repent. He said, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded that one rose from the dead. So here's this guy, Lazarus, and he's over there with Abraham. So he's a son of Abraham, which would make him a Jew. And when he dies, his soul does not go in the presence of God. It goes in this place called Abraham's bosom. Now we know, I don't have time to give you all the verses. If you don't have them, you can come to me and I'll give them to you. But we know that this is in the center of the earth. And even if you took a drill and drilled down there, it's gonna get real hot, because the core of the earth's on fire. But you're dealing with the spirit world. Just like there may be spirits in here now that aren't human. There's probably devils in here right now as I'm talking to you, in between my mouth and your ears. Dim the lights, Brother Richie. You know, when you think about that stuff, they're here but you can't see them because we're in the flesh. You can't see them until you die. Then you go either to heaven or hell. And so those unclean, those souls are down in hell. And if you drilled down physically, you couldn't see it, but it's there. It's in the heart of the earth. Matthew 12, verse 40. Compare that to Acts 2, 27. And you understand Job 28, verse five, I think is the other one. Hell's in the center of the earth. Now, when we look at this passage, we find out this place Abraham's bosom there. And when an Old Testament Jew would die, that's where he went. You say, why? Well, his sins were still on him. He wasn't forgiven. I mean, he wasn't cleared. His sins were forgiven, but they weren't cleared. In Ephesians chapter number four, the Bible tells us Jesus led captivity captive, and we know that in Matthew 27, when he dies on the cross, many of the saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection. Now look over in 2 Corinthians 5 and look at this. If you're saved and you die in the church aid, this is what's gonna happen to you. Look in 2 Corinthians chapter five. Verse number two, for in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. If so that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened. Not for that we would be unclothed but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the self same thing as God who also hath given unto us the earnest of the spirit. That's the down payment. So you have the Holy Spirit until you see the Lord. Therefore, we are always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. You can jot down Philippians 121 beside that. And Paul says to depart and be with Christ is far better. So if you die in this age, New Testament Christian, believer in Christ, you're gonna depart and you're not going down to Abraham's bosom, across from that fiery place, you're gonna go straight into the presence of God. And that's a big difference between Old and New Testament. And so instead of confusion, it brings clarity. And if you try to force what you know as New Testament doctrine, I'm eternally secure, I have the Holy Spirit, I can't lose my salvation. If you start trying to force that in the entire Bible, you're gonna bring confusion. And you can't do that. We are to be Bible believers. You say, well, I don't understand it. You're not supposed to understand it, you're supposed to believe it. Believe it first, and then if you believe it, you can understand some of it. We can't understand all of it because God wrote it, not us. But it sure does fit together a whole lot better if you will rightly divide and leave things where they're supposed to go. And instead of trying to force things in your own, that's called private interpretation. In First Peter, it's called resting the scriptures. You know how people wrestle? You ever seen those guys and they'll wrestle and they'll get a ground, their ground, their ground, and they're grabbing ahold of each other and they're working and working and trying to get the right angle and the right leverage. and they keep at it long enough, they can wait for some weakness there and then they can flip them around and get them where they want them. You're not supposed to rest the scriptures. The scriptures are true just like God said it where he said it. Our job is to believe it. If what you've been taught all your Christian life goes contrary to the Bible, what you've been taught is wrong. I don't care what it is. We are not Bible scholars, we're Bible students and we're supposed to believe the Bible. And unfortunately, a lot of people don't have a high estimation of scripture. And here's what happens. I try to be broad-minded enough to find out how it happens. And I think I've kind of pegged it. I think that what happens with these people that study a whole lot, and they read a whole lot, and they esteem a lot of their teachers and so forth, what they're doing inadvertently, they're believing what they're being taught with equal authority as the verses they're reading in the Bible. And my words are not God's words. You don't need to confuse what I say with what the Bible says. But people do. They say, well, so and so always taught this. I don't care. I mean, that really doesn't matter. This book has got to be your authority. And so we need clarity. We don't need confusion. I think if you rightly divide the word of truth, that's what we get. All right, we'll stop there. Next week, we're going to talk a little bit about some practical things regarding perspective and how this actually will help you validate your faith. Because this is a big problem, even among Bible believers. All right, Lord, thank you for the scriptures.