[0:00] And we've begun a study on rightly dividing the word of truth. Showed you the need for it. And showed you how through the Bible there are different commands.
[0:11] ! It is impossible to obey all of them. Because these commands throughout Scripture in some ways contradict one another. And that's okay.
[0:22] It's just up to us to understand the Bible and understand if that's one for us to obey or for somebody else to obey. But you can't obey at all. I gave you the real obvious and easy illustration of that or example of that with food.
[0:39] When one time something's forbidden, another time something's allowed, and then another time it's forbidden again. And then it's wide open again and just back and forth. So today I want to show you a...
[0:53] I want to introduce another concept that... I want to give you a couple of these throughout this study that are all kind of building blocks. They all work together in understanding divisions and how to interpret Scripture correctly.
[1:07] And I don't know that I could say any of these are like a solid, a cover-to-cover Bible doctrine. And so I'm just calling it a concept.
[1:21] And I think you'll understand why. It's real. It's necessary. And it's not as always cut and dry and black and white as some expect it to be perhaps.
[1:35] But what I want to show you this morning is that oftentimes in the Bible God will send or use a messenger, a man, a preacher. It may be more than one at a particular time.
[1:46] But the idea is that the Lord sends His Word to man, His instructions or His commands through a messenger. And there are different messengers throughout the entirety of the Bible.
[2:01] And if you're going to obey God, you're going to have to fall in line with whomever that messenger is that God's speaking through. And the messengers change as well as the messages change throughout the course of time and as God changes and shifts His dealings.
[2:18] And so we could consider these maybe as spokesmen for God. And what I'll show you is that there's too many references to cover them all just to even reveal this.
[2:30] But God speaks through a man. You can understand that. You can start looking at most of the minor prophets. And a lot of their very first verse shows you the Word of the Lord which came or which He spoke by such and such.
[2:41] And so God speaks to men through men. And I want to show you just in Hebrews chapter 1 just to start off case and point. So look at the very first verse, Hebrews 1 verse 1.
[2:52] God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. And so we understand that by reading through our Old Testament.
[3:05] There's prophets. These men are not always just prophesying or speaking of the future, forth telling. But they're preaching. They're declaring the Word of God, making them a mouthpiece, which is what a prophet is.
[3:17] A mouthpiece for another. In this case, obviously for God. God spake in time past by the prophets. And so the Word of God is coming from a messenger.
[3:30] In this case, it's the prophets. And it tells you who the recipient of the message is there. He says He spake unto the fathers. Now the book is entitled Hebrews. These are the Hebrew fathers.
[3:41] These are those men that are somewhat of the Old Testament. And God's speaking to the Old Testament saints of the past by the prophets. So we have a messenger, the prophets, delivering a message, the Word of God, to a recipient, to the fathers.
[4:00] Now it carries on beyond that. Look at verse number 2. God, again, the subject, hath in these last days, not in time past, but in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things.
[4:14] And so now God has a different message, and He's using a different messenger. Sure. In the old time, it was the prophets. But now it's the Lord Jesus Christ, as the author here is writing to the Hebrews to point them to the Lord Jesus Christ.
[4:30] And He says God spake to the fathers. We all acknowledge that, if you're considering yourself a Hebrew and just kind of seeing it through their eyes, because they're the recipients of this. God spake to our fathers by the prophets.
[4:43] Yes, He did. They all get that. They have their Old Testament scriptures. And He says, but in these days, He spoke to us by His Son. And so He's pointing to a new messenger sent from God with a new message from God.
[4:56] I'll show you that. And it's to this generation now of Hebrews. Not the same generation. It's a different people. So there's different messengers for different times with different messages to different recipients.
[5:12] As I said, different times. Let me give you a different example of this. Come back to John chapter 1. The Gospel of John chapter 1. So we're just taking a little different angle on introducing more concepts of right division.
[5:31] And when you can picture that timeline we had on the board last week, it'll help you to see where certain things fit. And that's an incredibly important and valuable visual with those dividing events.
[5:45] So now John chapter 1. And let's take a look here at the beginning of the book. In verse number 6 through 8.
[5:56] There was a man sent from God whose name was John. So there's our messenger. There's the man. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through Him might believe.
