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[0:00] The big one that right division plays a part in understanding, but there's other topics like that we're not going to get into. It would take a long time, and my goal with this was just to present the platform of Rightly Dividing to give you the understanding of it where some of the definitive markers are, maybe.

[0:23] And what we're doing now is we're kind of concluding with understanding the ministry of the Apostle Paul and understanding him to be our authority for this age for the church. And I want to continue with that, and I think my plan for now is just to let this be the end of it.

[0:39] And I hope it's been helpful to you. I hope that seeing the timeline early on was helpful to you. I hope that understanding some of the remarks and the scriptures regarding the kingdom is helpful to you to understand where that placement is.

[0:51] It's easy to see it in the prophecy where it goes, but when it comes to the Gospels and the teaching of Jesus Christ, sometimes it gets a little tricky, or at least tricky for some to receive that this is not something that's aimed at us today.

[1:04] Now, find in your Bible Luke chapter 24. And I'm just going to review with you quickly what we've covered in the last two Sundays regarding the Apostle Paul.

[1:18] We showed you, we studied through the book of Acts several things about his upbringing, showing you that he was brought up and being groomed for a position within the Jews' religion.

[1:30] He described that after the most straightest sect of our religion, he lived, a Pharisee, that he was the son of a Pharisee. And he even told us the name of his tutor, Gamaliel, that trained him in Jerusalem.

[1:44] He was shipped from Tarsus to Jerusalem to sit and to be trained under this man. And then we saw as he came to years that even as a young man, he was put into some position and he consented, gave the permission for stoning of Stephen in Acts chapter 7.

[2:00] He was the leader, as a young man, the leader of persecuting the church and requesting letters from the high priest, going to the high priest personally to get permission to go wherever he needed to go to get these Christians, round them up and basically exterminate this belief.

[2:15] And then he ran into the Lord Jesus Christ and that changed everything. And we read that in Acts chapter 9. Then we read his personal and his firsthand testimony to those events.

[2:29] Then we looked into the next part about his office, showing you that he's the apostle of the Gentiles. And something that you should take with you from here forward is what people say is that Paul's the 13th apostle.

[2:42] I say, no, he's not the 13th anything. That the 12 apostles, that's a complete number, 12. There is no 13 being added to that. 12 is the number of the tribes of Israel.

[2:54] It's a complete number for Israel. And they had 12 apostles. And those 12 apostles are going to come back and judge or sit on thrones. In Matthew 19, it says in the second coming that they'll sit on the 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel.

[3:08] That's settled. The apostle Paul does not get added to that number. No, he is one of one. He is the apostle to the Gentiles, something completely separate. Even if they come together, even if they get discussing things, it doesn't make his office connected to their office.

[3:23] And so he is the apostle to the Gentiles. It's a new office. And he magnifies his office. And he said to the churches that he started, that he preached and won them to Christ and led them.

[3:36] He said that you're my work in the Lord. And if no one believes I'm an apostle, he told them in Corinthians, he says, you surely do because you're my work in the Lord. And so if we're ignorant of his office and we're ignorant of that separate thing, then we could tend to just put his writings and Peter's writings and the teachings of Christ and just bring it all into one big thing.

[3:58] And then we're going to have some problems. But rightly dividing helps us to see that the apostle Paul had a distinct office. And that's going to help clear up some confusion when it comes to doctrine.

[4:09] Okay, so last Sunday I showed you three verses that he spoke in 1 Timothy and Acts 9 and 2 Timothy, showing that he was a chosen vessel of God, that he did not just get appointed to this position.

[4:23] The guys didn't say, you're a good guy. You're saved now. You go do this. But no, God had saved him. He didn't need their approval. He didn't need their permission. So he was ordained by God himself to be a teacher and a preacher to the Gentiles.

[4:37] He was appointed by God, a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles. And so his position stands alone and his work stands alone regardless of if anybody is on board with him or not.

[4:49] The apostle Paul had that calling. Then we looked at his ministry and we touched on this just kind of briefly, showing that he had the responsibility of preaching the gospel and woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel.