[6:08] He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. And so John came with a message. And we'll get to a little more of that later. But look over to verse 29. Here's a portion or part of what he's preaching, his calling.
[6:22] The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said after me cometh a man which is preferred before me for he was before me.
[6:37] And I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest, notice next two words, To Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. So John is the messenger in this case that is sent from God.
[6:51] John has a message. And John has a people that he's delivering that message to, a recipient of the message. Here it's plainly Israel in verse 31. Now there's more to John's message than just, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.
[7:06] But for now let's just understand the concept how God, When he wants to speak to a people or in a time or whatever it is, He's going to send a messenger to them.
[7:17] And that messenger is going to carry the word of God, that message. And it's going to differ from place to place, from people to people. If I stood up here and said, Yet forty days in Nineveh shall be overthrown, That is the word of God.
[7:35] But what business do I have pronouncing that word to you? What business do I have saying, Silmar shall be overthrown? That would be tweaking the word of God.
[7:47] That wouldn't be right. But if I quoted verbatim the words of God, That doesn't mean it applies though, does it? Just because it's in the book and because it was one man's message. That was Jonah's message.
[7:58] So what if somebody else in Jonah's, Or what if, Oh, I don't know. What if Zachariah showed up to Nineveh And said, Yet forty days in Nineveh shall be overthrown.
[8:14] He is a messenger sent from God, But he's preaching a message that is not from God for him to preach. He's preaching somebody else's message for a different time. And so we can't cross these lines. We have to keep these in the right category they're at.
[8:27] Now, following the wrong man, And following the wrong message, Would be just as dangerous as ignoring the right one. And let me show you how dangerous that is, Just from this gospel alone.
[8:41] Look at John chapter 9. Flip over to John chapter 9. Before we read this, just by way of illustration, Let's say that you have a father.
[8:57] And he tells you, This is how I want my garage to be kept. I want these to be put here, This to go up here, This to go over here. This is my garage. This is what I want. And so you're under the authority of your father, And you do what he tells you, And you keep the garage the way you put the things where they belong according to him.
[9:15] But what if you go to work, And you find your boss says, Hey, put that over there, And put this over here. You don't get to say, No, my dad says that these go above that, And that goes, But you don't, You've got different authority now.
[9:26] And it's his authority that tells you what to do in that scene. You don't get the two crossed, do you? Or you're going to have a problem. And then you become your own man, And have your own garage, And you don't have to do what your dad says, Or what your boss says.
[9:39] You can do what you want. And now there's a third authority. And it's such a simple idea, But you cannot cross and intersect, When God gives a message to one person, Or at one time, Through one man, It stays there.
[9:53] And you don't try to apply it to you, Or you don't try to take what's given from another man, And put it on them either. Let's look at a case in point of this exactly in the Bible. Look at verse 24. This is a blind man that was healed by the Lord Jesus Christ.
[10:06] And they call him in to question him into the synagogue. They question his parents. Now they question him. In verse 24, Then again called they the man that was blind, And said unto him, Give God the praise.
[10:17] We know that this man, Speaking of Jesus, We know that this man is a sinner. He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not. One thing I know, That whereas I was blind, Now I see.
[10:30] Then said they to him, What did he to thee? How opened he thine eyes? He answered them, I told you already, And you did not hear. Wherefore would you hear it again? Will you also be his disciples? And they reviled him and said, Thou art his disciple, But we are Moses' disciples.
[10:47] That's an important line. What is that telling you? They are following Moses. Moses. When a new messenger came on the scene, God spoke to us by his son.
[10:57] We read that. A new message from God, Through a new messenger came, And they rejected it. And they said, No, We are still going to follow a different man, That a different message. We are Moses' disciples.
[11:09] Verse 29, We know that God spake unto Moses. As for this fellow, We know not from whence he is. The man answered and said unto them, Why, Here is a marvelous thing, That ye know not from whence he is.
[11:21] And yet he hath opened by an eyes. Now we know that God heareth not sinners, But if any man be a worshiper of God, And doeth his will, Him he heareth. Since the world began, Was it not heard, That any man opened the eyes of one that is born blind?
[11:35] If this man were not of God, He could do nothing. And they get fired up about that, And cast him out, And attack him a little bit more. Now you see the case here, Where these people, Are still following a different messenger, When God had plainly sent to them, His own son, The Lord Jesus Christ.