[5:03] Necessity is laid upon me. And I showed you that he said he's debtor to the Greeks and the barbarians and that this was a calling upon him is to preach the gospel. But today I want to show you now a little bit more, just kind of dive in a little bit closer into this ministry of Paul's of preaching the gospel, showing you that this is something that is, it's not completely isolated to him, but it is something that was revealed to him personally.

[5:32] And we need to understand the gravity of that. And it really helps to show how much he is, in fact, our authority. So I want to zoom in for a moment on some of the statements of the scripture regarding the gospel of Jesus Christ or the preaching of the gospel from the apostle Paul.

[5:51] But before I do that, I want to backtrack just a touch to reveal a verse. Remember last week we were here in Luke 24, and I was showing you that the disciples of the Lord did not understand that Jesus Christ, that he had to die, that he had to be buried and rise again, and what that was accomplishing.

[6:10] He spoke those words I showed you in Luke 18. He spoke those words to them, that he would be smitten or that he would be despitefully entreated or such and such, and that he would be put to death.

[6:22] He'd suffer, put to death, rise again. And they understood none of these things, and the saying was hid from their eyes. So we know for a fact that these men were not believing in his death, burial, and resurrection to be the atonement for their sins.

[6:36] They were not believing that. That was not where their faith was. When Peter went to the grave, this is the one I showed you, verse number 11 of chapter 24, their words, the words of the women that saw that the tomb was empty, their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.

[6:55] Then arose Peter, ran to the sepulchre, stooping down. He beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass. Peter is not believing that Jesus resurrected.

[7:06] He wasn't anticipating three days and three nights, and then he's coming back, guys. It's going to be fine. This was totally hid from them. So we know that they were not believing in Jesus as their substitutionary death, their substitute for their sins.

[7:22] Not the same way. Now, continue reading a little bit later in Luke 24. When the Lord Jesus appears to some of these disciples, look what they tell they were trusting. In verse number 20, they're speaking with Christ, start in 19.

[7:37] He said unto them, what things? And they said unto him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. Does it say that Jesus was the sacrifice for our sins?

[7:51] They're saying he was a prophet, mighty in deed, miracles and word, his teachings and preachings before God and all the people. And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and have crucified him.

[8:03] But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. You know what they were looking at him as? Their Messiah.

[8:14] Their deliverer. He was the one that was going to be their king. The king of kings. The Lord of lords. Jesus was going to be that Christ.

[8:25] The anointed one of God. They were believing in him to redeem them. Just like they were redeemed out of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh. They believed Jesus was going to come and do that from the hand of the Romans and going to fulfill all the prophets.

[8:41] And the prophecies that have been put on Israel promised through the prophets to this nation. That's what they were anticipating. You'll see through these gospels people coming to Jesus Christ and saying thou art the Christ.

[8:55] The son of the living God. They believed that. They believed he was their Messiah. Their anointed one. Christ and Messiah are the same terms. One's from Hebrew. One's from Greek. But they're the same concept or terminology.

[9:07] And when that's what they say, when they say thou art the Christ, they're saying you're the savior of the world. Isn't that what the lady at the Samaritan woman said in John chapter 4? That thou art the Christ, the savior of the world.

[9:19] I think that's her words. That's what they were saying. So that's what they were seeing him as and believing in him as. They did not get this death thing. It just was not revealed to them.

[9:31] It was hidden. Okay. Now let's go to Galatians chapter 1 and begin to see some statements in scripture regarding the gospel as it pertains to the apostle Paul.

[9:50] We're not tracking out this entire transition and this disclosing of knowledge to bring it up into this place.

[10:03] Kind of just fast forwarding a little bit here. But here's the apostle Paul. We understand his conversion. We understand God said to Ananias, he's a chosen vessel unto me. And so here's some things kind of filling in the blanks of the Lord meeting with the apostle Paul.

[10:19] And it's in verses 11, 12, Galatians 1. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.

[10:32] For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. And I know we've covered this before and most of you got this down pat.

[10:44] But let's be clear. The gospel that Paul preached was revealed to him personally by the Lord Jesus Christ. When exactly? We could kind of guess, but can't say for sure.