[11:55] Flip over to chapter 12, And just to see the words of the Lord Jesus here, I'll start at the end of the chapter, Yeah, I'll just go to the end here, For sake of time, Look at verse 47, If any man hear my words, And believe not, I judge him not, For I came not to judge the world, But to save the world.
[12:22] He that rejecteth me, And receiveth not my words, Hath one that judgeth him. The word that I have spoken, The same shall judge him in the last day. So they will be judged. Now verse 49 says, For I have not spoken of myself, But the Father which sent me, He gave me a commandment, What I should say, And what I should speak.
[12:41] And I know that his commandment, Is life everlasting. Whatsoever I speak therefore, Even as the Father said unto me, So I speak. So Jesus Christ is claiming, To be sent from the Father, With a message from the Father, To his people Israel.
[12:56] They have a choice, To receive it, And to believe his words, Or to reject him. And receive not his words. That's their choice. They already declared, Who they're following.
[13:08] We are not following you, We don't even know where you came from. We're going to follow Moses, And we're going to stick with Moses. Now come back to Matthew chapter 5, And let's just stay on this, Just a little bit more.
[13:19] This difference between Moses, And Jesus Christ. Because they are two different messengers. Both from God.
[13:31] Both delivering the word of God. But two different messengers. And their preaching and teaching, Is aimed at two different generations. In Matthew chapter 5, Watch how the Lord Jesus Christ, Handles the words of Moses, And what he has to say about it.
[13:49] This is the whole, Last half of the chapter. I'll start in verse 21. You have heard that it was said by them of old time, And now he quotes Moses, Thou shalt not kill.
[14:03] And whosoever shall kill, Shall be in danger of the judgment. So you heard that that's what they said. That's what they commanded. That's what the message of God was, From Moses, his messenger.
[14:16] But now, verse 22, But, contrast, But I say unto you, Jesus Christ says something different. Whosoever is angry with his brother, Without a cause, Shall be in danger of the judgment.
[14:29] That's not killing him. That's just, That's a whole other level. Now I know a lot of people like to just take this, And kind of just smash it together, And spiritualize it, And say, Well, Jesus is really aiming at the heart of the law, The spirit of the law, And not the letter.
[14:44] And the truth is, Well, it's not the truth. Look a little further. Look a little further at 27, The next case of this. There's about five or six cases in this chapter. 27, Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery.
[15:00] That's an act, Committing adultery. That's what the commandment said. But, I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, Hath committed adultery with her already, In his heart.
[15:15] So Moses commanded one thing, The Lord Jesus Christ took it to a whole other level, And he said, But I say, And that's what they said, That's what Moses commanded, But I say, And he gives a whole, More pointed, Puts a microscope on the heart, And tells you where the sin lies.
[15:34] Now, If this was, If I had a choice, As a man, I'd say, I'll stick with Moses. Moses said, You can look, But you can't touch. And Jesus said, No, You can't look.
[15:47] You can't look upon them, With lust in your heart. Or you're guilty. And how much easier would it be, Quote, Unquote easier, To live during the time, When the command was, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Than for the Lord Jesus Christ, To bring it to a whole other level, And say, The truth, The sins in your heart, And you're guilty before God.
[16:07] But were men guilty before God, For looking? In the old, Because the command didn't say that. You couldn't bring your brother, Before the judge, And say, Hey, He was looking at my wife, The other day.
[16:18] Okay, So what? You can't bring him, To judgment for that. You can't lay stripes on him. You can't, He's not worthy of death, Because he didn't commit adultery. But the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ now introduces something new.
[16:31] And it has a place, And it has a time, And we'll discuss that down the road. But for now, You're seeing a difference. The difference shows up again, In verse 31 and 2. There's another one about divorce.
[16:43] And if you want to just, Peek through the chapter, 33, Again, Ye have heard that it hath been said of old time, Has to do with your swearing, Your covenants. Verse 38 is another case.
[16:55] You have heard of them that it said, Look at this one, This is a good one. 38, Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, And a tooth for a tooth. That's the book of Exodus. That is Moses, Delivering the word of God, To this people, How to govern them.
[17:10] But Christ says, That's not how it's going to be. Verse 39, But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil. That's not just taking the command, And like, Spiritualizing, Or making, Aiming at the heart.