[10:57] But we can say based upon the word of God that he received revelation of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. That it was the atoning work on Calvary to pay for my sins and yours.

[11:11] And that by faith in his blood, faith through his name, we can be saved. He does not talk about Jesus being the king. He does not talk about him taking over the throne of David.

[11:23] That is not, that's a separate gospel. That's the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. This gospel is that Jesus shed his blood to pay for the sins of the world. This is a little different, isn't it?

[11:35] If you study your Bible out, what was revealed to Paul about what Jesus Christ accomplished. Let's look at something else. Turn to the right to 1 Thessalonians chapter number 2.

[11:47] It was revealed to Paul. Again, we're just taking some statements of scripture in regards to the gospel. Things that the apostle Paul says and letting this kind of build his resume as to why we follow him and consider him our authority in this age.

[12:05] So it's 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. And look at verse number 4.

[12:15] Now, if you read through it, you'll just kind of skip these little phrases.

[12:33] They may not pop out to you, but notice that phrase. Let's highlight it this morning. We were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel. Now, you could just say, well, that's all Christians.

[12:44] Because the world doesn't, they're not entrusted with the gospel message. It's all Christians. And I would agree. He says we. We, born-again believers. But you can't dismiss that this is the writings and the teachings of the apostle Paul to the church, declaring that to us and to his audience, saying that God put that entrusted, entrusted this message to us.

[13:08] And we don't do it to please men, but God. Let's continue. There's another one. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Back to your left, 1 Corinthians 15.

[13:25] Paul was given a complete understanding of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. The gospel of the grace of God was entrusted to him.

[13:38] It was, he was given the responsibility of delivering it to the world. But what's more than just the gospel and the statement of like, yes, the fact that Christ died for our sins, as we see here, but it's the doctrine of it.

[13:52] It's the teaching. It's the weight of it. It's the, it's being justified by faith that comes through the gospel. It's being sanctified in Christ Jesus that comes as a result of the gospel.

[14:06] It's all these, it's being predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son that comes by faith in the gospel. There's so, there's, there's a dozen things that takes place when you get saved.

[14:17] And the apostle Paul has been given the understanding to declare these truths and these doctrines to the body of Christ. These are not things that other apostles really dig into.

[14:29] But the book of Romans just, it covers the basis. All right, now here's 1 Corinthians 15. And this is where God or the apostle Paul declares, he defines, if you want to use that term, the gospel.

[14:42] Verse 1, moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved. If you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you believed in vain.

[14:55] For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins. Did you notice that Paul says he also received it? So he's not saying, I know that thou art the Christ, the son of the living God, like you will be the one to deliver Israel and sit upon the throne of David and rule the world with a rod of iron.

[15:17] He's receiving the gospel that he preached, that the death, that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures. You don't see that element in the gospels, in the message, or in the testimonies of people in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, saying how that Christ died or will die for our sins.

[15:38] For the most part, that's just something gone. I think it was mentioned by, was it Caiaphas? The high priest mentioned that, that one should die. But for the most part, this is not a testimony of people that meet him and see his work and then say that they believe on him.

[15:55] So how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he rose again the third day, and that he was seen of Cephas, and so on. So here is the definition or a declaration of the gospel.

[16:08] I want to pair this with one other passage back in Romans chapter number 4. Find Romans 4. And put these, the last two verses.

[16:23] This is the same message, different wording. But it is a description of the gospel message. Of believing this finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[16:42] Verse 24. I'll start in 23. Now it was not written for his sake only, alone, that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses, that is, Christ died for our sins, and was raised again for our justification.

[17:10] The death, the burial, is understood the resurrection, and there is the purpose of it, our justification. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

[17:22] Chapter 5, verse 1. If we compare these, if we carefully outline and compare the elements of Paul's message and his teaching about the gospel of Christ and what it accomplished, if we try to go back and cross-check it with some of the other messages, it's not going to be perfectly the same.

[17:41] I'm not trying to create some contradictions or make you just, you know, get mixed up about certain other scriptures. But when it comes to rightly dividing the word of truth, the apostle Paul preached a gospel that was revealed to him by Jesus Christ.