[17:21] That's a whole nother thing. Resist not the evil. Whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, Turn to him the other also. That is not even close to what Moses commanded.
[17:32] The last one's in verse 43 and 4. Loving your neighbor, Hating your enemy. But he says, Love your enemies. Bless them. Do good to them. So you're seeing a difference in these, In the message here.
[17:46] Why is that? Because it's a different spokesman, Or a different messenger. Moses versus Jesus Christ. It's a different message, And it's to a different generation, A different time.
[17:57] There's something going on in Matthew chapter 5, That is not going on in Exodus chapter 20. And what the Lord Jesus Christ is showing up on the scene, Is to prepare the people for something, That God had promised them a long time ago.
[18:11] And it's the culmination of, It's coming to pass. What did he preach? He preached the message saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. And along with that, Comes a new set of teaching, A new message, That Moses never intended, God never intended, To put on his people in the wilderness.
[18:29] So we have to make a division. We have to see a difference. And we're going to use the messengers now, To start to open our eyes to different messengers, To different ways of dividing between, And not overlapping and making mistakes.
[18:43] So the Jews rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. They murdered him. And they said, We're going to stick with Moses. Now just briefly here, We'll take a little walk through the Old Testament.
[18:54] And I'm not going to study these passages out, And go through them, But if you're familiar with your Bible, If we started in Genesis, And we kind of just, Just hopscotch through some passages. Let's just consider, Of the man Noah.
[19:08] He shows up in Genesis chapter 6, He goes 6, 7, 8, and 9. And the man Noah, Is given a message from God. He's called a preacher of righteousness. And he shows up to tell the people, That God is going to destroy this world, And he's going to do it with a flood of water.
[19:25] And the people scoff, And they're willfully ignorant, And they mock, And they don't give a rip. If you were alive in the age and day of Noah, And heard his preaching, You would have never have seen water fall from the sky.
[19:40] You would have never seen a flood of water, Go up above the mountaintops. And you furthermore would have never seen a man building, Likely building such a vessel as he was building, Out in the middle of nowhere, In a plane or something.
[19:53] And the amount of work. And so all of this is just not adding up to you. But he's preaching, He's delivering a message from God. He is a messenger, Preaching. And only his family, Only seven other souls, Believed and followed with his message.
[20:09] The question is, If you were alive in that day, As absurd as all of this was, Would you have followed the messenger that God sent, And the message that he delivered? Or would you say, That's absurd.
[20:22] That doesn't happen. So you'd have to make a choice. You would have followed Noah, The messenger God sent, And you'd be delivered, Or you'd be destroyed.
[20:33] So we'll fast forward a little bit into the book of Exodus, Where we've been studying. And Moses shows up in Egypt, With a message from God. And his message says, That God is going to come through tonight, And he's going to slay the firstborn of every man, And every beast, And all the land.
[20:52] And you're not going to be protected, Just because you're in the land of Goshen. He's coming through the entire land of Egypt, And the only way around this, Is to slay the lamb, And to put the blood on the lintel in the doorposts, And when I see the blood, I'll pass over you.
[21:07] And so, What are you going to do about that one? Are you going to obey the messenger, That God sent to you? God didn't show up to you in a vision, And there's no scripture for you, To be flipping through the pages and studying, Oh I'll see if that's so.
[21:20] No, God sent a man to your doorstep, To tell you exactly what to do, How to avoid this judgment. And so you have a man to follow, You have a spokesman, You have a messenger from God.
[21:33] Now furthermore, Moses gets credited with all of those commands, And all of the Old Testament as it were, And so I think we have a pretty sound understanding of that. But when Moses steps off the scene, Another man takes over.
[21:47] And if you're an Israelite in the wilderness, You've got a new man to follow, A new leader, His name's Joshua. And when Joshua says up, Sanctify the people, Against the third day, And we'll cross it over this river, You going to listen to him?
[22:01] Or are you going to say, I'll do it today? What are you going to do? You're going to have to listen, And find that messenger, That God is sending with a message to you, For the life that you're living, The time you're alive.
[22:12] And then we get into the prophets, And that's kind of another easy one to understand, That throughout history, We already looked at it in Hebrews, That God sent prophets to his kings, He sent them to his people, Rising up early and sending, And often times they would not, And they forbear, And they sometimes beat them, And sent them away, Much like the parable Jesus spoke against them, Saying that he sent them to you, And you killed them.
[22:37] And so in the Old Testament, Various men, At various times, Had different messages, To that generation, And it was up to you to follow it.
[22:49] Now it's so simple to get this, But if that's all we had to work with, And if the Lord Jesus Christ never came, And we don't know anything about the New Testament, The Gospels, The Calvary, The Apostle Paul, If we didn't know any of that, All we had was the Old Testament, Where would we be, And what would we be following, And obeying, And observing?
[23:10] You'd have to know how to rightly divide your Bible, You'd have to know what command is aimed at you, And who the messenger that God sent to you, Because Moses is long gone. You know what those prophets were preaching to the people?
[23:23] They were pointing back to Moses. They were warning and threatening, Saying, God is going to judge, Because you haven't obeyed my laws, You have forsaken my commands.
[23:33] They're pointing back to the word of God, That came through Moses, Because God had not updated that yet. He had not changed anything yet. Alright, so now let's just kind of fast forward a little bit, Into the Gospels time, And find, We already looked at John the Baptist, Look at Matthew chapter 3, And this is the other portion, Of John the Baptist's message.
[24:02] Matter of fact, There's a verse, There's a verse, Yeah, Look at chapter 11 first, Look at Matthew chapter 11, This is a real important verse, A dividing verse, That is, As far as really getting down into some nitty gritty, Of this, But, We're not going to, Dig into this too much, But I want you to see the verse, Matthew 11, And verse 13, The Lord Jesus Christ says, For all the prophets, And the law, There's Moses, Prophesied, Until, John, Until John, So when John the Baptist shows up, Back to chapter 3 now, There's a division, There's a new message, There's a new messenger, And he's not going to preach Moses anymore, He's going to have a new message for God's people,
[25:04] Look at Matthew chapter 3, In verse number 1, In those days came John the Baptist, Preaching in the wilderness of Judea, And saying, Repent ye, For the kingdom of heaven is at hand, John showed up preaching, You can look into, A couple more verses, And see some of his message, You can see some of his message, In the book of Luke, And how he addresses people, And what shall we do, And he tells them what to do, John showed up, Christ said, The law, And the prophets, And the law, They came up to a certain point, But now there's a change, And John the Baptist, Has a message for God's people, Involving the kingdom of heaven, He's demanding their repentance, He's calling for them to be baptized, Into this thing, John the Baptist preached that, Look at chapter 4, And verse number 17, From that time Jesus began to preach, And to say repent,
[26:05] For the kingdom of heaven, Is at hand, So the Lord Jesus Christ himself, Has that same message, So you've got two messengers, John at this time, Back in verse 12, He's in prison, So he's not getting around, Doing his ministry anymore, So the Lord Jesus Christ now, Steps up and begins proclaiming, The same message, Look at chapter 10, Matthew chapter 10, In verse number 1, Actually let me back up, Just a little bit, To chapter 9, Verse 35, The Lord Jesus ministry, Is moving forward, In verse 35, Jesus went about, All the cities and villages, Teaching in their synagogues, And preaching the gospel, Of the kingdom, And healing every sickness, And every disease, Among the people, And so the Lord Jesus, Has signs,
[27:07] To prove, Remember how he calls on those works, To say, If you don't believe my words, Believe me for the works sake, That I am come from God, And so my message is true, And you should believe me, And follow me, That's why those signs are there, The signs are connected, To the message that he has, Now in chapter 10, Verse 1, When he had called unto him, His twelve disciples, He gave them power, Against unclean spirits, Now they have signs, To accompany a message, That message is, Start in verse number 5, These twelve, Jesus sent forth, And commanded them saying, Go not into the way, Of the Gentiles, And into any city, Of the Samaritans, Enter ye not, But go rather, To the lost sheep, Of the house of Israel, And as ye go, Preach, Saying, The kingdom of heaven, Is at hand, And there's the signs, In verse 8 again, That are going to accompany, This message, Of a Jewish, Promised Jewish kingdom,