[17:55] It was not understood by the other gospel writers or men in Christ's day and ministry, and so don't expect it to be revealed in their writings. And understand what, when Jesus Christ walked on this earth and he was offering the kingdom of heaven to the nation of Israel, to the Jews only, what they were receiving was their Messiah, their Messiah, their national Messiah, their king.

[18:20] And he was the king of the Jews as Matthew introduced him. But when the apostle Paul gets on, he gets, he doesn't talk about that stuff. He doesn't give you that at all.

[18:31] He gives you something completely different. And so it's important for us to get this and to see the difference. Now, come to Ephesians chapter 3, because now I want to get into one more element, at least, of the ministry of the apostle Paul.

[18:50] Not just the gospel, that it was delivered to him, or revealed to him, that he preached it, that he was entrusted with it, but there was something else that was revealed to him that does not appear to be revealed.

[19:05] It's certainly not in this manner or in this detail. It's the mystery, the body of Christ. One of many mysteries in the Bible, one is the body of Christ.

[19:19] And let's take a look at Ephesians 3 and read through a portion of this. Just like the gospel message, he also received this information by revelation of Jesus Christ.

[19:32] Verse number one, For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, if you've heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you, word, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore a few words whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ.

[19:52] Now, skipping the parentheses, made known unto me the mystery, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel, whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.

[20:24] Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers and heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.

[20:50] Verse 10. Let's park on here and just get this clearly. It's a little bit, not deceptive, I hate to say that, but it's a little bit unclear if you're not sure. The church, when he says it might be known by the church, it's not church receiving knowledge.

[21:05] It is the principalities, powers, and heavenly places receiving knowledge by the inception, by the arrival of the church. When the church appears, this is a mystery, he says, that was hidden, hidden God to all.

[21:26] It was hidden. It was a mystery that was in the mind and heart of God that he would bring the Jews and Gentiles into one new body. And it says in verse 10, they were hidden God.

[21:38] This mystery was hidden to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers and heavenly places might be known. Now they're going to see and understand by the church, by the arrival of the church, what God had planned a long time ago, but kept hidden is what the teaching is.

[21:56] It was a mystery. It was not revealed to man or to principalities and powers, powers and heavenly places. It was not disclosed to anybody what God was intending to do.

[22:07] And when the church shows up, this new body, now it's revealed that God had just kind of taken the veil off of something he had planned to do, a mystery. So it's a mystery.

[22:18] And Paul receives this by revelation. Look at Ephesians chapter 1. And here's a reference to it.

[22:29] He said in chapter 3, I wrote of a four and a few words. Here he mentions the church in verse 22 and 23, saying, He hath put all things under his feet, under Christ's feet, gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.

[22:49] The church, which is his body. Just table those words. Look at chapter 2. After talking about Jews and Gentiles in verse 11, and saying to these Gentiles believers, saying, You were nothing.

[23:05] You were aliens. You were cut off from promises. You were strangers from the covenants of promise. In verse 12. So there's a division, a separation between Jews and Gentiles.

[23:18] That carries all through the Gospels. There's a separation. But in verse 13, But now in Christ Jesus. Well, that's the body. In Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

[23:33] Verse 14, For he is our peace, who hath made both one. That word, get that word right there. He hath made both Jews, Gentiles, made them one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments, contained in ordinances.

[23:52] Like, for instance, you're, as a Jew, you'd be defiled if you would go to a Gentile and have fellowship with them. They were completely set aside and there was a division.

[24:03] And Christ abolished all of that. And it says in verse 15, For to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby and came and preached peace to you which were far off and to them which were nigh.

[24:25] So the Jews and the Gentiles can both be reconciled to God together in a new body called the church. He's head over all things to the church which is his body.

[24:41] This is a mystery. This was not revealed. This was hid in God. And now it's being revealed through the Apostle Paul's ministry. Now there's something else here.

[24:53] Let's get a couple verses together. Let's try to get them all at once. Galatians 3. Just start moving to your left. Find Galatians 3. And then 1 Corinthians 12.

[25:11] And we'll do all three of these verses at once. And Romans 12. Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Galatians 3. They're really close together. I'll give you a second.