[28:10] To come, It's at hand, Malachi, Malachi, Malachi, Was not telling the people, The kingdom of heaven, Is at hand, Isaiah, Isaiah, Prophesied, And taught, Of the future kingdom, That it would come, But he never said, It's at hand, It's right here Jews, It's ready for you, But, When John the Baptist, Showed up, The law, And the prophets, All of that, Was what they were under, Waiting, Waiting, Waiting, For God to move, And to do something, And to fill his promises, And here comes, John the Baptist, With a message, There's a division, And now going forward, If you're in Israel, A Jew in Israel, Not a Samaritan, Not a Babylonian, But if you're a Jew in Israel, You've got a new messenger, That you need to hear, It's John the Baptist, It's Jesus Christ, And it's his 12 apostles, As they're sent out to preach, Elsewhere in Luke, He sends 70 other, And he sends them two by two, And he gives them the same, And commission to preach,
[29:11] And so the Lord Jesus Christ, There's a new thing happening, In this time, There's new messengers, From God, With a message from God, To a people, In that day and age, So what happens, Well we know, If we kind of just kept moving forward, And skipping around, We see that they crucify him, They reject him, And as we get into the book of Acts, Flip over to Acts chapter 1, His apostles are still on the scene, Acts chapter 1, And you're going to see, The main character being Peter, And all the apostles are there, You'll see reference to Stephen, Standing up and preaching, You'll see a reference to Philip, The evangelist going out, And doing some things, But the main guy, Without question, Is the apostle Peter, In verse 15, If I backed up in verse 13,
[30:13] You'd see all these apostles' names, The first one is Peter, James and John, There's the top three, Peter's mentioned first, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, etc., And they're continuing together, And then in verse 15, In those days, Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, And said, Verse 16, Men and brethren, And he's going to start getting the ball rolling, Peter stood up, And said something, Look at chapter 2, And verse number 14, When the Holy Ghost descends, And there's cloven tongues, Like as a fire, And rests on them, And they're speaking with other tongues, And these other people, With other languages, Are hearing them speak, The wonderful works of God, They're in amazement, Some start mocking, And say they're full of new wine, They're saying they're drunk off of grape juice, Basically, They're making fun of them, And look at verse 14, But Peter, Standing up with the eleven, Lifted up his voice, And said unto them, Ye men of Judea, And all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, And he's going to preach,
[31:14] Hearken to my words, He tells them, Peter's the one, That stands up and preaches, Look at chapter 3, Remember the Lord Jesus Christ, Dealing specifically with Simon Peter, He definitely fell, He definitely betrayed him, He denied him three times, But the Lord comes to him, Remember before that he says, I've prayed for thee, When thou art converted, Strengthen thy brethren, And remember later on, He comes and seeks a mount, He says, Simon son of Jonas, Lovest thou me more than these, He's dealing personally, And intimately, With that one guy, And the next thing you know about him, Is he's emboldened, And he's leading, The apostles, Early in the book of Acts, So chapter 3, And look at verse number 12, Somebody gets healed, And everybody's around, In the Solomon's temple, Greatly wandering, And when Peter saw it, He answered the people, Ye men of Israel, He's preaching,
[32:15] Once again, To the Jews, In Jerusalem, And he's going to preach, Jesus Christ, And I won't go through, But you can follow through, This message, He's telling them, Jesus Christ is coming back, And, You better be ready, So he stands up, And preaches, I want to point it out again, In chapter 4, Every single chapter, Early in Acts, It's Peter, Peter, Peter, Verse number 8, Then Peter, Filled with the Holy Ghost, Said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, And elders of Israel, It's not James, It's not John, It's not Andrew, It's Peter, Every single time, Taking the lead, Emboldened, And challenging, These Jews, For crucifying their Messiah, Chapter 5, Another one is in the next chapter, Chapter 5, And you can look all the way, I mean, It's Peter at the beginning, Dealing with Ananias, And Sapphira, His wife, And they drop dead, Because Peter has this,