[25:27] And we're going to make a real important point that should stand out and really be clear to you based on some of the previous studies that we've done in Matthew.

[25:43] So you've got Galatians 3. We'll get there last. Let's start in Romans 12 and then 1 Corinthians 12. So he's, remember the word one?

[25:55] He's going to make one new body. Or, let's see. I lost my place. Let's see how this comes up in Romans 12.

[26:09] In verse 4. For as we have many members in one body, physically speaking, your human body, and all members have not the same office, so we, being many, are one body in Christ.

[26:26] One, one, one. One body in Christ. And every one member is one of another. So when you're born again, you are placed by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ.

[26:39] It's called the baptism. Or it's referred to as being baptized, placed into, immersed into the body. Not into a river, or into the pool, or dunk tank.

[26:51] You get placed into the body of Christ. And now you are, you're fused together with all the other members of Christ. And every one members one of another.

[27:04] You may not like some of the members in the body, but it doesn't matter to Christ. He saved them the same way he saved you, and sanctified you in himself, as a member of his body.

[27:17] And he's the head. Now come to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians 12. And start in verse 12.

[27:32] A very same analogy. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body being many, are one body, so also is Christ.

[27:45] For by one Spirit, are we all baptized into one body. Notice this. Whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

[28:00] Come over to verse 27. Now ye, individuals, but collectively, are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

[28:14] This is that new body. It's a mystery that was not revealed. It was hid. Now come to Galatians chapter 3. And here comes a very important point.

[28:25] Galatians 3. It's already been hinted at, but it's going to get clearer. Galatians 3. We'll start in verse 26. For ye are all children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus.

[28:42] For as many of you, as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek.

[28:54] There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor female. For ye are all O-N-E. Ye are all one in Christ.

[29:11] The body of Christ was revealed to the Apostle Paul from Jesus Christ. It had been hidden. It was a mystery. It is that both Jews and Gentiles can be reconciled to God in one body by the cross, by the finished work of Christ.

[29:30] And that new body, that new man, is called the church. The church. And in this one body, there are no physical or national distinctions.

[29:48] Jew, Greek. There are no gender distinctions. Male, female, or confused. It doesn't matter.

[29:59] There is no social distinctions or economic distinctions. Rich or poor, bond or free, none of that matters because every single one of us are come together to be one in Christ where He is the head and He is all that matters.

[30:19] The only opinion is what Jesus Christ thinks when you're in Christ. The bickerings and the fightings and the personality clashes, that is not being done in the spirit in Christ.

[30:33] That's in the flesh. And that stuff still happens. That's part of, until we can get rid of these bodies, I guess. But understand the doctrine of this. This is the Apostle Paul's revelation.

[30:45] Now here comes the important point of all of this. If this church, if this body, body began back when Jesus Christ showed up and began preaching, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

[31:00] And He went everywhere preaching the gospel of the kingdom. If that message is the same as what the Apostle Paul is preaching, why did He not define any of this?

[31:13] Why the whole time was it to the Jews only, enter ye not into any city of the Samaritans? Why is the one so far different than the other?

[31:25] The reason's obvious. Because they are different. And we make a division. We don't try to put them together. Things that are different are not the same. A wise man once said.

[31:36] You don't put these together. Jesus was not coming on the scene to update their Jewish thinking of abstaining from Gentiles. No, He actually encouraged that.

[31:47] He Himself participated in that in Matthew 15 with that woman of Syrophoenicia that came to Him and He answered her not a word. And He said, it's not meat to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs.

[32:00] He wasn't trying to bring the world together under Him. He was offering a kingdom to Israel. But now with the Apostle Paul, something that God had kept hidden all of those years and throughout that public ministry of Christ, He's now taking the blinders off after Calvary.

[32:21] He's now revealing, I got something that you guys didn't even know I had planned. And here's a new thing. It's a new body. It's Jews and Gentiles coming to Jesus Christ by faith in the finished work of Calvary.

[32:35] Not calling Him the Messiah. Not calling Him the Christ, the Redeemer of Israel. But coming to Him as the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world and believing on His sacrifice for our sins.

[32:51] The Lord Jesus Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, the Apostle Paul said. And so if this church began back in Christ's ministry, as so many people pretend it did and try to put all this scripture together in one lump, there's just problems with it.

[33:10] And the only way to get around it is to ignore the problems and just keep preaching heresy. And we're not trying to get all detailed with this. I just want you to have an understanding of rightly dividing the word.

[33:22] And I want you to realize that the Apostle Paul was a chosen vessel and a special character appointed by God to reveal some truth that had been since unrevealed and disclosed. It was a mystery.

[33:34] The two main ones are the body of Christ and the gospel. Now, I'll give you one more verse. And there's a handful I could give you, but look at Titus chapter 1.

[33:46] We'll stop with this. Titus chapter 1. There's more that comes from the ministry of the Apostle Paul than just revealing the gospel and preaching it or revealing the body of Christ and preaching it and getting all that settled.

[34:02] The Apostle Paul had the word of God committed to him to deliver. And he preached. And we really don't have record of his preaching save a few things that Luke may be recorded as he traveled with him.

[34:18] For what we have, though, is his letters that he wrote and sent to the churches. But throughout all this time, he was preaching and preaching and preaching and delivering truth. And this was something else that he was putting out there from the Lord.

[34:33] Titus chapter 1. Look at the first couple, three verses. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began but hath in due times manifested his word through preaching.

[34:55] Notice this phrase, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Savior. Preaching was committed personally from God to him to go deliver truth, manifest his word, not preach what Moses said, not go back there and declare and open the scroll and put that on the people.

[35:24] No, God was committing something new. We hold it as scripture, the letters of Paul. So I want you to realize beyond just him delivering the gospel and the doctrine of the church, he's also delivering to us the word of God.

[35:37] It was committed to him. It was God manifesting his word to the world through the apostle Paul. And we could cover some more little phrases and more verses about this very idea.

[35:50] There's a lot of different things. For instance, 2 Timothy 1 verse 7 or 2 7 says, consider what I say and the Lord give the understanding in all things. There's a list of verses and phrases we could start to stack up and it would just get super strong to realize, yeah, God has put the apostle Paul for this age up here as the authority for us to go to to be followers of him as he also is a follower of Christ.

[36:16] We go to him for our doctrine to establish truth. We do not try to make his teachings match other men's teachings. If they contradict, then we consider this a place for a division.

[36:29] That one person's teaching belongs somewhere else. The apostle Paul's teaching belongs on my shoulders and I submit to it. And so he was given a lot of things on teaching him how to walk, to establish the believer, to be grounded in the faith.

[36:46] Like there's so many things that the apostle Paul was commissioned or what was committed to him to deliver to the church to get them established in truth and in faith. And so he is, in fact, our authority.

[36:59] It does not mean that we dismiss and ignore the rest of the scripture. We don't ignore anything in this book. Every word of God is pure and right and true.

[37:13] We rightly divide everything. That's what we do. So I hope this study helps you. I hope you see the importance and the emphasis that God put on this man and his ministry. And likely, it'll bring up questions as you read your Bible and study your Bible.

[37:30] That's completely natural and that should happen. And as you do, study them out or bring them forth for discussion and we can talk about them and try to nail it down whatever confuses you.

[37:43] And it's a terrible thing to be confused and frustrated with the scripture. And it's not the will of God for that either. So you study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

[37:59] Let's pray. Father, please give us wisdom in this area. Please open the minds and eyes of each of your children here this morning as they seek to discern your will and to know your truth and give us the discernment that we don't have from your spirit that wrote this book.

[38:16] We believe these words are true and God, far be it from us to portray them in any way that benefits us, but rather we just want to portray them in the light of truth as you've given it.

[38:29] And we believe we're doing it through the word of God the right way by rightly dividing. And so please give us an understanding of things we don't. Give us a better grasp and help us to just give us answers as we seek to know you better and to understand your words.

[38:42] They are so holy and so above us and just one word and one verse can trip us up and God, we submit to it and help us not to get proud or arrogant or feel like we know more than we do, but always stay humble and contrite and tremble at these holy words and we pray this in Jesus' name.

[39:02]  Amen. Amen.