[33:16] Supernatural knowledge, Which is the gift of knowledge, Given to him, And he knows, They're lying, And he said, You lie to the Holy Ghost, They drop dead, Verse 12 says, By the hands of the apostles, Were many signs and wonders, Wrought among the people, And there's Peter, In verse 15, At the least, The shadow of Peter, Passing by, Might overshadow some of them, There's no question, Who God is using, Early in Acts, After Jesus Christ ascended, He's using Peter, As the main guy, The leader, Of the church, In Jerusalem, In verse 29, Then Peter, And the other apostles answered, Why didn't it just say, Then the apostles answered, It's always Peter, We ought to obey God, Rather than men, And so skip over now, We'll stop with that, But go to Galatians, Chapter number 2, Galatians chapter 2, And again,
[34:18] Peter is, Well, This time he's guilty, And Paul has to, To stand, Withstand him to the face, Over something, But, The point I want you to see here, Is that something is committed to Peter, In verse number 7, But contrary wise, When they saw, That the gospel, Of the uncircumcision, Was committed unto me, The apostle Paul, As the gospel, Of the circumcision, Was unto Peter, Doesn't say James, Doesn't say John, Doesn't say any of them, It was committed to Peter, For he that wrought, Effectually in Peter, To the apostleship, Of the circumcision, The same was mighty in me, Toward the Gentiles, So we've got two characters here, Peter, Two messengers, Is what we're getting at, The apostle Peter, And the apostle Paul, And it is,
[35:19] Very abundant, And clear, That as God is dealing, Still with his people Israel, Early in the book of Acts, He's using Peter, As his messenger, But that is short lived, Because they continue to reject, And reject, And reject, And there's three cases in Acts, Where they would deny, And turn it over, And God says, Alright, I'm done with them, And so who's left standing?
[35:42] The apostle Paul, Given this apostleship, To the Gentiles, And what we're going to begin, To study now, Is the apostle Paul, Showing that he is now, A spokesman, Or a messenger, Sent from God, With a message to a people, It is not the same message, That Peter's preaching, It is not what Peter, Was groomed for, Or trained for, Underneath the Lord Jesus Christ, Tutelage, Of the kingdom of heaven, Of the kingdom of heaven, At hand, And he took those twelve apart, Into a mountain, And he taught, Sat them down, And taught them, Blessed is this, Blessed is that, Blessed is this, The kingdom of heaven, Yours is the kingdom of heaven, He doesn't sit Paul down, And teach him those things at all, But rather he opens Paul's eyes, To a different message, And so what we're going to do next week, I believe, Lord willing, Is start to reveal, And start to highlight, How God, Puts a microscope, On one man, For a people, And for a time, And it's the apostle Paul, And what we don't ever want to do, Is take another man's message, And intersect it,
[36:43] With the apostle Paul's, Or take the apostle Paul's message, That God gave him, And try to intersect it, With the Lord Jesus Christ, As he's teaching in Matthew, Because you're going to make, A mess of your Bible, And we need to rightly, Divide the word, We're dividing this morning, Based upon messengers, Based upon those, Those individuals, God raised up and called, And gave a message, A word in their mouth, To deliver unto a people, And a time, And so when we get through this, We're going to really, Maybe it'll kind of overlap, And they'll kind of merge together, We'll look at the messages, As well, To see that we can't be following, Somebody else's message, And a great illustration of that, Is going to the mailbox, And pulling out all the mail, And going and just start ripping, Every letter open, And start reading them, And I get mail, At my house, Of people I've never heard of, People that lived there before me, And it's been well over five years, And we still get mail, For a Angela, I can see a few names,
[37:45] And we get mail, I'd say at least, I'd say a solid, Three different individuals, We still get mail, And some of them, Look like they're a little suspect, Like they, Got into some, Trouble with the law, Or you know, Stuff like that, If I open that up, And say, You've been summoned to court, And I think, Oh my goodness, I got to go to court on Monday, I'm being charged with something, And the district attorney, Is after me, And blah, Blah, I get all worked up, And Carla's like, Toby, Look, It says, Angela McNally, It's not you, It's not your name, It's not your mail, You don't have to follow this, You don't have to go, And so that's going to be the, Kind of another angle, We'll start to look at, When we look at the messages, And start rightly dividing, The word of truth, Based on the messages, That are in there, Realizing if they're not, From my spokesman, If they're not, Aimed to me, The message is not aimed to me, From my messenger, Then I'm not going to, Submit myself to it, And get all worked up, Because I can't keep it, So let's start, Stop with that, Lord willing, We'll pick it up next week, Right here,
[38:46] And continue on, So take a 15 minute break, Then we'll come back,